146 The Crab. This is giving the serpent credit for too much wisdom; an acquaintance, in fact, with the fantastic names which mankind have bestowed upon the signs of the Zodiac.
147 See B. ix. c. 32.
148 The same as the Orbis or Orthagoriscus of Chapters 5 and 9 of this Book, the Mola or sun-fish of the Mediterranean. See B. ix. c. 17.
149 Or sting-ray. See B. ix. c. 72.
150 There is considerable truth in this observation.
151 The sea-horse, the Syngnathus hippocampus of Linnæus. See B. ix. c. 1.
152 See B. xxi. c. 105.
153 The same, probably, as the “opocarpathon” of B. xxviii. c. 45, a substance which does not appear to have been identified with any degree of certainty. See also c. 31 of the present Book.
154 B. ix. c. 79.
155 Ajasson remarks that these statements are consistent with fact.
156 “Deep-sea” oysters.
157 In Asia Minor. See B. v. c. 32, where it is called “Grynia.”
158 In Lemnos. See B. iv. c. 23, and B. v. c. 32.
159 This is an error: the statement is made, not in B. ix., but in B. ii. c. 109.
160 See B. ix. c. 74. It is at the spawning season that this milky liquid is found in the oyster; a period at which the meat of the fish is considered unwholesome as food. We have a saying that the oyster should never be eaten in the months without an r; that the same, too, was the opinion in the middle ages is proved by the Leonine line:
161 See B. iii. c. 9. Horace speaks of the oysters of Circeii, B. ii. Sat. 4. l. 33.
162 There has been considerable discussion among the commentators as to the meaning of the word “spondylus” here. We are inclined to adopt the opinion of Venette, and to think that it means the so-called “meat” of the oyster. It must be short, and consequently plump and comparatively destitute of beard, and it must not be fleshy, as that would imply a degree of toughness not desirable in an oyster. The words “nec fibris laciniata ac tota in alvo,” only seem to be an amplification of the preceding ones, “spondylo brevi et non carnoso.”
163 Literally, “Having beautiful eyebrows.”
164 See B. ix. c. 79.
165 See B. v. c. 40.
166 See B. iii. c. 9.
167 “Dulciora.”
168 Those of Rutupæ, the present Richborough in Kent, were highly esteemed by the Romans. See Juvenal, Sat. 4. l. 141.
169 “Suaviora.”
170 The district in the vicinity of Bordeaux, now called Medoc. The oysters of Medulæ are mentioned in terms of praise by Ausonius, Epist. vii. and Epist. cxliii.
171 “Acriora.”
172 See B. iii. c. 4.
173 See B. v. c. 32.
174 See B. iii. c. 23.
175 See B. iii. c. 9.
176 They probably gave the name of “oyster” to some other shell-fish of large size. In Cook’s Voyages we read of cockles in the Pacific, which two men were unable to carry.
177 From τρὶς, “thrice,” and δάκνω, “to bite.”
178 Ajasson remarks that many persons are unable to digest oysters, in an uncooked state.
179 Ajasson remarks that calcined oyster-shells formed an ingredient in the famous lithontriptic of Mrs. Stephens, a so-called remedy which obtained for her a considerable reward, voted by the English Parliament in the middle of last century.
180 A statement purely imaginary, Ajasson thinks; the liquid of this class of shell-fish containing no element whatever to fit it for an antidote.
181 Or antidote.
182 In B. xxvi. c. 66.
183 Many varieties of sea-weed are now known, Ajasson says, to possess this property, and are still used by savage nations for colouring the body. In Europe, the use of indigo, madder, and other tinctorial plants of a more decided character, has caused them to be entirely neglected for dyeing purposes.
184 Probably the Syngnathus hippocampus of Linnæus. See B. ix. c. 1.
185 As to the Nitrum of the ancients, see B. xxxi. c. 46.
186 Or Cuttlefish. See B. ix. c. 44.
187 See B. ix. c. 35.
189 This seems to be the meaning of “conchyliorum” here, though in most instances Pliny uses it as synonymous with the purple. See B. ix. cc. 60, 61, 64.
190 See B. xxv. c. 70.
191 This assertion reminds us of the healing effects of the fish with which Tobit cured his father’s blindness. See Tobit, c. xi. v. 13.
193 Identified by Ajasson with the white Rascasse of the Mediterranean. Hardouin combats the notion that this was the fish, the gall of which was employed by Tobit for the cure of his father, and is inclined to think that the Silurus was in reality the fish; a notion no better founded than the other, Ajasson thinks.
194 In his “Messenia,” for instance. The fragment has been preserved by Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xiii. c. 4. Ajasson remarks that the ancients clearly mistook the swimming bladder of the fish for the gall.
195 Or “heaven-gazer.”
196 The original has “ab oculo quem,”—but we have adopted the reading suggested by Dalechamps, “Ab oculis quos in superiore capite.” Ajasson says that the white rascasse has the eyes so disposed on the upper part of the head as to have the appearance of gazing upwards at the heavens. Hence it is that at Genoa, the fish is commonly known as the prête or “priest.”
197 See B. ix. c. 32.
199 “Albugines.”
200 Meaning, literally, “Fallen from Jupiter,” in reference to their supposed descent from heaven in showers of rain.
201 Cortex.
203 “Ossiculo.”
204 Literally, “fish-glue.” We can hardly believe Pliny that any fish was known by this name. Hardouin takes the fish here spoken of to be identical with that mentioned in B. ix. c. 17, as being caught in the Borysthene, and destitute of bones. It is most probable, however, that the “ichthyocolla” of the ancients, or “fish-glue,” was the same as our isinglass, and that it was prepared from the entrails of various fish, the sturgeon more particularly, the Acipenser huso of Linnæus.
205 The best isinglass still comes from Russia.
206 “Nativi coloris.” See B. viii. c. 23. Beckmann says, in reference to the present passage: “We manufacture the wool of our brown sheep in its natural colour, and this was done also by the ancients.”—Hist. Inv. vol. ii. p. 110, Bohn’s Ed.
207 The “calamites” above mentioned, so called from “calamus,” a reed.
208 The Bryonia Cretica of Linnæus; see B. xxiii. c. 16.
209 An eminent surgeon, born at Sidon in Phœnicia, who practised at Rome, probably in the first century B.C.
210 “Mutis,” “silent,” or “voiceless” frogs, as suggested by Gessner, Hist. Anim. B. ii., would almost seem to be a preferable reading here to “multis,” “many.”
211 Another reading is “tænia,” a fish mentioned by Epicharmus, Athenæus informs us, and considered by Ajasson to be probably identical with the Cepola rubescens, or Cepola tænia of Linnæus.
212 The same as the Batis of the Greeks, Hardouin thinks, the Raia batis, a kind of skate.
213 See B. ix. c. 28.
216 See B. ix. c. 71.
217 As to “nitrum,” see B. xxxi. c. 46.
218 See B. xxxi. c. 43.
220 “Canicula.” See B. ix. cc. 11, 70.
221 Or sting-ray.
222 Tunny cut in slices. See B. ix. c. 18.
223 See end of B. xxxi.
224 For the purpose, probably, of assuaging the pain of tooth-ache by their coolness.
225 See B. ix. cc. 40, 67.
226 “Cetum.” See B. ix. cc. 40, 74.
227 Ajasson is of opinion that here and in c. 19 Pliny has mistaken the otter for a serpent, the mammiferæ only having eye or canine teeth. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. i., calls the otter by the name of “Enhydris.” See B. xxx. c. 8, where Pliny speaks of the “Enhydris” as a “male white serpent.”
228 Or seal. See B. ix. c. 15.
229 See B. ix. c. 42. Holland calls the mæna the “cackerel.”
230 Or sting-ray.
231 See B. ix. c. 1.
232 Much like the cod-liver oil, held in such high repute at the present day.
234 Of course this assertion as to the nest of the kingfisher is altogether fabulous, and the sea-productions here described by Pliny were long considered, though destitute of leaves, flowers, and fruit, to belong to the vegetable kingdom. Peyssonnel, however, made the discovery that they belong to the animal kingdom, and that they owe their origin to a species of polyp.
235 Or kingfisher. See B. x. c. 47.
236 “Oculorum cicatrices.”
237 See end of B. xx.
238 See end of B. viii.
239 See B. ix. c. 42.
240 See B. ix. cc. 40, 67. The Bamberg MS. has here “rhine,” (the fish again mentioned in Chapter 53 of this Book) instead of “rana;” a reading which Sillig rejects. Hardouin conjectures that “raia” is the correct reading, the sea-frog having no sting or stickle in the tail.
241 See B. ix. c. 67.
242 Or sea-lizard, a fish again mentioned in Chapter 53 of this Book. Ælian also speaks of it, Hist. Nat. B. xii. c. 25; but it has not been hitherto identified.
245 See B. xxxi. c. 43.
246 See B. ix. cc. 17, 25, 75.
247 It is not clear whether he means the gum ammoniac of B. xii. c. 49, and B. xxiv. c. 14, or the sal ammoniac of B. xxxi. c. 39.
249 The Dryophites of Rondelet, Dalechamps says.
251 See B. ix. c. 1.
252 Littré remarks that Pliny here seems to speak of the “Tethea” as a mollusk; whereas in c. 31, from his expression “Fungorum verius generis quam piscium,” he would appear to be describing a zoophyte.
253 See B. ix. cc. 17, 25, 75.
254 See B. ix. cc. 24, 48, 67, 74, 75.
255 See B. xx. c. 38.
256 A rock fish, according to Athenæus, B. vii. Rondelet, B. vi. c. 7, identifies it with the fish called girello by the people of Liguria, the donzella of other districts.
257 Sliced tunny. See B. ix. c. 18.
258 A genus which comprises the “myes,” mentioned in B. ix. c. 56, according to Dalechamps.
259 See B. ix. c. 60.
260 See B. xxi. c. 105.
262 Identical with our mussel, probably.
263 Holland identifies this with the cockle, but it is probably a smaller kind of mussel.
265 We learn from Chapter 53 of this Book, that one class of the “Chamæ,” or gaping cockles, was known as “Pelorides.” Horace also mentions them.
266 See B. xxxi. c. 46.
268 Described in B. xxvii. c. 29.
269 A city not far from the Canopic branch of the Nile.
270 “Dantur” seems a preferable reading to “datur.”
271 See B. ix c. 42.
272 Our crawfish, the Astacus potamobios of Leach.
274 See B. xix. c. 27, and B, xxv. c. 64.
275 See B. ix. cc. 23, 77.
276 See end of B. xxxi.
277 See B. ix. cc. 20, 24, 36.
278 See B. ix. cc. 24, 48, 67, 74, 75.
279 “Rhombus.” See B. ix. cc. 20, 36, 67, 79.
281 Rondelet, B. vi. c. 19, suggests “capite”—“in the head”—but the present reading is supported by the text of Plinius Valerianus, B. ii. c. 39, and of Marcus Empiricus, c. 28.
282 As to the identity of the Enhydris, see Chapters 19 and 26 of the present Book: also B. xxx. c. 8.
283 Probably the Βλεννὸς of Oppian, B. i. c. 108. Dalechamps identifies it with the mullet called “myxon,” apparently the same fish as the “bacchus” mentioned in Chapter 25 of this Book. Rondelet appears to identify it with some other sea-fish, small, and extremely rare. On the other hand, the fish mentioned by Oppian is thought by Littré to be the “gobius” of the Latins, (“gobio” or “cobio,” mentioned by Pliny in B. ix. c. 83, and in c. 53 of the present Book), which is generally considered the same as our gudgeon, and was a worthless fish, “vilis piscis,” as Juvenal says. One of the Linnæan orders of fishes is called “Blennius,” the blenny.
284 See B. ix. c. 28.
285 See B. ix. c. 68.
286 Or sea-lungs. See B. ix. c. 71, and B. xviii. c. 85.