Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/291

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CH. IX.]
NOTES.
281

the cause of, or concomitant with dulness of the faculties. The nervous system was then unknown, and Aristotle, so fond of analogies, might readily suppose that the Touch had, like other senses, its appointed organism; and, if there were such an organ, that it is extended over the body, and thus must be in or beneath the flesh. The Taste, as being a modification of Touch, was said to be more delicate in man than animals.

Note 2, p. 110. There is a close analogy.] A similar observation is made in the following chapter, and, besides bringing sentient perceptions under some general law, it was, probably, intended to shew that colour, sound, and odour, although inappreciable by our senses, may still be present. It shews, in fact, that our senses, being limited in their capacity of perception, are not to be relied upon when impressions are very greatly in excess or proportionally faint.

Note 3, p. 111. The smell is perceptive.] "That fishes smell," Aristotle[1] observes, "is shewn in their being taken by baits which have the particular odour, foul or grateful, to which they are attached." But modern science has, of course, determined both the seat and the structure of the olfactory organ in fishes; and shewn "how it is protected from the violent and incessant action of the currents of water required for respiration." Sanguineous[2] creatures are all such as have red blood, and insanguineous, those which, in place of red blood, have a pale bluish fluid

  1. Hist. Animalm. IV. 8. 19.
  2. Ibid. I. 4. 3.