The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher by Aristotle (best ebook reader android TXT) 📖

virtue or power is of greater force than the power or faculty of tasting; and when we imagine a taste, we conceive the power of tasting as a swan; there is nothing felt by the taste, but by means of the spittle the tongue doth water.

Q. Why do some persons stammer and lisp? A. Sometimes through the moistness of the tongue and brain, as in children, who cannot speak plainly nor pronounce many letters. Sometimes it happeneth by reason of the shrinking of certain sinews which go to the tongue, which are corrupted with phlegm.

Q. Why are the tongues of serpents and mad dogs venomous? A. Because of the malignity and tumosity of the venomous humour which predominates in them.

Q. Why is a dog's tongue good for medicine, and a horse's tongue pestiferous? A. By reason of some secret property, or that the tongue of a dog is full of pores, and so doth draw and take away the viscosity of the wound. It is observed that a dog hath some humour in his tongue, with which, by licking he doth heal; but the contrary effect is the lick of a horse's tongue.

Q. Why is spittle white? A. By reason of the continual moving of the tongue, whereof heat is engendered, which doth make this superfluity white; as seen in the froth of water.

Q. Why is spittle unsavoury and without taste? A. If it had a certain determinate taste, then the tongue would not taste at all, but only have the taste of spittle, and could not distinguish others.

Q. Why doth the spittle of one that is fasting heal an imposthume? A. Because it is well digested and made subtle.

Q. Why do some abound in spittle more than others? A. This doth proceed of a phlegmatic complexion, which doth predominate in them; and such are liable to a quotidian ague, which ariseth from the predominance of phlegm; the contrary in those that spit little, because heat abounds in them, which consumes the humidity of the spittle; and so the defect of spittle is a sign of fever.

Q. Why is the spittle of a man that is fasting more subtle than of one that is full? A. Because the spittle is without the viscosity of meat, which is wont to make the spittle of one who is full, gross and thick.

Q. From whence proceeds the spittle of a man? A. From the froth of the lungs, which according to the physicians, is the seat of the phlegm.

Q. Why are beasts when going together for generation very full of froth and foam? A. Because then the lights and heart are in greater motion of lust; therefore there is engendered in them much frothy matter.

Q. Why have not birds spittle? A. Because they have very dry lungs.

Q. Why doth the tongue sometimes lose the use of speaking? A. It is occasioned by a palsy or apoplexy, which is a sudden effusion of blood, and by gross humours; and sometimes also by infection of spiritus animates in the middle cell of the brain which hinders the spirits from being carried to the tongue.

Of the Roof of the Mouth.

Q. Why are fruits, before they are ripe, of a bitter and sour relish, and afterward sweet? A. A sour relish or taste proceeds from coldness and want of heat in gross and thick humidity; but a sweet taste is produced by sufficient heat; therefore in the ripe fruit humidity is subtle through the heat of the sun, and such fruit is commonly sweet; but before it is ripe, as humidity is gross or subtle for want of heat, the fruit is bitter or sour.

Q. Why are we better delighted with sweet tastes than with bitter or any other? A. Because a sweet thing is hot and moist, and through its heat dissolves and consumes superfluous humidities, and by this humidity immundicity is washed away; but a sharp, eager taste, by reason of the cold which predominates in it, doth bind overmuch, and prick and offend the parts of the body in purging, and therefore we do not delight in that taste.

Q. Why doth a sharp taste, as that of vinegar, provoke appetite rather than any other? A. Because it is cold, and doth cool. For it is the nature of cold to desire to draw, and therefore it is the cause of appetite.

Q. Why do we draw in more air than we breathe out? A. Because much air is drawn in that is converted into nutriment, and with the vital spirits is contained in the lungs. Therefore a beast is not suffocated as long as it receives air with its lungs, in which some part of the air remaineth also.

Q. Why doth the air seem to be expelled and put forth, seeing the air is invisible, by reason of its variety and thinness? A. Because the air which is received in us, is mingled with vapours and fumes from the heart, by reason whereof it is made thick, and so is seen. And this is proved by experience, because that in winter, we see our breath, for the coldness of the air doth bind the air mixed with fume, and so it is thickened and made gross, and by consequence is seen.

Q. Why have some persons stinking breath? A. Because of the evil fumes that arise from the stomach. And sometimes it doth proceed from the corruption of the airy parts of the body, as the lungs. The breath of lepers is so infected that it would poison birds if near them, because the inward parts are very corrupt.

Q. Why are lepers hoarse? A. Because the vocal instruments are corrupted, that is, the lights.

Q. Why do persons become hoarse? A. Because of the rheum descending from the brain, filling the conduit of the lights; and sometimes through imposthumes of the throat, or rheum gathering in the neck.

Q. Why have the females of all living creatures the shrillest voices, the crow only excepted, and a woman a shriller and smaller voice than a man? A. By reason of the composition of the veins and vocal arteries the voice is formed, as appears by this similitude, that a small pipe sounds shriller than a great. Also in women, because the passage where the voice is formed is made narrow and strait, by reason of cold, it being the nature of cold to bind; but in men, the passage is open and wider through heat, because it is the property of heat to open and dissolve. It proceedeth in women through the moistness of the lungs, and weakness of the heat. Young and diseased men have sharp and shrill voices from the same cause.

Q. Why doth the voice change in men at fourteen, and in women at twelve; in men they begin to yield seed, in women when their breasts begin to grow? A. Because then the beginning of the voice is slackened and loosened; and this is proved by the similitude of the string of an instrument let down or loosened, which gives a great sound, and also because creatures that are gelded, as eunuchs, capons., etc., have softer and slenderer voices than others, by the want of their stones.

Q. Why do small birds sing more and louder than great ones, as appears in the lark and nightingale? A. Because the spirits of small birds are subtle and soft, and the organ conduit strait, as appeareth in a pipe; therefore their notes following easily at desire, they sing very soft.

Q. Why do bees, wasps, locusts and many other such like insects, make a noise, seeing they have no lungs, nor instruments of music? A. Because in them there is a certain small skin, which, when struck by the air, causeth a sound.

Q. Why do not fish make a sound? A. Because they have no lungs, but only gills, nor yet a heart, and therefore they need not the drawing in of the air, and by consequence they make no noise, because a voice is a percussion of the air which is drawing.

Of the Neck.

Q. Why hath a living creature a neck? A. Because the neck is the supporter of the head, and therefore the neck is in the middle between the head and the body, to the intent that by it, and by its sinews, motion and sense of the body might be conveyed through all the body; and that by means of the neck, the heart, which is very hot, might be separated from the brain.

Q. Why do some creatures want necks, as serpents and fishes? A. Because they want hearts, and therefore want that assistance which we have spoken of; or else they have a neck in some inward part of them, which is not distinguished outwardly.

Q. Why is the neck full of bones and joints? A. That it may bear and sustain the head the better. Also, because the back bone is joined to the brain in the neck, and from thence it receives marrow, which is of the substance of the brain.

Q. Why have some creatures long necks, as cranes, storks and such like? A. Because such birds seek their food at the bottom of waters. And some creatures have short necks, as sparrows, hawks, etc., because such are ravenous, and therefore for strength have short necks, as appeareth in the ox, who has a short neck and strong.

Q. Why is the neck hollow, and especially before, about the tongue? A. Because there are two passages, whereof the one doth carry the meat to the nutritive instrument, or stomach and liver, which is called by the Greeks Aesophagus; and the other is the windpipe.

Q. Why is the artery made with rings and circle? A. The better to bow and give a good sounding.

Of the Shoulders and Arms.

Q. Why hath a man shoulders and arms? A. To lift and carry burdens.

Q. Why are the arms round? A. For the swifter and speedier work.

Q. Why are the arms thick? A. That they may be strong to lift and bear burdens, and thrust and give a strong blow; so their bones are thick, because they contain much marrow, or they would be easily corrupted and injured.

Q. Why do the arms become small and slender in some diseases, as in mad men, and such as are sick of the dropsy? A. Because all the parts of the body do suffer the one with the other; and therefore one member being in grief, all the humours do concur and run thicker to give succour and help to the aforesaid grief.

Q. Why have brute beasts no arms? A. Their fore feet are instead of arms, and in their place.

Of the Hands.

Q. For what use hath a man hands, and an ape also, like unto a man? A. The hand is an instrument a man doth especially make use of, because many things are done by the hands, and not by any other part.

Q. Why are some men ambo-dexter, that is, they use the left hand as the right? A. By reason of the great heat of the heart, and for the hot bowing of the same, for it is that which makes a man as nimble of the left hand as of the right.

Q. Why are the fingers full of joints? A. To be more fit and apt to receive and keep what is put in them.

Q. Why hath every finger three joints, and the thumb but two? A. The thumb hath three, but the third is joined to the arm, therefore is stronger than the other fingers; and is called pollex or polico, that is, to excel in strength.

Q. Why are the fingers of the right