Chapter III.

1. The parts of the mammæ also, and the organs of generation, are different in man and in other animals. For some have the mammæ forward on or near the breast, and two mammæ with two nipples, as man and the elephant, as I said before, for the elephant has two mammæ near the arm-pits; in the female they are small, and do not bear any proportion to the size of the animal, so that they are scarcely visible in a side view; the males also have mammæ as well as the females, but they are exceedingly small.

2. The bear has four, other animals have two mammæ upon the thighs, and two nipples like sheep; others have four nipples, as the cow; some animals have not their nipples on the breast and thighs, but on the abdomen, as the dog and the hog, they have many nipples, but not all of the same size; other animals also have more than two, as the panther, which has four on the abdomen; the lioness has two on the abdomen, the camel has two mammæ and four nipples, like the cow.

3. Among animals with a solid hoof the males have no mammæ, except some horses which bear a resemblance to their dams. Some males have the penis external, as man, and the horse, and many others; some internal, as the dolphin. Of those animals in which it is external, some have it in front, as those which I have named; and some of these have both the penis and testicles loose, as in man; others have them close to the abdomen; some have them more, others less loose, for this part is not equally free in the boar and the horse.

4. The elephant has a penis like a horse, but small and less in proportion to the size of its body; its testicles are not external but internal, and near the kidneys, wherefore also the work of copulation is quickly performed. The female has the pudendum in the same position as the udder of the sheep, and when excited with desire, it is lifted up outwards, so as to be ready for copulation with the male; and the orifice of the pudendum is very wide. Most animals have the penis in the same direction, but some are retromingent, as the lynx, lion, camel, and hare. In some males, as I have said, the direction of the penis is different, but all females are retromingent, for even in the female elephant the pudendum is placed under the thighs, as in other animals.

5. The penis is very different in different animals, for in some it is cartilaginous and fleshy, as in man; the fleshy part does not swell, but the cartilaginous portion is erected; in others it is sinewy, as the camel and the stag; in others it is bony, as the fox and the wolf, the weasel and the martin, for the martin also has a bony penis.

6. Again, man being a perfect animal, has the upper part of his body less than the lower part; the contrary is the case with other sanguineous animals: by the upper portion of his body we mean the portion of his body from the head to the anus, and by the lower, the parts from hence downwards. In those animals which have feet the hind leg is the lower part of the body in point of size; and in those without legs, the same relation is observed in their various kinds of tails. Such is the nature of perfected animals, but they differ in the development of their parts. Man in the young state has the upper part of his body greater than the lower; but as he grows the proportion of his parts changes, wherefore also he is the only animal which does not move in the same way when young and when grown up, for at first a child crawls like a four-footed animal.

7. Some animals grow in the same proportion throughout, as the dog—others when they are first born have their upper part proportionally less than the lower, but as they approach maturity, the upper parts increase in size, as in the lophuri, for in these animals the part from the hoof to the haunch never grows after their birth.

8. There is a great difference in the teeth of animals, both among themselves and from the human type; all viviparous and sanguineous quadrupeds have teeth; some have teeth in both jaws, which others have not; this is the first distinction. Those which have horns do not possess teeth in both jaws, for they have no front teeth in the upper jaw. There are others, as the camel, which, though it has no horns, has not teeth in the upper jaw.

9. Some animals have tusks like the boar, others have not; some have pointed teeth, as the lion, panther, and dog; the teeth of others have an even surface, as the ox and the horse. Animals with pointed teeth have their teeth fitting into each other; no animal has both tusks and horns, neither those with pointed teeth nor any others. Most animals have their front teeth sharp, and their hind teeth flat; all the teeth of the seal are sharp pointed, showing an approximation to the race of fishes, for all fishes have pointed teeth.

10. None of these genera have a double row of teeth. But, if we may believe Ctesias, there are some which have this peculiarity, for he mentions an Indian animal called martichora, which had three rows of teeth in each jaw; it is as large and as rough as a lion, and has similar feet, but its ears and face are like those of a man; its eye is grey, and its body red; it has a tail like a land scorpion, in which there is a sting; it darts forth the spines with which it is covered instead of hair, and it utters a noise resembling the united sound of a pipe and a trumpet; it is not less swift of foot than a stag, and is wild, and devours men.

11. Man sheds his teeth, and so do other animals, as the horse, the mule, and the ass; man sheds his front teeth, but no animal sheds the molar teeth; swine do not shed any of their teeth. About dogs, there is some doubt; some persons think they do not shed their teeth at all, others that they shed only the canine teeth; but it has been observed that they do shed their teeth like men: perhaps it has escaped notice, because they do not shed them before the inner ones, which are similar, are grown up.

12. And it is probable that the same takes place in other wild animals, since they are said only to shed their canine teeth. Young dogs are known from old ones by their teeth, for young dogs have sharp white teeth, old dogs have them black and blunted. The horse is in this respect different from all other animals; for while the teeth in other animals become darker as they grow older, in the horse they become more white.

13. Those which are called canine teeth are placed between the cutting and the molar teeth, and partake of the nature of both, for they are wide below, but sharp at the top. The male has more teeth than the female in mankind, and sheep, and goats, and swine. This has not been observed in other animals. Those persons which have the greatest number of teeth are the longest lived; those which have them widely separated, smaller, and more scattered, are generally more short lived.

14. The last molar teeth, which are called wisdom teeth, appear, both in the male and female about the age of twenty, and some women cut the molar teeth at eighty years of age, causing great pain in the extremity of the jaw, and some men also: this happens with persons who do not cut their wise teeth at the proper age.

15. The elephant has four teeth on each side, with which he grinds his food, for he reduces his food very small, like meal. Besides these, he has two tusks: in the male these are large, and turned upwards; in the female they are small, and bent in the contrary direction. The elephant has teeth as soon as it is born; but the tusks are small, and therefore inconspicuous at first. It has so small a tongue within its mouth, that it is difficult to see it.