s, forms and sizes of
things seen appear elongated and narrow. It is therefore
probable that such animals as have the pupil oblique and long,
as goats, cats, and similar animals, have ideas different from
those of the animals which have a round pupil. Mirrors according
to their different construction, sometimes show the external 48
object smaller than reality, as concave ones, and sometimes long
and narrow, as the convex ones do; others show the head of the
one looking into it down, and the feet up. As some of the
vessels around the eye fall entirely outside the eye, on 49
account of their protuberance, while others are more sunken, and
still others are placed in an even surface, it is probable that
for this reason also the ideas vary, and dogs, fishes, lions,
men, and grasshoppers do not see the same things, either of the
same size, or of similar form, but according to the impression
on the organ of sight of each animal respectively. The same
thing is true in regard to the other senses; for how can it 50
be said that shell-fish, birds of prey, animals covered with
spines, those with feathers and those with scales would be
affected in the same way by the sense of touch? and how can the
sense of hearing perceive alike in animals which have the
narrowest auditory passages, and in those that are furnished
with the widest, or in those with hairy ears and those with
smooth ones? For we, even, hear differently when we partially
stop up the ears, from what we do when we use them naturally.
The sense of smell also varies according to differences in 51
animals, since even our sense of smell is affected when we have
taken cold and the phlegm is too abundant, and also when parts
around our head are flooded with too much blood, for we then
avoid odors that seem agreeable to others, and feel as if we
were injured by them. Since also some of the animals are moist
by nature and full of secretions, and others are very full of
blood, and still others have either yellow or black bile
prevalent and abundant, it is reasonable because of this to
think that odorous things appear different to each one of them.
And it is the same in regard to things of taste, as some 52
animals have the tongue rough and dry and others very moist. We
too, when we have a dry tongue in fever, think that whatever we
take is gritty, bad tasting, or bitter; and this we experience
because of the varying degrees of the h