When the gall is black, it is productive of madness in man, and if it is wholly expelled death will ensue. Hence it is, too, that the word “bile” has been employed by us to characterize a harsh, embittered disposition; so powerful are the effects of this secretion, when it extends its influence to the mind. In addition to this, when it is dispersed over the whole of the body, it deprives the eyes, even, of their natural colour; and when ejected, will tarnish copper vessels even, rendering everything black with which it comes in contact; so that no one ought to be surprised that it is the gall which constitutes the venom of serpents. Those animals of Pontus which feed on wormwood have no gall: in the raven, the quail, and the pheasant, the gall-bladder is united to the renal parts, and, on one side only, to the intestines. In many animals, again, it is united only to the intestines, the pigeon, the hawk, and the murena, for example. In some few birds it is situate in the liver; but it is in serpents and fishes that it is the largest in proportion. With the greater part of birds, it extends all along throughout the intestines, as in the hawk and the kite. In some other birds, also, it is situate in the breast as well: the gall, too, of the sea-calf is celebrated for its application to many purposes. From the gall of the bull a colour is extracted like that of gold. The aruspices have consecrated the gall to Neptune and the influence of water. The Emperor Augustus found a double gall in a victim which he was sacrificing on the day of his victory at Actium.
CHAP. 76.—IN WHAT ANIMALS THE LIVER INCREASES AND DECREASES WITH THE MOON. OBSERVATIONS OF THE ARUSPICES RELATIVE THERETO, AND REMARKABLE PRODIGIES.
It is said, that in the small liver of the mouse the number of lobes corresponds to the day of the moon, and that they are found to be just as many in number as she is days old; in addition to which, it is said that it increases at the winter solstice. In the rabbits of Bætica, the liver is always found to have a double lobe. Ants will not touch one lobe of the liver of the bramble-frog, in consequence of its poisonous nature, it is generally thought. The liver is remarkable for its powers of preservation, and sieges have afforded us remarkable instances of its being kept so long as a hundred years.[287]
CHAP. 77.—THE DIAPHRAGM. THE NATURE OF LAUGHTER.
The entrails of serpents and lizards are of remarkable length. It is related that—a most fortunate omen—Cæcina of Volaterræ beheld two dragons arising from the entrails of the victim; and this will not be at all incredible, if we are ready to believe that while King Pyrrhus was sacrificing, the day upon which he died, the heads of the victims, on being cut off, crawled along the ground and licked up their own blood. In man, the entrails are separated from the lower part of the viscera by a certain membrane, which is called the “præcordia,”[288] because it is extended in front of the heart; the Greeks have given it the name of “phrenes.” All the principal viscera have been enclosed by Nature, in her prudent foresight, in their own peculiar membranes, just like so many sheaths, in fact. With reference to the diaphragm, there was a peculiar reason for this wise provision of Nature, its proximity to the guts, and the chances that the food might possibly intercept the respiration. It is to this organ that is attributed quick and ready wit, and hence it is that it has no fleshy parts, but is composed of fine sinews and membranes. This part is also the chief seat of gaiety of mind, a fact which is more particularly proved by the titillation of the arm-holes, to which the midriff extends; indeed, in no part of the body is the skin more fine; for this reason it is, also, that we experience such peculiar pleasure in scratching the parts in its vicinity. Hence it is, that in battles and gladiatorial combats, many persons have been known to be pierced through the midriff, and to die in the act of laughing.[289]
CHAP. 78.—THE BELLY: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BELLY. WHICH ARE THE ONLY ANIMALS THAT VOMIT.
In those animals which have a stomach, below the diaphragm the belly is situate. In other animals it is single, but in those which ruminate it is double; in those, again, which are destitute of blood, there is no belly, for the intestinal canal commences in some of them at the mouth, and returns to that part, as is the case with the sæpia and the polypus. In man it is connected with the extremity of the stomach, and the same with the dog. These are the only creatures that have the belly more narrow at the lower part; hence it is, too, that they are the only ones that vomit, for on the belly being filled, the narrowness at its extremity precludes the food from passing; a thing that cannot possibly be the case with the animals in which the belly is more capacious at the extremity, and so leaves a free passage for the food to the lower parts of the body.
CHAP. 79.—THE SMALL GUTS, THE FRONT INTESTINES, THE ANUS, THE COLON. THE CAUSES OF THE INSATIATE VORACITY OF CERTAIN ANIMALS.
After the belly we find in man and the sheep the “lactes,”[290] the place of which in other animals is occupied by the “hillæ:”[291] it is through these organs that the food passes. We then find the larger intestines, which communicate with the anus, and which in man consist of extremely sinuous folds. Those animals which have the longest intestinal canal, are the most voracious; and those which have the belly the most loaded with fat, are the least intelligent. There are some birds, also, which have two receptacles; the one of which is the crop, in which they stow away the food which they have just swallowed, while the other is the belly, into which they discharge the food when it is duly prepared and digested; this is the case with the domestic fowl, the ring-dove, the pigeon, and the partridge. The other birds are in general destitute of crop, but then they have a more capacious gorge, the jackdaw, the raven, and the crow, for instance: some, again, are constituted in neither manner, but have the belly close to the gorge, those, for instance, which have the neck very long and narrow, such as the porphyrio.[292]