80 
PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOKT. 
[Book XI. 
heart. A marvellous dispensation of E'aturc ! and very similar 
to that witnessed in man, where the blood is sensible of various 
modifications from the slightest causes ; for not only, similarly 
to the bile, does it rush upwards to the face, but it serves also - 
to indicate the various tendencies of the mind, by depicting 
shame, anger, and fear, in many ways, either by the paleness 
of the features or their unusual redness ; as, in fact, the red- 
ness of anger and the blush of modesty are quite different 
things. It is a well-known fact, that when a man is in fear, 
the blood takes to flight and disappears, and that many per- 
sons have been pierced through the body without losing one 
drop of blood ; a thing, however, which is only the case with 
man. Eut as to those animals which we have already men- 
tioned as changing^* colour, they derive that colour from the 
reflections^ of other objects ; while, on the other hand, man is 
the only one that has the elements which cause these changes 
centred in himself. All diseases, as well as death, tend to 
absorb the blood. 
OHAP. 92. (39.) — WHETHEE THE BLOOD IS THE PEINCIPLE OP 
LIPE. 
There are some persons who are of opinion that the fineness 
of the wit does not depend upon the thinness of the blood, but 
that animals are more or less stupid in proportion to the skin - 
or other coverings of the body, as the oyster and the tortoise, 
for instance : that the hide of the ox and the bristles of the hog, , 
in fact, offer a resistance to the fine and penetrating powers of ' 
the air, and leave no passage for its transmission in a pure 
and liquid state. The same, they say, is the case, too, with 
men, when the skin is very thick or callous, and so excludes 
the air. Just as if, indeed, the crocodile was not equally re- 
markable for the hardness of its skin and its extreme cunning. 
CHAP. 93. THE HIDE OP ANIMALS. 
The hide, too, of the hippopotamus is so thick, that lances,^® 
even, are turned from it, and yet this animal has the intelligence 
to administer certain medicaments to itself. The hide, too, of 
The polypus and the chameleon. 
1^ See B. Yiii. eo. 51, 52. 
Walking-sticks are still made of it. 
