CHAP. 90. (38.)—ANIMALS, THE BLOOD OF WHICH COAGULATES
WITH THE GREATEST RAPIDITY: OTHER ANIMALS, THE BLOOD
OF WHICH DOES NOT COAGULATE. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE THE
THICKEST BLOOD: THOSE THE BLOOD OF WHICH IS THE THINNEST: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BLOOD.
Those animals in which the blood is more abundant and of
an unctuous nature, are irascible; it is darker in males than
in females, and in the young than in the aged: the blood of the
lower extremities is the thickest. There is great vitality, too,
in the blood, and when it is discharged from the body, it
carries the life with it: it is not sensible, however, of touch.
Those animals in which the blood is the thickest are the most
courageous, and those in which it is the thinnest the most
intelligent; while those, again, which have little or no blood are
the most timorous of all. The blood of the bull coagulates and
hardens the most speedily of all, and hence it is so particu-
larly deadly [Note] when drunk. On the other hand, the blood of
the wild boar, the stag, the roe-buck, and oxen of all kinds,
does not coagulate. Blood is of the richest quality in the ass,
and the poorest in man. Those animals which have more than
four feet have no blood. In animals which are very fat, the
blood is less abundant than in others, being soaked up by the
fat. Man is the only creature from which the blood flows at
the nostrils; some persons bleed at one nostril only, some at
both, while others again void blood by the lower [Note] parts.
Many persons discharge blood from the mouth at stated periods,
such, for instance, as Macrinus Viscus, lately, a man of prætorian dignity, and Volusius Saturninus, [Note] the Prefect of the
City, who every year did the same, and yet lived to beyond
ninety. The blood is the only substance in the body that is
sensible of any temporary increase, for a larger quantity will
come from the victims if they happen to have drunk just
before they are sacrificed.