Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 6.—MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES. <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. 6.—MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES.

Trebius Niger informs us that whenever the loligo¹ is seen darting above the surface of the water, it portends a change of weather: that the xiphias,² or, in other words, the swordfish, has a sharp-pointed muzzle, with which it is able to pierce the sides of a ship and send it to the bottom: instances of which have been known near a place in Mauritania, known as Cotte, not far from the river Lixus.³ He says, too, that the loligo sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast numbers, as to sink the ships upon which they fall.

1 See B. ix. cc. 44, 45, and B. xviii. c. 87.

2 See B. ix. cc. 1, 21 and c. 53 of the present Book. There are two varieties of it, the Xiphias gladius of Bloch and Lacépède, and the Xiphias machæra of Shaw.

3 See B. v. c. 1.

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. 6.—MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES.

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. 6.—MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES.

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