2174 See end of the present Book.

2175 Properly meaning “a cluster of grapes.”

2176 Ajasson remarks that there is a considerable degree of truth in this assertion. He gives a long list of French works on the subject.

2177 This superstition still exists among the lower classes of this country, with reference to the beneficial effects of stroking neck diseases with the hand of a man who has been hanged.

2178 Made of “spartum.” See B. xix. cc. 6, 7.

2179 Of which the Persian Magi were the most noted professors.

2180 The “constat” here, whether it belongs to the magicians, or to Pliny himself, is highly amusing, as Ajasson remarks.

2181 Sillig appears to be right in his conjecture that the “vel” here should be omitted.

2182 See B. xv. c. 5.

2183 “Ceroma.” A mixture of oil and wax.

2184 Properly, “poppy juice.”

2185 Or “clara lectio,” “reading aloud,” as Celsus calls it, recommending it for persons of slow digestion.

2186 “Gestatio.” Exercise on horseback, in a carriage drawn by horses, or in a litter. See B. xxvi. c. 7.

2187 See B. xxxi. c. 33. A sea voyage, to Madeira, for instance, is still recommended for consumptive patients.

2188 Change of locality is still recommended for diseases of the spleen, as they are called.

2189 “Strigilium.”

2190 Except monkeys and some domesticated animals, Ajasson remarks.

2191 “Non prandentium.”

2192 Callistenes the physician is the person supposed to be alluded to. Lucullus did not seem to be of opinion that a man “must be a fool or a physician at forty.”

2193 “Ut in quâ homo alius exsiliret ex homine.” The true meaning of this it seems impossible, with certainty, to ascertain: though a more indelicate one than that give might be easily suggested.

2194 On the contrary, some authorities say it is apt to cause dimness of sight.

2195 See Ovid, Met. ix. 273, et seq.

2196 Much more probably, because they were considered to be significant of anything but seriousness and attention.

2197 Exemplified in the case of the Egyptians, Herodotus says.

2198 The remedy would seem to be worse than the evil.

2199 See end of B. vii.

2200 In B. viii. c. 58.

2201 A knot tied very hard, and in which no ends were to be seen.

2202 This excretion was, till lately, thought of great importance, as indicative of the health of the patient.

2203 From the Greek πτύω, “to spit.”

2204 “Argema.”

2205 Who had to use lant, or stale urine, in their business.

2206 At a future period we shall have to discuss the identity of the “nitrum” of Pliny. See B. xxxi. c. 46.

2207 This was also one of the Pythagorean precepts.

2208 Works and Days, l. 727, et seq.

2209 The use of the word “prodidere” shows that treatises had been written on these abominable subjects. Laïs, Elephantis, and Salpe were probably the “meretrices” to whom he here alludes. See c. 23, and the end of this Book.

2210 There is probably no foundation for this assertion.

2211 “Rana.” He means the “rubeta” probably, or “bramble-frog,” so often mentioned by him. See Note 84, p. 290.

2212 “Salivam.”

2213 See B. xx. c. 2.

2214 See B. xxx. c. 10. Latreille has written a very able treatise on the Buprestis of the ancients, and considers it to belong to the family of Cantharides. Annales du Museum d’histoire Naturelle, Vol. xix. p. 129, et seq.

2215 Convolvulus doryenium; see B. xxi. c. 105, and B. xxiii. c. 18.

2216 “Œsypum.” See B. xxx. c. 23.

2217 Possibly the Epic writer of that name, mentioned by Ovid, Seneca, Quintilian, and Velleius Paterculus.

2218 “Fascia.” Either a stomacher, or a fillet for the head.

2219 The mention of lightning here, Hardouin seems to look upon as an interpolation.

2220 In B. vii. c. 13.

2221 Columella describes this practice in verse, in B. x., and in B. xi. c. 3. Ælian also mentions it.

2222 Sec B. vii. c. 13. Tacitus tells the same wonderful story.

2223 See the end of this Book.

2224 See B. vii. c. 13.

2225 See B. vii. c. 13.

2226 Pliny has omitted the milk of the camel, which, according to Tavernier, is an excellent cure for dropsy.

2227 See B. viii. c. 44.

2228 One peculiarity not mentioned by Pliny, is, that its skin, like that of the sea-calf, was said to be proof against the effects of lightning.

2229 In B. viii. c. 44.

2230 “Glaucomata.” Littré considers, on the authority of M. Sichel, that “Glaucoma” and “suffusio” are different names for the same disease—cataract.

2231 See B. xxxvi. c. 27.

2232 “Spinæ” seems a preferable reading to “ruinæ,” adopted by Sillig.

2233 “Nodum Atlantion.” From the Greek ἄτλας, “much enduring,” Julius Pollux says, because it was fitted for supporting burdens. The “hinc”—“hence,” of Pliny here appears to be a non sequitur.

2234 We shall have occasion to make enquiry as to the identity of the “alumen” of Pliny on a future occasion.

2235 “Vanas species.”

2236 See B. xviii. c. 14.

2237 “Pila.”

2238 Identified by Ajasson with the chamses, or common crocodile of the Nile.

2239 See B. viii. c. 38. Identified by Ajasson with the souchos of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. It is equally amphibious with the other; and the account of its habits given by Pliny is probably founded on the fact that Upper Egypt, which it inhabits, is covered with a more aromatic vegetation than the other parts of that country.

2240 See B. xii. c. 51.

2241 See B. xviii. c. 17.

2242 It is a timid animal, but Pliny’s authorities have exaggerated its timidity.

2243 This change of colour is in reality owing to change of locality.

2244 A. Gellius tells the same story, B. x. c. 12.

2245 And therefore harmless.

2246 See B. xxii. c. 21.

2247 See B. viii. c. 51. Flies and gnats are, in reality, its food.

2248 One of the few pieces of wit in which Pliny is found to indulge.

2249 See B. viii. c. 38. Probably the Lacerta ouaran of Cuvier.

2250 See B. xxvi. c. 62.

2251 In B. viii. c. 40.

2252 See B. viii. c. 57.

2253 Except, of course, when the mother is in a state of disease.

2254 See B. xi. c. 96. Dalechamps remarks that Pliny is in error here: this name being properly given to infants which have been put to the breast too soon after child-birth. And so it would appear from the context.

2255 The “biestings.”

2256 Amalthæa.

2257 Dioscorides says “river pebbles.”

2258 In B. xxv. c. 53.

2259 From the Greek σχιστὸν, “divided” milk, or “curds.”

2260 See B. xxi c. 105.

2261 He perhaps means a sulphate, and not sulphur, which is harmless.

2262 In B. xi. c. 97.

2263 From the Greek σαπρὸν, “rotten” cheese.

2264 Like our cream cheese, or new milk cheese, probably.

2265 The people of Germany and Scythia, for instance.

2266 In this passage also it is generally supposed that he refers to the nomadic life of barbarous nations, in which multitudes of sheep and cattle constituted the chief wealth. It is, however, not improbable that he means to say that among the Romans it was only the wealthy who could afford to use it.

2267 Βούτυρον, “cow cheese.”

2268 Qy. whether for “aquæ,” “water,” we should not read “acidi” here, “sour milk,” as at the beginning of the next Chapter? Beckmann suggests “aceti,” “vinegar.”—Hist. Inv. I. 505, Bohn’s Ed.

2269 Beckmann says on this passage, “What Pliny says respecting oxygala is attended with difficulties: and I am fully persuaded that his words are corrupted, though I find no variations marked in MSS. by which this conjecture can be supported.”—Hist. Inv. I. 505. He suggests another arrangement of the whole passage, but without improving it, for the difficulty would appear to be totally imaginary; as it is quite clear that by “oxygala,” or “sour milk,” Pliny means the thickest part of the curd, which is first removed and then salted, forming probably a sort of cream cheese. Though his meaning is clear, he may very possibly give an erroneous description of the process.

2270 The remark of Holland on this passage is curious—“Some would amend this place, and for ‘magis,’ ‘more,’ put ‘minus,’ ‘less,’ in a contrary sense; but I suppose he writeth in regard of barbarous people, who make more account of such ranke butyr; like as the uncivile Irish in these daies.”

2271 He has forgotten to do so, however.

2272 From the Latin “axis,” an “axle,” and “ungo,” “to anoint.”

2273 Hence it was a notion in the sixteenth century, that pitch and hogs’ lard is a cure for syphilis by promoting salivation.

2274 “Farina salsamentariæ testæ.”

2275 See B. xxxvi. c. 27.

2276 “Sebum”—Suet or tallow.

2277 Or Flamen Dialis. Festus gives another reason: lest the Flamen should travel to a distance, and so neglect his duties.

2278 The “Equus October,” sacrificed to Mars on the Campus Martius in October. This sacrifice was attended with some very ridiculous ceremonies.

2279 This, as already observed, was probably a fallacy.

2280 See B. iv. c. 6.

2281 His meaning is, that the excitement produced by religious feeling neutralizes that antipathy which, under ordinary circumstances, is manifested towards the system by bull’s blood.

2282 See B. xxxiii. c. 6.

2283 See B. viii. c. 50.

2284 In B. viii. c. 50.

2285 Or “hundred skins.” Called the mirefeuillet in French.

2286 In B. viii. c. 50.

2287 See B. xxiv. c. 91.

2288 See B. xx. c. 63.

2289 The Anthemis pyrethrum of Linnæus, Spanish camomile or pellitory.

2290 Possibly the Musmon of B. viii. c. 49. See also B. xxx. c. 52.

2291 See B. xxiii. cc. 13, 14.

2292 See B. xx. c. 67.

2293 See B. viii. c. 76.

2294 In B. viii. c. 76.

2295 A remedy of which H. Cloquet highly approves, on chemical grounds.

2296 Cloquet says that the application would be useless.

2297 In B. viii. c. 34.

2298 Cloquet and Ajasson admit the truth of this statement: the latter suggests that it may be owing to electricity.

2299 It is no longer reckoned among the poisons.

2300 Juice of carpathum, a substance which does not appear to have been identified; but supposed by Bruce to have been a gum called sassa, with which aloes are adulterated in Abyssinia, a thing that Galen tells us was done with the carpathum of the ancients. The sea-hare is the Aplysia depilans of Gmelin. It is not poisonous. See B. ix. c. 72, and B. xxxii. c. 3.

2301 A composite poison, probably, the ingredients of which are now unknown.

2302 See Chap. 21 of this Book.

2303 See B. xx. c. 53.

2304 See B. xi. c. 96.

2305 On the contrary, cows’ biestings are highly thought of in some parts of England; and a very delicate dish is made of them, baked.

2306 “Onager.”

2307 See B. viii. c. 16, and B. xvi. c. 9.

2308 See B. viii. c. 15.

2309 See B. xxv. c. 107, and B. xxvi. c. 75.

2310 See B. xxiii. cc. 13, 14.

2311 “Toxica”—properly, those poisons in which the barbarous nations dipped their arrows.

2312 See B. xxii. c. 21.

2313 Or, sting-ray.

2314 See B. xxix. c. 16.

2315 This substance still maintains its reputation, as preservative of the hair.

2316 See B. xii. c. 37, and B. xxvi. c. 30.

2317 See B. xxii. c. 30.

2318 See B. xxv. c. 67.

2319 If they are occasioned by irritation, Ajasson thinks that Pliny’s remedy may be of some utility.

2320 A cosmetic for “beautifying the eye-brows.”

2321 “Collyria.”

2322 This is the translation suggested by Dalechamps for “lumbulis.”

2323 “Seers by night.”

2324 “Sanie.”

2325 See B. xiv. c. 4.

2326 See B. xx. c. 75.

2327 See B. xxvi. c. 31.

2328 See B. xxi. c. 105.

2329 See B. viii. c. 66.

2330 See B. xi. c. 70. Ajasson remarks that this bone is only found in animals that have undergone much fatigue, and that it results from the consolidation of certain tendinous fibres which form the ligament of the heart.

2331 “Capitum visus” seems to be a more probable reading than “capitum usus” given by Sillig. Be it what it may, the meaning of the passage is doubtful.