Transcriber’s Notes:—
The spelling, hyphenation, punctuation and accentuation are as the
original, except for apparent typographical errors which have been
corrected.
See further notes at the end of the book.
THE
NATURAL HISTORY
OF
PLINY.
TRANSLATED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE LATE
JOHN BOSTOCK, M.D., F.R.S.,
AND
H. T. RILEY, ESQ., B.A.,
LATE SCHOLAR OF CLARE HALL, CAMBRIDGE.
VOL. VI.
WITH GENERAL INDEX.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
MDCCCLVII.
CONTENTS
OF THE SIXTH VOLUME.
BOOK XXXII.
REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.
CHAP. Page
1. The power of Nature as manifested in antipathies. The
echeneïs: two remedies 1
2. The torpedo: nine remedies 4
3. The sea-hare: five remedies _ib._
4. Marvels of the Red Sea 5
5. The instincts of fishes 6
6. Marvellous properties belonging to certain fishes 8
7. Places where fish eat from the hand _ib._
8. Places where fish recognize the human voice. Oracular
responses given by fish _ib._
9. Places where bitter fish are found, salt, or sweet 9
10. When sea-fish were first eaten by the people of Rome. The
ordinance of King Numa as to fish 10
11. Coral: forty-three remedies and observations _ib._
12. The antipathies and sympathies which exist between certain
objects. The hatreds manifested by certain aquatic
animals. The pastinaca: eight remedies. The galeos:
fifteen remedies. The sur-mullet: fifteen remedies 12
13. Amphibious animals. Castoreum: sixty-six remedies and
observations 13
14. The tortoise: sixty-six remedies and observations 15
15. Remedies derived from the aquatic animals, classified
according to the respective diseases 18
16. Remedies for poisons, and for noxious spells. The dorade:
four remedies. The sea-star: seven remedies 19
17. Remedies for the stings of serpents, for the bites of dogs,
and for injuries indicted by venomous animals. The
sea-dragon: three remedies. Twenty-five remedies derived
from salted fish. The sarda: one remedy. Eleven remedies
derived from cybium 20
18. The sea-frog: six remedies. The river-frog: fifty-two
remedies. The bramble-frog: one remedy. Thirty-two
observations on these animals 21
19. The enhydris: six remedies. The river-crab: fourteen remedies.
The sea-crab: seven remedies. The river-snail:
seven remedies. The coracinus: four remedies. The sea-pig:
two remedies 23
20. The sea-calf: ten remedies. The muræna: one remedy. The
hippocampus: nine remedies. The sea-urchin: eleven
remedies 24
21. The various kinds of oysters: fifty-eight remedies and
observations. Purples: nine remedies 25
22. Sea-weed: two remedies 28
23. Remedies for alopecy, change of colour in the hair, and
ulcerations of the head. The sea-mouse: two remedies.
The sea-scorpion: twelve remedies. The leech: seven
remedies. The murex: thirteen remedies. The conchylium:
five remedies 29
24. Remedies for diseases of the eyes and eyelids. Two remedies
derived from the fat of fishes. The callionymus: three
remedies. The gall of the coracinus: one remedy. The
sæpia: twenty-four remedies. Ichthyocolla: five
remedies _ib._
25. Remedies for diseases of the ears. The batia: one remedy.
The bacchus or myxon: two remedies. The sea-louse: two
remedies 33
26. Remedies for tooth-ache. The dog-fish: four remedies.
Whale’s flesh 34
27. Remedies for lichens, and for spots upon the face. The
dolphin: nine remedies. Coluthia or coryphia: three
remedies. Halcyoneum: seven remedies. The tunny: five
remedies 35
28. Remedies for scrofula, imposthumes of the parotid glands,
quinzy, and diseases of the fauces. The mæna; thirteen
remedies. The sea-scolopendra: two remedies. The saurus:
one remedy. Shell-fish: one remedy. The silurus: fifteen
remedies 37
29. Remedies for cough and diseases of the chest 38
30. Remedies for pains in the liver and side. The elongated
conch: six remedies. The tethea: five remedies 39
31. Remedies for diseases of the bowels. Sea-wort: one remedy
The myax: twenty-five remedies. The mitulus: eight
remedies. Pelorides: one remedy. Seriphum: two remedies.
The erythinus: two remedies _ib._
32. Remedies for diseases of the spleen, for urinary calculi,
and for affections of the bladder. The sole: one remedy.
The turbot: one remedy. The blendius: one remedy. The
sea-nettle; seven remedies. The pulmo marinus: six
remedies. Onyches: four remedies 42
33. Remedies for intestinal hernia, and for diseases of the
rectum. The water-snake: one remedy. The hydrus: one
remedy. The mullet: one remedy. The pelamis: three
remedies 44
34. Remedies for inflamed tumours, and for diseases of the
generative organs. The sciæna: one remedy. The perch:
four remedies. The squatina: three remedies. The smaris:
three remedies _ib._
35. Remedies for incontinence of urine. The ophidion: one
remedy 46
36. Remedies for gout, and for pains in the feet. The beaver:
four remedies. Bryon: one remedy _ib._
37. Remedies for epilepsy 47
38. Remedies for fevers. The fish called asellus: one remedy.
The phagrus: one remedy _ib._
39. Remedies for lethargy, cachexy, and dropsy 49
40. Remedies for burns and for erysipelas _ib._
41. Remedies for diseases of the sinews 50
42. Methods of arresting hæmorrhage and of letting blood. The
polyp: one remedy _ib._
43. Methods of extracting foreign bodies from the flesh 51
44. Remedies for ulcers, carcinomata, and carbuncle 52
45. Remedies for warts, and for malformed nails. The glanis:
one remedy 53
46. Remedies for female diseases. The glauciscus: one
remedy _ib._
47. Methods of removing superfluous hair. Depilatories 55
48. Remedies for the diseases of infants 56
49. Methods of preventing intoxication. The fish called rubellio:
one remedy. The eel: one remedy. The grape-fish: one
remedy 57
50. Antaphrodisiacs and aphrodisiacs. The hippopotamus: one
remedy. The crocodile: one remedy _ib._
51. Remedies for the diseases of animals _ib._
52. Other aquatic productions. Adarca or calamochnos: three
remedies. Reeds: eight remedies. The ink of the sæpia 58
53. The names of all the animals that exist in the sea, one
hundred and seventy-six in number 59
54. Additional names of fishes found in the poem of Ovid 65
BOOK XXXIII.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.
1. Metals 68
2. Gold 69
3. What was the first recommendation of gold 71
4. The origin of gold rings _ib._
5. The quantity of gold possessed by the ancients 75
6. The right or wearing gold rings 76
7. The decuries of the judges 82
8. Particulars connected with the equestrian order 83
9. How often the name of the equestrian order has been changed 85
10. Gifts for military services, in gold and silver 86
11. At what period the first crown of gold was presented _ib._
12. Other uses made of gold, by females 87
13. Coins of gold. At what periods copper, gold, and silver,
were first impressed. How copper was used before gold
and silver were coined. What was the largest sum of money
possessed by any one at the time of our first census. How
often, and at what periods, the value of copper and of
coined money has been changed 88
14. Considerations on man’s cupidity for gold 91
15. The persons who have possessed the greatest quantity of gold
and silver 93
16. At what period silver first made its appearance upon the arena
and upon the stage 94
17. At what periods there was the greatest quantity of gold and
silver in the treasury of the Roman people 95
18. At what period ceilings were first gilded _ib._
19. For what reasons the highest value is set upon gold 96
20. The method of gilding 98
21. How gold is found 99
22. Orpiment 104
23. Electrum 105
24. The first statues of gold _ib._
25. Eight remedies derived from gold 106
26. Chrysocolla 107
27. The use made of chrysocolla in painting 108
28. Seven remedies derived from chrysocolla 110
29. The chrysocolla of the goldsmiths, known also as
santerna _ib._
30. The marvellous operations of nature in soldering metallic
substances, and bringing them to a state of perfection 111
31. Silver _ib._
32. Quicksilver 113
33. Stimmi, stibi, alabastrum, larbasis, or platy-ophthalmon 115
34. Seven remedies derived from stimmi _ib._
35. The scoria of silver. Six remedies derived from it 116
36. Minium: for what religious purposes it was used by the
ancients 119
37. The discovery and origin of minium 120
38. Cinnabaris _ib._
39. The employment of cinnabaris in painting 121
40. The various kinds of minium. The use made of it in
painting _ib._
41. Hydrargyros. Remedies derived from minium 124
42. The method of gilding silver _ib._
43. Touchstones for testing gold 125
44. The different kinds of silver, and the modes of testing
it _ib._
45. Mirrors 126
46. Egyptian silver 128
47. Instances of immense wealth. Persons who have possessed
the greatest sums of money 129
48. At what period the Roman people first made voluntary
contributions 131
49. Instances of luxury in silver plate _ib._
50. Instances of the frugality of the ancients in reference
to silver plate 132
51. At what period silver was first used as an ornament for
couches 134
52. At what period silver chargers of enormous size were first
made. When silver was first used as a material for
sideboards. When the sideboards called tympana were first
introduced _ib._
53. The enormous price of silver plate 135
54. Statues of silver 136
55. The most remarkable works in silver, and the names of the
most famous artists in silver 138
56. Sil: The persons who first used it in painting and the
method they adopted 140
57. Cæruleum 141
58. Two remedies derived from cæruleum 143
BOOK XXXIV.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.
1. The ores of brass 147
2. The different kinds of copper 148
3. The Corinthian brass 149
4. The Delian brass 151
5. The Æginetan brass _ib._
6. Stands for lamps 152
7. Ornaments of the temples made of brass 153
8. Couches of brass _ib._
9. Which was the first statue of a god made of brass at Rome.
The origin of statues, and the respect paid to them 154
10. The different kinds and forms of statues. Statues at Rome
with cuirasses 155
11. In honour of whom public statues were first erected: in
honour of whom they were first placed on pillars: when
the rostra were first erected 156
12. In honour of what foreigners public statues were erected at
Rome 159
13. The first equestrian statues publicly erected at Rome, and
in honour of what females statues were publicly erected
there 160
14. At what period all the statues erected by private
individuals were removed from the public places _ib._
15. The first statues publicly erected by foreigners 161
16. That there were statuaries in Italy also at an early
period 162
17. The immoderate prices of statues 163
18. The most celebrated colossal statues in the city 164
19. An account of the most celebrated works in brass, and of
the artists, 366 in number 168
20. The different kinds of copper and its combinations. Pyropus.
Campanian copper 189
21. The method of preserving copper 191
22. Cadmia _ib._
23. Fifteen remedies derived from cadmia. Ten medicinal effects
of calcined copper 193
24. The scoria of copper 194
25. Stomoma of copper: forty-seven remedies _ib._
26. Verdigris: Eighteen remedies 195
27. Hieracium 197
28. Scolex of copper: eighteen remedies _ib._
29. Chalcitis: seven remedies 198
30. Sory: three remedies 199
31. Misy: thirteen remedies _ib._
32. Chalcanthum, or shoemakers’ black: sixteen remedies 200
33. Pompholyx 202
34. Spodos: five remedies _ib._
35. Fifteen varieties of antispodos 203
36. Smegma 204
37. Diphryx _ib._
38. Particulars relative to the Servilian triens 205
39. Iron ores _ib._
40. Statues of iron; chased works in iron 206
41. The different kinds of iron, and the mode of tempering
it _ib._
42. The metal called live iron 209
43. Methods of preventing rust _ib._
44. Seven remedies derived from iron 210
45. Fourteen remedies derived from rust 211
46. Seventeen remedies derived from the scales of iron.
Hygremplastrum _ib._
47. The ores of lead 212
48. Stannum. Argentarium 214
49. Black lead 215
50. Fifteen remedies derived from lead 216
51. Fifteen remedies derived from the scoria of lead 218
52. Spodium of lead _ib._
53. Molybdæna: fifteen remedies _ib._
54. Psimithium, or ceruse; six remedies 219
55. Sandarach: eleven remedies 220
56. Arrhenicum _ib._
BOOK XXXV.
AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.
1. The honour attached to painting 223
2. The honour attached to portraits 224
3. When shields were first invented with portraits upon them;
and when they were first erected in public 227
4. When these shields were first placed in private houses _ib._
5. The commencement of the art of painting. Monochrome
paintings. The earliest painters 228
6. The antiquity of painting in Italy 229
7. Roman painters 230
8. At what period foreign paintings were first introduced at
Rome 232
9. At what period painting was first held in high esteem at Rome,
and from what causes _ib._
10. What pictures the Emperors have exhibited in public 233
11. The art of painting 234
12. Pigments other than those of a metallic origin. Artificial
colours 235
13. Sinopis: eleven remedies _ib._
14. Rubrica; Lemnian earth: four remedies 236
15. Egyptian earth 237
16. Ochra: remedies derived from rubrica _ib._
17. Leucophoron _ib._
18. Parætonium 238
19. Melinum: six remedies. Ceruse _ib._
20. Usta 239
21. Eretria _ib._
22. Sandarach _ib._
23. Sandyx 240
24. Syricum _ib._
25. Atramentum _ib._
26. Purpurissum 242
27. Indicum _ib._
28. Armenium: one remedy 243
29. Appianum _ib._
30. Anularian white 244
31. Which colours do not admit of being laid on a wet
coating _ib._
32. What colours were used by the ancients in painting 245
33. At what time combats of gladiators were first painted
and publicly exhibited 246
34. The age of painting; with the names of the more celebrated
works and artists, four hundred and five in number _ib._
35. The first contest for excellence in the pictorial art 248
36. Artists who painted with the pencil 249
37. Various other kinds of painting 268
38. An effectual way of putting a stop to the singing of
birds 272
39. Artists who have painted in eucaustics or wax, with
either the cestrum or the pencil _ib._
40. The first inventors of various kinds of painting. The
greatest difficulties in the art of painting. The
several varieties of painting. The first artist that
painted ceilings. When arched roofs were first painted.
The marvellous price of some pictures _ib._
41. Encaustic painting 282
42. The colouring of tissues _ib._
43. The inventors of the art of modelling 283
44. Who was the first to mould figures in imitation of the
features of living persons, or of statues 284
45. The most famous modellers _ib._
46. Works in pottery 286
47. Various kinds of earth. The Puteolan dust, and other
earths of which cements like stone are made 288
48. Formacean walls 289
49. Walls of brick. The method of making bricks 290
50. Sulphur, and the several varieties of it: fourteen
remedies 291
51. Bitumen, and the several varieties of it: twenty-seven
remedies 293
52. Alumen, and the several varieties of it: thirty-eight
remedies 294
53. Samian earth: three remedies 298
54. The various kinds of eretria _ib._
55. The method of washing earths for medicinal purposes _ib._
56. Chian earth: three remedies. Selinusian earth: three
remedies. Pnigitis: nine remedies. Ampelitis: four
remedies 299
57. Cretaceous earths used for scouring cloth. Cimolian earth:
nine remedies. Sardinian earth. Umbrian earth. Suxum _ib._
58. Argentaria. Names of freedmen who have either risen to
power themselves, or have belonged to men of influence 301
59. The earth of Galata; of Clypea; of the Baleares; and of
Ebusus 303
BOOK XXXVI.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES.
1. Luxury displayed in the use of various kinds of marble 305
2. Who was the first to employ marble in public buildings 306
3. Who was the first to erect columns of foreign marble at Rome 307
4. The first artists who excelled in the sculpture of marble,
and the various periods at which they flourished. The
Mausoleum in Caria. The most celebrated sculptors and
works in marble, two hundred and twenty-five in number 308
5. At what period marble was first used in buildings 323
6. Who were the first to cut marble into slabs, and at what
period 324
7. Who was the first to encrust the walls of houses at Rome with
marble _ib._
8. At what period the various kinds of marble came into use at
Rome 325
9. The method of cutting marble into slabs. The sand used in
cutting marble _ib._
10. Stone of Naxos. Stone of Armenia 327
11. The marbles of Alexandria _ib._
12. Onyx and alabastrites: six remedies 329
13. Lygdinus; corallitic stone; stone of Alabanda; stone of
Thebais; stone of Syene 330
14. Obelisks 331
15. The obelisk which serves as a dial in the Campus Martius 334
16. Marvellous works in Egypt. The pyramids 335
17. The Egyptian Sphinx 336
18. The Pharos 339
19. Labyrinths _ib._
20. Hanging gardens. A hanging city 343
21. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus _ib._
22. Marvels connected with other temples 344
23. The fugitive stone. The seven-fold echo. Buildings erected
without the use of nails _ib._
24. Marvellous buildings at Rome, eighteen in number 345
25. The magnet: three remedies 355
26. Stone of Scyros 357
27. Sarcophagus, or stone of Assos: ten remedies _ib._
28. Chernites _ib._
29. Osseous stones. Palm stones. Corani. Black stones 358
30. Molar stones. Pyrites: seven remedies 359
31. Ostrocites: four remedies. Amianthus: two remedies 360
32. Geodes: three remedies _ib._
33. Melitinus: six remedies _ib._
34. Gagates: six remedies 361
35. Spongites: two remedies 362
36. Phrygian stone _ib._
37. Hæmatites: five remedies. Schistos: seven remedies _ib._
38. Æthiopic hæmatites. Androdamas: two remedies. Arabian
hæmatites. Miltites or hepatites. Anthracites 363
39. Aëtites. Taphiusian stone. Callimus 364
40. Samian stone: eight remedies 365
41. Arabian stone: six remedies _ib._
42. Pumice: nine remedies 366
43. Stones for mortars used for medicinal and other purposes.
Etesian stone. Thebaic stone. Chalazian stone 367
44. Stone of Siphnos. Soft stones 368
45. Specular stones _ib._
46. Phengites 369
47. Whetstones 370
48. Tophus 371
49. The various kinds of silex _ib._
50. Other stones used for building 372
51. The various methods of building _ib._
52. Cisterns 373
53. Quick-lime _ib._
54. The various kinds of sand. The combinations of sand with
lime _ib._
55. Defects in building. Plasters for walls 374
56. Columns. The several kinds of columns _ib._
57. Five remedies derived from lime 375
58. Maltha _ib._
59. Gypsum 376
60. Pavements. The Asarotos œcos _ib._
61. The first pavements in use at Rome 377
62. Terrace-roof pavements _ib._
63. Græcanic pavements 378
64. At what period mosaic pavements were first invented. At
what period arched roofs were first decorated with
glass _ib._
65. The origin of glass 379
66. The various kinds of glass, and the mode of making it 380
67. Obsian glass and Obsian stone 381
68. Marvellous facts connected with fire 383
69. Three remedies derived from fire and from ashes _ib._
70. Prodigies connected with the hearth 384
BOOK XXXVII.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES.
1. The first use of precious stones 386
2. The jewel of Polycrates _ib._
3. The jewel of Pyrrhus 387
4. Who were the most skilful lapidaries. The finest specimens
of engraving on precious stones 389
5. The first dactyliothecæ at Rome 390
6. Jewels displayed at Rome in the triumph of Pompeius
Magnus _ib._
7. At what period murrhine vessels were first introduced at
Rome. Instances of luxury in reference to them 392
8. The nature of murrhine vessels 393
9. The nature of crystal 394
10. Luxury displayed in the use of crystal. Remedies derived
from crystal 395
11. Amber: the many falsehoods that have been told about it 397
12. The several kinds of amber: the remedies derived from it 402
13. Lyncurium: two asserted remedies 404
14. The various precious stones, classified according to their
principal colours 405
15. Adamas: six varieties of it. Two remedies _ib._
16. Smaragdus 408
17. Twelve varieties of the smaragdus 410
18. Defects in the smaragdus 411
19. The precious stone called tanos. Chalcosmaragdos 413
20. Beryls: eight varieties of them. Defects in beryls 414
21. Opals: seven varieties of them 415
22. Defects in opals: the modes of testing them 416
23. Sardonyx; the several varieties of it. Defects in the
sardonyx 417
24. Onyx: the several varieties of it 419
25. Carbunculus: twelve varieties of it 420
26. Defects in carbunculus, and the mode of testing it 422
27. Anthracitis 423
28. Sandastros. Sandaresos _ib._
29. Lychnis: four varieties of it 424
30. Carchedonia 425
31. Sarda: five varieties of it _ib._
32. Topazos: two varieties of it 426
33. Callaina 427
34. Prasius: three varieties of it 429
35. Nilion _ib._
36. Molochitis _ib._
37. Iaspis: fourteen varieties of it. Defects found in iaspis 430
38. Cyanos: the several varieties of it 432
39. Sapphiros _ib._
40. Amethystos: four varieties of it. Socondion. Sapenos.
Pharanitis. Aphrodites blepharon, anteros, or hæderos _ib._
41. Hyacinthos 434
42. Chrysolithos: seven varieties of it _ib._
43. Chryselectrum 435
44. Leucochrysos: four varieties of it _ib._
45. Melichrysos. Xuthon 436
46. Pæderos, sangenon, or tenites _ib._
47. Asteria 437
48. Astrion _ib._
49. Astriotes _ib._
50. Astrobolos 438
51. Ceraunia: four varieties of it _ib._
52. Iris: two varieties of it _ib._
53. Leros 439
54. Achates: the several varieties of it. Acopos: the remedies
derived from it. Alabastritis: the remedies derived from
it. Alectoria. Androdamas. Argyrodamas. Antipathes.
Arabica. Aromatitis. Asbestos. Aspisatis. Atizöe.
Augetis. Amphidanes or chrysocolla. Aphrodisiaca.
Apsyctos. Ægyptilla _ib._
55. Balanites. Batrachitis. Baptes. Beli oculus. Belus.
Baroptenus or barippe. Botryitis. Bostrychitis.
Bucardia. Brontea. Bolos 443
56. Cadmitis. Callais. Capnitis. Cappadocia. Callaica.
Catochitis. Catoptritis. Cepitis or Cepolatitis.
Ceramitis. Cinædia. Ceritis. Circos. Corsoïdes.
Coralloachates. Corallis. Crateritis. Crocallis.
Cyitis. Chalcophonos. Chelidonia. Chelonia. Chelonitis.
Chloritis. Choaspitis. Chrysolampis. Chrysopis. Ceponides 444
57. Daphnea. Diadochos. Diphyes. Dionysias. Draconitis 447
58. Encardia or ariste. Enorchis. Exebenus. Erythallis.
Erotylos, amphicomos, or hieromnemon. Eumeces. Enmithres.
Eupetalos. Eureos. Eurotias. Eusebes. Epimelas 448
59. Galaxias. Galactitis, leucogæa, leucographitis, or
synnephitis. Gallaica. Gassinade. Glossopetra. Gorgonia.
Goniæa 449
60. Heliotropium. Hephæstitis. Hermuaidoion. Hexecontalithos.
Hieracitis. Hammitis. Hammonis cornu. Hormiscion.
Hyænia. Hæmatitis 450
61. Idæi dactyli. Icterias. Jovis gemma. Indica. Ion 452
62. Lepidotis. Lesbias. Leucophthalmos. Leucopœcilos.
Libanochrus. Limoniatis. Liparea. Lysimachos.
Leucochrysos _ib._
63. Memnonia. Media. Meconitis. Mithrax. Morochthos.
Mormorion or promnion. Murrhitis. Myrmecias. Myrsinitis.
Mesoleucos. Mesomelas 453
64. Nasamonitis. Nebritis. Nipparene 454
65. Oica. Ombria or notia. Onocardia. Oritis or sideritis.
Ostracias. Ostritis. Ophicardelon. Obsian stone _ib._
66. Panchrus. Pangonus. Paneros or panerastos. Pontica: four
varieties of it. Phloginos or chrysitis. Phœnicitis.
Phycitis. Perileucos. Pæanitis or gæanis 455
67. Solis gemma. Sagda. Samothracia. Sauritis. Sarcitis.
Selenitis. Sideritis. Sideropœcilos. Spongitis.
Synodontitis. Syrtitis. Syringitis 456
68. Trichrus. Thelyrrhizos. Thelycardios or mule. Thracia:
three varieties of it. Tephritis. Tecolithos 457
69. Veneris crines. Veientana 458
70. Zathene. Zmilampis. Zoraniscæa _ib._
71. Precious stones which derive their names from various parts
of the human body. Hepatitis. Steatitis. Adadunephros.
Adaduophthalmos. Adadudactylos. Triophthalmos _ib._
72. Precious stones which derive their names from animals.
Carcinias. Echitis. Scorpitis. Scaritis. Triglitis.
Ægophthalmos. Hyophthalmos. Geranitis. Hieracitis.
Aëtitis. Myrmecitis. Cantharias. Lycophthalmos. Taos.
Timictonia 459
73. Precious stones which derive their names from other objects.
Hammochrysos. Cenchritis. Dryitis. Cissitis. Narcissitis.
Cyamias. Pyren. Phœnicitis. Chalazias. Pyritis.
Polyzonos Astrapæa. Phlogitis. Anthracitis. Enhygros.
Polythrix. Leontios. Pardalios. Drosolithos. Melichrus.
Melichloros. Crocias. Polias. Spartopolias. Rhoditis.
Chalcitis. Sycitis. Bostrychitis. Chernitie. Anancitis.
Synochitis. Dendritis _ib._
74. Precious stones that suddenly make their appearance.
Cochlides 461
75. The various forms of precious stones 462
76. The methods of testing precious stones 463
77. A comparative view of Nature as she appears in different
countries. The comparative values of things 464
GENERAL INDEX 469
NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY.
BOOK XXXII.[1]
REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.
CHAP. 1. (1.)—THE POWER OF NATURE AS MANIFESTED IN ANTIPATHIES. THE
ECHENEÏS: TWO REMEDIES.
Following the proper order of things, we have now arrived at the
culminating point of the wonders manifested to us by the operations of
Nature. And even at the very outset, we find spontaneously presented
to us an incomparable illustration of her mysterious powers: so
much so, in fact, that beyond it we feel ourselves bound to forbear
extending our enquiries, there being nothing to be found either equal
or analogous to an element in which Nature quite triumphs over herself,
and that, too, in such numberless ways. For what is there more unruly
than the sea, with its winds, its tornadoes, and its tempests? And yet
in what department of her works has Nature been more seconded by the
ingenuity of man, than in this, by his inventions of sails and of oars?
In addition to this, we are struck with the ineffable might displayed
by the Ocean’s tides, as they constantly ebb and flow, and so regulate
the currents of the sea as though they were the waters of one vast
river.
And yet all these forces, though acting in unison, and impelling in the
same direction, a single fish, and that of a very diminutive size—the
fish known as the “echeneïs”[2]—possesses the power of counteracting.
Winds may blow and storms may rage, and yet the echeneïs controls their
fury, restrains their mighty force, and bids ships stand still in their
career; a result which no cables, no anchors, from their ponderousness
quite incapable of being weighed, could ever have produced! A fish
bridles the impetuous violence of the deep, and subdues the frantic
rage of the universe—and all this by no effort of its own, no act of
resistance on its part, no act at all, in fact, but that of adhering
to the bark! Trifling as this object would appear, it suffices to
counteract all these forces combined, and to forbid the ship to pass
onward in its way! Fleets, armed for war, pile up towers and bulwarks
on their decks, in order that, upon the deep even, men may fight from
behind ramparts as it were. But alas for human vanity!—when their
prows, beaked as they are with brass and with iron,[3] and armed for
the onset, can thus be arrested and rivetted to the spot by a little
fish, no more than some half foot in length!
At the battle of Actium, it is said, a fish of this kind stopped the
prætorian ship[4] of Antonius in its course, at the moment that he was
hastening from ship to ship to encourage and exhort his men, and so
compelled him to leave it and go on board another. Hence it was, that
the fleet of Cæsar gained the advantage[5] in the onset, and charged
with a redoubled impetuosity. In our own time, too, one of these fish
arrested the ship of the Emperor[6] Caius in its course, when he was
returning from Astura to Antium:[7] and thus, as the result proved,
did an insignificant fish give presage of great events; for no sooner
had the emperor returned to Rome than he was pierced by the weapons
of his own soldiers. Nor did this sudden stoppage of the ship long
remain a mystery, the cause being perceived upon finding that, out of
the whole fleet, the emperor’s five-banked galley was the only one
that was making no way. The moment this was discovered, some of the
sailors plunged into the sea, and, on making search about the ship’s
sides, they found an echeneïs adhering to the rudder. Upon its being
shown to the emperor, he strongly expressed his indignation that such
an obstacle as this should have impeded his progress, and have rendered
powerless the hearty endeavours of some four hundred men. One thing,
too, it is well known, more particularly surprised[8] him, how it was
possible that the fish, while adhering to the ship, should arrest its
progress, and yet should have no such power when brought on board.
According to the persons who examined it on that occasion, and who
have seen it since, the echeneïs bears a strong resemblance to a
large slug.[9] The various opinions entertained respecting it we
have already[10] noticed, when speaking of it in the Natural History
of Fishes. There is no doubt, too, that all fish of this kind are
possessed of a similar power; witness, for example, the well-known
instance of the shells[11] which are still preserved and consecrated
in the Temple of Venus at Cnidos, and which, we are bound to believe,
once gave such striking evidence of the possession of similar
properties. Some of our own authors have given this fish the Latin
name of “mora.”[12] It is a singular thing, but among the Greeks we
find writers who state that, worn as an amulet, the echeneïs has the
property,[13] as already mentioned, of preventing miscarriage, and of
reducing procidence of the uterus, and so permitting the fœtus to reach
maturity: while others, again, assert that, if it is preserved in salt
and worn as an amulet, it will facilitate parturition; a fact to which
it is indebted for another name which it bears, “odinolytes.”[14] Be
all this as it may, considering this most remarkable fact of a ship
being thus stopped in its course, who can entertain a doubt as to the
possibility of any manifestation of her power by Nature, or as to
the effectual operation of the remedies which she has centred in her
spontaneous productions?
CHAP. 2.—THE TORPEDO: NINE REMEDIES.
And then, besides, even if we had not this illustration by the agency
of the echeneïs, would it not have been quite sufficient only to cite
the instance of the torpedo,[15] another inhabitant also of the sea,
as a manifestation of the mighty powers of Nature? From a considerable
distance even, and if only touched with the end of a spear or staff,
this fish has the property of benumbing even the most vigorous arm, and
of rivetting the feet of the runner, however swift he may be in the
race. If, upon considering this fresh illustration, we find ourselves
compelled to admit that there is in existence a certain power which,
by the very exhalations[16] and, as it were, emanations therefrom, is
enabled to affect the members of the human body,[17] what are we not to
hope for from the remedial influences which Nature has centred in all
animated beings?
CHAP. 3.—THE SEA HARE: FIVE REMEDIES.
No less wonderful, too, are the particulars which we find stated
relative to the sea-hare.[18] Taken with the food or drink, it is a
poison to some persons; while to others, again, the very sight of it
is venomous.[19] Indeed, if a woman in a state of pregnancy so much
as looks upon one of these fishes, she is immediately seized with
nausea and vomiting—a proof that the injury has reached the stomach—and
abortion is the ultimate result. The proper preservative against these
baneful effects is the male fish, which is kept dried for the purpose
in salt, and worn in a bracelet upon the arm. And yet this same fish,
while in the sea, is not injurious, by its contact even. The only
animal that eats it without fatal consequences, is the mullet;[20] the
sole perceptible result being that its flesh is rendered more tender
thereby, but deteriorated in flavour, and consequently not so highly
esteemed.
Persons when poisoned[21] by the sea-hare smell strongly of the
fish—the first sign, indeed, by which the fact of their having been so
poisoned is detected. Death also ensues at the end of as many days as
the fish has lived: hence it is that, as Licinius Macer informs us,
this is one of those poisons which have no definite time for their
operation. In India,[22] we are assured, the sea-hare is never taken
alive; and, we are told that, in those parts of the world, man, in his
turn, acts as a poison upon the fish, which dies instantly in the sea,
if it is only touched with the human finger. There, like the rest of
the animals, it attains a much larger size than it does with us.
CHAP. 4.—MARVELS OF THE RED SEA.
Juba, in those books descriptive of Arabia, which he has dedicated to
Caius Cæsar, the son of Augustus, informs us that there are mussels[23]
on those coasts, the shells of which are capable of holding three
semisextarii; and that, on one occasion, a whale,[24] six hundred feet
in length and three hundred and sixty feet broad,[25] made its way up a
river of Arabia, the blubber of which was bought up by the merchants
there. He tells us, too, that in those parts they anoint their camels
with the grease of all kinds of fish, for the purpose of keeping off
the gad-flies[26] by the smell.
CHAP. 5. (2.)—THE INSTINCTS OF FISHES.
The statements which Ovid has made as to the instincts of fish, in the
work[27] of his known as the “Halieuticon,”[28] appear to me truly
marvellous. The scarus,[29] for instance, when enclosed in the wicker
kype, makes no effort to escape with its head, nor does it attempt to
thrust its muzzle between the oziers; but turning its tail towards
them, it enlarges the orifices with repeated blows therefrom, and so
makes its escape backwards. Should,[30] too, another scarus, from
without, chance to see it thus struggling within the kype, it will take
the tail of the other in its mouth, and so aid it in its efforts to
escape. The lupus,[31] again, when surrounded with the net, furrows[32]
the sand with its tail, and so conceals itself, until the net has
passed over it. The muræna,[33] trusting in the slippery smoothness[34]
of its rounded back, boldly faces the meshes of the net, and by
repeatedly wriggling its body, makes its escape. The polyp[35] makes
for the hooks, and, without swallowing the bait, clasps it with its
feelers; nor does it quit its hold until it has eaten off the bait, or
perceives itself being drawn out of the water by the rod.
The mullet,[36] too, is aware[37] that within the bait there is a hook
concealed, and is on its guard against the ambush; still however,
so great is its voracity, that it beats the hook with its tail, and
strikes away from it the bait. The lupus,[38] again, shows less
foresight and address, but repentance at its imprudence arms it with
mighty strength; for, when caught by the hook, it flounders from side
to side, and so widens the wound, till at last the insidious hook falls
from its mouth. The muræna[39] not only swallows the hook, but catches
at the line with its teeth, and so gnaws it asunder. The anthias,[40]
Ovid says, the moment it finds itself caught by the hook, turns its
body with its back downwards, upon which there is a sharp knife-like
fin, and so cuts the line asunder.
According to Licinius Macer, the muræna is of the female sex only, and
is impregnated by serpents, as already[41] mentioned; and hence it is
that the fishermen, to entice it from its retreat, and catch it, make
a hissing noise in imitation of the hissing of a serpent. He states,
also, that by frequently beating the water it is made to grow fat, that
a blow with a stout stick will not kill it, but that a touch with a
stalk of fennel-giant[42] is instantly fatal. That in the case of this
animal, the life is centred in the tail, there can be no doubt, as
also that it dies immediately on that part of the body being struck;
while, on the other hand, there is considerable difficulty in killing
it with a blow upon the head. Persons who have come in contact with the
razor-fish[43] smell of iron.[44] The hardest of all fishes, beyond a
doubt, is that known as the “orbis:”[45] it is spherical, destitute[46]
of scales, and all head.[47]
CHAP. 6.—MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES.
Trebius Niger informs us that whenever the loligo[48] is seen darting
above the surface of the water, it portends a change of weather: that
the xiphias,[49] or, in other words, the swordfish, has a sharp-pointed
muzzle, with which it is able to pierce the sides of a ship and send
it to the bottom: instances of which have been known near a place in
Mauritania, known as Cotte, not far from the river Lixus.[50] He says,
too, that the loligo sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast
numbers, as to sink the ships upon which they fall.
CHAP. 7.—PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.
At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the fish
eat[51] from the hand: but the stories of this nature, told with such
admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes formed by Nature,
and not to fish-preserves; that at Elorus, a fortified place in
Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse. In the fountain, too, of
Jupiter, at Labranda,[52] there are eels which eat from the hand, and
wear ear-rings,[53] it is said. The same, too, at Chios, near the Old
Men’s Temple[54] there; and at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia,
already mentioned.[55]
CHAP. 8.—PLACES WHERE FISH RECOGNIZE THE HUMAN VOICE. ORACULAR
RESPONSES GIVEN BY FISH.
At Myra, too, in Lycia, the fish in the Fountain of Apollo, known
as Surium, appear and give oracular presages, when thrice summoned
by the sound of a flute. If they seize the flesh thrown to them with
avidity, it is a good omen for the person who consults them; but if,
on the other hand, they flap at it with their tails, it is considered
an evil presage. At Hierapolis[56] in Syria, the fish in the Lake of
Venus there obey the voice of the officers of the temple: bedecked
with ornaments of gold, they come at their call, fawn upon them while
they are scratched, and open their mouths so wide as to admit of the
insertion of the hands.
Off the Rock of Hercules, in the territory of Stabiæ[57] in Campania,
the melanuri[58] seize with avidity bread that is thrown to them in the
sea, but they will never approach any bait in which there is a hook
concealed.
CHAP. 9.—PLACES WHERE BITTER FISH ARE FOUND, SALT, OR SWEET.
Nor is it by any means the least surprising fact, that off the island
of Pele,[59] the town of Clazomenæ,[60] the rock[61] [of Scylla]
in Sicily, and in the vicinity of Leptis in Africa,[62] Eubœa,
and Dyrrhachium,[63] the fish are bitter. In the neighbourhood of
Cephallenia, Ampelos, Paros, and the rocks of Delos, the fish are so
salt by nature that they might easily be taken to have been pickled in
brine. In the harbour, again, of the last-mentioned island, the fish
are sweet: differences, all of them, resulting, no doubt, from the
diversity[64] of their food.
Apion says that the largest among the fishes is the sea-pig,[65] known
to the Lacedæmonians as the “orthagoriscos;” he states also that it
grunts[66] like a hog when taken. These accidental varieties in the
natural flavour of fish—a thing that is still more surprising—may,
in some cases, be owing to the nature of the locality; an apposite
illustration of which is, the well-known fact that, at Beneventum[67]
in Italy, salted provisions of all kinds require[68] to be salted over
again.
CHAP. 10.—WHEN SEA-FISH WERE FIRST EATEN BY THE PEOPLE OF ROME. THE
ORDINANCE OF KING NUMA AS TO FISH.
Cassius Hemina informs us that sea-fish have been in use at Rome from
the time of its foundation. I will give his own words, however, upon
the subject:—“Numa ordained that fish without[69] scales should not
be served up at the Festivals of the Gods; a piece of frugality, the
intention of which was, that the banquets, both public and private, as
well as the repasts laid before the couches[70] of the gods, might be
provided at a smaller expense than formerly: it being also his wish to
preclude the risk that the caterers for the sacred banquets would spare
no expense in buying provisions, and so forestall the market.”
CHAP. 11.—CORAL: FORTY-THREE REMEDIES AND OBSERVATIONS.
In the same degree that people in our part of the world set a value
upon the pearls of India—a subject on which we have already spoken[71]
on the appropriate occasion at sufficient length—do the people of India
prize coral: it being the prevailing taste in each nation respectively
that constitutes the value of things. Coral is produced in the Red Sea
also, but of a more swarthy hue than ours. It is to be found also in
the Persian Gulf, where it is known by the name of “iace.” But the
most highly-esteemed of all, is that produced in the vicinity of the
islands called Stœchades,[72] in the Gallic Gulf, and near the Æolian
Islands and the town of Drepana in the Sea of Sicily. Coral is to be
found growing, too, at Graviscæ, and off the coast of Neapolis in
Campania: as also at Erythræ, where it is intensely red, but soft, and
consequently little valued.
Its form is that of a shrub,[73] and its colour green: its berries are
white and soft while under water, but the moment they are removed from
it, they become hard and red, resembling the berries of cultivated
cornel in size and appearance. They say that, while alive, if it is
only touched by a person, it will immediately become as hard as stone;
and hence it is that the greatest pains are taken to prevent this, by
tearing it up from the bottom with nets, or else cutting it short with
a sharp-edged instrument of iron: from which last circumstance it is
generally supposed to have received its name of “curalium.”[74] The
reddest coral and the most branchy is held in the highest esteem; but,
at the same time, it must not be rough or hard like stone; nor yet, on
the other hand, should it be full of holes or hollow.
The berries of coral are no less esteemed by the men in India than are
the pearls of that country by the females among us: their soothsayers,
too, and diviners look upon coral as an amulet endowed with sacred
properties,[75] and a sure preservative against all dangers: hence
it is that they equally value it as an ornament and as an object of
devotion. Before it was known in what estimation coral was held by
the people of India, the Gauls were in the habit of adorning their
swords, shields, and helmets with it; but at the present day, owing to
the value set upon it as an article of exportation, it has become so
extremely rare, that it is seldom to be seen even in the regions that
produce it. Branches of coral, hung at the neck of infants,[76] are
thought to act as a preservative against danger. Calcined, pulverized,
and taken in water, coral gives relief to patients suffering from
griping pains in the bowels, affections of the bladder, and urinary
calculi. Similarly taken in wine, or, if there are symptoms of fever,
in water, it acts as a soporific. It resists the action of fire a
considerable time before it is calcined.
There is also a statement made that if this medicament is frequently
taken internally, the spleen will be gradually consumed. Powdered
coral, too, is on excellent remedy for patients who bring up or spit
blood. Calcined coral is used as an ingredient in compositions for the
eyes, being productive of certain astringent and cooling effects: it
makes flesh, also, in the cavities left by ulcers, and effaces scars
upon the skin.
CHAP. 12.—THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES WHICH EXIST BETWEEN
CERTAIN OBJECTS. THE HATREDS MANIFESTED BY CERTAIN AQUATIC ANIMALS.
THE PASTINACA: EIGHT REMEDIES. THE GALEOS: FIFTEEN REMEDIES. THE
SUR-MULLET: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
In reference to that repugnance which exists between certain things,
known to the Greeks as “antipathia,” there is nothing more venomous[77]
than the pastinaca, a sea-fish which kills trees even with its sting,
as already[78] stated. And yet, poisonous as it is, the galeos[79]
pursues it; a fish which, though it attacks other marine animals as
well, manifests an enmity to the pastinaca in particular, just as on
dry land the weasel does to serpents; with such avidity does it go in
pursuit of what is poisonous even! Persons stung by the pustinaca find
a remedy in the flesh of the galeos, as also in that of the sur-mullet
and the vegetable production known as laser.[80]
CHAP. 13. (3).—AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. CASTOREUM: SIXTY-SIX REMEDIES AND
OBSERVATIONS.
The might of Nature, too, is equally conspicuous in the animals
which live upon dry land as well;[81] the beaver, for instance, more
generally known as “castor,” and the testes[82] of which are called
in medicine “castorea.” Sextius, a most careful enquirer into the
nature and history of medicinal substances, assures us that it is not
the truth that this animal, when on the point of being taken, bites
off its testes: he informs us, also, that these substances are small,
tightly knit, and attached to the back-bone, and that it is impossible
to remove them without taking the animal’s life. We learn from him that
there is a mode of adulterating them by substituting the kidneys of the
beaver, which are of considerable size, whereas the genuine testes are
found to be extremely diminutive: in addition to which, he says that
they must not be taken to be bladders, as they are two in number, a
provision not to be found in any animal. Within these pouches,[83] he
says, there is a liquid found, which is preserved by being put in salt;
the genuine castoreum being easily known from the false, by the fact
of its being contained in two pouches, attached by a single ligament.
The genuine article, he says, is sometimes fraudulently sophisticated
by the admixture of gum and blood, or else hammoniacum:[84] as the
pouches, in fact, ought to be of the same colour as this last, covered
with thin coats full of a liquid of the consistency of honey mixed with
wax, possessed of a fetid smell, of a bitter, acrid taste, and friable
to the touch.
The most efficacious castoreum is that which comes from Pontus and
Galatia, the next best being the produce of Africa. When inhaled, it
acts as a sternutatory. Mixed with oil of roses and peucedanum,[85]
and applied to the head, it is productive of narcotic effects—a result
which is equally produced by taking it in water; for which reason
it is employed in the treatment of phrenitis. Used as a fumigation,
it acts as an excitant upon patients suffering from lethargy: and
similarly employed, or used in the form of a suppository, it dispels
hysterical[86] suffocations. It acts also as an emmenagogue and as an
expellent of the afterbirth, being taken by the patient, in doses of
two drachmæ, with pennyroyal,[87] in water. It is employed also for the
cure of vertigo, opisthotony, fits of trembling, spasms, affections
of the sinews, sciatica, stomachic complaints, and paralysis, the
patient either being rubbed with it all over, or else taking it as an
electuary, bruised and incorporated with seed of vitex,[88] vinegar,
and oil of roses, to the consistency of honey. In the last form,
too, it is taken for the cure of epilepsy, and in a potion, for the
purpose of dispelling flatulency and gripings in the bowels, and for
counteracting the effects of poison.
When taken as a potion, the only difference is in the mode of mixing
it, according to the poison that it is intended to neutralize; thus,
for example, when it is taken for the sting of the scorpion, wine is
used as the medium; and when for injuries inflicted by spiders or by
the phalangium,[89] honied wine where it is intended to be brought
up again, and rue where it is desirable that it should remain upon
the stomach. For injuries inflicted by the chalcis,[90] it is taken
with myrtle wine; for the sting of the cerastes[91] or prester[92]
with panax[93] or rue in wine; and for those of other serpents, with
wine only. In all these cases two drachmæ of castoreum is the proper
dose, to one of the other ingredients respectively. It is particularly
useful, also, in combination with vinegar, in cases where viscus[94]
has been taken internally, and, with milk or water, as a neutralizer of
aconite: as an antidote to white hellebore it is taken with hydromel
and nitre.[95] It is curative, also, of tooth-ache, for which purpose
it is beaten up with oil and injected into the ear, on the side
affected. For the cure of ear-ache, the best plan is to mix it with
meconium.[96] Applied with Attic honey in the form of an ointment, it
improves the eyesight, and taken with vinegar it arrests hiccup.
The urine, too, of the beaver, is a neutralizer of poisons, and for
this reason is used as an ingredient in antidotes. The best way of
keeping it, some think, is in the bladder of the animal.
CHAP. 14. (4.)—THE TORTOISE: SIXTY-SIX REMEDIES AND OBSERVATIONS.
The tortoise,[97] too, is an animal that is equally amphibious with the
beaver, and possessed of medicinal properties as strongly developed;
in addition to which, it claims an equal degree of notice for the
high price which luxury sets upon its shell,[98] and the singularity
of its conformation. Of tortoises, there are various kinds, land
tortoises,[99] sea tortoises,[100] tortoises[101] which live in muddy
waters, and tortoises[101] which live in fresh; these last being
known to some Greek authors by the name of “emydes.” The flesh of
the land-tortoise is employed for fumigations more particularly, and
we find it asserted that it is highly salutary for repelling the
malpractices of magic, and for neutralizing poisons. These tortoises
are found in the greatest numbers in Africa; where the head and feet
being first cut off, it is said, they are given to persons by way of
antidote. Eaten, too, in a broth made from them, they are thought to
disperse scrofula, diminish the volume of the spleen, and effect the
cure of epilepsy. The blood of the land-tortoise improves the eyesight,
and removes cataract: it is kept also, made up with meal into pills,
which are given with wine when necessary, to neutralize the poison of
all kinds of serpents, frogs, spiders, and similar venomous animals. It
is found a useful plan, too, in cases of glaucoma, to anoint the eyes
with gall of tortoises, mixed with Attic honey, and, for the cure of
injuries inflicted by scorpions, to drop the gall into the wound.
Ashes of tortoiseshell, kneaded up with wine and oil, are used for the
cure of chaps upon the feet, and of ulcerations. The shavings of the
surface of the shell, administered in drink, act as an antaphrodisiac:
a thing that is the more surprising, from the fact that a powder
prepared from the whole of the shell has the reputation of being a
strong aphrodisiac. As to the urine of the land-tortoise, I do not
think that it can be obtained otherwise than by opening it and taking
out the bladder; this being one of those substances to which the adepts
in magic attribute such marvellous properties. For the sting of the
asp, they say, it is wonderfully effectual; and even more so, if bugs
are mixed with it. The eggs of the tortoise, hardened by keeping, are
applied to scrofulous sores and ulcers arising from burns or cold: they
are taken also for pains in the stomach.
The flesh of the sea-tortoise,[102] mixed with that of frogs, is an
excellent remedy for injuries caused by the salamander;[103] indeed
there is nothing that is a better neutralizer of the secretions of the
salamander than the sea-tortoise. The blood of this animal reproduces
the hair when lost through alopecy, and is curative of porrigo and all
kinds of ulcerations of the head; the proper method of using it being
to let it dry, and then gently wash it off. For the cure of ear-ache,
this blood is injected with woman’s milk, and for epilepsy it is eaten
with fine wheaten flour, three heminæ of the blood being mixed with one
hemina of vinegar. It is prescribed also for the cure of asthma; but
in this case in combination with one hemina of wine. Sometimes, too,
it is taken by asthmatic patients, with barley-meal and vinegar, in
pieces about the size of a bean; one of these pieces being taken each
morning and evening at first, but after some days, two in the evening.
In cases of epilepsy, the mouth of the patient is opened and this blood
introduced. For spasmodic affections, when not of a violent nature, it
is injected, in combination with castoreum, as a clyster. If a person
rinses his teeth three times a year with blood of tortoises, he will be
always exempt from tooth-ache. This blood is also a cure for asthmatic
affections, and for the malady called “orthopnœa,” being administered
for these purposes in polenta.
The gall of the tortoise improves the eye-sight, effaces scars, and
cures affections of the tonsillary glands, quinsy, and all kinds of
diseases of the mouth, cancers of that part more particularly, as well
as cancer of the testes. Applied to the nostrils it dispels epilepsy,
and sets the patient on his feet: incorporated in vinegar with the
slough of a snake, it is a sovereign remedy for purulent discharges
from the ears. Some persons add ox-gall and the broth of boiled
tortoise-flesh, with an equal proportion of snake’s slough; but in
such case, care must be taken to boil the tortoise in wine. Applied
with honey, this gall is curative of all diseases of the eyes; and for
the cure of cataract, gall of the sea-tortoise is used, in combination
with blood of the river-tortoise and milk. The hair, too, of females,
is dyed[104] with this gall. For the cure of injuries inflicted by the
salamander, it will be quite sufficient to drink the broth of boiled
tortoise-flesh.
There is, again, a third[105] kind of tortoise, which inhabits mud
and swampy localities: the shell on its back is flat and broad, like
that upon the breast, and the callipash is not arched and rounded, the
creature being altogether of a repulsive appearance. However, there
are some remedial medicaments to be derived even from this animal.
Thus, for instance, three of them are thrown into a fire made with
wood cuttings, and the moment their shells begin to separate they are
taken off: the flesh is then removed, and boiled with a little salt,
in one congius of water. When the water has boiled down to one third,
the broth is used, being taken by persons apprehensive of paralysis
or of diseases of the joints. The gall, too, is found very useful for
carrying off pituitous humours and corrupt blood: taken in cold water,
it has an astringent effect upon the bowels.
There is a fourth kind of tortoise, which frequents rivers. When used
for its remedial properties, the shell of the animal is removed,
and the fat separated from the flesh and beaten up with the plant
aizoüm,[106] in combination with unguent and lily seed: a preparation
highly effectual, it is said, for the cure of quartan fevers, the
patient being rubbed with it all over, the head excepted, just before
the paroxysms come on, and then well wrapped up and made to drink hot
water. It is stated also, that to obtain as much fat as possible, the
tortoise should be taken on the fifteenth day of the moon, the patient
being anointed on the sixteenth. The blood of this tortoise, dropt, by
way of embrocation, upon the region of the brain, allays head-ache;
it is curative also of scrofulous sores. Some persons recommend that
the tortoise should be laid[107] upon its back and its head cut off
with a copper knife, the blood being received in a new earthen vessel;
and they assure us that the blood of any kind of tortoise, when thus
obtained, will be an excellent liniment for the cure of erysipelas,
running ulcers upon the head, and warts. Upon the same authority, too,
we are assured that the dung of any kind of tortoise is good for the
removal of inflammatory tumours. Incredible also as the statement is,
we find it asserted by some, that ships[108] make way more slowly when
they have the right foot of a tortoise on board.
CHAP. 15.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC ANIMALS, CLASSIFIED
ACCORDING TO THE RESPECTIVE DISEASES.
We will now proceed to classify the various remedies derived from the
aquatic animals, according to the several diseases; not that we are
by any means unaware that an exposition of all the properties of each
animal at once, would be more to the reader’s taste, and more likely
to excite his admiration; but because we consider it more conducive
to the practical benefit of mankind to have the various recipes thus
grouped and classified; seeing that this thing may be good for one
patient, that for another, and that some of these remedies may be more
easily met with in one place and some in another.
CHAP. 16. (5.)—REMEDIES FOR POISONS, AND FOR NOXIOUS SPELLS. THE
DORADE: FOUR REMEDIES. THE SEA-STAR: SEVEN REMEDIES.
We have already[109] stated in what country the honey is venomous: the
fish known as the dorade[110] is an antidote to its effects. Honey,
even in a pure state, is sometimes productive of surfeit, and of
fits of indigestion, remarkable for their severity; the best remedy
in such case, according to Pelops, is to cut off the feet, head, and
tail, of a tortoise, and boil and eat the body; in place, however, of
the tortoise, Apelles mentions the scincus, an animal which has been
described elsewhere.[111] We have already mentioned too, on several
occasions,[112] how highly venomous is the menstruous fluid: the
surmullet, as already[113] stated, entirely neutralizes its effects.
This last fish, too, either applied topically or taken as food, acts
as an antidote to the venom[114] of the pastinaca, the land and sea
scorpion, the dragon,[115] and the phalangium.[116] The head of this
fish, taken fresh and reduced to ashes, is an active neutralizer of all
poisons, that of fungi more particularly.
It is asserted also, that if the fish called the sea-star[117] is
smeared with a fox’s blood, and then nailed to the upper lintel of the
door, or to the door itself, with a copper nail, no noxious spells will
be able to obtain admittance, or, at all events, to be productive of
any ill effects.
CHAP. 17.—REMEDIES FOR THE STINGS OF SERPENTS, FOR THE BITES OF DOGS,
AND FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY VENOMOUS ANIMALS. THE SEA-DRAGON: THREE
REMEDIES. TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM SALTED FISH. THE SARDA: ONE
REMEDY. ELEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CYBIUM.
Stings inflicted by the sea-dragon[118] or by the sea-scorpion, are
cured by an application[119] of the flesh of those animals to the
wound; the bites, too, of spiders are healed by the same means. In
fine, as an antidote to every kind of poison, whether taken internally
or acting through the agency of a sting or bite, there is considered
to be nothing in existence more effectual than a decoction of the
sea-dragon and sea-scorpion.
There are also certain remedies of this nature derived from preserved
fish. Persons, for instance, who have received injuries from serpents,
or have been bitten by other venomous animals, are recommended to eat
salt fish, and to drink undiluted wine every now and then, so as,
through its agency, to bring up the whole of the food again by vomit:
this method being particularly good in cases where injuries have been
received from the lizard called “chalcis,”[120] the cerastes,[121] the
reptile known as the “seps,”[122] the elops,[123] or the dipsas.[124]
For the sting of the scorpion, salted fish should be taken in larger
quantities, but not brought up again, the patient submitting to any
amount of thirst it may create: salt fish, too, should be applied, by
way of plaster, to the wound. For the bite of the crocodile there is
no more efficient remedy known. For the sting of the serpent called
“prester,” the sarda[125] is particularly good. Salt fish is employed
also as a topical application for the bite of the mad dog; and even in
cases where the wound has not been cauterized with hot iron, this is
found to be sufficiently effectual as a remedy. For injuries, also,
inflicted by the sea-dragon,[126] an application is made of salt fish
steeped in vinegar. Cybium,[127] too, is productive of similar effects.
As a cure for the venomous sting inflicted with its stickle by the
sea-dragon, the fish itself is applied topically to the wound, or else
its brain, extracted whole.
CHAP. 18.—THE SEA-FROG: SIX REMEDIES. THE RIVER-FROG: FIFTY-TWO
REMEDIES. THE BRAMBLE-FROG: ONE REMEDY. THIRTY-TWO OBSERVATIONS ON
THESE ANIMALS.
The broth prepared from sea-frogs,[128] boiled in wine and vinegar,
is taken internally as a neutralizer of poisons and of the venom
of the bramble-frog,[129] as also for injuries inflicted by the
salamander.[130] For the cure of injuries caused by the sea-hare
and the various serpents above mentioned, it is a good plan to eat
the flesh of river-frogs, or to drink the liquor in which they have
been boiled: as a neutralizer, too, of the venom of the scorpion,
river-frogs are taken in wine. Democritus assures us that if the
tongue is extracted from a live frog, with no other part of the body
adhering to it, and is then applied—the frog being first replaced in
the water—to a woman while asleep, just at the spot where the heart is
felt to palpitate, she will be sure to give a truthful answer to any
question that may be put to her.
To this the Magi[131] add some other particulars, which, if there is
any truth in them, would lead us to believe that frogs ought to be
considered much more useful to society than laws.[132] They say, for
instance, that if a man takes a frog and transfixes it with a reed,
entering the body at the sexual parts and coming out at the mouth, and
then dips the reed in the menstrual discharge of his wife, she will
be sure to conceive an aversion for all paramours. That the flesh of
frogs, attached to the kype or hook, as the case may be, makes a most
excellent bait, for purples more particularly, is a well-known fact.
Frogs, they say, have a double[133] liver; and of this liver, when
exposed to the attacks of ants, the part that is most eaten away is
thought to be an effectual antidote to every kind of poison.
There are some frogs, again, which live only among brakes and thickets,
for which reason they have received the name of “rubetæ,”[134]
or “bramble-frogs,” as already[135] stated. The Greeks call them
“phryni:” they are the largest in size of all the frogs, have two
protuberances[136] like horns, and are full[137] of poison. Authors
quite vie with one another in relating marvellous stories about them;
such, for instance, as that if they are brought into the midst of a
concourse of people, silence will instantly prevail; as also that by
throwing into boiling water a small bone that is found in their right
side, the vessel will immediately cool, and the water refuse to boil
again until it has been removed. This bone, they say, may be found by
exposing a dead bramble-frog to ants, and letting them eat away the
flesh: after which the bones must be put into the vessel,[138] one by
one.
On the other hand, again, in the left side of this reptile there
is another bone, they say, which, thrown into water, has all the
appearance of making it boil, and the name given to which is
“apocynon.”[139] This bone, it is said, has the property of assuaging
the fury of dogs, and, if put into the drink, of conciliating love
and ending discord and strife. Worn, too, as an amulet, it acts as an
aphrodisiac, we are told. The bone, on the contrary, which is taken
from the right side, acts powerfully as a refrigerative upon boiling
liquids, it is said: attached to the patient in a piece of fresh
lamb’s-skin, it has the repute of assuaging quartan and other fevers,
and of checking amorous propensities. The spleen of these frogs is used
as an antidote to the various poisons that are prepared from them; and
for all these purposes the liver is considered still more efficacious.
CHAP. 19.—THE ENHYDRIS: SIX REMEDIES. THE RIVER-CRAB: FOURTEEN
REMEDIES. THE SEA-CRAB: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE RIVER-SNAIL: SEVEN
REMEDIES. THE CORACINUS: FOUR REMEDIES. THE SEA-PIG: TWO REMEDIES.
There is also a snake[140] which lives in the water, the fat and
gall of which, carried about them by persons when in pursuit of
the crocodile, are said to be marvellously efficacious, the beast
not venturing, in such case, to make an attack upon them. As such
preservative, they are still more effectual if mixed with the
herbaceous plant known as potamogiton.[141] River-crabs,[142] taken
fresh and beaten up and drunk in water, or the ashes of them, kept for
the purpose, are useful in all cases of poisoning, as a counter-poison:
taken with asses’ milk they are particularly serviceable as a
neutralizer of the venom of the scorpion; goats’ milk or any other
kind of milk being substituted where asses’ milk cannot be procured.
Wine, too, should also be used in all such cases. River-crabs, beaten
up with ocimum,[143] and applied to scorpions, are fatal to them. They
are possessed of similar virtues, also, for the bites of all other
kinds of venomous animals, the scytale[144] in particular, adders, the
sea-hare, and the bramble-frog. The ashes of them, preserved, are good
for persons who give symptoms of hydrophobia after being bitten by a
mad dog, some adding gentian as well, and administering the mixture
in wine. In cases, too, where hydrophobia has already appeared, it is
recommended that these ashes should be kneaded up into boluses with
wine, and swallowed. If ten of these crabs are tied together with a
handful of ocimum,[145] all the scorpions in the neighbourhood, the
magicians say, will be attracted to the spot. They recommend, also,
that to wounds inflicted by the scorpion, these crabs, or the ashes of
them, should be applied, with ocimum. For all these purposes, however,
sea-crabs, it should be remembered, are not so useful. Thrasyllus
informs us that there is nothing so antagonistic to serpents as crabs;
that swine, when stung by a serpent, cure themselves by eating them;
and that, while the sun is in the sign of Cancer,[146] serpents suffer
the greatest tortures.
The flesh, too, of river-snails, eaten either raw or boiled, is an
excellent antidote to the venom of the scorpion, some persons keeping
them salted for the purpose. These snails are applied, also, topically
to the wound.
The coracinus[147] is a fish peculiar to the river Nilus, it is true,
but the particulars we are here relating are for the benefit of all
parts of the world: the flesh of it is most excellent as an application
for the cure of wounds inflicted by scorpions. In the number of the
poisonous fishes we ought to reckon the sea-pig,[148] a fish which
causes great suffering to those who have been pierced with the pointed
fin upon its back: the proper remedy in such case is the slime taken
from the other parts of the body of the fish.
CHAP. 20.—THE SEA-CALF: TEN REMEDIES. THE MURÆNA: ONE REMEDY. THE
HIPPOCAMPUS: NINE REMEDIES. THE SEA-URCHIN: ELEVEN REMEDIES.
In cases of hydrophobia resulting from the bite of the mad dog, the
practice is to rub the patient’s face with the fat of the sea-calf; an
application rendered still more efficacious by the admixture of hyæna’s
marrow, oil of mastich, and wax. Bites inflicted by the muræna are
cured by an application of the head of that fish, reduced to ashes. The
pastinaca,[149] also, is remedial for its own bite, the ashes of the
same fish, or of another of the same genus, being applied to the wound
with vinegar. When this fish is intended for food, every portion of the
back that is of a saffron colour should be removed, as well as the
whole of the head: care, too, should be taken not to wash it over much;
an observation equally applicable to all kinds of shell-fish, when
intended for food, the flavour being deteriorated[150] thereby.
The hippocampus,[151] taken in drink, neutralizes the poison of the
sea-hare. As a counter-poison to dorycnium,[152] sea-urchins are
remarkably useful; as also in cases where persons have taken juice of
carpathum[153] internally; more particularly if the urchins are used
with the liquor in which they are boiled. Boiled sea-crabs, too, are
looked upon as highly efficacious in cases of poisoning by dorycnium;
and as a neutralizer of the venom of the sea-hare they are particularly
good.
CHAP. 21. (6.)—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF OYSTERS: FIFTY-EIGHT REMEDIES AND
OBSERVATIONS. PURPLES: NINE REMEDIES.
Oysters, too, neutralize the venom of the sea-hare—and now that we
are speaking of oysters, it may possibly be thought that I have not
treated of this subject at sufficient length in the former part[154]
of my work, seeing that for this long time past the palm has been
awarded to them at our tables as a most exquisite dish. Oysters love
fresh water and spots[155] where numerous rivers discharge themselves
into the sea; hence it is that the pelagia[156] are of such small size
and so few in number. Still, however, we do find them breeding among
rocks and in places far remote from the contact of fresh water, as in
the neighbourhood of Grynium[157] and of Myrina,[158] for example.
Generally speaking, they increase in size with the increase of the
moon, as already stated by us when[159] treating of the aquatic
animals: but it is at the beginning of summer, more particularly, and
when the rays of the sun penetrate the shallow waters, that they are
swollen with an abundance of milk.[160] This, too, would appear to be
the reason why they are so small when found out at sea; the opacity of
the water tending to arrest their growth, and the moping consequent
thereon producing a comparative indisposition for food.
Oysters are of various colours; in Spain they are red, in Illyricum of
a tawny hue, and at Circeii[161] black, both in meat and shell. But
in every country, those oysters are the most highly esteemed that are
compact without being slimy from their secretions, and are remarkable
more for their thickness than their breadth. They should never be taken
in either muddy or sandy spots, but from a firm, hard bottom; the
meat[162] should be compressed, and not of a fleshy consistence; and
the oyster should be free from fringed edges, and lying wholly in the
cavity of the shell. Persons of experience in these matters add another
characteristic; a fine purple thread, they say, should run round the
margins of the beard, this being looked upon as a sign of superior
quality, and obtaining for them their name of “calliblephara.”[163]
Oysters are all the better for travelling and being removed to new
waters; thus, for example, the oysters of Brundisium, it is thought,
when fed in the waters of Avernus, both retain their own native juices
and acquire the flavour of those of Lake Lucrinus.[164] Thus much with
reference to the meat of the oyster; we will now turn to the various
countries which produce it, so that no coast may be deprived of the
honours which properly belong to it. But in giving this description
we will speak in the language of another, using the words of a writer
who has evinced more careful discernment in treating of this subject
than any of the other authors of our day. These then are the words of
Mucianus, in reference to the oyster:—“The oysters of Cyzicus[165] are
larger than those of Lake Lucrinus,[166] fresher[167] than those of
the British coasts,[168] sweeter[169] than those of Medulæ,[170] more
tasty[171] than those of Ephesus, more plump than those of Lucus,[172]
less slimy than those of Coryphas,[173] more delicate than those of
Istria,[174] and whiter than those of Circeii.”[175] For all this,
however, it is a fact well ascertained that there are no oysters
fresher or more delicate than those of Circeii, last mentioned.
According to the historians of the expedition of Alexander, there
were oysters found in the Indian Sea a foot[176] in diameter: among
ourselves, too, the nomenclature of some spendthrift and gourmand has
found for certain oysters the name of “tridacna,”[177] wishing it to
be understood thereby, that they are so large as to require three
bites in eating them. We will take the present opportunity of stating
all the medicinal properties that are attributed to oysters. They are
singularly refreshing[178] to the stomach, and tend to restore the
appetite. Luxury, too, has imparted to them an additional coolness by
burying them in snow, thus making a medley of the produce of the tops
of mountains and the bottom of the sea. Oysters are slightly laxative
to the bowels; and boiled in honied wine, they relieve tenesmus, in
cases where it is unattended with ulceration. They act detergently also
upon ulcerations of the bladder.[179] Boiled in their shells, unopened
just as they come to hand, oysters are marvellously efficacious for
rheumatic defluxions. Calcined oyster-shells, mixed with honey,
allay affections of the uvula and of the tonsillary glands: they are
similarly used for imposthumes of the parotid glands, inflamed tumours,
and indurations of the mamillæ. Applied with water, these ashes are
good for ulcerations of the head, and impart a plumpness to the skin in
females. They are sprinkled, too, upon burns, and are highly esteemed
as a dentifrice. Applied with vinegar, they are good for the removal of
prurigo and of pituitous eruptions. Beaten up in a raw state, they are
curative of scrofula and of chilblains upon the feet.
Purples, too, are useful[180] as a counterpoison.
CHAP. 22.—SEA-WEED: TWO REMEDIES.
According to Nicander, sea-weed is also a theriac.[181] There are
numerous varieties of it, as already[182] stated; one, for instance,
with an elongated leaf, another red, another again with a broader leaf,
and another crisped. The most esteemed kind of all is that which grows
off the shores of Crete, upon the rocks there, close to the ground:
it being used also for dyeing wool, as it has the property[183] of
so fixing the colours as never to allow of their being washed out.
Nicander recommends it to be taken with wine.
CHAP. 23. (7.)—REMEDIES FOR ALOPECY, CHANGE OF COLOUR IN THE HAIR, AND
ULCERATIONS OF THE HEAD. THE SEA-MOUSE: TWO REMEDIES, THE SEA-SCORPION:
TWELVE REMEDIES. THE LEECH: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE MUREX: THIRTEEN
REMEDIES. THE CONCHYLIUM: FIVE REMEDIES.
Ashes of the hippocampus,[184] mixed with nitre[185] and hog’s lard, or
else used solely with vinegar, are curative of alopecy; the skin being
first prepared for the reception of the necessary medicaments by an
application of powdered bone of sæpia.[186] Alopecy is cured also with
ashes of the sea-mouse,[187] mixed with oil; ashes of the sea-urchin,
burnt, flesh and all together; the gall of the sea-scorpion;[188] or
else ashes of three frogs burnt alive in an earthen pot, applied with
honey, or what is still better, in combination with tar. Leeches left
to putrefy for forty days in red wine stain the hair black. Others,
again, recommend one sextarius of leeches to be left to putrefy the
same number of days in a leaden vessel, with two sextarii of vinegar,
the hair to be well rubbed with the mixture in the sun. According
to Sornatius, this preparation is naturally so penetrating, that if
females, when they apply it, do not take the precaution of keeping
some oil in the mouth, the teeth even will become blackened thereby.
Ashes of burnt shells of the murex or purple are used as a liniment,
with honey, for ulcerations of the head; the shells, too, of other
shell-fish,[189] powdered merely, and not calcined, are very useful
for the same purpose, applied with water. For the cure of head-ache,
castoreum is employed, in combination with peucedanum[190] and oil of
roses.
CHAP. 24.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES AND EYELIDS. TWO REMEDIES
DERIVED FROM THE FAT OF FISHES. THE CALLIONYMUS: THREE REMEDIES. THE
GALL OF THE CORACINUS: ONE REMEDY. THE SÆPIA: TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES.
ICHTHYOCOLLA: FIVE REMEDIES.
The fat of all kinds of fish, both fresh-water as well as sea fish,
melted in the sun and incorporated with honey, is an excellent
improver of the eye-sight;[191] the same, too, with castoreum,[192] in
combination with honey. The gall of the callionymus[193] heals marks
upon the eyes and cauterizes fleshy excrescences about those organs:
indeed, there is no fish with a larger quantity of gall than this, an
opinion expressed too by Menander in his Comedies.[194] This fish is
known also as the “uranoscopos,”[195] from the eyes being situate in
the upper part of the head.[196] The gall, too, of the coracinus[197]
has the effect of sharpening the eyesight.
The gall of the red sea-scorpion,[198] used with stale oil or Attic
honey, disperses incipient cataract; for which purpose, the application
should be made three times, on alternate days. A similar method is
also employed for removing indurations[199] of the membrane of the
eyes. The surmullet, used as a diet, weakens the eyesight, it is said.
The sea-hare is poisonous itself, but the ashes of it are useful as
an application for preventing superfluous hairs on the eyelids from
growing again, when they have been once pulled out by the roots. For
this purpose, however, the smaller the fish is, the better. Small
scallops, too, are salted and beaten up with cedar resin for a similar
purpose, or else the frogs known as “diopetes”[200] and “calamitæ,”
are used; the blood of them being applied with vine gum to the eyelids,
after the hairs have been removed.
Powdered shell[201] of sæpia, applied with woman’s milk, allays
swellings and inflammations of the eyes; employed by itself it removes
eruptions of the eyelids. When this remedy is used, it is the practice
to turn up the eyelids, and to leave the medicament there a few moments
only; after which, the part is anointed with oil of roses, and the
inflammation modified by the application of a bread-poultice. Powdered
bone of sæpia is used also for the treatment of nyctalopy, being
applied to the eyes with vinegar. Reduced to ashes, this substance
removes scales upon the eyes: applied with honey, it effaces marks upon
those organs: and used with salt and cadmia,[202] one drachma of each,
it disperses webs which impede the eyesight, as also albugo in the eyes
of cattle. They say, too, that if the eyelids are rubbed with the small
bone[203] taken from this fish, a perfect cure will be experienced.
Sea-urchins, applied with vinegar, cause epinyctis to disappear.
According to what the magicians say, they should be burnt with vipers’
skins and frogs, and the ashes sprinkled in the drink; a great
improvement of the eyesight being guaranteed as the sure result.
“Ichthyocolla”[204] is the name given to a fish with a glutinous skin;
the glue made from which is also known by the same name, and is highly
useful for the removal of epinyctis. Some persons, however, assert that
it is from the belly of the fish, and not the skin—as in the case of
bull glue—that the ichthyocolla is prepared. That of Pontus[205] is
highly esteemed: it is white, free from veins or scales, and dissolves
with the greatest rapidity. The proper way of using it, is to cut it
into small pieces, and then to leave it to soak in water or vinegar
a night and a day, after which it should be pounded with sea-shore
pebbles, to make it melt the more easily. It is generally asserted that
this substance is good for pains in the head and for tetanus.
The right eye of a frog, suspended from the neck in a piece of cloth
made from wool of the natural colour,[206] is a cure for ophthalmia in
the right eye; and the left eye of a frog, similarly suspended, for
ophthalmia in the left. If the eyes, too, of a frog are taken out at
the time of the moon’s conjunction, and similarly worn by the patient,
enclosed in an eggshell, they will effectually remove indurations of
the membrane of the eyes. The rest of the flesh applied topically,
removes all marks resulting from blows. The eyes, too, of a crab, worn
attached to the neck, by way of amulet, are a cure for ophthalmia, it
is said. There is a small frog[207] which lives in reed-beds and among
grass more particularly, never croaks, being quite destitute of voice,
is of a green colour, and is apt to cause tympanitis in cattle, if
they should happen to swallow it. The slimy moisture on this reptile’s
body, scraped off with a spatula and applied to the eyes, greatly
improves the sight, they say: the flesh, too, is employed as a topical
application for the removal of pains in the eyes.
Some persons take fifteen frogs, and after spitting them upon as many
bulrushes, put them into a new earthen vessel: they then mix the juices
which flow from them, with gum of the white vine,[208] and use it as
an application for the eye-lids; first pulling out such eye-lashes
as are in the way, and then dropping the preparation with the point
of a needle into the places from which the hairs have been removed.
Meges[209] used to prepare a depilatory for the eyelids, by killing
frogs in vinegar, and leaving them to putrefy; for which purpose
he employed the spotted frogs which make their appearance in vast
numbers[210] during the rains of autumn. Ashes of burnt leeches, it
is thought, applied in vinegar, are productive of a similar effect;
care must be taken, however, to burn them in a new earthen vessel.
Dried liver, too, of the tunny,[211] made up into an ointment, in
the proportion of four denarii, with oil of cedar, and applied as
a depilatory for nine months together, is considered to be highly
effectual for this purpose.
CHAP. 25.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EARS. THE BATIA: ONE REMEDY. THE
BACCHUS OR MYXON: TWO REMEDIES. THE SEA-LOUSE: TWO REMEDIES.
For diseases of the ears, fresh gall of the fish called “batia”[212]
is remarkably good; the same, too, when it has been kept in wine. The
gall, also, of the bacchus,[213] by some known as the “myxon,” is
equally good; as also that of the callionymus,[214] injected into the
ears with oil of roses, or else castoreum,[215] used with poppy-juice.
There are certain animals too, known as “sea-lice,”[216] which are
recommended as an injection for the ears, beaten up with vinegar.
Wool, too, that has been dyed with the juice of the murex, employed
by itself, is highly useful for this purpose; some persons, however
moisten it with vinegar and nitre.[217]
Others, again, more particularly recommend for all affections of the
ears one cyathus of the best garum,[218] with one cyathus and a half
of honey, and one cyathus of vinegar, the whole gently boiled in a new
pot over a slow fire, and skimmed with a feather every now and then:
when it has become wholly free from scum, it is injected lukewarm into
the ears. In cases where the ears are swollen, the same authorities
recommend that the swellings should be first reduced with juice of
coriander. The fat of frogs, injected into the ears, instantly removes
all pains in these organs. The juice of river-crabs, kneaded up with
barley-meal, is a most effectual remedy for wounds in the ears. Shells
of the murex, reduced to ashes, and applied with honey, or the burnt
shells of other shell-fish,[219] used with honied wine, are curative of
imposthumes of the parotid glands.
CHAP. 26.—REMEDIES FOR TOOTH-ACHE. THE DOG-FISH: FOUR REMEDIES. WHALE’S
FLESH.
Tooth-ache is alleviated by scarifying the gums with bones of the
sea-dragon, or by rubbing the teeth once a year with the brains of a
dog-fish[220] boiled in oil, and kept for the purpose. It is a very
good plan too, for the cure of tooth-ache, to lance the gums with
the sting of the pastinaca[221] in some cases. This sting, too, is
pounded, and applied to the teeth with white hellebore, having the
effect of extracting them without the slightest difficulty. Another of
these remedies is, ashes of salted fish calcined in an earthen vessel,
mixed with powdered marble. Stale cybium,[222] rinsed in a new earthen
vessel, and then pounded, is very useful for the cure of tooth-ache.
Equally good, it is said, are the back-bones of all kinds of salt fish,
pounded and applied in a liniment. A decoction is made of a single frog
boiled in one hemina of vinegar, and the teeth are rinsed with it, the
decoction being retained in the mouth. In cases where a repugnance
existed to making use of this remedy, Sallustius Dionysius[223] used
to suspend frogs over boiling vinegar by the hind legs, so as to make
them discharge their humours into the vinegar by the mouth, using
considerable numbers of frogs for the purpose: to those, however, who
had a stronger stomach, he prescribed the frogs themselves, eaten with
their broth. It is generally thought, too, that this recipe applies
more particularly to the double teeth, and that the vinegar prepared as
above-mentioned, is remarkably useful for strengthening them when loose.
For this last purpose, some persons cut off the legs of two frogs,
and then macerate the bodies in two heminæ of wine, recommending this
preparation as a collutory for strengthening loose teeth. Others attach
the frogs, whole, to the exterior of the jaws:[224] and with some it is
the practice to boil ten frogs, in three sextarii of vinegar, down to
one-third, and to use the decoction as a strengthener of loose teeth.
By certain authorities, too, it has been recommended to boil the hearts
of six-and-thirty frogs beneath a copper vessel, in one sextarius of
old oil, and then to inject the decoction into the ear on the same side
of the jaw as the part affected: while others again have used, as an
application for the teeth, a frog’s liver, boiled, and beaten up with
honey. All the preparations above described will be found still more
efficacious if made from the sea-frog.[225] In cases where the teeth
are carious and emit an offensive smell, it is recommended to dry some
whale’s[226] flesh in an oven for a night, and then to add an equal
quantity of salt, and use the mixture as a dentifrice. “Enhydris”[227]
is the name given by the Greeks to a snake that lives in the water.
With the four upper teeth of this reptile, it is the practice, for the
cure of aching in the upper teeth, to lance the upper gums, and with
the four lower teeth, for aching in the lower. Some persons, however,
content themselves with using an eyetooth only. Ashes, too, of burnt
crabs are used for this purpose; and the murex, reduced to ashes, makes
an excellent dentifrice.
CHAP. 27.—REMEDIES FOR LICHENS, AND FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE. THE
DOLPHIN: NINE REMEDIES. COLUTHIA OR CORYPHIA: THREE REMEDIES.
HALCYONEUM: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE TUNNY: FIVE REMEDIES.
Lichens and leprous spots are removed by applying the fat of the
sea-calf,[228] ashes of the mæna[229] in combination with three oboli
of honey, liver of the pastinaca[230] boiled in oil, or ashes of the
dolphin or hippocampus[231] mixed with water. After the parts have
been duly excoriated, a cicatrizing treatment ought to be pursued.
Some persons bake dolphin’s liver in an earthen vessel, till a grease
flows therefrom like oil[232] in appearance: this they use by way of
ointment for these diseases.
Burnt shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey, have a
detergent effect upon spots on the face in females: used as an
application for seven consecutive days, a fomentation made of white
of eggs being substituted on the eighth, they efface wrinkles, and
plump out the skin. To the genus “murex” belong the shell-fish known
by the Greeks as “coluthia” or “coryphia,” equally turbinated, but
considerably smaller: for all the above purposes they are still more
efficacious, and the use of them tends to preserve the sweetness of
the breath. Fish-glue[233] effaces wrinkles and plumps out the skin;
being boiled for the purpose in water some four hours, and then
pounded and kneaded up till it attains a thin consistency, like that
of honey. After being thus prepared, it is put by in a new vessel for
keeping; and, when wanted for use, is mixed, in the proportion of four
drachmæ, with two drachmæ of sulphur, two of alkanet, and eight of
litharge; the whole being sprinkled with water and beaten up together.
The preparation is then applied to the face, and is washed off at the
end of four hours. For the cure of freckles and other affections of
the face, calcined bones of cuttle-fish are also used; an application
which is equally good for the removal of fleshy excrescences and the
dispersion of running sores.
(8.) For the cure of itch-scab, a frog is boiled in five semisextarii
of sea-water, the decoction being reduced to the consistency of honey.
There is a sea production called “halcyoneum,” composed, as some
think, of the nests[234] of the birds known as the “halcyon”[235] and
“ceyx,” or, according to others, of the concretion of sea-foam, or of
some slime of the sea, or a certain lanuginous inflorescence thrown
up by it. Of this halcyoneum there are four different kinds; the
first, of an ashy colour, of a compact substance, and possessed of a
pungent odour; the second, soft, of a milder nature, and with a smell
almost identical with that of sea-weed; the third, whiter, and with
a variegated surface; the fourth, more like pumice in appearance, and
closely resembling rotten sponge. The best of all is that which nearly
borders upon a purple hue, and is known as the “Milesian” kind: the
whiter it is, the less highly it is esteemed.
The properties of halcyoneum are ulcerative and detergent: when
required for use, it is parched and applied without oil. It is quite
marvellous how efficiently it removes leprous sores, lichens, and
freckles, used in combination with lupines and two oboli of sulphur.
It is employed, also, for the removal of marks upon the eyes.[236]
Andreas[237] has recommended for the cure of leprosy ashes of burnt
crabs, with oil; and Attalus,[238] fresh fat of tunny.
CHAP. 28.—REMEDIES FOR SCROFULA, IMPOSTHUMES OF THE PAROTID GLANDS,
QUINSY, AND DISEASES OF THE FAUCES. THE MÆNA: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE
SEA-SCOLOPENDRA: TWO REMEDIES. THE SAURUS: ONE REMEDY. SHELL-FISH: ONE
REMEDY. THE SILURUS: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
Ulcerations of the mouth are cured by an application of brine in
which mænæ[239] have been pickled, in combination with calcined heads
of the fish, and honey. For the cure of scrofula, it is a good plan
to prick the sores with the small bone that is found in the tail
of the fish known as the sea-frog;[240] care being taken to avoid
making a wound, and to repeat the operation daily, until a perfect
cure is effected. The same property, too, belongs to the sting of the
pastinaca, and to the sea-hare, applied topically to the sores: but in
both cases due care must be taken to remove them in an instant. Shells
of sea-urchins are bruised, also, and applied with vinegar; shells
also of sea-scolopendræ,[241] applied with honey; and river-crabs
pounded or calcined, and applied with honey. Bones, too, of the sæpia,
triturated and applied with stale axle-grease, are marvellously useful
for this purpose. This last preparation is used, also, for the cure of
imposthumes of the parotid glands; a purpose for which the liver of the
sea-fish known as the “saurus”[242] is employed. Nay, even more than
this, fragments of earthen vessels in which salt fish have been kept
are pounded with stale axle-grease, and applied to scrofulous sores and
imposthumes of the parotid glands; as also calcined murex, incorporated
with oil. Stiffness in the neck is allayed by taking what are known as
sea-lice,[243] in doses of one drachma in drink, taking castoreum[244]
mixed with pepper in honied wine, or making a decoction of frogs in oil
and salt, and taking the liquor.
Opisthotony, too, and tetanus are treated in a similar manner; and
spasms, with the addition of pepper. Ashes of burnt heads of salted
mænæ are applied externally, with honey, for the cure of quinsy; as
also a decoction of frogs, boiled in vinegar, a preparation which is
equally good for affections of the tonsillary glands. River-crabs,
pounded, one to each hemina of water, are used as a gargle for the cure
of quinsy; or else they are taken with wine and hot water. Garum,[245]
put beneath the uvula with a spoon, effectually cures diseases of that
part. The silurus,[246] used as food, either fresh or salted, improves
the voice.
CHAP. 29.—REMEDIES FOR COUGH AND DISEASES OF THE CHEST.
Surmullets act as an emetic, dried and pounded, and taken in drink.
Castoreum, taken fasting, with a small quantity of hammoniacum[247]
in oxymel, is extremely good for asthma: spasms, too, in the stomach
are assuaged by taking a similar potion with warm oxymel. Frogs stewed
in their own liquor in the saucepan, the same way in fact that fish
are dressed, are good for a cough, it is said. In some cases, also,
frogs are suspended by the legs, and after their juices[248] have been
received in a platter, it is recommended to gut them, and the entrails
being first carefully removed, to preserve them for the above purpose.
There is a small frog,[249] also, which ascends trees, and croaks aloud
there: if a person suffering from cough spits into its mouth and then
lets it go, he will experience a cure, it is said. For cough attended
with spitting of blood, it is recommended to beat up the raw flesh of a
snail, and to drink it in hot water.
CHAP. 30. (9.)—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LIVER AND SIDE. THE ELONGATED
CONCH: SIX REMEDIES. THE TETHEA: FIVE REMEDIES.
For pains in the liver, a sea-scorpion is killed in wine, and the
liquid is taken. The meat, too, of the elongated conch[250] is taken
with honied wine and water, in equal quantities, or, if there are
symptoms of fever, with hydromel. Pains in the side are assuaged
by taking the flesh of the hippocampus,[251] grilled, or else the
tethea,[252] very similar to the oyster, with the ordinary food. For
sciatica, the pickle of the silurus is injected, by way of clyster.
The flesh of conchs, too, is prescribed, for fifteen days, in doses of
three oboli soaked in two sextarii of wine.
CHAP. 31.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE BOWELS. SEA-WORT: ONE REMEDY.
THE MYAX: TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES. THE MITULUS: EIGHT REMEDIES. PELORIDES:
ONE REMEDY. SERIPHUM: TWO REMEDIES. THE ERYTHINUS: TWO REMEDIES.
The silurus,[253] taken in its broth, or the torpedo,[254] used as
food, acts as a laxative upon the bowels. There is a sea-wort,[255]
also, similar in appearance to the cultivated cabbage: it is injurious
to the stomach, but acts most efficiently as a purgative, requiring
to be cooked with fat meat for the purpose, in consequence of its
extreme acridity. The broth, too, of all boiled fish is good for
this purpose; it acting, also, as a strong diuretic, taken with wine
more particularly. The best kind of all is that prepared from the
sea-scorpion, the iulis,[256] and rock-fish in general, as they are
destitute of all rankness and are free from fat. The proper way of
cooking them is with dill, parsley, coriander, and leeks, with the
addition of oil and salt. Stale cybium,[257] too, acts as a purgative,
and is particularly useful for carrying off crudities, pituitous
humours, and bile.
The myax[258] is of a purgative nature, a shell-fish of which we shall
take this opportunity of giving the natural history at length. These
fish collect together in masses, like the murex,[259] and are found
in spots covered with sea-weed. They are the finest eating in autumn,
and are found in the greatest perfection in places where fresh-water
streams discharge themselves into the sea; for which reason it is that
those of Egypt are held in such high esteem. As the winter advances,
they contract a bitter flavour, and assume a reddish hue. The liquor
of these fish, it is said, acts as a purgative upon the bowels and
bladder, has a detergent effect upon the intestines, acts aperiently
upon all the passages, purges the kidneys, and diminishes the blood
and adipose secretions. Hence it is that these shell-fish are found of
the greatest use for the treatment of dropsy, for the regulation of
the catamenia, and for the removal of jaundice, all diseases of the
joints, and flatulency. They are very good, also, for the reduction
of obesity, for diseases of the bile and of the pituitous secretions,
for affections of the lungs, liver, and spleen, and for rheumatic
defluxions. The only inconvenience resulting from them is, that they
irritate the throat and impede the articulation. They have, also, a
healing effect upon ulcers of a serpiginous nature, or which stand in
need of detergents, as also upon carcinomatous sores. Calcined, the
same way as the murex, and employed with honey, they are curative of
bites inflicted either by dogs or human beings, and of leprous spots or
freckles. The ashes of them, rinsed, are good for the removal of films
upon the eyes, granulations of those organs and indurations of the
membrane, as also for diseases of the gums and teeth, and for pituitous
eruptions. They serve, also, as an antidote to dorycnium[260] and to
opocarpathon.[261] There are two species of this shell-fish, of a
degenerate kind: the mitulus,[262] which has a strong flavour, and a
saltish taste; and the myisca,[263] which differs from the former in
the roundness of its shell, is somewhat smaller, and is covered with
filaments, the shell being thinner, and the meat of a sweeter flavour.
The ashes, also, of the mitulus, like those of the murex, are possessed
of certain caustic properties, and are very useful for the removal of
leprous spots, freckles, and blemishes of the skin. They are rinsed,
too, in the same manner as lead,[264] for the removal of swellings
of the eyelids, of indurations of the membranes, and of films upon
the eyes, as also of sordid ulcers upon other parts of the body, and
of pustules upon the head. The meat of them, also, is employed as an
application for bites inflicted by dogs.
As to pelorides,[265] they act as a gentle laxative upon the bowels, an
effect equally produced by castoreum, taken in doses of two drachmæ,
in hydromel: where, however, a more drastic purgative is required,
one drachma of dried garden-cucumber root is added, and two drachmæ
of aphronitrum.[266] The tethea[267] is good for griping pains in the
bowels and for attacks of flatulency: they are generally found adhering
to the leaves of marine plants, sucking their nutriment therefrom, and
may be rather looked upon as a sort of fungus than as a fish. They
are useful, also, for the removal of tenesmus and of diseases of the
kidneys.
There grows also in the sea a kind of absinthium, known by some persons
as “seriphum,”[268] and found in the vicinity of Taposiris,[269] in
Egypt, more particularly. It is of a more slender form than the land
absinthium, acts as a purgative upon the bowels, and effectually
removes intestinal worms. The sæpia, too, is a laxative; for which
purpose these fish are administered[270] with the food, boiled with a
mixture of oil, salt, and meal. Salted mænæ,[271] applied with bull’s
gall to the navel, acts as a purgative upon the bowels.
The liquor of fish, boiled in the saucepan with lettuces, dispels
tenesmus. River-crabs,[272] beaten up and taken with water, act
astringently upon the bowels, and they have a diuretic effect, if
taken with white wine. Deprived of the legs, and taken in doses of
three oboli with myrrh and iris, one drachma of each, they disperse
urinary calculi. For the cure of the iliac passion and of attacks of
flatulency, castoreum[273] should be taken, with seed of daucus[274]
and of parsley, a pinch in three fingers of each, the whole being mixed
with four cyathi of warm honied wine. Griping pains in the bowels
should be treated with castoreum and a mixture of dill and wine. The
fish called “erythinus,”[275] used as food, acts astringently upon the
bowels. Dysentery is cured by taking frogs boiled with squills, and
prepared in the form of boluses, or else hearts of frogs beaten up with
honey, as Niceratus[276] recommends. For the cure of jaundice, salt
fish should be taken with pepper, the patient abstaining from all other
kinds of meat.
CHAP. 32.—-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN, FOR URINARY CALCULI,
AND FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER. THE SOLE: ONE REMEDY. THE TURBOT:
ONE REMEDY. THE BLENDIUS: ONE REMEDY. THE SEA-NETTLE: SEVEN REMEDIES.
THE PULMO MARINUS: SIX REMEDIES. ONYCHES: FOUR REMEDIES.
For the cure of spleen diseases, the fish known as the sole[277]
is applied to that part; the torpedo,[278] also, or else a
live turbot;[279] it being then set at liberty in the sea. The
sea-scorpion,[280] killed in wine, is a cure for diseases of the
bladder and for urinary calculi; the stone, also, that is found in the
tail[281] of this last fish, taken in drink, in doses of one obolus;
the liver of the enhydris;[282] and the ashes of the fish called
“blendius;”[283] taken with rue. In the head, too, of the fish called
“bacchus,”[284] there are found certain small stones, as it were:
these, taken in water, six in number, are an excellent cure for urinary
calculi. They say, too, that the sea-nettle,[285] taken in wine, is
very useful for this purpose, as also the pulmo marinus,[286] boiled
in water. The eggs of the sæpia have a diuretic effect, and carry off
pituitous humours from the kidneys. Ruptures and convulsions are very
effectually treated by taking river-crabs,[287] bruised in asses’ milk
more particularly; and urinary calculi by drinking sea-urchins pounded,
spines and all, in wine; the due proportion being one semisextarius of
wine for each urchin, and the treatment being continued till its good
effects are visible. The flesh, too, of the sea-urchin, taken as food,
is very useful as a remedy for the same malady.
Scallops[288] also, taken as food, act detergently upon the bladder:
the male fish is by some persons called “donax,” and by others “aulos,”
the female being known as “onyx.”[289] The male scallop has a diuretic
effect: the flesh of the female is sweeter than that of the male, and
of an uniform colour. The eggs, too, of the sæpia promote the urinary
secretions, and act detergently upon the kidneys.
CHAP. 33.—REMEDIES FOR INTESTINAL HERNIA, AND FOR DISEASES OF THE
RECTUM. THE WATER-SNAKE: ONE REMEDY. THE HYDRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE
MULLET: ONE REMEDY. THE PELAMIS: THREE REMEDIES.
For the cure of intestinal hernia the sea-hare is applied, bruised with
honey. The liver of the water-snake,[290] and that of the hydrus,[291]
bruised and taken in drink, are remedial for urinary calculi. Sciatica
is cured by using the pickle of the silurus[292] as a clyster, the
bowels being first thoroughly purged. For chafing of the fundament,
an application is made of heads of mullets and surmullets, reduced
to ashes; for which purpose they are calcined in an earthen vessel,
and must be applied in combination with honey. Calcined heads, too,
of the fish known as mænæ[293] are useful for the cure of chaps and
condylomata; as also heads of salted pelamides,[294] reduced to ashes,
or calcined cybium,[295] applied with honey.
The torpedo,[296] applied topically, reduces procidence of the rectum.
River-crabs,[297] reduced to ashes, and applied with oil and wax, are
curative of chaps of the fundament: sea-crabs, too, are equally useful
for the purpose.
CHAP. 34.—-REMEDIES FOR INFLAMED TUMOURS, AND FOR DISEASES OF THE
GENERATIVE ORGANS. THE SCIÆNA: ONE REMEDY. THE PERCH: FOUR REMEDIES.
THE SQUATINA: THREE REMEDIES. THE SMARIS: THREE REMEDIES.
The pickle of the coracinus[298] disperses inflammatory tumours; an
effect which is equally produced by using the calcined intestines
and scales of the sciæna.[299] The sea-scorpion,[300] too, is used
for the same purpose, boiled in wine, and applied as a fomentation to
the part affected. Shells of sea-urchins, bruised and applied with
water, act as a check upon incipient inflammatory tumours. Ashes of
the murex, or of the purple, are employed in either case, whether it
is wanted to disperse inflammatory tumours in an incipient state, or
to bring them to a head and break them. Some authorities prescribe
the following preparation: of wax and frankincense twenty drachmæ, of
litharge forty drachmæ, of calcined murex ten drachmæ, and of old oil,
one semisextarius. Salt fish, boiled and applied by itself, is highly
useful for the above purposes.
River crabs, bruised and applied, disperse pustules on the generative
organs: the same, too, with calcined heads of mænæ,[301] or the flesh
of that fish, boiled and applied. Heads of salted perch,[302] reduced
to ashes, and applied with honey, are equally useful for the purpose;
or else calcined heads of pelamides,[303] or skin of the squatina
reduced to ashes.[304] It is the skin of this fish that is used, as
already[305] stated, for giving a polish to wood; for the sea even, we
find, furnishes its aid to our artificers. For a similar purpose the
fishes called “smarides”[306] are applied topically; as also ashes of
the shell of the murex or of the purple, applied with honey; which last
are still more efficacious when the flesh has been burnt with the shell.
Salt fish, boiled with honey, is particularly good for the cure of
carbuncles upon the generative organs. For relaxation of the testes,
the slime[307] of snails is recommended, applied in the form of a
liniment.
CHAP. 35.—REMEDIES FOR INCONTINENCE OF URINE. THE OPHIDION: ONE REMEDY.
The flesh of hippocampi,[308] grilled and taken frequently as food,
is a cure for incontinence of urine; the ophidion,[309] too, a little
fish similar to the conger in appearance, eaten with a lily root; or
the small fry found in the bellies of larger fish that have swallowed
them, reduced to ashes and taken in water. It is recommended, too, to
burn[310] African snails, both shells and flesh, and to administer the
ashes with wine[311] of Signia.
CHAP. 36.—REMEDIES FOR GOUT, AND FOR PAINS IN THE FEET. THE BEAVER:
FOUR REMEDIES. BRYON: ONE REMEDY.
For the cure of gout and of diseases of the joints, oil is useful
in which the intestines of frogs have been boiled. Ashes, too, of
burnt bramble-frogs[312] are similarly employed, with stale grease;
in addition to which, some persons use calcined barley, the three
ingredients being mixed in equal proportions. It is recommended too,
in cases of gout, to rub the parts affected with a sea-hare,[313]
fresh caught, and to wear shoes made of beaver’s skin, Pontic beaver
more particularly, or else of sea-calf’s[314] skin, an animal the fat
of which is very useful for the purpose: the same being the case also
with bryon, a plant of which we have already spoken,[315] similar to
the lettuce in appearance, but with more wrinkled leaves, and destitute
of stem. This plant is of a styptic nature, and, applied topically, it
tends to modify the paroxysms of gout. The same, too, with sea-weed, of
which we have also spoken already;[316] due precaution being taken not
to apply it dry.
Chilblains are cured by applying the pulmo marinus;[317] ashes of
sea-crabs with oil; river crabs,[318] bruised and burnt to ashes and
kneaded up with oil; or else fat of the silurus.[319] In diseases of
the joints, the paroxysms are modified by applying fresh frogs every
now and then: some authorities recommend that they should be split
asunder before being applied. The liquor from mussels[320] and other
shell-fish has a tendency to make flesh.
CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.
Epileptic patients, as already[321] stated, are recommended to drink
the rennet of the sea-calf,[322] mixed with mares’ milk or asses’
milk, or else with pomegranate juice, or, in some cases, with oxymel:
some persons, too, swallow the rennet by itself, in the form of
pills. Castoreum[323] is sometimes administered, in three cyathi of
oxymel, to the patient fasting; but where the attacks are frequent,
it is employed in the form of a clyster, with marvellous effect. The
proper proportions, in this last case, are two drachmæ of castoreum,
one sextarius of oil and honey, and the same quantity of water. At
the moment that the patient is seized with a fit, it is a good plan
to give him castoreum, with vinegar, to smell. The liver, too, of
the sea-weasel[324] is given to epileptic patients, or else that of
sea-mice,[325] or the blood of tortoises.
CHAP. 38. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE
REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY.
Recurrent fevers are effectually checked by making the patient
taste the liver of a dolphin, just before the paroxysm comes on.
Hippocampi[326] are stifled in oil of roses, and the patients are
rubbed therewith in cold agues, the fish, also, being worn as an amulet
by the patient. In the same way, too, the small stones that are found
at full moon in the head of the fish called “asellus”[327] are worn,
attached in a piece of linen cloth to the patient’s body. A similar
virtue is attributed to the longest tooth of the river-fish called
phagrus,[328] attached to the patient with a hair, provided he does not
see the person who attaches it to him for five days. Frogs are boiled
in oil in a spot where three roads meet, and, the flesh being first
thrown away, the patients are rubbed with the decoction, by way of cure
for quartan fever. Some persons, again, suffocate frogs in oil, and,
after attaching them to the patient without his knowing it, anoint him
with the oil. The heart of a frog, worn as an amulet, modifies the
cold chills in fevers; the same, too, with oil in which the intestines
of frogs have been boiled. But the best remedy for quartan fevers, is
to wear attached to the body either frogs from which the claws have
been[329] removed, or else the liver or heart of a bramble-frog,[330]
attached in a piece of russet-coloured cloth.
River-crabs,[331] bruised in oil and water, are highly beneficial in
fevers, the patient being anointed with the preparation just before
the paroxysms come on: some authorities recommend the addition of
pepper to the mixture. Others prescribe for quartan fevers a decoction
of river-crabs in wine, boiled down to one fourth, the patient taking
it at the moment of leaving the bath: by some, too, it is recommended
to swallow the left eye of a river-crab. The magicians engage to
cure a tertian fever, by attaching as an amulet to the patient,
before sunrise, the eyes of river-crabs, the crabs when thus blinded
being set at liberty in the water. They say, too, that these eyes,
attached to the body in a piece of deer’s hide, with the flesh of a
nightingale,[332] will dispel sleep and promote watchfulness. In cases
where there are symptoms of lethargy, the rennet of the balæna[333] or
of the sea-calf[334] is given to the patient to smell; some persons,
too, use the blood of tortoises as a liniment for lethargic patients.
Tertian fevers, it is said, may be cured by wearing one of the
vertebræ[335] of a perch attached to the body, and quartan fevers by
using fresh river snails, as an aliment. Some persons preserve these
snails in salt for this purpose, and give them, pounded, in drink.
CHAP. 39.—REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.
Strombi,[336] left to putrefy in vinegar, act as an excitant upon
lethargic patients by their smell; they are very useful, too, for the
cure of cardiac diseases. For cachectic patients, where the body is
wasting with consumption, tetheæ[337] are considered beneficial, mixed
with rue and honey. For the cure of dropsy, dolphin’s fat is melted and
taken with wine, the repulsive taste of it being neutralized by first
touching the nostrils with unguent or some other odoriferous substance,
or else by plugging the nostrils in some way or other. The flesh of
strombi, pounded and given in three heminæ of honied wine and the same
quantity of water, or, if there is fever, in hydromel, is very useful
for dropsy: the same, too, with the juice of river-crabs, administered
with honey. Water frogs, too, are boiled with old wine and spelt,[338]
and taken as food, the liquor in which they have been boiled being
drunk from the same vessel: or else the feet, head, and tail of a
tortoise are cut off, and the intestines removed, the rest of the flesh
being seasoned in such a manner as to allow of its being taken without
loathing. River-crabs, too, eaten with their broth, are said to be very
good for the cure of phthisis.
CHAP. 40.—REMEDIES FOR BURNS AND FOR ERYSIPELAS.
Burns are cured by applying ashes of calcined sea-crabs or river-crabs
with oil: fish-glue, too, and calcined frogs are used as an application
for scalds produced by boiling water. The same treatment also restores
the hair, provided the ashes are those of river-crabs: it is generally
thought, too, that the preparation should be applied with wax and
bears’ grease. Ashes, too, of burnt beaver-skin are very useful for
these purposes. Live frogs act as a check upon erysipelas, the belly
side being applied to the part affected: it is recommended, too, to
attach them lengthwise by the hinder legs, so as to render them more
beneficial by reason of their increased respiration.[339] Heads, too,
of salted siluri[340] are reduced to ashes and applied with vinegar.
Prurigo and itch-scab, not only in man but in quadrupeds as well, are
most efficaciously treated with the liver of the pastinaca[341] boiled
in oil.
CHAP. 41.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SINEWS.
The exterior callosity with which the flesh of purples is covered,
beaten up, unites the sinews, even when they have been severed
asunder. It is a good plan, for patients suffering from tetanus,
to take sea-calf’s rennet in wine, in doses of one obolus, as also
fish-glue.[342] Persons affected with fits of trembling find much
relief from castoreum,[343] provided they are well anointed with oil.
I find it stated that the surmullet,[344] used as an article of diet,
acts injuriously upon the sinews.
CHAP. 42.—METHODS OF ARRESTING HÆMORRHAGE AND OF LETTING BLOOD. THE
POLYP: ONE REMEDY.
Fish, used as an aliment, it is generally thought, make blood. The
polyp,[345] bruised and applied, arrests hæmorrhage, it is thought: in
addition to which we find stated the following particulars respecting
it—that of itself it emits a sort of brine, in consequence of which,
there is no necessity to use any in cooking it—that it should always
be sliced with a reed—and that it is spoilt by using an iron knife,
becoming tainted thereby, owing to the antipathy[346] which naturally
exists [between it and iron]. For the purpose also of arresting
hæmorrhage, ashes of burnt frogs are applied topically, or else the
dried blood of those animals. Some authorities recommend the frog to
be used, that is known by the Greeks as “calamites,”[347] from the
fact that it lives among reeds[348] and shrubs; it is the smallest
and greenest of all the frogs, and either the blood or the ashes
of it are recommended to be employed. Others, again, prescribe, in
cases of bleeding at the nostrils, an injection of the ashes of young
water-frogs, in the tadpole state, calcined in a new earthen vessel.
On the other hand, again, in cases where it is required to let blood,
the kind of leech is used which is known among us by the name of
“sanguisuga.[349]” Indeed, the action of these leeches is looked upon
as pretty much the same as that of the cupping-glasses[350] used in
medicine, their effect being to relieve the body of superfluous blood,
and to open the pores of the skin. Still, however, there is this
inconvenience attending them—when they have been once applied, they
create a necessity[351] for having recourse to the same treatment at
about the same period in every succeeding year. Many physicians have
been of opinion also, that leeches may be successfully applied in cases
of gout. When gorged, they fall off in consequence of losing their hold
through the weight of the blood, but if not, they must be sprinkled
with salt[352] for the purpose.
Leeches are apt, however, to leave their heads buried in the flesh;
the consequence of which is an incurable wound, which has caused death
in many cases, that of Messalinus,[353] for example, a patrician of
consular rank, after an application of leeches to his knee. When this
is the case, that which was intended as a remedy is turned into an
active poison;[354] a result which is to be apprehended in using the
red leeches more particularly. Hence it is that when these last are
employed, it is the practice to snip them with a pair of scissors while
sucking; the consequence of which is, that the blood oozes forth,
through a siphon, as it were, and the head, gradually contracting as
the animal dies, is not left behind in the wound. There is a natural
antipathy[355] existing between leeches and bugs, and hence it is that
the latter are killed by the aid of a fumigation made with leeches.
Ashes of beaver-skin burnt with tar, kneaded up with leek-juice, arrest
bleeding at the nostrils.
CHAP. 43.—METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN BODIES FROM THE FLESH.
To extract pointed weapons which have pierced the flesh, ashes of
calcined shells of the sæpia are used, as also of the purple, the meat
of salted fish, bruised river-crabs, or flesh of the silurus[356] (a
river-fish that is found in other streams as well as the Nilus[357]),
applied either fresh or salted. The ashes also of this fish, as
well as the fat, have the property of extracting pointed bodies,
and the back-bone, in a calcined state, is used as a substitute for
spodium.[358]
CHAP. 44.—REMEDIES FOR ULCERS, CARCINOMATA, AND CARBUNCLES.
Ulcers of a serpiginous nature, as also the fleshy excrescences which
make their appearance in them, are kept in check by applying ashes
of calcined heads of mænæ,[359] or else ashes of the silurus.[360]
Carcinomata, too, are treated with heads of salted perch, their
efficacy being considerably increased by using some salt along
with the ashes, and kneading them up with heads of cunila[361] and
olive-oil. Ashes of sea-crabs, calcined with lead, arrest the progress
of carcinomatous sores; a purpose for which ashes of river-crabs, in
combination with honey and fine lint, are equally useful: though there
are some authorities which prefer mixing alum and barley with the
ashes. Phagedænic ulcers are cured by an application of dried silurus
pounded with sandarach;[362] malignant cancers, corrosive ulcers, and
putrid sores, by the agency of stale cybium.[363]
Maggots that breed in sores are removed by applying frogs’ gall; and
fistulas are opened and dried by introducing a tent made of salt fish,
with a dossil of lint. Salt fish, kneaded up and applied in the form
of a plaster, will remove all proud flesh in the course of a day, and
will arrest the further progress of putrid and serpiginous ulcers.
Alex,[364] applied in lint, acts detergently, also, upon ulcers; the
same, too, with the ashes of calcined shells of sea-urchins. Salted
slices of the coracinus[365] disperse carbuncles, an effect equally
produced by the ashes of salted surmullets.[366] Some persons, however,
use the head only of the surmullet, in combination with honey or
with the flesh of the coracinus. Ashes of the murex, applied with
oil, disperse tumours, and the gall of the sea-scorpion makes scars
disappear.
CHAP. 45.—REMEDIES FOR WARTS, AND FOR MALFORMED NAILS. THE GLANIS: ONE
REMEDY.
To remove warts, the liver of the glanis[367] is applied to the part;
ashes also of heads of mæmæ[368] bruised with garlic—substances which
should be used raw where it is thyme-warts[369] that require to be
removed—the gall of the red sea-scorpion,[370] smarides[371] pounded
and applied, or alex[372] thoroughly boiled. Ashes of calcined heads of
mænæ[373] are used to rectify malformed nails.
CHAP. 46.—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS: ONE REMEDY.
The milk is increased in females by eating the glauciscus[374] in its
own liquor, or else smarides[375] with a ptisan, or boiled with fennel.
Ashes of calcined shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey,
are an effectual cure for affections of the mamillæ; river-crabs,
too, and sea-crabs, applied topically, are equally good. The meat
of the murex, applied to the mamillæ, removes hairs[376] growing
upon those parts. The squatina,[377] applied topically, prevents the
mamillæ from becoming too distended. Lint greased with dolphin’s[378]
fat, and then ignited, produces a smoke which acts as an excitant
upon females suffering from hysterical suffocations; the same, too,
with strombi,[379] left to putrefy in vinegar. Heads of perch or
of mænæ,[380] calcined and mixed with salt, oil, and cunila,[381]
are curative of diseases of the uterus: used as a fumigation, they
bring away the afterbirth. Fat,[382] too, of the sea-calf, melted by
the agency of fire, is introduced into the nostrils of females when
swooning from hysterical suffocations; and for a similar purpose, the
rennet of that animal is applied as a pessary, in wool.
The pulmo marinus,[383] attached to the body as an amulet, is an
excellent promoter of menstruation; an effect which is equally
produced by pounding live sea-urchins, and taking them in sweet wine.
River-crabs,[384] bruised in wine, and taken internally, arrest
menstruation. The silurus,[385] that of Africa[386] more particularly,
used as a fumigation, facilitates parturition, it is said. Crabs, taken
in water, arrest menstruation; but used with hyssop, they act as an
emmenagogue, we are told. In cases, too, where the infant is in danger
of suffocation at the moment of delivery, a similar drink, administered
to the mother, is highly efficacious. Crabs, too, either fresh or
dried, are taken in drink, for the purpose of preventing abortion.
Hippocrates[387] prescribes them as a promoter of menstruation, and
as an expellent of the dead fœtus, beaten up with five[388] roots of
lapathum and rue and some soot, and administered in honied wine. Crabs,
boiled and taken in their liquor, with lapathum[389] and parsley,
promote the menstrual discharge, and increase the milk. In cases of
fever, attended with pains in the head and throbbing of the eyes, crabs
are said to be highly beneficial to females, given in astringent wine.
Castoreum,[390] taken in honied wine, is useful as a promoter of
menstruation: in cases of hysterical suffocation, it is given to the
patient to smell at with pitch and vinegar, or else it is made up into
tablets and used as a pessary. For the purpose also of bringing away
the afterbirth it is found a useful plan to employ castoreum with
panax,[391] in four cyathi of wine; and in cases where the patient is
suffering from cold, in doses of three oboli. If, however, a female in
a state of pregnancy should happen to step over castoreum, or over the
beaver itself, abortion, it is said, will be the sure result: so, too,
if castoreum is only held over a pregnant woman’s head, there will be
great danger of miscarriage.
There is a very marvellous fact, too, that I find stated in reference
to the torpedo:[392] if it is caught at the time that the moon is
in Libra, and kept in the open air for three days, it will always
facilitate parturition, as often as it is introduced into the apartment
of a woman in labour. The sting, too, of the pastinaca,[393] attached
to the navel, is generally thought to have the property of facilitating
delivery: it must be taken, however, from the fish while alive; which
done, the fish must be returned to the sea. I find it stated by some
authorities that there is a substance called “ostraceum,” which is also
spoken of as “onyx”[394] by others; that, used as a fumigation, it is
wonderfully beneficial for suffocations of the uterus; that in smell it
resembles castoreum, and is still more efficacious, if burnt with this
last substance; and that in a calcined state it has the property of
healing inveterate ulcers, and cancerous sores of a malignant nature.
As to carbuncles and carcinomatous sores upon the secret parts of
females, there is nothing more efficacious, it is said, than a female
crab beaten up, just after full moon, with flower of salt[395] and
applied with water.
CHAP. 47.—METHODS OF REMOVING SUPERFLUOUS HAIR. DEPILATORIES.
Depilatories are prepared from the blood, gall, and liver of the tunny,
either fresh or preserved; as also from pounded liver of the same fish,
preserved with cedar resin[396] in a leaden box; a recipe which we
find given by the midwife Salpe[397] for disguising the age of boys on
sale for slaves. A similar property belongs to the pulmo marinus,[398]
to the blood and gall of the sea-hare, and to the sea-hare itself,
stifled in oil. The same, too, with ashes of burnt crabs or sea
scolopendræ,[399] mixed with oil; sea-nettles,[400] bruised in squill
vinegar; and brains of the torpedo[401] applied with alum on the
sixteenth day of the moon. The thick matter emitted by the small frogs,
which we have described when treating[402] of eye-diseases, is a most
efficient depilatory, if applied fresh: the same, too, with the frog
itself, dried and pounded, and then boiled down to one-third in three
heminæ of water, or else boiled in a copper vessel with oil in a like
proportion. Others, again, prepare a depilatory from fifteen frogs, in
manner already[403] stated under the head of remedies for the eyes.
Leeches, also, grilled in an earthen vessel, and applied with vinegar,
have the same property as a depilatory; the very odour, too, which
attaches to the persons who thus burn them is singularly efficacious
for killing bugs.[404] Cases are to be found, too, where persons have
used castoreum with honey, for many days together, as a depilatory.
In the case, however, of every depilatory, the hairs should always be
removed before it is applied.
CHAP. 48.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.
Dentition in infants is promoted, and the gums greatly relieved, by
rubbing them with ashes of a dolphin’s teeth, mixed with honey, or
else by touching the gums with the tooth itself of that fish. One of
these teeth, worn as an amulet, is a preventive of sudden frights;[405]
the tooth of the dog-fish[406] being also possessed of a similar
property. As to ulcers which make their appearance in the ears, or in
any other parts of the body, they may be cured by applying the liquor
of river-crabs,[407] with barley-meal. These crabs, too, bruised in
oil and employed as a friction, are very useful for other kinds of
maladies. A sponge moistened with cold water from time to time,[408]
or a frog applied, the back part to the head, is a most efficacious
cure for siriasis[409] in infants. When the frog is removed, it will be
found quite dry, they say.
CHAP. 49.—METHODS OF PREVENTING INTOXICATION. THE FISH CALLED RUBELLIO:
ONE REMEDY. THE EEL: ONE REMEDY. THE GRAPE-FISH: ONE REMEDY.
A surmullet[410] stifled in wine; the fish called “rubellio;”[411] or a
couple of eels similarly treated; or a grapefish,[412] left to putrefy
in wine, all of them, produce an aversion to wine in those who drink
thereof.
CHAP. 50.—ANTAPHRODISIACS AND APHRODISIACS. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS: ONE
REMEDY. THE CROCODILE: ONE REMEDY.
In the number of antaphrodisiacs, we have the echeneïs;[413] the skin
from the left side of the forehead of the hippopotamus,[414] attached
to the body in lamb-skin; and the gall of a live torpedo,[415] applied
to the generative organs.
The following substances act as aphrodisiacs—the flesh of river-snails,
preserved in salt and given to drink in wine; the erythinus[416] taken
as food; the liver of the frog called “diopetes” or “calamites”[417]
attached to the body in a small piece of crane’s skin; the eye-tooth
of a crocodile, attached to the arm; the hippocampus;[418] and the
sinews of a bramble-frog,[419] worn as an amulet upon the right arm.
A bramble-frog, attached to the body in a piece of fresh sheep-skin,
effectually puts an end to love.
CHAP. 51.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF ANIMALS.
A decoction of frogs in water, reduced to the form of a liniment, is
curative of itch-scab in horses; indeed, it is said, that a horse, when
once treated in this manner, will never again be attacked with the
disease. Salpe says that if a live frog is given to dogs in their mess,
they will lose the power of barking.
CHAP. 52.—OTHER AQUATIC PRODUCTIONS. ADARCA OR CALAMOCHNOS: THREE
REMEDIES. REEDS: EIGHT REMEDIES. THE INK OF THE SÆPIA.
Among the aquatic productions ought also to be mentioned calamochnos,
in Latin known as “adarca,”[420] a substance which collects about
small reeds, from a mixture of the foam of fresh and of sea water.
It possesses certain caustic properties, and hence it is that it is
so useful as an ingredient in “acopa”[421] and as a remedy for cold
shiverings; it is used too, for removing freckles upon the face of
females. And now we are speaking of adarca, the reed ought equally to
be mentioned. The root of that known as the “phragmites,”[422] pounded
fresh, is curative of sprains, and, applied topically with vinegar,
removes pains in the spine. The calcined bark, too, of the Cyprian[423]
reed, known as the “donax,” is curative of alopecy and inveterate
ulcers; and its leaves are good for the extraction of foreign bodies
adhering to the flesh, and for the cure of erysipelas: should, however,
the flower of the panicle happen to enter the ears, deafness[424] is
the consequence.
The ink of the sæpia[425] is possessed of such remarkable potency,
that if it is put into a lamp, Anaxilaüs tells us, the light will
become entirely changed,[426] and all present will look as black as
Æthiopians. The bramble-frog, boiled in water, and given to swine with
their drink, is curative of the maladies with which they are affected;
an effect equally produced by the ashes of any other kind of frog.
If wood is rubbed with the pulmo marinus,[427] it will have all the
appearance of being on fire; so much so, indeed, that a walking-stick,
thus treated, will light the way like a torch.[428]
CHAP. 53. (11.)—THE NAMES OF ALL THE ANIMALS THAT EXIST IN THE SEA, ONE
HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX IN NUMBER.
Having now completed our exposition of the properties which belong to
the aquatic productions, it would appear by no means foreign to my
purpose to give a list of the various animated beings which inhabit
the seas; so many as these are in number, of such vast extent, and not
only making their way into the interior of the land to a distance of so
many miles, but also surrounding the exterior of it to an extent almost
equal to that of the world itself. These animals, it is generally
considered, embrace one hundred and seventy-six different[429] species,
and it will be my object to set them forth, each by its distinct name,
a thing that cannot possibly be done in reference to the terrestrial
animals and the birds.
For, in fact, we are by no means acquainted with all the wild beasts
or all the birds that are to be found in India, Æthiopia, Scythia, or
the desert regions of the earth; and even of man himself there are
numerous varieties, which as yet we have been unable[430] to make
ourselves acquainted with. In addition, too, to the various countries
above mentioned, we have Taprobane[431] and other isles of the Ocean,
about which so many fabulous stories are related. Surely then, every
one must allow that it is quite impossible to comprise every species
of animal in one general view for the information of mankind. And yet,
by Hercules! in the sea and in the Ocean, vast as it is, there exists
nothing that is unknown to us,[432] and, a truly marvellous fact, it is
with those things which Nature has concealed in the deep that we are
the best acquainted!
To begin then with the monsters[433] that are found in this
element. We here find sea-trees,[434] physeters,[435] balænæ,[436]
pistrices,[437] tritons,[438] nereids,[439] elephants,[440] the
creatures known as sea-men,[441] sea-wheels,[442] orcæ,[443]
sea-rams,[444] musculi,[445] other fish too with the form of rams,[446]
dolphins,[447] sea-calves,[448] so celebrated by Homer,[449]
tortoises[450] to minister to our luxury, and beavers, so extensively
employed in medicine,[451] to which class belongs the otter,[452] an
animal which we nowhere find frequenting the sea, it being only of
the marine animals that we are speaking. There are dog-fish,[453]
also, drinones,[454] cornutæ,[455] swordfish,[456] saw-fish,[457]
hippopotami[458] and crocodiles,[459] common to the sea, the land, and
the rivers; tunnies[460] also, thynnides, siluri,[461] coracini,[462]
and perch,[463] common to the sea only and to rivers.
To the sea only, belong also the acipenser,[464] the dorade,[465]
the asellus,[466] the acharne,[467] the aphye,[468] the alopex,[469]
the eel,[470] the araneus,[471] the boca,[472] the batia,[473] the
bacchus,[474] the batrachus,[475] the belonæ,[476] known to us as
“aculeati,”[477] the balanus,[478] the corvus,[479] the citharus, the
least esteemed of all the turbots, the chalcis,[480] the cobio,[481]
the callarias,[482] which would belong to the genus of the aselli[483]
were it not smaller; the colias,[484] otherwise known as the fish of
Parium[485] or of Sexita,[486] this last from a place of that name
in Bætica its native region, the smallest, too, of the lacerti;[487]
the colias of the Mæotis, the next smallest of the lacerti; the
cybium,[488] (the name given, when cut into pieces, to the pelamis[489]
which returns at the end of forty days from the Euxine to the Palus
Mæotis); the cordyla[490]—which is also a small pelamis, so called
at the time when it enters the Euxine from the Palus Mæotis—the
cantharus,[491] the callionymus[492] or uranoscopus, the cinædus, the
only[493] fish that is of a yellow colour; the cnide, known to us as
the sea-nettle;[494] the different kinds of crabs,[495] the striated
chemæ,[496] the smooth chemæ, the chemæ belonging to the genus of
pelorides,[497] all differing in the variety of their colours and
in the roundness of the shells; the chemæ glycymarides,[498] still
larger than the pelorides; the coluthia or coryphia;[499] the various
kinds of shellfish, among which we find the pearl oysters,[500] the
cochleæ,[501] (belonging to which class are the pentadactyli,[502]) the
helices,[503] by some known as actinophori, the spokes[504] on whose
shells are used for musical purposes;[505] and, in addition to these,
the round cochleæ, the shells of which are used in measuring oil, as
also the sea-cucumber,[506] the cynopos,[507] the cammarus,[508] and
the cynosdexia.[509]
Next to these we have the sea-dragon,[510] a fish which, according
to some, is altogether distinct from the dracunculus,[511] and
resembles the gerricula in appearance, it having on the gills a
stickle which points towards the tail and inflicts a wound like that
of the scorpion[512] when the fish is handled—the erythinus,[513] the
echeneïs,[514] the sea-urchin,[515] the sea-elephant, a black kind of
crayfish, with four forked legs, in addition to two arms with double
joints, and furnished, each of them, with a pair of claws, indented
at the edge; the faber,[516] also, or zæus, the glauciscus,[517] the
glanis,[518] the gonger,[519] the gerres,[520] the galeos,[521] the
garos,[522] the hippos,[523] the hippuros,[524] the hirundo,[525]
the halipleumon,[526] the hippocampus,[527] the hepar,[528] the
ictinus[529] and the iulis.[530] There are various kinds also of
lacerti,[531] the springing loligo,[532] the crayfish,[533] the
lantern-fish,[534] the lepas,[535] the larinus, the sea-hare,[536] and
the sea-lion,[537] with arms like those of the crab, and in the other
parts of the body like the cray-fish.
We have the surmullet[538] also, the sea black-bird,[539] highly
esteemed among the rock-fish; the mullet,[540] the melanurus,[541]
the mæna,[542] the mæotis,[543] the muræna,[544] the mys,[545] the
mitulus,[546] the myiscus,[547] the murex,[548] the oculata,[549] the
ophidion,[550] the oyster,[551] the otia,[552] the orcynus—the largest
of all the pelamides[553] and one that never returns to the Palus
Mæotis, like the tritomus[554] in appearance, and best when old—the
orbis,[555] the orthagoriscus,[556] the phager,[557] the phycis[558]
a rock-fish, the pelamis,[559] (the largest kind of which is called
“apolectum,”[560] and is tougher than the tritomus) the sea-pig,[561]
the phthir,[562] the sea-sparrow,[563] the pastinaca,[564] the several
varieties of the polyp,[565] the scallop,[566] which is larger and more
swarthy in summer than at other times, and the most esteemed of which
are those of Mitylene,[567] Tyndaris,[568] Salonæ,[569] Altinum,[570]
the island of Chios, and Alexandria in Egypt; the small scallop,[571]
the purple,[572] the pegris,[573] the pinna,[574] the pinnotheres,[575]
the rhine[576] or squalus of the Latins, the turbot,[577] the
scarus,[578] a fish which holds the first rank at the present day;
the sole,[579] the sargus,[580] the squilla,[581] the sarda[582]—such
being the name of an elongated pelamis[583] which comes from the Ocean;
the scomber,[584] the salpa,[585] the sorus,[586] the scorpæna,[587]
the sea-scorpion,[588] the solas,[589] the sciæna,[590] the
sciadeus,[591] the scolopendra,[592] the smyrus,[593] the sæpia,[594]
the strombus,[595] the solen,[596] otherwise known as the aulos,
donax, onyx or dactylus; the spondylus,[597] the smaris,[598] the
starfish,[599] and the sponges.[600] There is the sea-thrush[601] also,
famous among the rock-fish, the thynnis,[602] the thranis, by some
writers known as the xiphias;[603] the thrissa,[604] the torpedo,[605]
the tethea,[606] the tritomus, a large kind of pelamis,[607] which
admits of being cut into three cybia;[608] the shells of Venus,[609]
the grape-fish,[610] and the xiphias.[611]
CHAP. 54.—ADDITIONAL NAMES OF FISHES FOUND IN THE POEM OF OVID.
To the above enumeration we will add some names given in the poem of
Ovid,[612] which are not to be found in any other writer: species,
however, which are probably peculiar to the Euxine, on the shores[613]
of which he commenced that work towards the close of his life. The
fishes thus mentioned by him are the sea-ox, the cercyrus, that
dwells among the rocks, the orphus,[614] the red erythinus,[615] the
iulus,[616] the tinted mormyr, the chrysophrys[617] a fish of a golden
colour, the parus,[618] the tragus,[619] the melanurus[620] remarkable
for the beauty of its tail, and the epodes,[621] a flat fish.
In addition to these remarkable kinds of fishes, the same poet tells
us that the channes[622] conceives of itself, that the glaucus[623]
never makes its appearance in summer, that the pompilus[624] always
accompanies vessels in their course, and that the chromis[625] makes
its nest in the water. The helops, he says, is unknown to our waters;
from which it would appear that those are in error who look upon it
as identical with our acipenser.[626] Many persons have given the
preference to the helops before all other fish, in point of flavour.
There are several fishes also, which have been mentioned by no author;
such, for instance, as the one called “sudis” by the Latins, and
“sphyrene” by the Greeks, names which indicate the peculiar form of its
muzzle.[627] It is one of the very largest kinds, but rarely found,
and by no means of inferior flavour. “Perna,” too, is the name given
to a kind of shell-fish, found in vast numbers in the vicinity of the
islands of the Euxine. These fish are found firmly planted in the sand,
resembling in appearance the long shank[628] of a hog. Opening wide
their shells, where there is sufficient space, they lie in wait for
their prey; this opening being not less than a foot in breadth, and the
edges of it garnished around with teeth closely set, much resembling
the teeth of a comb in form. Within the shell, the meat consists of a
vast lump of flesh. I once saw, too, a fish called the “hyæna,”[629]
which had been caught off the island of Ænaria.[630]
In addition to these animals, there are certain excretions thrown up
by the sea, which do not merit any further notice, and indeed ought to
be reckoned among the sea-weeds, rather than looked upon as animated
beings.
SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine hundred and
ninety.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Licinius Macer,[631] Trebius Niger,[632] Sextius
Niger[633] who wrote in Greek, the Poet Ovid,[634] Cassius Hemina,[635]
Mæcenas,[636] Iacchus,[637] Sornatius.[638]
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Juba,[639] Andreas,[640] Salpe,[641]
Apion,[642] Pelops,[643] Apelles,[644] Thrasyllus,[645] Nicander.[646]