15
What is known as rennet is found in all animals that have a multiple
stomach, and in the hare among animals whose stomach is single. In the
former the rennet neither occupies the large paunch, nor the honeycomb
bag, nor the terminal reed, but is found in the cavity which separates
this terminal one from the two first, namely in the so-called
manyplies. It is the thick character of their milk which causes all
these animals to have rennet; whereas in animals with a single stomach
the milk is thin, and consequently no rennet is formed. It is this
difference in thickness which makes the milk of horned animals
coagulate, while that of animals without horns does not. Rennet
forms in the hare because it feeds on herbage that has juice like that
of the fig; for juice of this kind coagulates the milk in the
stomach of the sucklings. Why it is in the manyplies that rennet is
formed in animals with multiple stomachs has been stated in the
Problems.
Book IV
1
THE account which has now been given of the viscera, the stomach,
and the other several parts holds equally good not only for the
oviparous quadrupeds, but also for such apodous animals as the
Serpents. These two classes of animals are indeed nearly akin, a
serpent resembling a lizard which has been lengthened out and deprived
of its feet.
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