Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.
BOOK IV. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS,
HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR
FORMERLY EXISTED.
BOOK V.
AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.
BOOK VI. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS,
HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES
WHO NOW EXIST, OR FORMERLY EXISTED.
BOOK VII.
MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.
BOOK X. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.
BOOK XXII.
THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS AND FRUITS.
BOOK XXVI.
A CONTINUATION OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM
PLANTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR
DISEASES.
BOOK XXXII.
REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.
1 "De aquaticis et iisdem terrestribus;" although these words are inserted in the title of this Chapter, the subject is not treated of in it.—B.
2 Pliny here adopts the vulgar opinion respecting the origin of the substance called "castor," and in B. xxxii. c. 13, gives a more correct description, which he had derived from a physician, named Sextius. It is a fetid, oily substance, secreted by a gland situate near the prepuce. Cuvier remarks, that when the gland becomes distended with this secretion, the animal may probably get rid of it by rubbing the part against a stone or tree, and in this way, leave the castor for the hunters, thus giving rise to the vulgar error. Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 448; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 440.—B.
3 The beaver has the most powerful teeth of any animal of the class Rodentia, to which it belongs; it uses them for cutting down trees, with which it constructs its habitation. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, refers to this.—B.
4 The tail is covered with a kind of scale, and is flattened; but, in its internal organization, is formed like those of other quadrupeds.—B.
5 See B. xxxii. c. 52.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.
View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.
