But, when
animals are formed of blood less pure in composition, the bile
serves for the excretion of its impure residue. For the very meaning
of excrement is that it is the opposite of nutriment, and of bitter
that it is the opposite of sweet; and healthy blood is sweet. So
that it is evident that the bile, which is bitter, cannot have any
use, but must simply be a purifying excretion. It was therefore no bad
saying of old writers that the absence of a gall-bladder gave long
life. In so saying they had in mind deer and animals with solid hoofs.
For such have no gall-bladder and live long. But besides these there
are other animals that have no gall-bladder, though those old
writers had not noticed the fact, such as the camel and the dolphin;
and these also are, as it happens, long-lived. Seeing, indeed, that
the liver is not only useful, but a necessary and vital part in all
animals that have blood, it is but reasonable that on its character
should depend the length or the shortness of life. Nor less reasonable
is it that this organ and none other should have such an excretion
as the bile. For the heart, unable as it is to stand any violent
affection, would be utterly intolerant of the proximity of such a
fluid; and, as to the rest of the viscera, none excepting the liver
are necessary parts of an animal.
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