Aristotle
some luminous objects visible in the dark, as fire, fungous matter,
eyes, and scales of fish, &c., though they have no appropriate
colour.[82] There are seven species or varieties of colours, but all
of them proceed from white and black, blended in different
proportions, or seen one through another; white and black are the
two extremes, the other varieties being intermediate between them.
[Footnote 76: Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 429, a. 2: [Greek: ê(
o)/psis ma/lista ai)sthêsi/s e)stin.] Also Metaphysica, A. init.]
[Footnote 77: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vii. p. 419, a. 12, 14, 19;
Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, iii. p. 440, a. 18: [Greek: ô(/st'
eu)thu\s krei=tton pha/nai, tô=| kinei=sthai to\ metaxu\ tê=s
ai)sthê/seôs u(po\ tou= ai)sthêtou= gi/nesthai tê\n ai)/sthêsin,
a(phê=| kai\ mê\ tai=s a)por)r(oi/ais.]--Ib. ii. p. 438, b. 3:
[Greek: ei)/te phô=s ei)/t' a)ê/r e)sti to\ metaxu\ tou= o(rôme/nou
kai\ tou= o)/mmatos, ê( dia\ tou/tou ki/nêsi/s e)stin ê( poiou=sa to\
o(ra=n.]]
[Footnote 78: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vii. p. 419, a. 9: [Greek:
tou=to ga\r ê)=n au)tô=| to\ chrô/mati ei)=nai, to\ kinêtikô=|
ei)=nai tou= kat' e)ne/rgeian diaphanou=s phô=s e)sti/n.]--Ib. ii. p.
418, b. 11-17: [Greek: o(/tan ê)=| e)ntelechei/a| diaphane\s u(po\
puro\s ê)\ toiou/tou oi(=on to\ a)/nô sô=ma;--puro\s ê)\ toiou/tou
tino\s parousi/a e)n tô=| diaphanei=.]]
[Footnote 79: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vii. p. 418, b. 4. De Sensu et
Sensili, ii. p. 438, a. 14, b. 7; iii. p. 439, a. 21, seq.: [Greek:
o(\ de\ le/gomen diaphane/s, ou)k e)/stin i)/dion a)e/ros ê)\
u(/datos, ou)d' a)/llou tô=n ou(/tô legome/nôn sôma/tôn, a)lla/ ti/s
e)sti\ koinê\ phu/sis kai\ du/namis, ê(\ chôristê\ me\n ou)k e)/stin,
e)n tou/tois d' e)sti/, kai\ toi=s a)/llois sô/masin e)nupa/rchei,
toi=s me\n ma=llon toi=s d' ê(=tton.]]
[Footnote 80: Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vi. p. 446, a. 23, seq.,
b. 27: [Greek: tô=| ei)=nai ga/r ti phô=s e)sti/n, a)ll' ou)
ki/nêsi/s tis.] Empedokles affirmed that light travelling from the
Sun reached the intervening space before it came to the earth;
Aristotle contradicts him.]
[Footnote 81: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vii. p. 418, b. 18: [Greek:
e)/sti de\ to\ sko/tos ste/rêsis tê=s toiau/tês e(/xeôs e)k
diaphanou=s, ô(/ste dê=lon o(/ti kai\ ê( _tou/tou parousi/a_ phô=s
e)sti/n.]--Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, iii. p. 439, a. 26: [Greek:
ê( me\n ou)=n tou= phôto\s phu/sis e)n ao)ri/stô| tô=| diaphanei=
e)sti/n; tou= d' e)n toi=s sô/masi diaphanou=s to\ e)/schaton, o(/ti
me\n ei)/ê a)/n ti, dê=lon; o(/ti de\ tou=to e)sti\ to\ chrô=ma, e)/k
tô=n sumbaino/ntôn phanero/n.--e)/sti me\n ga\r e)n tô=| tou=
sô/matos pe/rati, a)ll' ou)/ ti to\ tou= sô/matos pe/ras, a)lla\ tê\n
au)tê\n phu/sin dei= nomi/zein, ê(/per kai\ e)/xô chrômati/zetai,
tau/tên kai\ e)nto/s.]]
[Footnote 82: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vii. p. 419, a. 2-25; Aristot.
De Sensu et Sensili, iv. p. 442, a. 20,--seven colours.]
The same necessity for an intervening medium external to the subject,
as in the case of vision, prevails also in the senses of hearing and
smell. If the audible or odorous object be placed in contact with its
organ of sense, there will be no hearing or smell. Whenever we hear
or smell any object, there must be interposed between us and the
object a suitable medium that shall be affected first; while the
organ of sense will be affected secondarily through that medium. Air
is the medium in regard to sound, both air and water in regard to
smell; but there seems besides (analogous to the transparent in
regard to vision) a special agency called the Trans-Sonant, which
pervades air and enables it to transmit sound; and certainly another
special agency called the Trans-Olfacient, which pervades both air
and water, and enables them to transmit smell.[83] (It seems thus
that something like a luminiferous ether--extended, mobile, and
permeating bodies, yet still incorporeal in itself--was an hypothesis
as old as Aristotle; and one other ether besides, analogous in
property and purpose--an odoriferous ether; perhaps a third or
soniferous ether, but this is less distinctly specified by
Aristotle.)
[Footnote 83: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vii. p. 419, a. 25-35; De Sensu
et Sensili, v. p. 442, b. 30; Themistius ad Aristot. De Animâ, II.
vii., viii. p. 115, Spengel. Of the three names, [Greek: to\
diaphane/s--to\ diêche/s--to\ di/osmon], the last two are not
distinctly stated by Aristotle, but are said to have been first
applied by Theophrastus after him. See the notes of Trendelenburg and
Torstrick; the latter supposes Themistius to have had before him a
fuller and better text of Aristotle than that which we now possess,
which seems corrupt. In our present text, the transparent as well as
the trans-olfacient ether are clearly indicated, the trans-sonant not
clearly.]
Sound, according to Aristotle, arises from the shock of two or more
solid bodies communicated to the air. It implies local movement in
one at least of those bodies. Many soft bodies are incapable of
making sound; those best suited for it are such as metals, hard in
structure, smooth in surface, hollow in shape. The blow must be smart
and quick, otherwise the air slips away and dissipates itself before
the sound can be communicated to it.[84] Sound is communicated
through the air to the organ of hearing; the air is one _continuum_
(not composed of adjacent particles with interspaces), and a wave is
propagated from it to the internal ear, which contains some air
enclosed in the sinuous ducts within the membrane of the tympanum,
congenitally attached to the organ itself, and endued with a certain
animation.[85] This internal air within the ear, excited by the
motion propagated from the external ear, causes hearing. The ear is
enabled to appreciate accurately the movements of the external air,
because it has itself little or no movement within. We cannot hear
with any other part of the body; because it is only in the ear that
nature has given us this stock of internal air. If water gets into
the ear, we cannot hear at all; because the wave generated in the air
without, cannot propagate itself within. Nor can we hear, if the
membrane of the ear be disordered; any more than we can see, when the
membrane of the eye is disordered.[86]
[Footnote 84: Aristot. De Animâ, **II. viii. p. 419, b. 4 seq. He
calls air [Greek: psathuro/s, eu)/thruptos] (p. 420,
a. 1-8),--[Greek: eu)diai/retos, eu)o/listhos] (Themistius, pp. 116,
117, Sp.)--"quod facilé diffluit" (Trendelenburg, Comm. p. 384). He
says that for sonorous purposes air ought to be [Greek:
a)throu=n]--compact or dense: sound reverberates best from metals
with smooth surface, p. 420, a. 25.]
[Footnote 85: Aristot. De Animâ, II. viii. p. 419, b. 34 seq.:
[Greek: ou(=tos d' (o( a)ê\r) e)sti\n o( poiô=n a)kou/ein, o(/tan
kinêthê=| sunechê\s kai\ ei(=s;--psophêtiko\n me\n ou)=n to\
kinêtiko\n e(no\s a)e/ros sunechei/a| me/chris a)koê=s. a)koê=| de\
sumphuê\s a)ê/r; dia\ de\ to\ e)n a)e/ri ei)=nai, kinoume/nou tou=
e)/xô to\ ei)/sô kinei=. dio/per ou) pa/ntê| to\ zô=|on a)kou/ei,
ou)de\ pa/ntê| die/rchetai o( a)ê/r; ou) ga\r pa/ntê| e)/chei a)e/ra
to\ kinêso/menon me/ros kai\ e)/mpsuchon.--dia\ ta\s e(/likas] (p.
420, a. 13).
The text of this passage is not satisfactory. It has been much
criticised as well as amended by Torstrick; see his Comment. p. 148
seq. I cannot approve his alteration of [Greek: e)/mpsuchon] into
[Greek: e)/mpsophon].]
[Footnote 86: Aristot. De Animâ, II. viii. p. 420, a. 9: [Greek: o(
d' e)n toi=s ô)si\n e)gkatô|kodo/mêtai pro\s to\ a)ki/nêtos ei)=nai,
o(/pôs a)kribô=s ai)stha/nêtai pa/sas ta\s diaphora\s tê=s
kinê/seôs.]--p. 420, a. 14. [Greek: ou)d' (a)kou/omen) a)\n ê(
mê/nigx ka/mê|, ô(/sper to\ e)pi\ tê=| ko/rê| de/rma o(/tan ka/mê|.]]
Voice is a kind of sound peculiar to animated beings; yet not
belonging to all of them, but only to those that inspire the air.
Nature employs respiration for two purposes: the first, indispensable
to animal life,--that of cooling and tempering the excessive heat of
the heart and its adjacent parts; the second, not indispensable to
life, yet most valuable to the higher faculties of man,--significant
speech. The organ of respiration is the larynx; a man cannot speak
either when inspiring or expiring, but only when retaining and using
the breath within. The soul in those parts, when guided by some
phantasm or thought, impels the air within against the walls of the
trachea, and this shock causes vocal sounds.[87]
[Footnote 87: Aristot. De Animâ, II. viii. p. 420, b. 5-p. 421, a. 6.
[Greek: ô(/ste ê( plêgê\ tou= a)napneome/nou a)e/ros u(po\ tê=s e)n
tou/tois toi=s mori/ois psuchê=s pro\s tê\n kaloume/nên a)rtêri/an
phônê/ e)stin. ou) ga\r pa=s zô/|ou pso/phos phônê/, katha/per
ei)/pomen (e)/sti ga\r kai\ tê=| glô/ttê| psophei=n kai\ ô(s oi(
bê/ttontes) a)lla\ dei= e)/mpsucho/n te ei)=nai to\ tu/pton kai\
meta\ phantasi/as tino/s; sêmantiko\s ga\r dê/ tis pso/phos e)sti\n
ê( phônê/; kai\ ou) tou= a)napneome/nou a)e/ros, ô(/sper ê( bê/x,
a)lla\ tou/tô| tu/ptei to\n e)n tê=| a)rtêri/a| pro\s au)tê/n.]]
Aristotle seems to have been tolerably satisfied with the above
explanation of sight and hearing; for, in approaching the sense of
Smell with the olfacients, he begins by saying that it is less
definable and explicable. Among the five senses, smell stands
intermediate between the two (taste and touch) that operate by direct
contact, and the other two (sight and hearing) that operate through
an external medium. Man is below other animals in this sense; he
discriminates little in smells except the pleasurable and the
painful.[88] His taste, though analogous in many points to smell, is
far more accurate and discriminating, because taste is a variety of
touch; and in respect to touch, man is the most discriminating of all
animals. Hence his great superiority to them in practical wisdom.
Indeed the marked difference of intelligence between one man and
another, turns mainly upon the organ of touch: men of hard flesh (or
skin) are by nature dull in intelligence, men of soft flesh are apt
and clever.[89] The classifying names of different smells are
borrowed from the names of the analogous tastes to which they are
analogous--sweet, bitter, tart, dry, sharp, smooth, &c.[90] Smells
take effect through air as well as through water; by means of a
peculiar agency or accompaniment (mentioned above, called the
Trans-Olfacient) pervading both one and the other. It is peculiar to
man that he cannot smell except when inhaling air in the act of
inspiration; any one may settle this for himself by making the
trial.[91] But fishes and other aquatic animals, which never inhale
air, can smell in the water; and this proves that the trans-olfacient
agency is operative to transmit odours not less in water than in
air.[92] We know that the sense of smell in these aquatic animals is
the same as it is in man, because the same strong odours that are
destructive to man are also destructive to them.[93] Smell is the
parallel, and in a certain sense the antithesis of taste; smell is of
the dry, taste is of the moist: the olfactory matter is a juicy or
sapid dryness, extracted or washed out from both air and water by the
trans-olfacient agency, and acting on the sensory potentialities of
the nostrils.[94] This olfactory inhalation is warm as well as dry.
Hence it is light, and rises easily to the brain, the moisture and
coldness of which it contributes to temper; this is a very salutary
process, for the brain is the wettest and coldest part of the body,
requiring warm and dry influences as a corrective. It is with a view
to this correction that Nature has placed the olfactory organ in such
close proximity to the brain.[95] There are two kinds of olfactory