The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Natural History of Pliny, Vol III., by Pliny the Elder.

307 Ajasson renders this passage: “The effects are fatal when this organ, becoming displaced, absorbs the air.” The text is probably corrupt.

308 Varro, De Re Rust. B. ii. c. 4, says that he saw an instance of this in Arcadia.

309 This is not the case.

310 There is no similarity whatever between the spinal marrow and that which is found in the other bones.

311 The hare and the partridge, for instance.

312 There is considerable doubt what the ancients exactly meant by the “nervi;” and whether, in fact, they had any definite idea of “nerves,” in our acceptation of the word. Pliny here expresses the opinions entertained by Aristotle. “Tendons,” or “sinews,” would almost appear to be the proper translation of the word.

313 See B. xxviii. c. 41.

314 In allusion, probably, to hæmorrhoids, or piles.

315 See B. vii. c. 12.

316 Bears, dormice, serpents, &c.

317 The polypus and the chameleon.

318 See B. viii. cc. 51, 52.

319 Walking-sticks are still made of it.

320 As already mentioned, this is not the fact.

321 See B. ix. c. 43.

322 It is not improbable that, under this name, some kind of large vampire bat was meant; but, as Pliny says, it is impossible to arrive at any certain knowledge on the subject. The best account given of the strix is that in Ovid’s Fasti, B. vi. The name was given opprobriously to supposed witches, the “foul and midnight hags” of Shakspeare.

323 This assertion is borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 14.

325 See B. xxviii. c. 12. Poppæa Sabina, first the mistress, then the wife, of the Emperor Nero.

326 “Spuma.” He calls it so, because it floats on the surface. See B. xxviii. c. 35. The “acor,” or acrid liquid, which he speaks of, is, no doubt, butter-milk.

328 Nismes, in France. Hardouin speaks of goats’-milk cheeses made in its neighbourhood, and known as fromages de Baux.

329 Probably the modern Losere and Gevaudan. See B. iv. c. 19.

330 For the Docleatæ, see B. iii. c. 26.

331 For the Centrones, see B. iii. c. 24. He perhaps refers to the modern fromage de Passi.

332 The modern Marquisat de Cive, which still produces excellent cheese.

333 See B. xiv. c. 8.

334 And more especially at Salona in Bithynia.

335 “Etiam ubi non videtur major.” This is probably corrupt.

336 He wrote a poem, in which the principal Latin dramatists are enumerated, in the order of merit. A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 24, has preserved a portion of it.

338 This seems to be the meaning of “imbricatus.”

339 Though wounds in the knee are highly dangerous, death does not necessarily ensue.

340 Of another person, who had thus forfeited his bail. It was the custom to touch the ear of the attesting witness.

341 The goddess of retribution. See B. xxviii. c. 5, where he makes further mention of her statue in the Capitol.

342 The frog is, in some measure, an exception.

343 Or “flat-foot,” “splay-foot,” “large-foot,” and “club-footed.”

344 Words meaning “knock-kneed,” “bow-legged,” and “wry-legged.”

348 Supposed to be the Hirundo apus of Linnæus. Of the “oce” nothing is known; indeed, the reading is very doubtful.

350 He evidently means insects of the centipede class. See B. xxix. c. 39.

352 Such as circumcision among the Jews.

353 See B. xxxv. c. 46.

354 Probably the buzzard; from this story also called the “triorchis.”

355 Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 9.

356 See B. ix. c. 52.

359 See c. 65 of the present Book.

360 Not the dumb son mentioned by Herodotus, who saved his father’s life at the taking of Sardes.

361 Like the whispering gallery of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

362 “Non aliter quam oculis.” On this, few will be found to agree with Pliny.

363 And not to “conceal” them, according to the opinion of some modern politicians.

364 But they are borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 9.

365 See B. xii. c. 7.

367 See B. xxix. c. 23.

368 See c. 21 of the present Book.

372 See end of B. ii.

373 See end of B. ii.

374 C. Tremellius Scrofa, a friend of M. Varro, and one of the early writers on agriculture.

375 See end of B. x.

376 See end of B. vii.

377 See end of B. ix.

378 See end of B. vii.

379 See end of B. viii.

380 See end of B. ii.

381 See end of B. ii.

382 See end of B. x.

383 See end of B. iii.

384 Nothing seems to be known of this writer.

385 See end of B. vii.

386 See end of B. vii.

387 See end of B. ii.

388 See end of B. ii.

389 See end of B. vi.

390 See end of B. x.

391 C. Oppius, one of the most intimate friends of Julius Cæsar, for whom, with Balbus, he acted in Spain. Of his numerous biographical and historical works, none have survived to our time.

392 See end of B. ii.

393 See end of B. ii.

394 Probably Neoptolemus of Paros, who wrote a book of Epigrams, a treatise on Languages, and other works.

395 Of Soli, an observer of the habits of bees. His portrait is said still to exist, on a cornelian, attentively observing a swarm of bees. He wrote upon bees, honey, and the art of mixing wines.

396 Probably a different writer from the one mentioned at the end of B. viii.; nothing seems to be known of him.

397 See end of B. viii.

398 See end of B. viii.

399 See end of B. x.

400 A philosopher of Agrigentum, and disciple of Pythagoras. He is said to have perished in the crater of Mount Etna. He wrote numerous works, of which only some fragments exist.

401 See end of B. iv.

402 Apparently the same as the King Philometor, mentioned below. See end of B. viii.

403 Of this writer nothing seems to be known.

404 See end of B. vii.

405 Of Chalcedon, one of the most famous physicians of antiquity. He was physician to Phalaris, the tyrant of Sicily, and is said to have dissected criminals alive. He was the first that paid particular attention to the nervous system.

406 A native of Iulis, in Cos, or else Ceos, grandson of Aristotle, and disciple of Theophrastus. He acquired great reputation as a physician, at the court of Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria, where he discovered the supposed disease of Prince Antiochus, who had fallen in love with his step-mother, Stratonice. Of his numerous medical works, only the titles and a few fragments exist.

407 See end of B. vii.

408 A physician of Laodicæa, founder of the school of the Methodici. He was a pupil of Asclepiades, and died about B.C. 43. Of his medical works only a few fragments survive.

409 See end of B. ii.

410 See end of B. viii.

411 See end of B. viii.

412 See end of B. viii.

413 See end of B. iii.

414 See end of B. vii.

415 See King Attalus, above.

416 “Animâ.” The notion that plants are possessed of a soul or spirit, is derived from the Greek philosophers, who attributed to them intellect also, and sense.

417 Vitruvius mentions the people of Gaul, Hispania, Lusitania, and Aquitania, as living in his day in dwellings covered with oak shingles, or with straw.

418 See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xi. c. 26.

419 Desfontaines remarks, that we may still trace vestiges of this custom in the fine trees that grow near church porches, and in church-yards. Of course, his remark will apply to France more particularly.

420 It is doubtful whether the æsculus of the Romans was the same as the bay-oak, the holm-oak, or the beech. See B. xvi. c. 4.

421 See further on this subject in Phædrus’s Fables, B. iii. f. 17.

422 Reckoning the promulsis, antecæna, or gustatio, not as a course, but only a prelude, the bellaria, or dessert, at the Roman banquets, formed the second course, or mensa. It consisted of fruits uncooked, sweetmeats, and pastry.

423 He alludes to the pursuit of the elephant, for the purpose of obtaining ivory, which was extensively used in his day, in making the statues of the divinities.

424 A sarcastic antithesis. And yet Dalechamps would read “hominum” instead of “numinum”!

425 Præmissa. The exact meaning of this word does not appear. Though all the MSS. agree in it, it is probably a corrupt reading. Plutarch, in his Life of Camillus, says that the wine of Italy was first introduced in Gaul by Aruns, the Etruscan.

426 The Platanus orientalis of Linnæus. It received its name from the Greek πλάτος, “breadth,” by reason of its wide-spreading branches.

427 For further mention of this island, now Tremiti, see B. iii. c. 30.

428 He alludes, probably, to the “vectigal solarium,” a sort of ground-rent which the tributary nations paid to the Roman treasury. Virgil and Homer speak of the shade of the plane-tree, as a pleasant resort for festive parties.

429 It is not improbable that Pliny, in copying from Theophrastus, has here committed an error. That author, B. ix. c. 7, says: ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ Ἀδρίᾳ πλάτανον οὔ φασιν εἶναι, πλὴν περὶ τὸ Διομήδους ἱερόν· σπανίαν δὲ καὶ ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ πάσῃ. “They say that in Adria there are no plane-trees, except about the temple of Diomedes: and that they are extremely rare in Italy.” Pliny, probably, when his secretary was reading to him, mistook the word σπανίαν, “rare,” for Ἱσπανίᾳ “in Spain.”

430 It has been remarked that, in reality, this process would only tend to impede its growth. Macrobius tells us, that Hortensius was guilty of this singular folly.

431 Situate near the sea-shore. It was here that Plato taught. See B. xxxi. c. 3.

433 It is supposed that he here alludes sarcastically to the extreme corpulence of Caligula.

434 M. Fée, the learned editor of the botanical books in Ajasson’s translation, remarks, that this cannot have been the Platanus of the botanists, and that there is no tree of Europe, which does not lose its leaves, that at all resembles it.

435 The tendency, namely, to lose their leaves.

436 Grandson of Asinius Pollio. Tacitus tells us, that he was one of those whom Piso requested to undertake his defence, when charged with having poisoned Germanicus; but he declined the office.

437 Or “ground plane-trees.” It is by no means uncommon to see dwarf varieties of the larger trees, which are thus reduced to the dimensions of mere shrubs.

438 C. Matius Calvena, the friend of Julius and Augustus Cæsar, as also of Cicero. He is supposed to have translated the Iliad into Latin verse, and to have written a work on cookery.

439 See B. xxiii. c. 55. Fée remarks, that the ancients confounded the citron with the orange-tree.

440 Fée remarks, that this is not the case. The arbute is described in B. xv. c. 28.

441 In the time of Plutarch, it had begun to be somewhat more used. It makes one of the very finest preserves.

442 At the present day, it is cultivated all over India, in China, South America, and the southern parts of Europe. Fée says, that they grow even in the open air in the gardens of Malmaison.

443 B. xi. c. 115. Virgil says the same, Georg. B. ii. ll. 134, 135. Theophrastus seems to say, that it was the outer rind that was so used.

444 See B. vi. c. 20.

445 See B. vii. c. 2. The tree to which he alludes is unknown.

446 Georg. B. ii. ll. 116, 117.

447 B. iii. c. 97. There is little doubt that, under the general name of “ebony,” the wood of many kinds of trees was, and is still, imported into the western world, so that both Herodotus and Virgil may have been correct in representing ebony as the product of both India and Æthiopia.

448 Herodotus says two hundred.

449 In Italy, whither he had retired from the hostile attacks of his fellow-citizens. It is supposed by Le Vayer and others, that Pliny is wrong in his assertion, that Herodotus wrote to this effect while at Thurii; though Dr. Schmitz is inclined to be of opinion that he is right in his statement.

452 Fée remarks, that the words of Pliny do not afford us any means of judging precisely what tree it was that he understood by the name of ebony. He borrows his account mainly from Theophrastus.

453 It is not known to what tree he alludes.

454 This account of the Ficus Indica, or religiosa, known to us as the banian-tree, is borrowed entirely from Theophrastus. Fée remarks, however, that he is wrong in some of his statements, for that the leaves are not crescent-shaped, but oblong and pointed, and that the fruit has not a pleasant flavour, and is only eaten by the birds.

455 See B. vi. c. 23.

456 Sprengel and Bauhin are of opinion that the banana is the tree meant here; Dodonæus thinks that it is the pomegranate. Thevet says that the pala is the paquovera of India, the fruit of which is called pacona. The account is borrowed from Theophrastus.