Aristotle's Problems

...if only this is the cause, as in the dog and the goat; and if there is anything that is easily moved on both sides: or unless this be so, it is for other reasons for others.

Macrobius.

Why are variegated horses almost all not well-bred, while many of the bay are well-bred? Although variegation is a defect it displays, it renders them well-bred; or because that which is small is of no great importance and opposes less.

Why does Homer call [someone] poliocrataphus [gray-templed]? Whether he wishes to signify the whole head in the poetic manner by a part, or whether for some reason he assigns gray hairs especially to this part of the head, and differently; and this divine poet does so prudently, as in other things. For the anterior part of the head is more humid than the occiput, and from this, grayness is accustomed to begin frequently; and if he says the anterior part is more humid, why does it suffer baldness, which does not happen except by dryness? A timely objection, but the reason is not obscure: for nature made the prior parts of the head thinner so that whatever of superfluity or smoke there was around the brain might vanish through more passages, whence we see in the dry deceased...

Why do foals lie down more than old horses? Truly, because the young both rise and lie down more easily than the elder; moreover, the cause is that for the latter there is a great burden of the body, but for the former, a small one: the limbs in horses do not grow out, but in foals they increase, and accordingly the body is most agile in the younger ones.

Why does the redundancy of horses smell more heavy when they are exercised? Is it because it is strongly capable of being voided under exercise, just as sweat emanating outwards, so pernicious humors—being thrust down to the lower parts by some medicament—smell heavily? Or because more things are then brought forth than are concocted? Yet those things which are unconcocted smell most heavily, and they waste away more quickly.

Why do the horse and the donkey urinate after coitus? Truly, on account of the labor; for in those laboring, the humor flows down into the bladder. Moreover, the donkey and the horse labor on account of their size, but the ox on account of the straining, for straining produces labor.

Why do the donkey and the horse indeed urinate out semen, but the ox by no means? Truly, because from bulls it is ejaculated from a distance on account of their power, but those others emit at close range, for they emit and withdraw at the same time.

Why does hair arise from scars in horses and donkeys, but not in humans? Truly, because in other animals the skin is a part of the flesh, but in humans, it seems to be like a thickness of the flesh; for it appears to become more solid to them from the cooled surface, just as the crust of kneaded flour, which is called crusta in Greek. Since, therefore, that flour is also contracted, so too in man that which is called skin is flesh. Therefore, when a human limb is wounded or rubbed, it happens that the flesh is also corrupted and thickened. Furthermore, when the surface of the flesh is changed, the impacts grow there in the same way as the original growth was; and since it is altered, it will not be strange that hair is not produced from it, just as it is not from those things called alopecia, for these are corruptions and alterations of the surface of the flesh. But in pack animals, when wounded and healed, the parts of the body which had been sick are filled up again; which from the beginning were weaker; but since the skin is a part of them, it also produces hairs, which come out white because the skin was weaker from the beginning; yet it is established that white hair is weaker.

Why, if burnt and rubbed barley is sprinkled upon the ulcers of horses, do the scars not grow back white but very similar to the former ones? If they were black, if yellow, or of whatever kind, such they arise. Truly, corruption whitened the nourishment and the principle from which the sprout is produced; but the corrupted scar itself moistens and thins the skin; but burnt barley, since it is dry, restores this, and thence makes the skin similar to the prior skin, and the skin having been made similar, the growth will also be similar; for the skin itself is the cause of the color of the sprout.

Why are horses suffocated in rivers through the anus? Truly, because they have a wide intestine from the beginning; this can be clearly seen because when going or even lightly washing they have an open anus, wide and penetrating into the belly, which being pulled apart, the afflicted artery suffocates them.

Why do they pursue mares and female donkeys with prods when they have been covered? Truly, because they suddenly urinate, and accordingly it happens so that they may urinate out the semen.

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THE FOURTH SECTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS, TRANSLATED BY GIORGIO VALLA.

Large ornamental woodcut initial 'V' featuring a classical figure (possibly a scholar or deity) holding a staff or instrument, surrounded by foliage and architectural elements.

Why did Homer call [men] poliocrataphus, that is, gray at the temples? Because grayness arises from here for the most part, since the foremost parts of the head are more humid than the posterior parts, and far more phlegmatic; the solution is from the temperament.

Why, however, do the foreheads go bald? Because they have soft and open vents. When, therefore, the nourishment for the hair fails from natural dryness, it easily falls from those places, being by no means firmly held, just as in the posterior parts, which are both drier and denser; and baldness is produced from dryness. Wherefore also those who have curly hair—as they are drier and full of wind in their heads—indeed go bald more quickly, but they turn gray later. [If] pituita were around the brain in others, indeed sleep is from humidity, just as infants indicate, who are humid and sleepy, and abounding in superfluities and humid passions, as well as those full of wine and frequently washed. They are also more fluid in their superfluities, I say, through the nose and mouth and eyes; but those who have long hair, humidity is innate to their heads, and accordingly they are subject to the opposites; therefore they go bald either late or never at all. Furthermore, they also go bald through the propagation of the race.