CHAP. 74.—THE GALL; WHERE SITUATE, AND IN WHAT ANIMALS
IT IS DOUBLE. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO GALL, AND OTHERS
IN WHICH IT IS NOT SITUATE IN THE LIVER.
In the liver is the gall, which, however, does not exist in
every animal. At Chalcis, in Eubœa, none of the cattle have
it, while in the cattle of the Isle of Naxos, it is of extraordinary size, and double, so that to a stranger either of these facts
would appear as good as a prodigy. The horse, the mule, the
ass, the stag, the roe-buck, the wild boar, the camel, and the
dolphin have no gall, but some kinds of rats and mice have it.
Some few men are without it, and such persons enjoy robust
health and a long life. There are some authors who say that
the gall exists in the horse, not in the liver, but in the paunch,
and that in the stag it is situate either in the tail or the
intestines; and that hence it is, that those parts are so bitter
that dogs will not touch them. The gall, in fact, is nothing
else but the worst parts of the blood purged off, and for this
reason it is that it is so bitter: at all events, it is a well-known
fact, that no animal has a liver unless it has blood as well.
The liver receives the blood from the heart, to which it is
united, and then disperses it in the veins.