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The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.
Of all the terrestrial animals, man is the only biped: he is also the only one that has a throat, and shoulders, or “humeri,” parts in other animals known by the name of “armi.” Man, too, is the only animal that has the “ulna,” or elbow. Those animals which are provided with hands, have flesh only on the interior of them, the outer part consisting of sinews and skin.