De partibus animalium

Abstract

Owing, however, to the giant share ascribed by A. to the latter cause, the treatise becomes one on the functions of the parts rather than on their causes, and inight almost be styled, as was Galen's later work, a treatise De Usu Partium.B AK. P.A, 639 ' DE PARTIBUS ANIMALIUM with tlie attributes which they have in commoti in virtue of some common element of their nature, and proceed from this as a basis for the consideration of them separately?20 For genera that are quite distinet yet oftentimes present many identical phenomena, sleep, for instance, respiration, growth, decay, death,^and other similar affections and conditions, which may be passed over for^he present, as we are not yet prepared to treat of them with clearness and precision.Now it is plain that if we deal with each species independently of the rest, we shall frequently be obliged to repeat the same statements over and overagain ; 25 for horse and dog and man present, each and ali, every one of the phenomena just enumerated.A discussion therefore of the attributes of each such species separately^would necessarily involve frequent repetitions as to characters, 30 themselves identical but recurring in animals specifically distinet.(Very possibly also there may be other characters 639'' which, thoiigh they present specific ditferences, yet come under one and the same category.For instance, flying, swimming, walking, creeping, are plainly specifically dis- tinet, but yet are ali forms of animal progression.)We must, then, have some ciear understanding as to the manner 5 in which our investigation is to be conducted ; whether, I niean, we are first to deal with the common or generic characters, and afterwards to take into consideration special peculiarities ; or whether we are to start straight off with the ultimate species.For as yet no definite rule has been laid down in this matter.So also there is a like uncer- tainty as to another point now to be mentioned.Ought the writer who deals with the works of nature to follow the plan adopted by the mathematicians in their astronomical demonstrations, and after considering the phenomena prelo sented by animals, and their several parts, proceed subse- quently to treat of the causes and the reason why ; or ought he to follow some other method ?And when these ^All of these, be it noted, as also the modes of progression mentioned a few sentences later on, were made subjects of special treatises by A. ^Reading ra crvfjijBf^qKOTa for toov cu/i.Se/Sj^Kdrcor.BOOK I.I 640 this also produces the same resuit as art, and by the same process.The fittest mode, then, of treatment is to say, a man has such and such parts, because the conception of a man in- cludes their presence, and because they are necessary con- ditions of his existence, or, if vve cannot quite say this, which 35 would be best of ali, then the next thing to it, namely, that it is either quite ^impossible for him to exist without them, or, at any rate, that it is better for him that they should be there ; and their existence involves the existence of other antecedents.Thus we should say, because man 640 is an animal with such and such characters, therefore is the process of his development necessarily such as it is ; and therefore is it accomplished in such and such an order, this part being formed first, that next, and so on in succession ; and after a like fashion should we explain the evolution of all other works of nature.Now that with which the ancient writers, who first philo-5 sophized about Nature, busied themselves, was the material principle and the material cause.They inquired whatthis is, and what its character ; how the universe is generated out of it, and by what motor influence, whether, for in- stance, by antagonism or friendship, whether by intelligence or spontaneous action, the substratum of matter being assumed to have certain inseparable properties ; fi re, for instance, to have a hot nature, earth a cold one ; the former 10to be light, the latter heavy.For even the genesis of the universe is thus explained by them.After a like fashion do they deal also with the development of plants and of animals.They say, for instance, that the water^contained in the body causes by its currents the formation of the stomach and the other receptacles of food or of excretion ; and that the breath by its passage breaks open the outiets i of the nostrils ; DE PARTIBUS ANIMALIUM Moreover, the seed is potentially that vvhich will spring from it, and the relation of potentiality to actuality we knowd 642^T here are then tvvo causes, namely, necessity and the final end.For many things are produced, simply as the results of necessity.It may, however, be asked, of what mode of necessity ^are we speaking when we say this.For 5 it can be of neither of those two modes vvhich are set forth in the philosophical treatises.^Thereis, however, the third mode, in such things at any rate as are generated.For instance, we say that food is necessary ; because an animal cannot possibly do without it.This third mode is what may be called hypothetical necessity.Here is another IO example of it.If a piece of wood is to be split with an axe, the axe must of necessity be hard ; and, if hard, must of necessity be made of bronze or iron.Now exactly in the same way the body, vvhich like the axe is an instru- mentfor both the body as a vvhole and its several parts jndividually have definite operations for vvhich they are made -^just in the same way, I say, the body,if it is to do its Work, must of necessity be of such and such a character, and made of such and such materials.It is plain then that there are tvvo modes of causation, 15 and that both of these must, so far as possible, be taken into account in explaining the vvorks of nature, or that at any rate an attempt must be made to include them both ; and that those who fail in this teli us in reality ^We know, that is, to be that of consequent to antecedent.^As A. has fully explained what he means by Hypothetical Neces- sity only a few pages back, it is strange that he should now deal with it again in ternis that seem to imply that he is stating something quite new.Very possibly the whole of this long paragraph is an inter- polation.® Elsewhere {Metaph.iv. 5) A. speaks of three kinds of necessity, Absolute necessity, Necessity of coercion (as when a weaker agent is constrained by a stronger one), and Hypothetical necessity.There is also another passage {Phys.ii.9) in which he deals with necessity, and distinguishes, as in the text, two kinds.Absolute and Hypothetical.Plainly, however, it can be to neither of these passages that he is now referring.The passage wherever it is, or was, must have been one in which the two modes of necessity distinguished from each other were Absolute and Coercive necessity.It may perhaps have been contained in the lost dialogue on Philosophy ; concerning which see Heitz, Die verior.Schrift.d.A risi. 179.* Reading et Se fxi), jreipaaOai ye ttoiuv tovto, drjXov.'' DE PARTIBUS ANIMALIUM 15 under the same division), or it only furnishes a single ultimate differentia for each species, which either alone or with its series of antecedents has to constitute the ultimate species.If, again, a new differential character be introduced at any stage into the division, the necessary resuit is that the continuity of the division becomes merely a unity and con-accurate.^It might, however, be done by readmg rj t6 TroXutr^iSfs fiovov instead of t) t6 cr^t^oTrovj/ jxovov^and for vttottuvp dlnovv (rxiC''^Tvovp reading VTTOTTOVV (TxiCoTTovv TToXvaxi-dis and tlieii 7ioXto-Yt6A' altei' up$nb)nos.Readavrnv fua.® Omit KOI Tois aXXois.C 2 5 IO 15 20 DE PARTIBUS ANIMALIUM 644" in having analogous organs ; for vvhat in the bird is feather, in the fish is scale.Such analogies can scarcely, however, serve universally as indications for the formation of groups, for almost ali animals present analogies in their correspond- ing parts.The individuals ^comprised vvithin a species, such as Socrates and Coriscus, are the real existences ; biit inasmuch as these individuals possess one cornmon specific 25 form, it will suffice to state the universal attributes of the species, that is, the attributes cornmon to all its individuals, once for all, as otherwise there will be endless reiteration, as has already been pointed out.^'the ultimate forms', i. e. the individuals comprised in a species, as rendered above.This, however, seems a scarcely tenable translation of the words, and I prefer, as a possible emendation, that we should read tu ecxura without ^Cf.i. I. 639^'27 * 'both potentially and actually'."Anarra, if the true reading, must be taken as adverbial and as used though 'de duobus tantum agitur' (Bonitz, 571^5 1) ; but I suggest mivToas as a prefcrable reading.But in sanguineous animals the main seat of this heat must be the heart.For, though the other parts by their natural heat can effect the concoction of the food, yet chief and foremost in this office is the heart.The rest of the body then may become cold, and yet life continue ; but should the heart cease to be hot, all life is at an end ; for no longer does there remain a source whence the rest of the body may derive heat ' {^De luv.et Sen. 4. 469*^1 2). 2 The upper cavity is of course the stomach.By the lower is meant * Cf.H. A. ii.12. 504^I ; iv. 9. 536» 20-^1 9 ; ix. 1. 17. '•* Cf. y^.ii. 13. 505"*' 31.Many fishes have no tongue.In none is it protrusible, being at best an insignificant ligamentary or cellular body, scarcely projecting from the glosso-hyoid.Cf.Ovven {Vert, i. 41 Vh Cuvier {Aft.Comp, ii.681), Giinther {St. of Fishes^p .119).

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