70 
PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOBT. 
[Book XL 
CHAP. 76. — IN WHAT ANIMALS THE LIVER INCREASES AND DE- 
CREASES WITH THE MOON. OBSERVATIONS OF THE ARUSPICES 
RELATIVE THERETO, AND REMARKABLE PRODIGIES. 
It is said, that in the small liver of the mouse the number 
of lobes corresponds to the day of the moon, and that they are 
found to be just as many in number as she is days old ; in 
addition to which, it is said that it increases at the winter sol- 
stice. In the rabbits of Beetica, the liver is always found to 
have a double lobe. Ants will not touch one lobe of the liver 
of the bramble-frog, in consequence of its poisonous nature, it 
is generally thought. The liver is remarkable for its powers 
of preservation, and sieges have afforded us remarkable in- 
stances of its being kept so long as a hundred years.^^ 
CHAP. 77. THE DIAPHRAGM. THE NATURE OF LAUGHTER, 
The entrails of serpents and lizards are of remarkable length. 
It is related that — a most fortunate omen — Csecina of Volaterrae 
beheld two dragons arising from the entrails of the victim ; 
and this will not be at all incredible, if we are ready to believe 
that while King Pyrrhus was sacrificing, the day upon which 
he died, the heads of the victims, on being cut off, crawled 
along the ground and licked up their own blood. In man, the 
entrails are separated from the lower part of the viscera by a 
certain membrane, which is called the praecordia,'' because 
it is extended in front of the heart ; the Greeks have given it 
the name of phrenes.'' AU the principal viscera have been 
enclosed by ISTature, in her prudent foresight, in their own pe- 
culiar membranes, just like so many sheaths, in fact. With re- 
ference to the diaphragm, there was a peculiar reason for this 
wise provision of Nature, its proximity to the guts, and the 
chances that the food might possibly intercept the respiration. 
It is to this organ that is attributed quick and ready wit, and 
hence it is that it has no fleshy parts, but is composed of fine 
sinews and membranes. This part is also the chief seat of 
gaiety of mind, a fact which is more particularly proved by 
the titillation of the arm-holes, to which the midriff extends ; 
8* There must be some corrupt reading here ; for, as Sillig remarks, 
who ever heard of a siege which lasted a hundred years ? 
®^ Or diaphragm; from "prse,'' before," and " cor," the heart." 
