Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten BooksAristotle
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books
Aristotle
Zoology -- Pre-Linnaean works
3. They are found in such numbers at the bottom of the sea as to devour
any bait made of fish that remains any length of time upon the ground;
fishermen frequently draw them out hanging like globes around the
bait. The following considerations will serve still more to confirm
our suppositions that fishes sleep; for it is often possible to fall
upon the fish so stealthily as to take by the hand, or even strike them
during this time; they are quite quiet, and exhibit no signs of motion
except with their tails, which they move gently. It is evident, also,
that they sleep, from their starting if anything moves while they are
asleep, for they start as if they were waked out of sleep.
4. They are also taken by torchlight while asleep; those who are
seeking for thynni surround them while asleep; it is evident that
they can be captured from their stillness, and the half-open white
(of their eyes). They sleep more by night than by day, so that they
do not move when they are struck; they generally sleep holding by the
ground, or the sand, or a stone, at the bottom, concealing themselves
beneath a rock, or a portion of the shore. The flat fishes sleep in the
sand; they are recognized by their form in the sand, and are taken by
striking them with a spear with three points. The labrax, chrysophrys,
cestreus, and such-like fish are often taken with the same kind of
weapon while asleep in the day time, but if not taken then, none of
them can be captured with such a spear.
5. The selache sleep so soundly that they may be taken with the hand;
the dolphin, whale, and all that have a blow-hole, sleep with this
organ above the surface of the sea, so that they can breathe, while
gently moving their fins, and some persons have even heard the dolphin
snore. The malacia sleep in the same manner as fish, and so do the
malacostraca. It is evident from the following considerations that
insects sleep; for they evidently remain at rest without motion; this
is particularly plain in bees, for they remain quiet, and cease to hum
during the night. This is also evident from those insects with which
we are most familiar, for they not only remain quiet during the night
because they cannot see distinctly, for all creatures with hard eyes
have indistinct vision, but they seem no less quiet when the light of a
lamp is set before them.
6. Man sleeps the most of all animals. Infants and young children do
not dream at all, but dreaming begins in most at about four or five
years old. There have been men and women who have never dreamt at
all; sometimes such persons, when they have advanced in age, begin
to dream; this has preceded a change in their body, either for death
or infirmity. This, then, is the manner of sensation, sleep and
wakefulness.
CHAPTER XI.
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