The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)

Chapter 152: CHAP. 49.—THE SEA-CALF; BEAVERS; LIZARDS.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.

CHAP. 49.—THE SEA-CALF; BEAVERS; LIZARDS.

The sea-calf, too, lives equally in the sea and on land, being possessed of the same degree of intelligence as the beaver. It vomits forth its gall, which is useful for many purposes in medicine; also the rennet,1807 which serves as a remedy in epilepsy; for it is well aware that it is hunted for these substances. Theophrastus informs us, that lizards 1808 also cast their skins like the serpent, and instantly devour them, thus depriving us of a powerful remedy for epilepsy; he says, too, that the bite of the lizard is fatal in Greece, but harmless in Italy.1809