The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Natural History of Pliny, Volume V., by Pliny the Elder.

3105 The Greeks used sand-baths for the purpose of promoting the perspiration; the names given to them were παρόπτησις and φοίνιγμος.

3106 “Sal fit.” This expression is not correct, there being no such thing as made salt. It is only collected from a state of suspension or dissolution. Pliny, however, includes under the name “sal” many substances, which in reality are not salt. His “hammoniacum,” for instance, if identical with hydrochlorate of ammonia, can with justice be said to be made, being formed artificially from other substances.

3107 “Coacto humore vel siccato.” These two terms in reality imply the same process, by the medium of evaporation; the former perfect, the latter imperfect.

3108 The evaporation not being sufficiently strong to dry up the deeper parts.

3109 There is in reality nothing wonderful in this, considering that most lakes are constantly fed with the streams of rivers, which carry mineral salts along with them, and that the work of evaporation is always going on.

3111 Because it is necessarily purer than that found upon the sand.

3112 The description is not sufficiently clear to enable us to identify these lakes with certainty. Ajasson thinks that one of them may be the Lake of Badakandir in the Khanat of Bokhara; and the other the lake that lies between Ankhio and Akeha, in the west of the territory of Balkh, and near the Usbek Tartars.

3113 “Sale exæstuant.”

3114 In consequence of the intense heat.

3115 All these regions, Ajasson remarks, are covered with salt. An immense desert of salt extends to the north-east of Irak-Adjemi, and to the north of Kerman, between Tabaristan, western Khoracan, and Khohistan.

3116 Identified by Ajasson with the Herat and the Djihoun. He thinks that it is of some of the small affluents of this last that Pliny speaks.

3117 “Lapis specularis.”

3118 A “crumb” properly, in the Latin language.

3119 See B. vi. c. 32.

3120 More commonly known as Jupiter Hammon.

3121 See B. xii. c. 49, and B. xxiv. c. 28, for an account of gum resin ammoniac, a produce of the same locality. The substance here spoken of is considered by Beckmann to be nothing but common salt in an impure state. See his Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 398-9, where this passage is discussed at considerable length. Ajasson, on the other hand, considers it to be Hydrochlorate of ammonia, the Sal ammoniac of commerce. According to some accounts, it was originally made in the vicinity of the Temple of Jupiter Hammon, by burning camels’ dung.

3122 Called ἄμμος, in Greek.

3123 See B. xxxv. c. 52.

3124 Sal ammoniac crystallizes in octahedrons.

3125 “Intra specus suos.” On this passage, Beckmann says, “From what is said by Pliny it may with certainty be concluded that this salt was dug up from pits or mines in Africa.—Many kinds of rock-salt, taken from the mines of Wieliczka, experience the same change in the air; so that blocks which a labourer can easily carry in the mine, can scarcely be lifted by him after being for some time exposed to the air. The cause here is undoubtedly the same as that which makes many kinds of artificial salt to become moist and to acquire more weight.”—Vol. II. p. 399, Bohn’s Ed.

3126 According to modern notions, his reason is anything but evident.

3127 In Celtiberia. He alludes to the mountain of salt at Cardona, near Montserrat in Catalonia.

3128 Speaking generally, this is true; but soils which contain it in small quantities are fruitful.

3129 A similar method is still employed, Ajasson says, at the salt-mines near Innspruck in the Tyrol.

3130 Native bitumen; always to be found in greater or less quantities, in saliferous earths.

3131 The process of artificial evaporation.

3132 This would produce an impure alkaline salt. According to Townson, this practice still prevails in Transylvania and Moldavia.

3133 “The water, evaporating, would leave the salt behind, but mixed with charcoal, ashes, earth, and alkaline salts; consequently it must have been moist, or at any rate nauseous, if not refined by a new solution.”—Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 493. Bohn’s Ed.

3134 Not improbably a people of India so called, and mentioned in B. vi. c. 20.

3135 See B. ix. c. 42.

3136 “In laterculis.” Hardouin considers this to mean small earthen vessels or pipes.

3137 In c. 39 of this Book.

3138 “Melanthium.” See B. xx. c. 17.

3139 “Flos salis.” Further mentioned in c. 42.

3140 See B. iv. c. 17.

3141 St. Augustin mentions this marvellous kind of salt. De Civit. Dei, B. xxi. cc. 5, 7.

3142 As well as Centuripa.

3143 “Opsonium.”

3144 “Pulmentarii.”

3145 See c. 43 of this Book.

3146 This is consistent with modern experience.

3148 Literally, “salt money”—“argentum” being understood. The term was originally applied to the pay of the generals and military tribunes. Hence our word “salary.”

3149 Beginning at the Colline Gate.

3150 “In congiario.”

3151 Most probably “He cannot earn salt to his bread,” or something similar, like our saying, “He cannot earn salt to his porridge.” The two Greek proverbs given by Dalechamps do not appear to the purpose.

3152 “Mola salsa.”

3153 “Favillam.”

3154 “Schroder thinks that in what Pliny says of Flos Salis, he can find the martial sal-ammoniac flowers of our chemists, [the double chloride of ammonium and iron], or the so-called flores sales ammoniaci martiales.—It is certain that what Dioscorides and Pliny call flos salis, has never yet been defined. The most ingenious conjecture was that of Cordus, who thought that it might be Sperma ceti; but though I should prefer this opinion to that of Schroder, I must confess that, on the grounds adduced by Matthiali and Conrad Gesner, it has too much against it to be admitted as truth.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 193. Bohn’s Ed.

3155 Salt collected from the foam on the sea-shore.

3156 A sort of bitumen, probably.

3157 Medicines for relieving weariness. See B. xxiii. c. 45, and B. xxix. c. 13.

3158 “Smegmatis.”

3159 It was, probably, of an intermediate nature, between caviar and anchovy sauce.

3160 See B. xxxii, c. 53. It does not appear to have been identified.

3161 As to the identity of the Scomber, see B. ix. c. 19.

3162 See B. xix. c. 7.

3163 “Garum sociorum.”

3164 The present Straits of Gibraltar.

3165 In Gallia Narbonensis.

3166 Sillig reads “Delmatia” here.

3167 See B. ix. c. 74. The fry of larger fish, Cuvier says.

3168 Ajasson considers this to be an absurd derivation; and thinks it much more probable, that the name is from ἀ privative, and φύω “to beget;” it being a not uncommon notion that these small fish were produced spontaneously from mud and slime.

3169 The present Frejus, in the south of France.

3170 “Wolf.” Not the fish of that name, Hardouin says, mentioned in B. ix. c. 28.

3171 The festivals of Ceres. The devotees, though obliged to abstain from meat, were allowed the use of this garum, it would appear.

3172 Gesner proposes to read “non carêntibus,” “with scales”—fishes without scales being forbidden to the Jews by the Levitical Law. See Lev. c xi. ver. 10. It is, most probably, Pliny’s own mistake.

3173 See B. xxvii. c. 2.

3174 At the end of c. 42.

3175 He alludes to its decrepitation in flame.

3176 Pharnaces caused the body of his father Mithridates to be deposited in brine, in order to transmit it to Pompey.

3177 He uses the word “pterygia” here, as applied to the whole of the body—“totius corporis”—in its two distinct senses, a hangnail or excrescence on the fingers, and a web or film on the eyes.

3178 In c. 23, he has said much the same of cold water.

3179 “Sale et sole.”

3180 This passage would come more naturally after the succeeding one.

3181 See B. xxiii. c. 13.

3182 “Ita ut batuerentur ante.” From the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, where the expression Βαπτόμενοι εἰς ὄξος is used, it would appear that the proper word here is “baptizarentur;” or possibly, a lost Græco-Latin word, “bapterentur.” Littré suggests “hebetarentur,” “the part being first numbed” by the aid of a bandage.

3183 “Spuma salis.” Collected from the foam on the sea-shore.

3184 See Note 36, above, p. 507.

3185 Beckmann, who devotes several pages to a consideration of the “nitrum” of the ancients, considers it not to be our “nitre” or “saltpetre,” but a general name for impure alkaline salts. See his Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 490-503, Bohn’s Ed. Ajasson, without hesitation, pronounces it to be nitrate of potash, neither more or less than our saltpetre, and quotes a statement from Andreossy, that it is still to be found in great quantities at Mount Ptou-Ampihosem, near the city of Pihosem, called Nitria by St. Jerome.

3186 “Salt bursting from the earth.”

3188 See c. 40 of this Book. He is evidently speaking of a vegetable alkali here. See Beckmann, Vol. II. pp. 492-3, Bohn’s Ed.

3189 Beckmann thinks that these kinds of water were in reality only impure and not potable, from their nauseous taste, and that hence they were considered as nitrous. Nitrous water, he remarks, or water containing saltpetre, in all probability, does not exist. Vol. II. pp. 498-9. Bohn’s Edition.

3190 Or in other words, crystallization. Beckmann remarks that, in reference to alkaline water, this is undoubtedly true. Vol. II. p. 499.

3191 From the adjacent town of Chalastra, on the Thermæan Gulf. The site is probably occupied by the modern Kulakia.

3192 Carbonate of soda is found in the mineral waters of Seltzer and Carlsbad, and in the volcanic springs of Iceland, the Geysers more particularly.

3193 Ajasson remarks, that from this we may conclude that the fabrication of nitrate of potash, or saltpetre, was in its infancy. It is by no means improbable that the artificial nitrum, here mentioned by Pliny, really was artificial saltpetre, more or less impure; the native nitrum, on the other hand, being, as Beckmann suggests, a general term for impure alkaline mineral salts, in common with native saltpetre. Pliny’s account, however, is confused in the highest degree, and in some passages far from intelligible.

3194 Of a bituminous nature, probably. See c. 42 of this Book.

3195 See B. v. c. 40. An alkaline water, Beckmann thinks. See Vol. II, pp. 96-7. Bohn’s Ed.

3196 He may possibly mean bleaching the material before dyeing.

3197 See B. xxxvi. c. 65. This certainly goes far towards proving that under the name “nitrum,” alkaline salts were included.

3198 “Faciunt ex his vasa, necnon frequenter liquatum cum sulphure, coquentes in carbonibus.” This passage Beckmann pronounces to be one of the darkest parts in the history of nitrum. See Vol. II. p. 502. He is of opinion that not improbably the result here obtained would be, liver of sulphur, which when it cools is hard, but soon becomes moist when exposed to the air. Dalechamps, it would appear, explains the whole of this passage as applicable to glazing; but in such case, as Beckmann observes, the nitrum could serve only as a flux. Michaelis suggests that the vessels here mentioned, were cut, not for real use, but merely for ornament, in the same manner as they are still made, occasionally, from rock-salt.

3199 The mention of nitrum, sulphur, and charcoal, probably the three ingredients of gunpowder, in such close proximity, is somewhat curious.

3200 “Quæ” seems a preferable reading to “quos.”

3201 “Spuma nitri.” An accidental property, Beckmann says, of the same salt that has been previously called “Chalastricum,” “Halmyrax,” “Aphronitrum,” and “Agrion.” In his opinion, “the ancients were acquainted with no other than native nitrum, which they called artificial, only when it required a little more trouble and art to obtain it.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 502. Bohn’s Ed.

3202 “Froth of nitre.” Ajasson identifies this with hydro-carbonate of soda.

3203 Supposed by Hardouin to be derived from the Greek κόλικας, “round cakes;” owing to the peculiar form of the pieces of rock by which the aphronitrum was produced. The reading, however, is very doubtful. Sillig, from Photius, suggests that it should be “scolecas.”

3204 One proof, Beckmann thinks, that Soda is meant. See Vol. II. p. 491.

3205 “Whether Pliny means that the vessels were not burnt, but only baked in the sun, or that before they were filled, they were completely dried in the sun, has been determined by no commentator. To me the latter is probable.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 491.

3206 Beckmann thinks that this mode of adulteration, with lime, is an additional proof that the “nitrum” of our author was only soda. See Vol. II. p. 492.

3207 That, namely, of the lime. Quick-lime, certainly, would have a pungent taste, in comparison with that of soda, but not in comparison with that of saltpetre.

3208 Another proof, Beckmann thinks, that it was native soda, impregnated with common salt. Vol. II. p. 492.

3209 This would hardly apply to soda.

3210 Probably to promote its rising, as Beckmann observes, Vol. II. p. 496; a circumstance which goes a great way towards proving that “Soda” was included, at least, under the name of “nitrum.” Carbonate of soda is extensively used for this purpose at the present day.

3211 And to correct the acridity of the radishes, possibly. A somewhat analogous fact is mentioned by Drury, in his “Journal in Madagascar.” He says that the sourest tamarinds, “mixed with wood ashes, become sweet and eatable.” See p. 316.—We are not unaware that many look upon this work and its statements as a work of fiction.

3212 See B. xix. c. 26.

3213 Carbonate of soda is added to pickles and boiling vegetables for this purpose.

3214 Vegetable ashes, and tobacco-ashes in particular, have the same effect.

3215 See B. xxxv. c. 57.

3216 Viewed by the ancients as a poison, when taken warm; but erroneously, as we have more than once remarked.

3217 See B. xix. c. 15.

3218 Nitre balls are still given to the patient to suck, in cases of sore throat.

3219 See B. xii. c. 51.

3220 Beckmann considers that this statement throws some light on the obscure passage, commented on in Note 3198, p. 514. See Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 503. Bohn’s Ed.

3221 In B. ix. c. 69.

3222 No such distinction, of course, really exists; sponge being in reality a fibrous tissue formed by minute animals.

3223 “Goats,” literally.

3224 See B. ix. c. 69. He probably alludes to the semifluid thin coat of animal jelly which covers the sponge in its recent state, and is susceptible of a slight contraction on being touched.

3225 A fanciful notion, certainly.

3226 Hot water renders them greasy, so to say; an inconvenience which may be remedied by steeping them in an alkaline solution, or in urine.

3227 “Penicilli.”

3228 See B. ix. c. 69.

3229 See B. v. c. 28.

3230 An absurdity, of course.

3231 See end of B. ii.

3232 Called C. Cassius Severus Parmensis, according to some authorities. He was one of the murderers of Cæsar, and perished, the last of them by a violent end, about B.C. 30. He is supposed to have written tragedies, epigrams, and other works. See Horace, Epist. B. i. Ep. 4, l. 3.

3233 See end of B. vii.

3234 See end of B. ii.

3235 Cælius Antipater. See end of B. ii.

3236 See end of B. vii.

3237 See end of B. vii.

3238 See end of B. xviii.

3239 See end of B. iv.

3240 This personage is entirely unknown. It may possibly be a corruption for Soranus, a poet of that name (Q. Valerius Soranus) who flourished about 100 B.C. See also B. xxxii. c. 23.