Aristotle : On the parts of animals / translated, with introduction and notes by W. Ogle.
- Aristotle
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Aristotle : On the parts of animals / translated, with introduction and notes by W. Ogle. Source: Wellcome Collection.
109/316 page 61
![also as a defensive one. There are horns also in all animals that have not been provided by nature with some other means of security; such means for instance as speed, which has been given to horses ; or excessive bulk of body, which is sufficient in itself to protect an animal from being destroyed by others and which has been given to camels, and in a still greater measure to elephants. Other animals again are protected by the possession of tusks; and among these are the swine, though they have a cloven hooO All animals again whose horns are but useless appendages have been provided by nature with some additional means of security. Thus deer are endowed with speed ; for the large size and great branching of their horns makes these a source of detriment rather than of profit to their possessors.'’ Similarly endowed are the Bubalus ® and gazelle for though these animals will stand up against some enemies and defend themselves with their horns, yet they run away from such as are fierce and valiant. The Bonasus again, whose horns curve inwards towards each other [and are therefore of no use as weapons], is provided with a means of protection in the discharge of its excrement; and of this it avails itself when frightened. There are some other animals besides the Bonasus that have a similar mode of defence.® In no case however does nature ever give more than one adequate means of protection to one and the same animal.® Most of the animals that have horns are cloven-hoofed ; but the Indian ass, as they call it, is also reported to be horned, though its hoof is solid. Again as the body, so far as regards its organs of motion,” consists of two distinct parts, the right and the left, so also and for like reasons the horns of animals are, in the great majority of cases, two in number. Still there are some that have but a single horn , the Oryx for instance, and the so-called Indian ass ; in the former of which the hoof is cloven, while in the latter it is solid. In such animals the horn is set in the centre of the head; for as the middle belongs equally to both extremes, this arrangement is the one that comes nearest to each side having its own horn. Again, it would appear consistent with reason that the single horn should go with the solid rather than with the cloven hoof. For hoof, as also claw, is of the same nature as horn ; so that the two naturally undergo division simultaneously and in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24864249_0109.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
