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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 120: CHAP. 119.—WHAT THINGS, BY MERELY TASTING OF THEM, ALLAY HUNGER AND THIRST.
By the Elder Pliny
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Classics of LiteratureHistory - AncientNature/Gardening/AnimalsScience - Biology

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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.

CHAP. 119.—WHAT THINGS, BY MERELY TASTING OF THEM, ALLAY HUNGER AND THIRST.

On the other hand, there are some substances which, tasted in small quantities only, appease hunger and thirst, and keep up the strength, such as butter, for instance, cheese made of mares’ milk, and liquorice. But the most pernicious thing of all, and in every station of life, is excess, and more especially excess in food; in fact, it is the most prudent plan to retrench everything that may be possibly productive of injury. Let us, however, now pass on to the other branches of Nature.

Summary.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, two thousand, two hundred, and seventy.

Roman authors quoted.—M. Varro,372 Hyginus,373 Scrofa,374 Saserna,375 Celsus Cornelius,376 Æmilius Macer,377 Virgil,378 Columella,379 Julius Aquila380 who wrote on the Tuscan art of Divination, Tarquitius381 who wrote on the same subject, Umbricius Melior382 who wrote on the same subject, Cato the Censor,383 Domitius Calvinus,384 Trogus,385 Melissus,386 Fabianus,387 Mucianus,388 Nigidius,389 Manilius,390 Oppius.391

Foreign authors quoted.—Aristotle,392 Democritus,393 Neoptolemus394 who wrote the Meliturgica, Aristomachus395 who wrote on the same subject, Philistus396 who wrote on the same subject, Nicander,397 Menecrates,398 Dionysius399 who translated Mago, Empedocles,400 Callimachus,401 King Attalus,402 Apollodorus403 who wrote on venomous animals, Hippocrates,404 Herophilus,405 Erasistratus,406 Asclepiades,407 Themison,408 Posidonius409 the Stoic, Menander410 of Priene and Menander411 of Heraclea, Euphronius412 of Athens, Theophrastus,413 Hesiod,414 King Philometor.415