Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 47.—METHODS OF REMOVING SUPERFLUOUS HAIR. DEPILATORIES. <a href="#note-link1">1</a> It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we regret to say, that we are enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the Bamberg MS., which has been so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number of passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all suspected of being in a mutilated state, this MS. supplies words and clauses, the existence of which in the original was hitherto unknown; indeed by its aid the indefatigable Sillig has been enabled, if we may be allowed the term, almost to rewrite the last six Books of Pliny. From a perusal of these new readings, as Dr. Smith has justly remarked, we have reason to infer "that the text of the earlier Books is still in a very defective state, and that much of the obscurity of Pliny may be traced to this cause."</p>

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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 resin¹ in a leaden box; a re- cipe which we find given by the midwife Salpe² for disguising the age of boys on sale for slaves. A similar property belongs to the pulmo marinus,³ 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,⁴ mixed with oil; sea-nettles,⁵ bruised in squill vinegar; and brains of the torpedo⁶ applied with alum on the sixteenth day of the moon. The thick matter emitted by the small frogs, which we have described when treating⁷ 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 already⁸ 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.⁹ 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.

1 "Cedrium." See B. xvi. c. 21, and B. xxiv. c. 11.

2 See end of B. xxviii.

3 Or "sea-lungs." See Chapter 36 of this Book.

4 See B. ix. c. 67

5 See B. ix. c. 68.

6 See Note 90 above.

7 In Chapter 24 of this Book.

8 See the preceding Note.

9 See Chapter 42 of this Book.

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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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 47.—METHODS OF REMOVING SUPERFLUOUS HAIR. DEPILATORIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 47.—METHODS OF REMOVING SUPERFLUOUS HAIR. DEPILATORIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.