Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten BooksAristotle
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books
Aristotle
Zoology -- Pre-Linnaean works
1. The neck is the part between the head and the trunk; the front
part is called the larynx, behind this is the œsophagus. The voice
and the breath pass through the front part, the trachea, which is
cartilaginous, but the œsophagus is fleshy, and placed farther in, near
the vertebra of the neck. The back of the neck is called the epomis.
These are the parts as far as the thorax. The parts of the thorax are
some before and some behind. First of all, below the neck is the breast
with two mammæ; on these are two nipples, through which the milk of the
female passes. The mamma is porous. There is also milk in the breasts
of men. The flesh of the mamma in men is thick, in women it is spongy
and full of pores.
2. The part below the thorax, in front, is the belly, and of this the
navel is the centre. Beneath this centre, the part on each side is
called the iliac region; the part in the centre, beneath the navel, is
called the hypogastric region; the lowest part of this is called pubes;
above the navel is the epigastric region; the lumbar region is situated
between the epigastric and iliac regions.
3. Of the hinder parts the loin forms the division of the body, whence
also its name is derived (ὀσφύς quasi ἰσοφύς). The part of the central
region which is like a seat is the buttock; that on which the thigh
turns, the cotyledon. The peculiar part of women is the uterus; of men
the penis, it is external, at the extremity of the trunk in two parts;
the upper part is fleshy and smooth, and is called glans; this is
covered with an anonymous skin, which, if it is cut asunder, does not
unite again, neither does the cheek nor the eyelid.
4. Common to this and the glans is the prepuce, the remaining part is
cartilaginous, readily increases in size, and it is drawn in and out,
contrary to that of the class of animals called lophuri. Beneath the
penis are two testicles, surrounded by a skin called the scrotum; the
testicles are not of the same nature as flesh, nor are they made of
flesh. In another place we shall treat of the nature of all these parts
more accurately.
5. The pudendum muliebre is contrary to that of the male, for it is
hollow under the pubes, not projecting like that of the male, and the
urethra is outside the womb, for the passage of the semen of the male,
and for the fluid excrement of both. The part of the body which joins
the neck and the breast is called the jugulum; that which unites the
side, the arm, and the shoulder is the arm-pit. The region between the
thigh and the hypogastric region is called the groin; the part common
to the thigh and the buttock on the inside is the perineum, that of the
thigh and buttock on the outside is called hypoglutis.
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