The heart is of large size in the hare, the deer, the mouse, the
hyena, the ass, the leopard, the marten, and in pretty nearly all
other animals that either are manifestly timorous, or betray their
cowardice by their spitefulness.
What has been said of the heart as a whole is no less true of its
cavities and of the blood-vessels; these also if of large size being
cold. For just as a fire of equal size gives less heat in a large room
than in a small one, so also does the heat in a large cavity or a
large blood-vessel, that is in a large receptacle, have less effect
than in a small one. Moreover, all hot bodies are cooled by motions
external to themselves, and the more spacious the cavities and vessels
are, the greater the amount of spirit they contain, and the more
potent its action. Thus it is that no animal that has large cavities
in its heart, or large blood-vessels, is ever fat, the vessels being
indistinct and the cavities small in all or most fat animals.
The heart again is the only one of the viscera, and indeed the
only part of the body, that is unable to tolerate any serious
affection. This is but what might reasonably be expected. For, if
the primary or dominant part be diseased, there is nothing from
which the other parts which depend upon it can derive succour.
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