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. The manner in which the parts grow at the expense
of the blood, and indeed the whole question of nutrition, will find
a more suitable place for exposition in the treatise on Generation,
and in other writings. For our present purpose all that need be said
is that the blood exists for the sake of nutrition, that is the
nutrition of the parts; and with this much let us therefore content
ourselves.
4
What are called fibres are found in the blood of some animals but
not of all. There are none, for instance, in the blood of deer and
of roes; and for this reason the blood of such animals as these
never coagulates. For one part of the blood consists mainly of water
and therefore does not coagulate, this process occurring only in the
other and earthy constituent, that is to say in the fibres, while
the fluid part is evaporating.
Some at any rate of the animals with watery blood have a keener
intellect than those whose blood is of an earthier nature. This is due
not to the coldness of their blood, but rather to its thinness and
purity; neither of which qualities belongs to the earthy matter. For
the thinner and purer its fluid is, the more easily affected is an
animal's sensibility. Thus it is that some bloodless animals,
notwithstanding their want of blood, are yet more intelligent than
some among the sanguineous kinds. Such for instance, as already
said, is the case with the bee and the tribe of ants, and whatever
other animals there may be of a like nature
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