and hence die, but in the water they take in a moderate amount. But

that should be a possible occurrence with land animals also; as

facts are, however, no land animal seems to be suffocated by excessive

respiration. Again, if all animals breathe, insects must do so also.

many of them seem to live though divided not merely into two, but into

several parts, e.g. the class called Scolopendra. But how can they,

when thus divided, breathe, and what is the organ they employ? The

main reason why these writers have not given a good account of these

facts is that they have no acquaintance with the internal organs,

and that they did not accept the doctrine that there is a final

cause for whatever Nature does. If they had asked for what purpose

respiration exists in animals, and had considered this with

reference to the organs, e.g. the gills and the lungs, they would have

discovered the reason more speedily.



10



Democritus, however, does teach that in the breathing animals

there is a certain result produced by respiration; he asserts that

it prevents the soul from being extruded from the body.

Nevertheless, he by no means asserts that it is for this purpose

that Nature so contrives it, for he, like the other physical

philosophers, altogether fails to attain to any such explanation.

His statement is that the soul and the hot element are identical,

being the primary forms among the spherical particles. Hence, when

these are being crushed together by the surrounding atmosphere

thrusting them out, respiration, according to his account, comes in to

succour them. For in the air there are many of those particles which

he calls mind and soul. Hence, when we breathe and the air enters,

these enter along with it, and by their action cancel the pressure,

thus preventing the expulsion of the soul which resides in the animal.

This explains why life and death are bound up with the taking in and