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. The same has occurred in the case of
sheep and of goats. For these animals usually have a gall-bladder;
but, while in some localities it is so enormously big as to appear a
monstrosity, as is the case in Naxos, in others it is altogether
wanting, as is the case in a certain district belonging to the
inhabitants of Chalcis in Euboea. Moreover, the gall-bladder in fishes
is separated, as already mentioned, by a considerable interval from
the liver. No less mistaken seems to be the opinion of Anaxagoras
and his followers, that the gall-bladder is the cause of acute
diseases, inasmuch as it becomes over-full, and spirts out its
excess on to the lung, the blood-vessels, and the ribs. For, almost
invariably, those who suffer from these forms of disease are persons
who have no gall-bladder at all, as would be quite evident were they
to be dissected. Moreover, there is no kind of correspondence
between the amount of bile which is present in these diseases and
the amount which is exuded. The most probable opinion is that, as
the bile when it is present in any other part of the body is a mere
residuum or a product of decay, so also when it is present in the
region of the liver it is equally excremental and has no further
use; just as is the case with the dejections of the stomach and
intestines. For though even the residua are occasionally used by
nature for some useful purpose, yet we must not in all cases expect to
find such a final cause; for granted the existence in the body of this
or that constituent, with such and such properties, many results
must ensue merely as necessary consequences of these properties
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