76 
PLUSrr's KATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book IX. 
jaw only, and pastern bones on the feet, produce tallow or 
suet. Those, on the other hand, which are cloven-footed, or 
have the feet divided into toes, and are Avithout horns, have 
simple fat only. This fat becomes hard, and when quite 
cold turns brittle, and is always found at the extremity of the 
flesh ; while, on the other hand, the fat which lies between the 
skin and the flesh forms a kind of liquid juice. Some animals 
naturally do not become fat, such as the hare and the par- 
tridge, for instance. All fat animals, male as well as female, 
are mostly barren ; and those which are remarkably fat become 
old the soonest. All animals have a certain degree of fatness 
in the eyes. The fat in all animals is devoid of sensation, 
having neither arteries nor veins. "With the greater part of 
animals, fatness is productive of insensibility ; so much so, 
indeed, that it has been said, that living swine have been 
gnawed even by mice. ^ It has been even asserted that the fat 
was drawn off from the body of a son of L. Apronius, a man of 
consular rank, and that he was thus relieved of a burden which 
precluded him from moving. 
CHAP. 86. THE MAEKOW : ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO MAEEOW. 
The marrow seems also to be formed of a similar material ; 
in the young it is of a reddish colour, but it is white in the 
aged. It is only found in those bones which are hollow, and 
not in the tibias of horses or dogs ; for which reason it is, that 
when the tibia is broken, the bone will not reunite, a process 
which is effected ^ by the flow of the marrow. The marrow is 
of a greasy nature in those animals which have fat, and suetty 
in those with horns. It is full of nerves, and is found only in 
the vertebral column^ in those animals which have no bones, 
fishes, for instance. The bear has no marrow; and the 
lion has a little only in some few bones of the thighs and 
the brachia, which are of such extraordinary hardness that 
sparks may be emitted therefrom, as though from a flint- stone. 
5 Varro, De Ee Rust. B. ii. c. 4, says that he saw an instance of this in 
Arcadia. 
6 This is not the case. 
There is no similarity whatever between the spinal marrow and that 
which is found in the other bones. 
