Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books — Aristotle — John Shaqi
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books
Aristotle · en
BOOK IV.--Animals without blood, and first, the cephalopods, are
described; then the crustaceans, testacea, echinidæ, ascidians,
actiniæ, hermit crabs, insects. In the eighth chapter the organs of
sense are considered, and afterwards, the voice, sleep, age, and
differences of the sexes in animals are described.
BOOK V.--In the former books animals are for the most part described
with reference to their several parts. In the fifth book they
are treated as entire, and especially with regard to their mode
of reproduction. First of all, our author treats of spontaneous
reproduction, and then of those animals which spring from a union of
the sexes; and from this he proceeds to some detail with respect to
different groups of animals, testacea, crustacea, insects. The book
concludes with a long description of bees and their habits.
BOOK VI.--In this book the same subject is continued through the
several classes of birds, fish, and quadrupeds. This account of the
reproduction of animals includes also the consideration of the seasons,
climates, and ages of animals, and how far these influence their
reproduction.
BOOK VII.--The seventh book is almost entirely devoted to the
consideration of the reproduction of man, and an account of man from
his birth to his death. This book ends abruptly, and is probably
imperfect.
BOOK VIII.--In the eighth book Aristotle passes on to the most
interesting part of his work, the character and habits of the whole
animal world, as it was known to him. The amount of detail which he has
collected and arranged on this subject is most interesting. He treats,
first of all, of the food of animals, of their migrations, their health
and diseases, and the influence of climate upon them.
BOOK IX.--The subject of the eighth book is continued, with an account
of the relations in which animals stand to each other, and especially
the friendship and hostility of different species; and these are for
the most part referred to the nature of their food, and their mode
of procuring it. The notices of fish are not so numerous as those of
other groups: this would necessarily arise from the difficulty of
observation. At the conclusion of the book, an essay on bees and their
congeners is given at considerable length.
BOOK X.--This book, in all probability erroneously ascribed to
Aristotle, is occupied with a treatise on the causes of barrenness
in the human species. It appears to be rather a continuation of the
seventh book, which ends abruptly; but it is well placed at the end, as
no genuine work of our author.
THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS.
BOOK THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I.