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. For
here also such variations as occur must be held either to be related
to the essential constitution and mode of life of the several animals,
or, in other cases, to be merely matters of slightly better or
slightly worse. Two animals, for instance, may have eyes. But in one
these eyes may be of fluid consistency, while in the other they are
hard; and in one there may be eyelids, in the other no such
appendages. In such a case, the fluid consistency and the presence
of eyelids, which are intended to add to the accuracy of vision, are
differences of degree. As to why all animals must of necessity have
blood or something of a similar character, and what the nature of
blood may be, these are matters which can only be considered when we
have first discussed hot and cold. For the natural properties of
many substances are referable to these two elementary principles;
and it is a matter of frequent dispute what animals or what parts of
animals are hot and what cold. For some maintain that water animals
are hotter than such as live on land, asserting that their natural
heat counterbalances the coldness of their medium; and again, that
bloodless animals are hotter than those with blood, and females than
males. Parmenides, for instance, and some others declare that women
are hotter than men, and that it is the warmth and abundance of
their blood which causes their menstrual flow, while Empedocles
maintains the opposite opinion
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