CHAP. 84.—THE WOMB: THE WOMB OF THE SOW: THE TEATS.
Women have all the same organs, except that adjoining to the bladder there is one like a small sac,[305] from which circumstance it is called the “uterus.” Another name for this part is “loci;”[306] but in other animals it is known by the name of “vulva.” With the viper and other animals which generate their young within themselves, the womb is double; while with those which are oviparous, it is attached to the diaphragm. In woman it has two concavities, one on either side: when the matrix becomes displaced, it is productive of fatal effects, by causing suffocation.[307] It is asserted that the cow, when pregnant, carries her young only in the right concavity of the womb, and that this is the case even when she produces twins. The womb of the sow is considered better eating if she has slipped her young, than if she has duly brought forth: in the former case it is known by the name of “ejectitia,” in the latter it is called “porcaria.” The womb of a sow that has farrowed only once is the most esteemed, and that of those which have ceased farrowing, the least. After farrowing, unless the animal is killed the same day, the womb is of a livid colour, and lean. This part, however, is not esteemed in a young sow, except just after the first farrowing: indeed, it is much more highly valued in an animal of a more mature age, so long as it is not past breeding, or has been killed two days before farrowing, or two days after, or upon the day on which it has miscarried. The next best after that of a sow that has miscarried, is that of one that has been killed the day after farrowing: indeed, the paps of this last, if the young have not begun to suck, are excellent eating, while those of an animal that has miscarried are very inferior. The ancients called this part by the name of “abdomen,” before it grew hard, and were not in the habit of killing swine while in a state of pregnancy.
CHAP. 85.—ANIMALS WHICH HAVE SUET: ANIMALS WHICH DO NOT GROW FAT.
Those among the horned animals which have teeth in one jaw only, and pastern bones on the feet, produce tallow or suet. Those, on the other hand, which are cloven-footed, or have the feet divided into toes, and are without horns, have simple fat only. This fat becomes hard, and when quite cold turns brittle, and is always found at the extremity of the flesh; while, on the other hand, the fat which lies between the skin and the flesh forms a kind of liquid juice. Some animals naturally do not become fat, such as the hare and the partridge, for instance. All fat animals, male as well as female, are mostly barren; and those which are remarkably fat become old the soonest. All animals have a certain degree of fatness in the eyes. The fat in all animals is devoid of sensation, having neither arteries nor veins. With the greater part of animals, fatness is productive of insensibility; so much so, indeed, that it has been said, that living swine have been gnawed even by mice.[308] It has been even asserted that the fat was drawn off from the body of a son of L. Apronius, a man of consular rank, and that he was thus relieved of a burden which precluded him from moving.
CHAP. 86.—THE MARROW: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO MARROW.
The marrow seems also to be formed of a similar material; in the young it is of a reddish colour, but it is white in the aged. It is only found in those bones which are hollow, and not in the tibiæ of horses or dogs; for which reason it is, that when the tibia is broken, the bone will not reunite, a process which is effected[309] by the flow of the marrow. The marrow is of a greasy nature in those animals which have fat, and suetty in those with horns. It is full of nerves, and is found only in the vertebral column[310] in those animals which have no bones, fishes, for instance. The bear has no marrow; and the lion has a little only in some few bones of the thighs and the brachia, which are of such extraordinary hardness that sparks may be emitted therefrom, as though from a flint-stone.
CHAP. 87.—BONES AND FISH-BONES: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NEITHER. CARTILAGES.
The bones are hard, also, in those animals[311] which do not grow fat; those of the ass are used by musicians for making flutes. Dolphins have bones, and not ordinary fish-bones; for they are viviparous. Serpents, on the other hand, have bones like those of fish. Among aquatic animals, the mollusks have no bones, but the body is surrounded with circles of flesh, as in the sæpia and the cuttle-fish, for instance; insects, also, are said to be equally destitute of bones. Among aquatic animals, those which are cartilaginous have marrow in the vertebral column; the sea-calf has cartilages, and no bones. The ears also, and the nostrils in all animals, when remarkably prominent, are made flexible by a remarkable provision of Nature, in order that they may not be broken. When cartilage is once broken, it will not unite; nor will bone, when cut, grow again, except in beasts of burden, between the hoof and the pastern.
Man increases in height till his twenty-first year, after which he fills out; but it is more particularly when he first arrives at the age of puberty that he seems to have untied a sort of knot in his existence, and this especially when he has been overtaken by illness.