2925 The wines of Surrentum and Stata were Campanian wines.
2926 “Volgo.”
2927 “Sacco.” A strainer of linen cloth. See B. xiv. c. 28, and B. xix. c. 19. While it diminished the strength, however, it was considered to injure the flavour.
2928 In that case, Fée says, they would differ but little from the wines of the present day. See B. xiv. c. 25.
2929 See B. xiv. c. 24.
2930 See B. xiv. cc. 9, 10.
2931 “Sapa.”
2932 See B. xiv. c. 25.
2933 Surrentine, Alban, Falernian, &c.
2934 The colour of Tent and Burgundy.
2935 The colour of Port.
2936 See B. xiv. c. 25.
2937 See B. xiv. cc. 3, 4.
2938 See B. xiv. c. 4: Vol. III. p. 227.
2939 “Tremore nervorum;” perhaps “nervousness.”
2940 See B. xi. c. 71. There is little doubt that generous wine promotes the rapid circulation of the blood.
2941 In B. xiv. cc. 18, 19, 20.
2942 In accordance with the suggestion of Sillig, we insert “sunt quæ,” otherwise the passage is defective.
2943 This would be a vigorous liquor, Fée thinks, and a good tonic; similar, in fact, to the modern antiscorbutic wines.
2944 Fée queries whether this was made from the fermented berries, or from an infusion of them in wine. In the former case it would bear some slight resemblance to our gin.
2945 “Apsinthites.” See B. xiv. c. 19.
2946 See B. xiii. c. 9.
2947 In B. xiv. c. 10.
2948 The vinegar of the present day does not appear to have any such property.
2949 Celsus says the same thing, B. i. c. 3.
2950 “Posca,” or vinegar and water, sometimes mixed with eggs, was the common drink of the lower classes at Rome, and of the soldiers when on service.
2951 There is little doubt that it would be advantageous to employ vinegar in such a case; the animal would be compelled to withdraw its hold, and vomiting would be facilitated. Strong salt and water, Fée thinks, would be still more efficacious.
2952 It would be of no use whatever, Fée thinks, in any of these cases.
2953 An operation which, though known to the Greeks and Romans, appears to have been completely lost sight of in the middle ages.
2954 Or leather bag, “utrem.”
2955 See B. xxx. c. 21. From Livy and Plutarch we learn that Hannibal employed this method of splitting the rocks when making his way across the Alps. Fée, at considerable length, disputes the credibility of this account, and thinks it only a wonderful story invented by the Romans to account for their defeat by Hannibal.
2957 Sillig has little doubt that this passage is incomplete, and that the end of it should be to the effect, “the result of which was, that he was effectually cured.” A very similar story is related of Servius Clodius, a Roman knight, in B. xxv. c. 7.
2958 In B. xx. c. 39. It is still employed in medicine; but the statements here made, as Fée says, do not merit a serious discussion.
2959 See B. xiv. c. 21. The modern oxymel, as Fée remarks, consists of honey dissolved in white vinegar, and bears no resemblance to the monstrous composition here described, and which no stomach, he says, could possibly support.
2960 See Lucan’s Pharsalia, B. ix. ll. 723, 776.
2961 Fée thinks that there may be some foundation for this statement, as vinegar acts efficaciously as a remedy to the effects of narcotic poisons. Mistletoe, as already stated, is not a poison.
2962 Grape-juice boiled down to one-third. See B. xiv. c. 11.
2963 See c. 18 of this Book. The account here given of the medicinal properties of sapa is altogether unfounded.
2964 A worm that grows in the pine-tree, the Phalæna bombyx pityocampa of Linnæus.
2966 The lees of wine are charged with sub-tartarate of potash, a quantity of colouring matter more or less, and a small proportion of wine. They are no longer used in medicine. Under the term “fæx vini,” Pliny includes the pulp or husks of grapes after the must has been expressed.
2967 In consequence of the carbonic gas disengaged before the fermentation is finished, asphyxia being the result.
2968 By the use of this term he evidently means grape husks.
2970 Wine-lees would only have the effect of increasing the inflammation.
2971 See B. xxiv. c. 67.
2972 Their properties are similar to those of wine-lees, but they are no longer used in medicine. The statements here made by our author, Fée remarks, are entirely fabulous.
2973 Or horned serpent. See B. xi. c. 45.
2975 This, as Fée observes, is probably the case.
2976 It must be remembered that red hair was greatly admired by the Romans.
2977 The thicker parts of boiled grape-juice. These lees have no affinity with those of wine or vinegar.
2978 They are rich in tannin and gallic acid, and Fée states that they have been proposed as a substitute for quinine. The statements here made by Pliny, he says, in reference to their properties, are hypothetical.
2979 “Nervosis.”
2980 No medicinal use is now made of it, but its properties would be very similar to those of the leaves.
2981 Impure metallic oxide. See B. xix. c. 4, and B. xxxiv. c. 52. The ashes of the branches would be an impure sub-carbonate of potass, which would act, Fée says, as a powerful irritant.
2982 A sort of pyroligneous acid, which would have the noxious effect of throwing inward the eruptions.
2983 This juice or tear (lacrima) Fée thinks to be the same with the Enhæmon, mentioned in B. xii. c. 38; the properties of which are quite inactive, though Dioscorides, B. i. c. 139, speaks of it as a poison.
2984 Probably in consequence of the tannin and gallic acid, which it contains in great abundance.
2985 Fée says that all these statements as to the medicinal properties of olives are false.
2986 Or preserved olives. See B. xv. c. 4.
2987 B. xv. c. 8.
2988 Fée thinks that it would exercise quite a contrary effect. Marc of olives is no longer used in medicine.
2989 It would produce no good effect in the treatment of ulcers.
2990 Fée remarks that it would have no such effect.
2991 See B. xii. c. 60.
2993 Fée thinks that it might prove useful in this case.
2994 Unboiled.
2995 See c. 35. There is no analogy, Fée says, between marc of olives and the leaves of the wild olive.
2996 This is hardly a peculiarity, for he has said already that the cultivated olive is employed with honey to arrest the flow of blood.
2997 The tannin which it contains in great abundance may possibly have this effect.
2998 In B. xv. c. 2.
2999 See B. xii. c. 60.
3000 See B. xii. c. 60. An inferior kind of omphacium.
3001 “Non mordeat.” Probably in the sense of “have no pungency.”
3002 Or “Œnanthinum.” See B. xii. c. 61, and B. xv. c. 7.
3004 Fée remarks, that a modern physician would dread to administer such a dose, rue being a very dangerous plant in its effects. He also remarks that it is doubtful whether Pliny is speaking throughout this Chapter of olive oil or of oil of œnanthe; and such is the fact, though most probably the latter is intended to be spoken of.
3005 “Ptisanæ succo.”
3006 Fée thinks that it can have no such efficacy, whether it be olive oil or oil of œnanthe that is the subject of discussion.
3007 “Acapni.” See B. xi. c. 15.
3008 “Oleum cicinum.” See B. xv. c. 7.
3009 It is still used in medicine for the same purpose.
3010 “Præcordia;” either the diaphragm, or the parts above it, such as the heart and chest.
3011 See B. ix. c. 52.
3012 See B. xv. c. 7.
3013 Fée is at a loss to know how these wicks could have been made: most probably, however, the seeds were beaten up into a pulp for the purpose. The oil is still used for lamps in some countries, though, as Pliny says, in consequence of its extreme thickness, the light it gives is not good.
3014 “A sole ustis.” Not coup de soleil, or “sun-stroke,” as Littré renders it. Oil of almonds is still a favourite ingredient in cosmetics.
3015 There is no truth, Fée says, in this assertion.
3016 Fixed oil of laurel contains a certain proportion of volatile oil, to which it is indebted for the excellence of its smell. It is still used as a liniment for rheumatic pains and other affections.
3017 As prepared by the ancients, it has no analogous properties with oil of laurel. Myrtle oil is no longer used in medicine.
3018 Such is not the case.
3019 The wild myrtle, or little holly. See B. xv. c. 7. The oil would be inodorous, and not possessed, as Pliny says, of properties similar to those of oil of myrtle.
3020 See B. xv. c. 7. Fée thinks that it may have possibly been prepared from a decoction of leaves of cypress.
3021 See B. xiii. cc. 1. 29, and B. xv. c. 7.
3022 See B. xv. c. 7. Oil of walnuts is used but little in medicine at the present day, but it is employed for numerous other purposes.
3023 “Granum Cnidium.” See B. xv. c. 7.
3024 It would only resemble castor oil in its drastic properties; the latter is a fixed natural oil, the former an artificial one.
3025 See B. xv. c. 7. An oil is still extracted in Italy from the fruit of the Pistacia lentiscus; but it is no longer used in medicine.
3026 From the Greek ἄκοπος, “relieving weariness.”
3027 Or “ben.” See B. xii c. 46, and B. xv. c. 7. Oil of ben is still made, but it has no such effects as those mentioned by our author.
3028 Pliny appears to have made the same error here in compiling from the Greek, as he has done in Chapters 4 and 13, in mistaking the Greek word signifying “scars,” for that meaning “gums.”
3029 In B. xii. c. 51, and B. xv. c. 7.
3030 The cyprus, or henna, is but little known in Europe: but it is employed for many purposes in the East. The leaves, which have a powerful smell, are used for the purpose of dyeing and staining various parts of the body.
3031 Pliny has most probably committed an error here in mentioning the “strutheum,” or sparrow-quince; for the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, B. i. c. 124, speaks of the “struthion,” the Gypsophila struthium of Linnæus, or possibly, as Littré thinks, the Saponaria officinalis. See B. xix. c. 18.
3032 This, Fée thinks, may probably be the case.
3033 See B. xv. c. 7.
3034 In B. xii. c. 54. Balm of Mecca, Fée says, possesses properties little different from the turpentines extracted from the Coniferæ.
3035 “Tremulis.”
3036 In B. xii. c. 59. Whatever malobathrum may have been, this was an artificial oil, no doubt.
3037 “Hyoscyaminum.” A fixed oil with narcotic properties, and most probably, highly dangerous in its effects.
3038 From the Greek θέρμος, a lupine.
3039 In B. xxi. c. 75.
3040 A fixed oil, charged with a small proportion of essential oil.
3041 Fée is of opinion that applied to the body it would exterminate vermin.
3042 Malignant cancer.
3043 In B. xxi. c. 11.
3044 In B. xv. c. 7.
3045 Similar, probably, to the narcotic oil, or baume tranquille of the French.
3046 See B. xv. c. 7.
3047 In B. xv. c. 7.
3048 Probably because its oleaginous properties would tend to prevent imbibition and absorption, while its narcotic qualities would in some degree neutralize the strength of the wine. Almonds have a somewhat similar effect.
3049 “Pissinum.” See B. xv. c. 7.
3050 This is not the fact.
3051 On the contrary, they are used at the present day as a pectoral; and many so-called pectoral sirops are prepared from them.
3052 See B. vi. c. 37, and B. xiii. c. 9.
3053 They have no properties, when burnt, to distinguish them from the ashes of other vegetables.
3054 Impure metallic oxide.
3055 “Calliblephara.”
3056 See B. xii. cc. 46, 47.
3057 Fée is of opinion that this is not the “myrobalanum” of B. xii. c. 46, the behen or ben nut, but the phœnicobalanus of c. 47 in that Book; and, indeed, there can be little doubt that Pliny has committed an error here in substituting one for the other.
3058 “Ciet,” “promote,” is the reading adopted by Sillig, but “sistit” is supported by the parallel passage in Dioscorides.
3059 See B. xii. c. 62, and the Note, in reference to the mistake which Pliny appears to have committed in reference to this term.
3060 In reality, it is quite inert.
3061 In consequence of the malic and tartaric acid which they contain.
3062 Quinces are of an astringent nature; and an astringent sirop, Fée says, is still prepared from them.
3063 They are no longer used for this purpose.
3064 Fée observes that it has no such effect.
3065 B. xiii. c. 2.
3066 Or “sparrow-quince.” See B. xv. c. 10.
3067 He states this so gravely, that he would almost appear to believe it.
3068 “Honey apples.” See B. xv. c. 15, where this apple is also called the “musteum.”
3069 A purgative sirop of apples, causing thirst, was made by the ancients, the receipt for which was attributed to King Sapor.
3070 Or “round” apples. See B. xv. c. 15.
3071 See B. xii. c. 7.
3072 See B. xi. c. 15, and B. xii. c. 7.