Outlines of Pyrrhonism

...those things which fall under the sense of smell appear different [to different animals]. The same applies to what pertains to taste: since some animals have a rough and dry tongue, while others have one that is very moist. (Indeed, we ourselves, when we are suffering from a fever and have a drier tongue, judge the things offered to us to be earthy, foul-tasting, and bitter. This happens to us because of the differing prevalence of the humors Ancient medicine taught that the body was governed by four "humors" or fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile); an imbalance was thought to alter one's sensory perception. said to be within us.) Since animals also possess diverse organs of taste and abound in different humors, it follows that in taste as well they receive diverse impressions original: phantasias; the mental images or "appearances" produced by the senses. of the objects before them.

For just as the same food, once digested, sometimes becomes a vein, sometimes an artery, sometimes bone, sometimes nerve, and each of the other parts—insofar as it brings forth a different capacity according to the diversity of the parts that receive it—and just as water, being one and of a single kind, when poured into trees and processed, sometimes becomes bark, sometimes a branch, sometimes fruit (indeed, even a fig, a pomegranate, or any other of the various fruits); and just as the one and same breath of musicians blown into a flute becomes now high-pitched, now deep; and in the same way a hand pressed upon a lyre sometimes produces a deep sound, and sometimes a high one: so it is not surprising that those things which exist externally come into a different perception according to the diverse constitution of the animals whom the substances affect.

This is even more clearly seen from the things which animals seek and which they flee. For example, ointment seems most pleasing to men, but intolerable to beetles and bees. And oil is certainly useful to men, but it kills wasps and bees if they are sprinkled with it. Likewise, sea water is unpleasant and poisonous to men as a drink, but to fish it is a most sweet drink. Pigs, moreover, more gladly immerse themselves in the foulest-smelling mud than in pure and clear water. Furthermore, some animals feed on herbs, others graze on shrubs, others in the woods...