On Breathing
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~7,580 words · 36 passages
Cite this work
- APAAristotle. (n.d.). On Breathing. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/aristotle/on-breathing
- MLAAristotle. "On Breathing." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/aristotle/on-breathing.
- ChicagoAristotle. On Breathing. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/aristotle/on-breathing.
What it is about
Why animals breathe. Aristotle's answer is that it serves to cool the heat of the heart.
Context and history
The theory is wrong — the role of the pulse and of air was not understood until Harvey — but the text is valuable: he discusses his predecessors one by one, making it one of our best sources on Presocratic physiology. Part of the Parva naturalia, the eight short works that continue the De anima by applying its theory to particular phenomena of the living body. They are transmitted as a group and read best together.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
A few of the previous physical philosophers have spoken of respiration. The reason, however, why it exists in animals they have either not declared or, when they have, their statements are not correct and show a comparative lack of acquaintance with the facts. Moreover they assert that all animals respire-which is untrue. Hence these points must first claim our attention, in order that we may not be thought to make unsubstantiated charges against authors no longer alive. First then, it is evident that all animals with lungs breathe, but in some cases breathing animals have a bloodless and spongy lung, and then there is less need for respiration. These animals can remain under water for a time, which relatively to their bodily strength, is considerable. All oviparous animals, e.g. the frog-tribe, have a spongy lung. Also hemydes and tortoises can remain for a long time immersed in water; for their lung, containing little blood, has not much heat. Hence, when once it is inflated, it itself, by means of its motion, produces a cooling effect and enables the animal to remain immersed for a long time. Suffocation, however, always ensues if the animal is forced to hold its breath for too long a time, for none of this class take in water in the way fishes do. On the other hand, animals which have the lung charged with blood have greater need of respiration on account of the amount of their heat, while none at all of the others which do not possess lungs breathe. Part 8← Back to Aristotle