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CHAP. 41.—BLOOD.

The blood, also, of the horse is possessed of certain corrosive properties; and so, too, is mare's blood-except, indeed, where the animal has not been covered-it having the effect of cauterizing the margins of ulcers, and so enlarging them. Bull's blood too, taken fresh, is reckoned1 among the poisons; except, indeed, at Ægira,2 at which place the priestess of the Earth, when about to foretell coming events, takes a draught of bull's blood before she descends into the cavern: so powerful, in fact, is the agency of that sympathy so generally spoken of, that it may occasionally originate, we find, in feelings of religious awe,3 or in the peculiar nature of the locality.

Drusus,4 the tribune of the people, drank goats' blood, it is said; it being his object by his pallid looks to suggest that his enemy, Q. Cæpio, had given him poison, and so expose him to public hatred. So remarkably powerful is the blood of the hegoat, that there is nothing better in existence for sharpening iron implements, the rust produced by this blood giving them a better edge even than a file. Considering, however, that the blood of all animals cannot be reckoned as a remedy in common, will it not be advisable, in preference, to speak of the effects that are produced by that of each kind?

1 This, as already observed, was probably a fallacy.

2 See B. iv. c. 6.

3 His meaning is, that the excitement produced by religious feeling neutralizes that antipathy which, under ordinary circumstances, is manifested towards the system by bull's blood.

4 See B. xxxiii. c. 6.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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