Man is the only
sanguineous animal in which this takes place. Man, again, has more
sutures in his skull than any other animal, and the male more than the
female. The explanation is again to be found in the greater size of
the brain, which demands free ventilation, proportionate to its
bulk. For if the brain be either too fluid or too solid, it will not
perform its office, but in the one case will freeze the blood, and
in the other will not cool it at all; and thus will cause disease,
madness, and death. For the cardiac heat and the centre of life is
most delicate in its sympathies, and is immediately sensitive to the
slightest change or affection of the blood on the outer surface of the
brain.
The fluids which are present in the animal body at the time of birth
have now nearly all been considered. Amongst those that appear only at
a later period are the residua of the food, which include the deposits
of the belly and also those of the bladder. Besides these there is the
semen and the milk, one or the other of which makes its appearance
in appropriate animals. Of these fluids the excremental residua of the
food may be suitably discussed by themselves, when we come to
examine and consider the subject of nutrition. Then will be the time
to explain in what animals they are found, and what are the reasons
for their presence.
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