Chapter 684

2643“Exuta vere,” as suggested by Sillig, would appear a better reading than “ex utero,” which can have no meaning here.

2644“Viper mixture.”

2645See c. 35 of this Book.

2646In B. xi. c. 62.

2647As Ajasson remarks, this would be very likely to gangrene the wound.

2648See B. viii. c. 14. Not the Boa constrictor of modern Natural History.

2649In B. x. c. 3.

2650See B. xxxiii. c. 25, and B. xxxvi. cc. 37, 38.

2651The tongues of peacocks and larks are recommended for epilepsy, by Lampridius, in his Life of the Emperor Elagabalus. The statement in the text is, of course, a fiction.

2652The reading here is doubtful.

2653A puerile reason, Ajasson remarks. It is much more probable that the reason was, because this vein was the most easily discovered.

2654See B. xxviii. c. 47.

2655In B. xxviii. c. 47.

2656See B. x. c. 52.

2657The serpent so called.

2658An absurdity. The probability is, that the sight of the young birds was onlysupposedto be destroyed, the operation being imperfectly performed.

2659See B. xxxvii. c. 56.

2660The mention of this number denotes the Eastern origin of this remedy, Ajasson remarks.

2661See Note 6 above.

2662“Lacrymantibus sine fine oculis.”

2663Ajasson remarks, that Pliny has given here a much more exact description of the varieties of the Spider, than in the Eleventh Book. The learned Commentator gives an elaborate discussion, of eighteen pages, on the varieties of the Spider as known to the ancients in common with modern naturalists.

2664Green is universally the colour least fatiguing to the eye.

2665See B. xx. c. 23.

2666See B. vii. c. 27, and B. viii. c. 41. The formic acid which ants contain may possibly possess some medicinal properties.

2667Ajasson suggests that this may be the Lacerta cœpium of Dandin, of a reddish brown colour, with two blackish lines running longitudinally along the back.

2668This insect in reality is a woodlouse, whereas the millepedes previously described are evidently caterpillars. Woodlice are still swallowed alive by schoolboys, and old women are to be found who recommend them for consumption. Holland says that woodlice are good for pains in the ears.

2669“Perniciosam.”

2670In the middle ages there were many superstitions with reference to this insect, some of which have survived to the present day.

2671Ajasson seems to think that this passage means that the antitselfadopts this plan of catching the cricket. If so, he is certainly in error, and his attack upon Pliny’s credulity is, in this instance at least, misplaced.

2672See B. xi. c. 34, and B. xxv. c. 60.

2673“Inhabiting mills.”

2674See B. xix. c. 38, and B. xxv. c. 38.

2675Of this writer nothing is known.

2676See B. xxiv. c. 11.

2677See the end of this Book.

2678See end of B. ii.

2679See end of B. ii.

2680See end of B. iii.

2681See end of B. ii.

2682See end of B. vi.

2683See end of B. xii.

2684See end of B. vii.

2685See end of B. xiv.

2686See end of B. vii.

2687See end of B. xii.

2688See end of B. xxviii.

2689See end of B. viii.

2690See end of B. xviii.

2691See end of B. xix.

2692See end of B. ii.

2693See end of B. xx.

2694There are four literary persons of this name mentioned by Suidas, who appears to give but a confused account of them. He speaks of an ancient poet of Athens of this name, who wrote a Cosmogony and other works; a native of Priene, to whom some attributed the work on “Incredible Stories,” by most persons assigned to Palæphatus of Athens; an historian of Abydos, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and a friend of Aristotle; and a grammarian of Athens of uncertain date, to whom the work on “Incredible Stories” is mostly assigned. But in the former editions of Pliny, the reading “Philopator” is mostly adopted; bearing reference, it has been suggested, to a Stoic philosopher and physician of that name mentioned by Galen, “On the Symptoms of Mental Diseases,” c. 8.

2695See end of B. ii.

2696See end of B. xxi.

2697See end of B. xiii.

2698See end of B. xi.

2699See end of B. xii.

2700There were two Greek physicians of this name, one of whom was a native of Thasos, and wrote several medical works. The other was a native of Cnidos, and, according to Suidas, a slave of the philosopher Chrysippus. Galen, however, says that he was a pupil of the physician of that name, and afterwards became physician to Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia,B.C.283-239. Hardouin is of opinion that the two physicians were one and the same person.

2701See end of B. xx.

2702Servilius Democrates, a Greek physician at Rome about the time of the Christian era. He probably received his prænomen from being a client of the Servilian family. Pliny speaks of him in B. xxiv. c. 28, and B. xxv. c. 49. He wrote several works on medicine in Greek Iambic verse, the titles and a few extracts from which are preserved by Galen.

2703Probably the same physician that is mentioned by Galen as belonging to the sect of the Empirici. See c. 39 of this Book.

2704See end of B. xx.

2705A fabulous king of Assyria, or Egypt, to whom was attributed the discovery of many remedies and medicaments. See B. xxx. c. 51, and B. xxxvii. c. 52.

2706See end of B. viii.

2707Beyond the mention made of his absurd remedy in c. 38 of the present Book, nothing seems to be known of this writer.

2708“Artes.” Medicine, religion, and the art of divination.

2709Ajasson remarks that, on the contrary, this is a subject of great doubt.

2710“Mathematicas artes.”

2711The title of the ancient kings of Persia.

2712Or Bactriana, more properly.

2713Magic, no doubt, has been the subject of belief from the earliest times, whatever may have been the age of Zoroaster, the Zarathustra of the Zendavesta, and the Zerdusht of the Persians. In the Zendavesta he is represented as living in the reign of Gushtasp, generally identified with Darius Hystaspes. He probably lived at a period anterior to that of the Median and Persian kings. Niebuhr regards him as a purely mythical personage.

2714See end of B. ii.

2715See end of this Book.

2716An exaggeration, of Oriental origin, most probably.

2717These names have all, most probably, been transmitted to us in a corrupted form. Ajasson gives some suggestions as to their probable Eastern form and origin.

2718One among the many proofs, Ajasson says, that the Iliad and the Odyssey belong to totally different periods.

2719In reference to the Tenth Book of the Odyssey.

2720See B. v. cc. 28, 29. Cicero mentions a college of Aruspices established at this city.

2721The name “Thessala” was commonly used by the Romans to signify an enchantress, sorceress, or witch. See the story of Apuleius, Books i. and iii.

2722The countries of the East.

2723Purely medicinal remedies.

2724In contradistinction to lightnings elicited by the practice of Magic.

2725A poetical figure, alluding to the “thunderbolts of war,” as wielded probably by Achilles and other heroes of Thessaly.

2726See B. ii. c. 9.

2727Ajasson queries whether this is a proper name, or an epithet merely.

2728Ajasson combats this assertion at considerable length, and with good reason. It is quite inadmissible.

2729The mysteries of philosophy, as Ajasson remarks, were not necessarily identical with the magic art.

2730In reality, Pythagoras was an exile from the tyranny of the ruler of Samos, Plato from the court of Dionysius the Younger, and Democritus from the ignorance of his fellow-countrymen of Abdera. There is no doubt that Pythagoras and Democritus made considerable researches into the art of magic as practised in the East.

2731Nothing is known of this writer.

2732Dardanus, the ancestor of the Trojans, if he is the person here meant, is said to have introduced the worship of the gods into Samothrace.

2733The works of Homer were transmitted in a similar manner.

2734Moses, no doubt, was represented by the Egyptian priesthood as a magician, in reference more particularly to the miracles wrought by him before Pharaoh. From them the Greeks would receive the notion.

2735In 2 Tim. iii. 8, we find the words, “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.” Eusebius, in hisPræparatio Evangelica, B. ix., states that Jannes and Jambres, or Mambres, were the names of Egyptian writers, who practised Magic, and opposed Moses before Pharaoh. This contest was probably represented by the Egyptian priesthood as merely a dispute between two antagonistic schools of Magic.

2736Of this person nothing is known. The former editions mostly have “Jotapea.” “Jotapata” was the name of a town in Syria, the birthplace of Josephus.

2737He is mistaken here as to the nation to which Jannes belonged.

2738By some it has been supposed that this bears reference to Christianity, as introduced into Cyprus by the Apostle Barnabas. Owing to the miracles wrought in the infancy of the Church, the religion of the Christians was very generally looked upon as a sort of Magic. The point is very doubtful.

2739His itinerary, Ajasson remarks, would have been a great curiosity.

2740B. xxviii. c. 4.

2741These sacrifices forming the most august rite of the Magic art, as practised in Italy.

2742That this art was still practised in secret in the days of Pliny himself, we learn from the testimony of Tacitus (Annals, II. 69), in his account of the enquiries instituted on the death of Germanicus.

2743More particularly in the worship of their divinity Heu or Hesus, the god of war.

2744This he did officially, but not effectually, and the Druids survived as a class for many centuries both in Gaul and Britain.

2745He alludes to the British shores bordering on the Atlantic. See B. xix. c. 2.

2746It is a curious fact that the round towers of Ireland bear a strong resemblance to those, the ruins of which are still to be seen on the plains of ancient Persia.

2747“Ut dedisse Persis videri possit.” This might possibly mean, “That Persia might almost seem to have communicated it direct to Britain”. Ajasson enumerates the following superstitions of ancient Britain, as bearing probable marks of an Oriental origin: the worship of the stars, lakes, forests, and rivers; the ceremonials used in cutting the plants samiolus, selago, and mistletoe, and the virtues attributed to the adder’s egg.

2748Ajasson seems inclined to suggest that this may possibly bear reference to the Christian doctrines of redemption and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

2749These kinds of divination, rather than magic, were called hydromancy, sphæromancy, aëromancy, astromancy, lychnomancy, lecanomancy, and axinomancy. See Rabelais, B. iii. c. 25, where a very full account is given of the Magic Art, as practised by the ancients. Coffee-grounds, glair of eggs, and rose-leaves, are still used in France for purposes of divination by the superstitious.

2750Suetonius says that his body was full of foul spots.

2751It was probably a doctrine of Magic, that an adept must not be deficient in any of his limbs.

2752After being conquered by the Roman general, Corbulo, he received the crown of Armenia from Nero,A.D.63.

2753All vegetable substances were divided, according to their doctrine, into the pure and the impure, the rule being strictly observed at their repasts.

2754See end of this Book.

2755See B. xxv. c. 80.

2756Like the assertions of the famous impostor of the close of the last century, Count Cagliostro.

2757A mistake, of course; and one for which there is little excuse, as its eyes are easily perceptible. It is not improbably, however, that it was an impression with the ancients that its sight is impeded by the horny covering of its eyes.

2758In B. xxix. c. 27.

2759See B. xii. c. 51.

2760It is doubtful what is meant by this male white “water-serpent.” In B. xxxii. c. 26, he appears to include it among the fishes.

2761See B. xxv. c. 108.

2762It is a singular thing that we still hear of the maggots found in filberts being used for the same purpose.

2763See B. xxix. c. 17.

2764Marcus Empiricus says, honey.

2765See B. xvi. c. 19.

2766Dalechamps thinks that these “Herculean” ants were so called from their great size. Ajasson queries whether they may not be the “grenadier ants” of Dupont de Nemours.

2767See B. xxii. c. 36. Belon takes it to be the Lixus paraplecticus.

2768In B. xxix. c. 30.

2769In B. xxii. c. 21.

2770“Stigmata.”

2771See B. iv. c. 23, B. viii. c. 59, and cc. 15 and 43 of the present Book.

2772“Smegma.”

2773See B. xx. c. 2.

2774No very great obligation, apparently.

2775See B. x. c. 49.

2776“Riparia.”

2777The only birds’ nests that arenowtaken internally are thesoutton bourong, or, edible birds’ nests, of the Chinese.

2778See B. xxix. c. 39.

2779Marcus Empiricus says that the heart must be enclosed in a silver lupine and worn suspended from the neck, being efficacious for scrofula both in males and females. The silver lupine was probably what we should call a “locket.”

2780“The bull.” Dalechamps takes this to be the stag-beetle or bull-fly; but that, as Ajasson remarks, has four horns, two antennæ, and two large mandibules; in addition to which, from its size, it would hardly be called the “earth-louse.” He concludes that a lamellicorn is meant; but whether belonging to the Lucanidæ or the Scarabæidæ, it is impossible to say.

2781“Pediculus terræ.”

2782In B. xxix. c. 33.

2783In B. xxix. c. 21.

2784He probably speaks of woodlice here. Ettmuller asserts their utility in this form for scrofula. Valisnieri says the same; Spielmann prescribes them for arthrosis; Riviere considers them as a detergent for ulcers, and a resolvent for tumours of the mamillæ; and Baglivi maintains that they are a first-rate diuretic, and unequalled as a lithontriptic. They contain muriate of lime and of potash, which may possibly, in some small degree, give them an aperitive virtue.

2785See Horace, Epode xii. l. 5.

2786Hence, perhaps, the practice of nursing lap-dogs.

2787See B. iii. c. 30, and Note 2, p. 267.

2788In France and Italy, snails are considered a delicacy by some. Snail milk is sometimes used medicinally in England for consumptive patients: it is doubtful with what effect.

2789Or fish-sauce. See B. xxxi. c. 43.

2790See B. v. c. 20.

2791See B. iii. c. 12.

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