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CHAP. 81. (20.)—REMARKABLE FACTS RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.

In addition to those already mentioned, there are various other marvellous facts related, with reference to these animals. When a horse-shoe becomes detached from the hoof, as often is the case, if a person takes it up and puts it by, it will act as a remedy for hiccup the moment he calls to mind the spot where he has placed it. A wolf's liver, they say, is similar to a horse's hoof in appearance; and a horse, they tell us, if it follows in the track of a wolf, will burst1 asunder beneath its rider. The pastern-bones of swine have a certain tendency to promote discord, it is said. In cases of fire, if some of the dung can be brought away from the stalls, both sheep and oxen may be got out all the more easily, and will make no attempt to return. The flesh of a he-goat will lose its rank smell, if the animal has eaten barley-bread, or drunk an infusion of laser2 the day on which it was killed. Meat that has been salted while the moon was on the wane, will never be attacked by worms. In fact, so great has been the care taken to omit no possible researches, that a deaf hare, we find, will grow fat3 sooner than one that can hear!

As to the remedies for the diseases of animals—If a beast of burden voids blood, an injection must be used of swine's dung mixed with wine. For the maladies of oxen, a mixture of suet is used with quicksilver, and wild garlic boiled; the whole eaten up and administered in wine. The fat, too, of a fox is employed. The liquor of boiled horse-flesh, administered in their drink, is recommended for the cure of diseased swine: and, indeed, the maladies of all four-footed beasts may be effec- tually treated by boiling a she-goat whole, in her skin, along with a bramble-frog. Poultry, they say, will never be touched by a fox, if they have eaten the dried liver of that animal, or if the cock, when treading the hen, has had a piece of fox's skin about his neck. The same property, too, is attributed to a weazel's gall. The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said, by swallowing4 human excrements: the feet, too, of oxen will never be worn to the quick, if their hoofs are well rubbed with tar before they begin work. Wolves will never approach a field, if, after one has been caught and its legs broken and throat cut, the blood is dropped little by little along the boundaries of the field, and the body buried on the spot from which it was first dragged. The share, too, with which the first furrow in the field has been traced in the current year, should be taken from the plough, and placed upon the hearth of the Lares, where the family is in the habit of meeting, and left there till it is consumed: so long as this is in doing, no wolf will attack any animal in the field.

We will now turn to an examination of those animals which, being neither tame nor wild, are of a nature peculiar to them- selves.

SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,5 L. Piso,6 Fabianus,7 Va- lerius Antias,8 Verrius Flaccus,9 Cato the Censor,10 Servius Sul- picius,11 Licinius Macer,12 Celsus,13 Massurius,14 Sextius Niger15 who wrote in Greek, Bithus16 of Dyrrhachium, Opilius17 the physician, Granius18 the physician.

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—-Democritus,19 Apollonius20 who wrote the "Myrosis," Melitus,21 Artemon,22 Sextilius,23 Au- tæus,24 Homer, Theophrastus,25 Lysimachus,26 Attalus,27 Xenocrates,28 Orpheus29 who wrote the "Idiophya," Archelaüs30 who wrote a similar work, Demetrius,31 Sotira,32 Laïs,33 Ele- phantis,34 Salpe,35 Olympias36 of Thebes, Diotimus37 of Thebes, Iollas,38 Andreas,39 Marcion40 of Smyrna, Æschines41 the physician, Hippocrates,42 Aristotle,43 Metrodorus44 of Scepsos, Icetidas45 the physician, Apelles46 the physician, Hesiod,47 Dalion,48 Cæcilius,49 Bion50 who wrote "On Powers,"51 Anaxilaiis,52 King Juba.53

1 He has already stated, in c. 44, that a horse will become torpid if it follows in the track of a wolf; for which statement, according to Ajasson, there appears to be some foundation.

2 See B. xix. c. 15.

3 This is not unlikely; for it has no alarms to make it grow thin.

4 See B. viii. c. 41, as to a similar practice on the part of the panther.

5 See end of B. ii.

6 See end of B. ii.

7 For Fabianus Papirius, see end of B. ii. For Falbianus Sabinus, see end of B. xviii.

8 See end of B. ii.

9 See end of B. iii.

10 See end of B. iii.

11 Servius Sulpicius Lemonia Rufus, a contemporary and friend of Cicero. He was Consul with M. Claudius Marcellus, B.C. 51, and died B.C. 43, at the siege of Mutina. He left about 180 treatises on various subjects; but beyond the fact that he is often quoted by the writers whose works form part of the Digest, none of his writings (with the exception of two letters to Cicero) have come down to us.

12 See end of B. xix.

13 See end of B. vii.

14 See end of B. vii.

15 See end of B. xii.

16 From the mention made of him in Chap. 23, he was probably a physician. Nothing further is known of him.

17 Aurelius Opilius, the freedman of an Epicurean. He taught philosophy, rhetoric, and grammar at Rome. but finally withdrew to Smyrna. One of his works, mentioned by A. Gellius, was entitled "Musæ," and the name of another was "Pinax."

18 From the mention made of his profound speculations in Chap. 9, Fabricius has reckoned him among the medical writers of Rome. It has also been suggested that he may have been the Granius Flaccus mentioned by Censorinus as the author of the "Indigitamenta," or Register of the Pontiffs.

19 See end of B. ii.

20 Probably Apollonius Mus, or Myronides, a physician who flourished in the first century B.C., who is mostly identified with Apollonius Herophileius. His "Myrosis" here mentioned is probably the work "On Unguents" mentioned by Athenæus, B. xv.

21 Nothing whatever is known of him. It has been suggested that the name may have been "Melitus." A contemporary of Socrates, an orator and tragic writer, was so named.

22 Beyond the mention of him in c. 2 of this Book, nothing is known relative to this medical writer no great loss, perhaps, if we may judge from the extract there given.

23 Though mentioned among the foreign writers, the name is evidently Roman. Nothing relative to him is ;known.

24 See end of B. xii.

25 See end of B. iii.

26 Probably the writer mentioned at the end of B. viii.

27 See end of B. viii.

28 See end of B. xx.

29 See end of B. xx. The "Idiophya" was probably a work "On the, Peculiar Animals," which passed as the composition of the mythic Orpheus.

30 A Greek poet, said to have been born at Chersonesus, a town in Egypt. Some of his Epigrams are still extant in the Anthology, and it has been suggested that he flourished either in the time of Ptolemy Soter, of Peculiar Euergetes II., or of Ptolemy Philadelphus. His work "On Peculiar Animals," here mentioned, was probably written in verse.

31 See end of B. viii.

32 A female writer on medical subjects. In addition to her work mentioned in Chap. 23 of this Book, Labbe speaks of a work of hers in MS. "On Menstruation," preserved in the Library at Florence.

33 The female who is mentioned in Chap. 23 of this Book as having written on Abortion, or the Diseases peculiar to Females, was probably a different person from either of the two famous courtesans of that name. Nothing whatever is known of her.

34 The writer of certain amatory poems, much admired by the Emperor Tiberius, generally supposed, from the grammatical form of the name, to have been a female. Galen quotes a work "On Cosmetics," as written by a person of this name.

35 A native of Lemnos, who wrote on the Diseases of Women. Nymphodorus, as quoted by Athenæus, states that she also wrote verses on Sportive subjects.

36 See end of B. xx.

37 Beyond the mention made of him in c. 23, nothing further is known relative to this writer. Theophrastus, in his work on Sudorifics, speaks of a person of this name as having written on Perspiration.

38 See end of B. xii.

39 See end of B. xx.

40 Beyond the mention made of him in c. 7 of this Book, nothing is known of this writer. Hardouin suggests that he may have been identical with the Micton mentioned at the end of B. xx.

41 He is spoken of as a native of Athens, in c. 10 of this Book. Beyond this, nothing is known of him.

42 See end of B. vii.

43 See end of B. ii.

44 See end of B. iii.

45 Or more probably, Hicetidas. Nothing is known of this writer.

46 A native of Thasos. He is also mentioned by Galen.

47 See end of B. vii.

48 See end of B. vi.

49 Probably a physician, of whom Athenæus speaks as being a native of Argos, and writer of a treatise on Fish.

50 Probably a different writer from the one of that name mentioned at the end of B. vi.

51 περὶ δυνάμεων.

52 See end of B. xxi.

53 See end of 13. v.

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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