Chap. 9L] ANIMALS SOMETIMES WITHOUT BLOOD. 79 
THICKEST BLOOD : THOSE THE BLOOD OF WHICH IS THE THIN- 
NEST : ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BLOOD. 
Those animals in which the blood is more abundant and of 
an unctuous nature, are irascible ; it is darker in males than 
in females, and in the young than in the aged : the blood of the 
lower extremities is the thickest. There is great vitality, too, 
in the blood, and when it is discharged from the body, it 
carries the life with it : it is not sensible, however, of touch. 
Those animals in which the blood is the thickest are the most 
courageous, and those in which it is the thinnest the most 
intelligent ; while those, again, which have little or no blood are 
the most timorous of all. The blood of the bull coagulates and 
hardens the most speedily of all, and hence it is so particu- 
larly deadly when drunk. On the other hand, the blood of 
the wild boar, the stag, the roe-buck, and oxen of all kinds, 
does not coagulate. Elood is of the richest quality in the ass, 
and the poorest in man. Those animals which have more than 
four feet have no blood. In animals which are very fat, the 
blood is less abundant than in others, being soaked up by the 
fat. Man is the only creature from which the blood flows at 
the nostrils ; some persons bleed at one nostril only, some at 
both, while others again void blood by the lower parts. 
Many persons discharge blood from the mouth at stated periods, 
such, for instance, as Macrinus Yiscus, lately, a man of prae- 
torian dignity, and Volusius Saturninus,^^ the Prefect of the 
City, who every year did the same, and yet lived to beyond 
ninety. The blood is the only substance in the body that is 
sensible of any temporary increase, for a larger quantity will 
come from the victims if they happen to have drunk just 
before they are sacrificed. 
CHAP. 91. ANIMALS WHICH AEE WITHOUT BLOOD AT CEETAIN 
PEllIODS OE THE YEAK. 
Those animals which conceal themselves^^ at certain periods 
of the year, as already mentioned, have no blood at those times, 
with the exception, indeed, of some very small drops about the 
See B. xxviii. c. 41. 
^1 In allusion, probably, to haemorrhoids, or piles. 
^2 See B. Yii. c. 12. 12 Bears, dormice, serpents, &c. 
