Chapter 399

2775Cuvier remarks, that this account of the coupling of the cephalopodes is taken from Aristotle. He says, that he is not aware whether modern observation has confirmed these statements, and almost doubts whether, considering the organization of these animals, it is not almost more probable that they do not couple at all, and that the male, as in the case of most other fishes, only fecundates the eggs after they have been deposited by the female.

2776Cuvier says, that whatever may be the sense in which the word “mollia” is here taken, the assertion is not correct. The gasteropod molluscs, he says, whether hermaphroditical, or whether of separate sexes, couple side to side. The acephalous molluscs do not couple at all, and each individual fecundates its own eggs. The crustacea couple by attrition of the belly.

2777“Tadpoles.” There is both truth and falsehood, Cuvier says, in the statements here made relative to the tadpole. Frogs, he says, produce eggs, from which the tadpole developes itself, with a tail like that of a fish. The feet, however, are not produced by any bifurcation of the tail, but shoot out at the base of the tail, and in the same proportion that they grow, the tail decreases, till at last it entirely disappears.

2778Frogs, Cuvier says, conceal themselves in mud and slime during the winter, but, of course, are not changed into it.

2779“Quæ fuere.” Just in the same state, he probably means to say, in which they were when they were melted into slime, and not as they were when in the tadpole state.

2780All that is asserted here, Cuvier says, about the spontaneous operations of nature is totally false. Everything connected with the eggs and the generation of the mussel, the murex, and the scallop is now clearly ascertained.

2781“Acescente humore.” Hardouin has suggested that the proper reading may be “arescente humore”—“from moisture dried up;” for, he remarks, Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 18, states, that the “empides,” gnats formed from the ascarides in the slime of wells, are more frequently produced in the autumn season.

2782The apuæ, or aphyæ, Cuvier says, are nothing else but the fry of fish of a large kind.

2783Cuvier says, that some of the shell-fish deposit their eggs upon stakes and piles, which are driven down into the water among sea-weed, and the bottoms of old ships: but that many of them perish from the solutions formed by those bodies in a state of rottenness, or, at all events, are not produced from their decomposition.

2784“Ostreariis.” This was unknown to Aristotle, who, in his work De Gener. Anim. B. iii. c. 11, expressly denies that the oyster secretes any generative or fecundating liquid.

2785Cuvier says, that at the time of the oyster spawning, its body appears swollen in some parts with a milky fluid, which is not improbably the fecundating fluid. During this season the oyster is generally looked upon as unfit for food; among us, from the beginning of May to the end of July.

2786This, Cuvier remarks, is a mere vague hypothesis, as to the reproduction of the eel, without the slightest foundation. Pliny borrows it from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 9.

2787The squatina and the ray do not interbreed, Cuvier observes, any more than other fish; and the Squatina raia, or rhinobatis, (which was said to be their joint production), is a particular species, more flat in form than the squalus, and longer than the ray.

2788Ῥινόβατος, “the squatinoraia.”

2789“Lupus.” The Perca labrax of Linnæus; see c.28of the present Book.

2790The sardine. See c.20of the present Book.

2791See c.71of the present Book.

2792This name, Cuvier says, appears so rarely in the ancient writers, that it is difficult to ascertain its exact signification. The moderns, he says, have pretty generally agreed to give it to the carp, but without any good and sufficient foundation. It was a lake or river fish, which, as Aristotle says, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 14, deposited its eggs five or six times in the year, and which had a palate so fleshy, that it might almost be mistaken for a tongue, B. iv. c. 8, characteristics that appear well suited to the carp. But then, on the other hand, Oppian mentions it, Halieut. B. i., as a shore fish, implying apparently that it belonged to the sea; and Pliny himself, in c. 25 of the present Book, does the same, by his words, “hoc et in mari accidere cyprino.” The words “in mari,” however, he has added, of his own accord, to the account which he has derived from Aristotle.

2793The fish called the sea-scorpion. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.

2794“Sola autumno, occasu Vergiliarum.” It seems questionable whether the reading should not be “solea:” “the sole in autumn, at the setting of the Vergiliæ.”

2795The Pleiades.

2796See c.40of the present Book.

2797Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.

2798“Prosequitur afflatu.” Aristotle says that it pours over them its ink or atramentum,καταφυσᾷ τὸν θόλον.

2799Philostratus, Hist. B. v. c. 17, says that so full is it of eggs, that after it is dead they will more than fill a vessel far larger than the cavities of its head.

2800Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14.

2801Our periwinkles.

2802All the chondropterygian fishes, Cuvier says, have, in addition to their ovaries, real oviducts, which the ordinary fishes have not; the lower part of which, being detached, acts as the uterus, into which the eggs descend when they have gained their proper size: and it is here that the young ones burst forth from the egg, when the parent animal is viviparous.

2803Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 13, says the same of the glanis, or silurus.

2804The Syngnathus acus of Linnæus. This fish, Cuvier says, and in general all of the same genus, has a channel situate under the tail, which is opened by two moveable valves. In this they deposit their eggs at the moment of excluding them. After this, the valves open, to give a passage to the eggs, or the young enclosed in them. This circumstance, he says, gave rise to the notion mentioned in the text.

2805Mentioned in c. 35 of the present Book. Cuvier says that the sea tortoises, or turtles, to which no doubt this animal belonged, do deposit their eggs much in the way here mentioned.

2806Both these fishes have been mentioned in c. 23 of the present Book.

2807Pliny means to say, Cuvier says, that all these fish are to be looked upon as females: and, in fact, he says, Cavolini discovered eggs and a milt in every one that he examined; so that they appear to have all the appliances of self-fecundation.

2808Or wheel-fish: from the Greekτροχὸς, “a wheel.” It is not clearly known what animal he alludes to under this name. Snails, Cuvier says, are hermaphrodites, and so is the helix, but still they require sexual connection for the purposes of reproduction. The greater part of the marine uni-valves, on the other hand, are of separate sexes; but the organ of the male being proportionally of great length, and coiled in part beneath its mantle, this fact may very possibly have given rise to the notion here mentioned by our author, that the animal impregnates itself.

2809This can only be understood, Cuvier says, as applying to those animals the young of which are still enveloped in the membranes of the egg; for in general, the young of fish, from the moment of their birth, have eyes of great beauty, and are remarkable for the quickness of their sight.

2810From the Greekπαυσίλυπον, “grief-assuaging.” This was the name of a splendid villa belonging to Vedius Pollio, and which he bequeathed to Augustus. It was famous for its fish preserves; and it was here probably that Pollio kept his murenæ, previously mentioned by Pliny as being fed on human flesh. The vicinity is still called Monte Posilipo.

2811“Cæsaris piscinis.” This may either mean, preserves which had their name from Cæsar, or preserves which afterwards belonged to Cæsar. The work of Seneca, in which this circumstance was mentioned, is no longer in existence.

2812He was a contemporary of L. Crassus, and was distinguished for his great wealth, and his love of luxury and refinement, but possessed an unblemished character. His surname, Orata or Aurata, was given to him, it is said, because he was remarkably fond of gold-fish—auratæ pisces—though, according to other authorities, it was because he was in the habit of wearing two very large gold rings.

2813“Pensiles balineas.” This expression has been differently rendered by various commentators, but it is now generally supposed to refer to the manner in which the flooring of the bathing rooms was suspended over the hollow cells of the hypocaust or heating furnace. This is called by Vitruvius, “Suspensura caldariorum.”

2814“Ita mangonicatas villas subinde vendendo.”—By the use of the word “ita,” Pliny may possibly mean that he was in the habit of filling up the villas with the “balineæ pensiles,” which he had invented. “Mangonizo” was to set off or trim up a thing, that it might sell again all the better.

2815Varro speaks of those of Tarentum, as being the best. The Greeks preferred the oysters of Abydos; the Romans, under the empire, those of Britain.

2816It does not appear to be known what two bridges are here alluded to; the Sublician, or wooden bridge, was probably one of them, and, perhaps, the Palatine bridge was the other. The former was built by Ancus Martius.

2817For some further account of the British oyster, see B. xxxii. c. 21.

2818See B. xxxii. c. 21.

2819He was the first of this family, a branch of the Licinian gens, who bore the surname of Murena, from his love for that fish, it was said. He, like his father P. Licinius, attained the rank of prætor, and was a contemporary of the orator, L. Crassus.

2820“Euripum.”

2821“Xerxen togatum,” or “the Roman Xerxes,” in allusion to Xerxes cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of Mount Athos with Chalcidice. See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i. p. 300.

2822Probably the same person as the C. Hirrius Posthumius, who is mentioned as a voluptuary by Cicero, De Fin. B. ii. c. 22, § 70. Varro speaks of him, as expending the rent of his houses, amounting to twelve millions of sesterces, in bait for his murenæ.

2823This is, probably, the meaning of “quadragies” here, though it has been translated 400,000.

2824See B. iii. c. 9.

2825Porphyry, Tzetzes, and Macrobius relate the same story.

2826See B. vii. c.18, and B. xxxv. c. 36. Her grandson, Caligula, is supposed to have hastened her death.

2827Hirpinius is the more common reading. He is mentioned in B. viii. c. 78. If the reading “Lupinus” is adopted, nothing seems to be known of this epicurean trifler.

2828Our periwinkles.

2829See B. iii. c. 17.

2830Off the coast of Africa, see B. v. c. 1. These periwinkles, or sea-snails, are again mentioned in B. xxx. c. 15.

2831“Sapa.” Must, or new wine, boiled down to one half, according to Pliny; and one third, according to Varro.

2832The “quadrans” contained three cyathi, and was the fourth part of a sextarius, which consisted of about a pint and a-half; in which case the contents of one of their shells would be no less than fifteen quarts!! A statement to which no credit can be attached, unless, indeed, the sea-snail was something quite different to our periwinkle.

2833Cuvier remarks, that nothing is known of the fish of the Euphrates here mentioned by Pliny from Theophrastus; as, indeed, all particulars relative to the fresh-water fish of foreign countries are the portion of Ichthyology with which we are the least acquainted. Judging, however, from what is stated as to their habits and appearance, they may he various species of the genus Gobius of Linnæus, and more especially the one called periophthalmus by Bloch. These species are in the habit of crawling along the grass on the banks of rivers.

2834Generally considered the same as our gudgeon. It is called “cobio” (from the Greekκωβιὸς), by Pliny, in B. xxxii. c. 53. It was a worthless fish, “Vilis piscis,” as Juvenal says.

2835What Heraclea, if that is the correct reading, is meant here, it is impossible to say. Cromna is mentioned in B. vi. c. 2.

2836Cuvier thinks, that Pliny here alludes to a species of loche, the Cobitis fossilis of Linnæus, which keeps itself concealed in the mud, and can survive a long time in it, after the water above it is absorbed. Hence it is often found alive in the mud of drained marshes, or in the dried-up beds of rivers.

2837Cuvier remarks, that many fish, the orifice of the gills of which, like those of the eel, is small, or which have in the interior of those parts organs proper for the preservation there of water, are able, like the eel, to live for some time on dry land; such, for instance, as the periophthalmi previously mentioned, the chironectes, the ophicephali, the anabas, and others; but it is difficult to say, he observes, of what species were those of the Lycus, which are here mentioned.

2838Or turtle. See c.12of the present Book.

2839It is most probable that Sillig is right in his supposition, that “quam” should be read “æquam;” otherwise it does not appear that any sense can be made of the passage. Schneider, in his commentaries upon Theophrastus, Sillig says, quite despaired of either amending or explaining this passage; which, however, with Sillig’s emendation is very easily to be understood.

2840In accordance with the opinion of Vossius and Sillig, we read here “in illis,” instead of the common, and most probably incorrect, reading, “in nullis.”

2841Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 9., and Ovid, Met. B. i. l. 422,et seq., tell the same story, which, however, has no truth in it whatever.

2842B. v. c. 35.

2843Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. c. 305, et seq., tells a similar story as to the mode of taking the anthias, with some slight variation, however.

2844“Damni formulam editam.”

2845Cuvier says, that the star-fish, the Asterias of Linnæus, is covered with a callous shell without, and has within only the viscera and the ovaria, apparently without any muscles. Aristotle reckons it among the fishes which he callsὀστρακοδέρματα, or hard-shelled fish; while, on the other hand, Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xi. c. 22, reckons it among theμαλακόστρακα, or soft-shelled fish.

2846Cuvier says, that Pliny has good reason to say that he does not know upon what authority this power has been attributed to the star-fish; as it is altogether fabulous.

2847“Or finger.” The same fish that have been mentioned as “ungues,” or “onyches,” in c. 51 of the present Book. They are a multivalve shell-fish, Cuvier says, which live in hardened mud or the interior of rocks, into which they burrow cavities, from which they cannot retreat; and they can only be taken by breaking the stone. They have a flavour like pepper, and give out a phosphorescent light. See the end of c.51.

2848Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 3. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 48.

2849Aristotle says, that the tail of the conger is bitten by the murena, but not that of the murena by the conger. Hardouin suggests that Pliny may have learned this fact from the works of Nigidius Figulus.

2850Cuvier remarks, that in another passage, B. xi. c. 62, Pliny states that the “musculus qui balænam antecedit” has no teeth, but only bristles in its mouth. Now, in B. xxxii. c. 53, he speaks of the musculus as among the largest of animals; from which Cuvier concludes it to have been a species of whale, probably the “rorqual” of the Mediterranean. In confirmation of this, he thinks that the word “antecedit,” in B. xi. c. 62. has not the meaning of “goes before,” but “exceeds in size;” though here it is spoken of as leading the whale; and Oppian, Ælian, Plutarch, Claudian, speak of the conductor of the whale as a little fish. He is of opinion, in fine, that either Pliny or some of the authors from which he has borrowed, have made a mistake in the name, and probably given that of “musculus,” which was really a large fish, to a small one, which was commonly supposed to attend on the movements of the whale.

2851It is evident from this passage, that Pliny is speaking of a little fish here, and not one to which he would assign such bulk as is ascribed to the musculus in B. xxxii. c. 53.

2852See end of B. iii.

2853See end of B.vii.

2854Caius Cilnius Mecænas, or rather Mæcenas, a descendant of the kings of Etruria, and of equestrian rank. He was the favourite minister of Augustus, and the friend and patron of Horace, Virgil, and most of the more deserving among the learned of his day. He is supposed to have written two tragedies, the Prometheus and Octavia; an epic poem, and a work on Natural History, to which Pliny frequently alludes, and which seems to have related, principally, to fishes and gems. He is also thought to have written some memoirs of the life of Augustus.

2855A rhetorician, who flourished in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. His school was attended by the elder Seneca, who had then recently removed to Rome from Corduba. He was regarded at Rome as a prodigy of learning, and gave lectures before he had assumed the toga virilis. He is supposed to have written poetry, and a history of the Carthaginian wars.

2856See end of B. ii.

2857Or “writer of Mimes.” Laberius Decimus was of equestrian rank, born aboutB.C.107, and diedB.C.43. Half compelled, and half induced by the offer of a reward by Cæsar, he appeared on the stage, in his old age, as an actor of mimes. A few verses, and a prologue still in existence, are attributed to him.

2858Fabianus Papirius. See end of B. ii.

2859See end of B.viii.

2860See end of B. ii.

2861L. Ælius Præconinus Stilo, a Roman of equestrian rank, one of the earliest grammarians, and also one of the most celebrated. He instructed Varro, and was one of Cæsar’s instructors in rhetoric. He received the name of Præconinus, from the circumstance of his father having been a “præco,” and that of Stilo, on account of his writings. He wrote commentaries on the songs of the Salii, and on the Twelve Tables, a work De Proloquiis, &c.

2862See end of B. ii.

2863See end of B.vii.

2864L. Annæus Seneca. See end of B. vi.

2865See end of B.vii.

2866A poet of Verona, who diedB.C.16, He wrote a poem upon birds, snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, probably, of the Theriaca of Nicander. There is a work, still extant, under his name, “On the Virtues of Herbs;” which, no doubt, belongs to the middle ages. He also wrote sixteen or more Books of Annals.

2867M. Valerius Messala Corvinus. He was born at Rome,B.C.59. He joined the party of Cassius against Antony and Augustus, which last he defeated at the battle of Philippi. He afterwards served under Antony, and then Augustus; the centre of whose fleet he commanded at Actium. About two years before his death, which happened in the middle of the reign of Augustus, his memory failed him, and he was often unable to recollect his own name. He wrote a history, or rather, commentaries on the Civil wars after the death of Cæsar, and towards the close of his life composed a genealogical work “On the Families of Rome.” He also wrote poems of a satirical, and sometimes licentious character; and works on grammar, the titles of only two of which have come down to us. He was especially famous for his eloquence.

2868See end of B.viii.

2869See end of B.vi.

2870See end of B. ii.

2871See end of B.viii.

2872See end of B. iv.

2873See end of B. ii.

2874See end of B. iii.

2875See end of B. ii.

2876Nothing whatever is known of him.

2877See end of B. iii.

2878Cuvier remarks, that the accounts given by the ancients of birds, are enveloped in greater obscurity than their information on quadrupeds, or fishes. The quadrupeds, he says, are not so numerous, and are known from their characteristics. The fishes also, which the ancients so highly esteemed as an article of food, were well known to them in general, and they have repeated occasions to speak of them: but as to the birds, the augurs were their principal informants. Pliny, in fact, often quotes their testimony; and we find, from what he says, that these men had not come to any agreement among themselves as to what were the names of divers species of birds, the movements of which announced, according to them, the success or misfortune of states equally with individuals. This portion, in fact, of the works of Pliny, Cuvier remarks, is an excellent commentary on the remark of Cicero, who, an augur himself, asked the question, how two augurs could look each other in the face without laughing. There are also several passages from Aristotle, who has, however, given but very little attention to the exterior characteristics of birds: it is only from the similarity of their habits and present names that we are able, in many cases, to guess what bird it is that is meant.

2879“Struthiocamelus;” from the Greek, signifying a “little sparrow,” and a “camel.” Cuvier remarks, that Pliny’s description is correct, and that he is only mistaken in a few slight particulars.

2880Pliny perhaps here uses the conjunction “vel” in the explanatory sense of “otherwise;” intending to distinguish Æthiopian Africa from the Roman province of that name.

2881Cuvier remarks, that there is some truth in this, so far as that the ostrich has only two toes, like the stag and other ruminating animals; but then they are unequal in size, and not covered with hoofs.

2882Father Lobo, in his account of Abyssinia, says that when the ostrich is running at great speed, it throws the stones behind with such violence, that they would almost seem to be thrown at those in pursuit.

2883An ostrich, Cuvier says, will swallow anything, but it is by no means able to digest everything. He says, that he has seen ostriches with the stomach ruptured by nails which they have swallowed, or dreadfully torn by pieces of glass.

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