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REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.

CHAP. Page

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.

AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES.

GENERAL INDEX 469

NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.

CHAP. 1. --THE POWER OF NATURE AS MANIFESTED IN ANTIPATHIES. THE ECHENE?S: TWO REMEDIES.

Following the proper order of things, we have now arrived at the culminating point of the wonders manifested to us by the operations of Nature. And even at the very outset, we find spontaneously presented to us an incomparable illustration of her mysterious powers: so much so, in fact, that beyond it we feel ourselves bound to forbear extending our enquiries, there being nothing to be found either equal or analogous to an element in which Nature quite triumphs over herself, and that, too, in such numberless ways. For what is there more unruly than the sea, with its winds, its tornadoes, and its tempests? And yet in what department of her works has Nature been more seconded by the ingenuity of man, than in this, by his inventions of sails and of oars? In addition to this, we are struck with the ineffable might displayed by the Ocean's tides, as they constantly ebb and flow, and so regulate the currents of the sea as though they were the waters of one vast river.

And yet all these forces, though acting in unison, and impelling in the same direction, a single fish, and that of a very diminutive size--the fish known as the "echene?s"--possesses the power of counteracting. Winds may blow and storms may rage, and yet the echene?s controls their fury, restrains their mighty force, and bids ships stand still in their career; a result which no cables, no anchors, from their ponderousness quite incapable of being weighed, could ever have produced! A fish bridles the impetuous violence of the deep, and subdues the frantic rage of the universe--and all this by no effort of its own, no act of resistance on its part, no act at all, in fact, but that of adhering to the bark! Trifling as this object would appear, it suffices to counteract all these forces combined, and to forbid the ship to pass onward in its way! Fleets, armed for war, pile up towers and bulwarks on their decks, in order that, upon the deep even, men may fight from behind ramparts as it were. But alas for human vanity!--when their prows, beaked as they are with brass and with iron, and armed for the onset, can thus be arrested and rivetted to the spot by a little fish, no more than some half foot in length!

At the battle of Actium, it is said, a fish of this kind stopped the praetorian ship of Antonius in its course, at the moment that he was hastening from ship to ship to encourage and exhort his men, and so compelled him to leave it and go on board another. Hence it was, that the fleet of Caesar gained the advantage in the onset, and charged with a redoubled impetuosity. In our own time, too, one of these fish arrested the ship of the Emperor Caius in its course, when he was returning from Astura to Antium: and thus, as the result proved, did an insignificant fish give presage of great events; for no sooner had the emperor returned to Rome than he was pierced by the weapons of his own soldiers. Nor did this sudden stoppage of the ship long remain a mystery, the cause being perceived upon finding that, out of the whole fleet, the emperor's five-banked galley was the only one that was making no way. The moment this was discovered, some of the sailors plunged into the sea, and, on making search about the ship's sides, they found an echene?s adhering to the rudder. Upon its being shown to the emperor, he strongly expressed his indignation that such an obstacle as this should have impeded his progress, and have rendered powerless the hearty endeavours of some four hundred men. One thing, too, it is well known, more particularly surprised him, how it was possible that the fish, while adhering to the ship, should arrest its progress, and yet should have no such power when brought on board.

According to the persons who examined it on that occasion, and who have seen it since, the echene?s bears a strong resemblance to a large slug. The various opinions entertained respecting it we have already noticed, when speaking of it in the Natural History of Fishes. There is no doubt, too, that all fish of this kind are possessed of a similar power; witness, for example, the well-known instance of the shells which are still preserved and consecrated in the Temple of Venus at Cnidos, and which, we are bound to believe, once gave such striking evidence of the possession of similar properties. Some of our own authors have given this fish the Latin name of "mora." It is a singular thing, but among the Greeks we find writers who state that, worn as an amulet, the echene?s has the property, as already mentioned, of preventing miscarriage, and of reducing procidence of the uterus, and so permitting the foetus to reach maturity: while others, again, assert that, if it is preserved in salt and worn as an amulet, it will facilitate parturition; a fact to which it is indebted for another name which it bears, "odinolytes." Be all this as it may, considering this most remarkable fact of a ship being thus stopped in its course, who can entertain a doubt as to the possibility of any manifestation of her power by Nature, or as to the effectual operation of the remedies which she has centred in her spontaneous productions?

CHAP. 2.--THE TORPEDO: NINE REMEDIES.

And then, besides, even if we had not this illustration by the agency of the echene?s, would it not have been quite sufficient only to cite the instance of the torpedo, another inhabitant also of the sea, as a manifestation of the mighty powers of Nature? From a considerable distance even, and if only touched with the end of a spear or staff, this fish has the property of benumbing even the most vigorous arm, and of rivetting the feet of the runner, however swift he may be in the race. If, upon considering this fresh illustration, we find ourselves compelled to admit that there is in existence a certain power which, by the very exhalations and, as it were, emanations therefrom, is enabled to affect the members of the human body, what are we not to hope for from the remedial influences which Nature has centred in all animated beings?

CHAP. 3.--THE SEA HARE: FIVE REMEDIES.

No less wonderful, too, are the particulars which we find stated relative to the sea-hare. Taken with the food or drink, it is a poison to some persons; while to others, again, the very sight of it is venomous. Indeed, if a woman in a state of pregnancy so much as looks upon one of these fishes, she is immediately seized with nausea and vomiting--a proof that the injury has reached the stomach--and abortion is the ultimate result. The proper preservative against these baneful effects is the male fish, which is kept dried for the purpose in salt, and worn in a bracelet upon the arm. And yet this same fish, while in the sea, is not injurious, by its contact even. The only animal that eats it without fatal consequences, is the mullet; the sole perceptible result being that its flesh is rendered more tender thereby, but deteriorated in flavour, and consequently not so highly esteemed.

Persons when poisoned by the sea-hare smell strongly of the fish--the first sign, indeed, by which the fact of their having been so poisoned is detected. Death also ensues at the end of as many days as the fish has lived: hence it is that, as Licinius Macer informs us, this is one of those poisons which have no definite time for their operation. In India, we are assured, the sea-hare is never taken alive; and, we are told that, in those parts of the world, man, in his turn, acts as a poison upon the fish, which dies instantly in the sea, if it is only touched with the human finger. There, like the rest of the animals, it attains a much larger size than it does with us.

CHAP. 4.--MARVELS OF THE RED SEA.

Juba, in those books descriptive of Arabia, which he has dedicated to Caius Caesar, the son of Augustus, informs us that there are mussels on those coasts, the shells of which are capable of holding three semisextarii; and that, on one occasion, a whale, six hundred feet in length and three hundred and sixty feet broad, made its way up a river of Arabia, the blubber of which was bought up by the merchants there. He tells us, too, that in those parts they anoint their camels with the grease of all kinds of fish, for the purpose of keeping off the gad-flies by the smell.

CHAP. 5. --THE INSTINCTS OF FISHES.

The statements which Ovid has made as to the instincts of fish, in the work of his known as the "Halieuticon," appear to me truly marvellous. The scarus, for instance, when enclosed in the wicker kype, makes no effort to escape with its head, nor does it attempt to thrust its muzzle between the oziers; but turning its tail towards them, it enlarges the orifices with repeated blows therefrom, and so makes its escape backwards. Should, too, another scarus, from without, chance to see it thus struggling within the kype, it will take the tail of the other in its mouth, and so aid it in its efforts to escape. The lupus, again, when surrounded with the net, furrows the sand with its tail, and so conceals itself, until the net has passed over it. The muraena, trusting in the slippery smoothness of its rounded back, boldly faces the meshes of the net, and by repeatedly wriggling its body, makes its escape. The polyp makes for the hooks, and, without swallowing the bait, clasps it with its feelers; nor does it quit its hold until it has eaten off the bait, or perceives itself being drawn out of the water by the rod.

The mullet, too, is aware that within the bait there is a hook concealed, and is on its guard against the ambush; still however, so great is its voracity, that it beats the hook with its tail, and strikes away from it the bait. The lupus, again, shows less foresight and address, but repentance at its imprudence arms it with mighty strength; for, when caught by the hook, it flounders from side to side, and so widens the wound, till at last the insidious hook falls from its mouth. The muraena not only swallows the hook, but catches at the line with its teeth, and so gnaws it asunder. The anthias, Ovid says, the moment it finds itself caught by the hook, turns its body with its back downwards, upon which there is a sharp knife-like fin, and so cuts the line asunder.

According to Licinius Macer, the muraena is of the female sex only, and is impregnated by serpents, as already mentioned; and hence it is that the fishermen, to entice it from its retreat, and catch it, make a hissing noise in imitation of the hissing of a serpent. He states, also, that by frequently beating the water it is made to grow fat, that a blow with a stout stick will not kill it, but that a touch with a stalk of fennel-giant is instantly fatal. That in the case of this animal, the life is centred in the tail, there can be no doubt, as also that it dies immediately on that part of the body being struck; while, on the other hand, there is considerable difficulty in killing it with a blow upon the head. Persons who have come in contact with the razor-fish smell of iron. The hardest of all fishes, beyond a doubt, is that known as the "orbis:" it is spherical, destitute of scales, and all head.

CHAP. 6.--MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES.

Trebius Niger informs us that whenever the loligo is seen darting above the surface of the water, it portends a change of weather: that the xiphias, 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. He says, too, that the loligo sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast numbers, as to sink the ships upon which they fall.

CHAP. 7.--PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.

At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the fish eat from the hand: but the stories of this nature, told with such admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes formed by Nature, and not to fish-preserves; that at Elorus, a fortified place in Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse. In the fountain, too, of Jupiter, at Labranda, there are eels which eat from the hand, and wear ear-rings, it is said. The same, too, at Chios, near the Old Men's Temple there; and at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia, already mentioned.

CHAP. 8.--PLACES WHERE FISH RECOGNIZE THE HUMAN VOICE. ORACULAR RESPONSES GIVEN BY FISH.

At Myra, too, in Lycia, the fish in the Fountain of Apollo, known as Surium, appear and give oracular presages, when thrice summoned by the sound of a flute. If they seize the flesh thrown to them with avidity, it is a good omen for the person who consults them; but if, on the other hand, they flap at it with their tails, it is considered an evil presage. At Hierapolis in Syria, the fish in the Lake of Venus there obey the voice of the officers of the temple: bedecked with ornaments of gold, they come at their call, fawn upon them while they are scratched, and open their mouths so wide as to admit of the insertion of the hands.

Off the Rock of Hercules, in the territory of Stabiae in Campania, the melanuri seize with avidity bread that is thrown to them in the sea, but they will never approach any bait in which there is a hook concealed.

CHAP. 9.--PLACES WHERE BITTER FISH ARE FOUND, SALT, OR SWEET.

Nor is it by any means the least surprising fact, that off the island of Pele, the town of Clazomenae, the rock in Sicily, and in the vicinity of Leptis in Africa, Euboea, and Dyrrhachium, the fish are bitter. In the neighbourhood of Cephallenia, Ampelos, Paros, and the rocks of Delos, the fish are so salt by nature that they might easily be taken to have been pickled in brine. In the harbour, again, of the last-mentioned island, the fish are sweet: differences, all of them, resulting, no doubt, from the diversity of their food.

Apion says that the largest among the fishes is the sea-pig, known to the Lacedaemonians as the "orthagoriscos;" he states also that it grunts like a hog when taken. These accidental varieties in the natural flavour of fish--a thing that is still more surprising--may, in some cases, be owing to the nature of the locality; an apposite illustration of which is, the well-known fact that, at Beneventum in Italy, salted provisions of all kinds require to be salted over again.

CHAP. 10.--WHEN SEA-FISH WERE FIRST EATEN BY THE PEOPLE OF ROME. THE ORDINANCE OF KING NUMA AS TO FISH.

Cassius Hemina informs us that sea-fish have been in use at Rome from the time of its foundation. I will give his own words, however, upon the subject:--"Numa ordained that fish without scales should not be served up at the Festivals of the Gods; a piece of frugality, the intention of which was, that the banquets, both public and private, as well as the repasts laid before the couches of the gods, might be provided at a smaller expense than formerly: it being also his wish to preclude the risk that the caterers for the sacred banquets would spare no expense in buying provisions, and so forestall the market."

CHAP. 11.--CORAL: FORTY-THREE REMEDIES AND OBSERVATIONS.

In the same degree that people in our part of the world set a value upon the pearls of India--a subject on which we have already spoken on the appropriate occasion at sufficient length--do the people of India prize coral: it being the prevailing taste in each nation respectively that constitutes the value of things. Coral is produced in the Red Sea also, but of a more swarthy hue than ours. It is to be found also in the Persian Gulf, where it is known by the name of "iace." But the most highly-esteemed of all, is that produced in the vicinity of the islands called Stoechades, in the Gallic Gulf, and near the AEolian Islands and the town of Drepana in the Sea of Sicily. Coral is to be found growing, too, at Graviscae, and off the coast of Neapolis in Campania: as also at Erythrae, where it is intensely red, but soft, and consequently little valued.

Its form is that of a shrub, and its colour green: its berries are white and soft while under water, but the moment they are removed from it, they become hard and red, resembling the berries of cultivated cornel in size and appearance. They say that, while alive, if it is only touched by a person, it will immediately become as hard as stone; and hence it is that the greatest pains are taken to prevent this, by tearing it up from the bottom with nets, or else cutting it short with a sharp-edged instrument of iron: from which last circumstance it is generally supposed to have received its name of "curalium." The reddest coral and the most branchy is held in the highest esteem; but, at the same time, it must not be rough or hard like stone; nor yet, on the other hand, should it be full of holes or hollow.

The berries of coral are no less esteemed by the men in India than are the pearls of that country by the females among us: their soothsayers, too, and diviners look upon coral as an amulet endowed with sacred properties, and a sure preservative against all dangers: hence it is that they equally value it as an ornament and as an object of devotion. Before it was known in what estimation coral was held by the people of India, the Gauls were in the habit of adorning their swords, shields, and helmets with it; but at the present day, owing to the value set upon it as an article of exportation, it has become so extremely rare, that it is seldom to be seen even in the regions that produce it. Branches of coral, hung at the neck of infants, are thought to act as a preservative against danger. Calcined, pulverized, and taken in water, coral gives relief to patients suffering from griping pains in the bowels, affections of the bladder, and urinary calculi. Similarly taken in wine, or, if there are symptoms of fever, in water, it acts as a soporific. It resists the action of fire a considerable time before it is calcined.

There is also a statement made that if this medicament is frequently taken internally, the spleen will be gradually consumed. Powdered coral, too, is on excellent remedy for patients who bring up or spit blood. Calcined coral is used as an ingredient in compositions for the eyes, being productive of certain astringent and cooling effects: it makes flesh, also, in the cavities left by ulcers, and effaces scars upon the skin.

In reference to that repugnance which exists between certain things, known to the Greeks as "antipathia," there is nothing more venomous than the pastinaca, a sea-fish which kills trees even with its sting, as already stated. And yet, poisonous as it is, the galeos pursues it; a fish which, though it attacks other marine animals as well, manifests an enmity to the pastinaca in particular, just as on dry land the weasel does to serpents; with such avidity does it go in pursuit of what is poisonous even! Persons stung by the pustinaca find a remedy in the flesh of the galeos, as also in that of the sur-mullet and the vegetable production known as laser.

The might of Nature, too, is equally conspicuous in the animals which live upon dry land as well; the beaver, for instance, more generally known as "castor," and the testes of which are called in medicine "castorea." Sextius, a most careful enquirer into the nature and history of medicinal substances, assures us that it is not the truth that this animal, when on the point of being taken, bites off its testes: he informs us, also, that these substances are small, tightly knit, and attached to the back-bone, and that it is impossible to remove them without taking the animal's life. We learn from him that there is a mode of adulterating them by substituting the kidneys of the beaver, which are of considerable size, whereas the genuine testes are found to be extremely diminutive: in addition to which, he says that they must not be taken to be bladders, as they are two in number, a provision not to be found in any animal. Within these pouches, he says, there is a liquid found, which is preserved by being put in salt; the genuine castoreum being easily known from the false, by the fact of its being contained in two pouches, attached by a single ligament. The genuine article, he says, is sometimes fraudulently sophisticated by the admixture of gum and blood, or else hammoniacum: as the pouches, in fact, ought to be of the same colour as this last, covered with thin coats full of a liquid of the consistency of honey mixed with wax, possessed of a fetid smell, of a bitter, acrid taste, and friable to the touch.

The most efficacious castoreum is that which comes from Pontus and Galatia, the next best being the produce of Africa. When inhaled, it acts as a sternutatory. Mixed with oil of roses and peucedanum, and applied to the head, it is productive of narcotic effects--a result which is equally produced by taking it in water; for which reason it is employed in the treatment of phrenitis. Used as a fumigation, it acts as an excitant upon patients suffering from lethargy: and similarly employed, or used in the form of a suppository, it dispels hysterical suffocations. It acts also as an emmenagogue and as an expellent of the afterbirth, being taken by the patient, in doses of two drachmae, with pennyroyal, in water. It is employed also for the cure of vertigo, opisthotony, fits of trembling, spasms, affections of the sinews, sciatica, stomachic complaints, and paralysis, the patient either being rubbed with it all over, or else taking it as an electuary, bruised and incorporated with seed of vitex, vinegar, and oil of roses, to the consistency of honey. In the last form, too, it is taken for the cure of epilepsy, and in a potion, for the purpose of dispelling flatulency and gripings in the bowels, and for counteracting the effects of poison.

When taken as a potion, the only difference is in the mode of mixing it, according to the poison that it is intended to neutralize; thus, for example, when it is taken for the sting of the scorpion, wine is used as the medium; and when for injuries inflicted by spiders or by the phalangium, honied wine where it is intended to be brought up again, and rue where it is desirable that it should remain upon the stomach. For injuries inflicted by the chalcis, it is taken with myrtle wine; for the sting of the cerastes or prester with panax or rue in wine; and for those of other serpents, with wine only. In all these cases two drachmae of castoreum is the proper dose, to one of the other ingredients respectively. It is particularly useful, also, in combination with vinegar, in cases where viscus has been taken internally, and, with milk or water, as a neutralizer of aconite: as an antidote to white hellebore it is taken with hydromel and nitre. It is curative, also, of tooth-ache, for which purpose it is beaten up with oil and injected into the ear, on the side affected. For the cure of ear-ache, the best plan is to mix it with meconium. Applied with Attic honey in the form of an ointment, it improves the eyesight, and taken with vinegar it arrests hiccup.

The urine, too, of the beaver, is a neutralizer of poisons, and for this reason is used as an ingredient in antidotes. The best way of keeping it, some think, is in the bladder of the animal.

The tortoise, too, is an animal that is equally amphibious with the beaver, and possessed of medicinal properties as strongly developed; in addition to which, it claims an equal degree of notice for the high price which luxury sets upon its shell, and the singularity of its conformation. Of tortoises, there are various kinds, land tortoises, sea tortoises, tortoises which live in muddy waters, and tortoises which live in fresh; these last being known to some Greek authors by the name of "emydes." The flesh of the land-tortoise is employed for fumigations more particularly, and we find it asserted that it is highly salutary for repelling the malpractices of magic, and for neutralizing poisons. These tortoises are found in the greatest numbers in Africa; where the head and feet being first cut off, it is said, they are given to persons by way of antidote. Eaten, too, in a broth made from them, they are thought to disperse scrofula, diminish the volume of the spleen, and effect the cure of epilepsy. The blood of the land-tortoise improves the eyesight, and removes cataract: it is kept also, made up with meal into pills, which are given with wine when necessary, to neutralize the poison of all kinds of serpents, frogs, spiders, and similar venomous animals. It is found a useful plan, too, in cases of glaucoma, to anoint the eyes with gall of tortoises, mixed with Attic honey, and, for the cure of injuries inflicted by scorpions, to drop the gall into the wound.

Ashes of tortoiseshell, kneaded up with wine and oil, are used for the cure of chaps upon the feet, and of ulcerations. The shavings of the surface of the shell, administered in drink, act as an antaphrodisiac: a thing that is the more surprising, from the fact that a powder prepared from the whole of the shell has the reputation of being a strong aphrodisiac. As to the urine of the land-tortoise, I do not think that it can be obtained otherwise than by opening it and taking out the bladder; this being one of those substances to which the adepts in magic attribute such marvellous properties. For the sting of the asp, they say, it is wonderfully effectual; and even more so, if bugs are mixed with it. The eggs of the tortoise, hardened by keeping, are applied to scrofulous sores and ulcers arising from burns or cold: they are taken also for pains in the stomach.

The flesh of the sea-tortoise, mixed with that of frogs, is an excellent remedy for injuries caused by the salamander; indeed there is nothing that is a better neutralizer of the secretions of the salamander than the sea-tortoise. The blood of this animal reproduces the hair when lost through alopecy, and is curative of porrigo and all kinds of ulcerations of the head; the proper method of using it being to let it dry, and then gently wash it off. For the cure of ear-ache, this blood is injected with woman's milk, and for epilepsy it is eaten with fine wheaten flour, three heminae of the blood being mixed with one hemina of vinegar. It is prescribed also for the cure of asthma; but in this case in combination with one hemina of wine. Sometimes, too, it is taken by asthmatic patients, with barley-meal and vinegar, in pieces about the size of a bean; one of these pieces being taken each morning and evening at first, but after some days, two in the evening. In cases of epilepsy, the mouth of the patient is opened and this blood introduced. For spasmodic affections, when not of a violent nature, it is injected, in combination with castoreum, as a clyster. If a person rinses his teeth three times a year with blood of tortoises, he will be always exempt from tooth-ache. This blood is also a cure for asthmatic affections, and for the malady called "orthopnoea," being administered for these purposes in polenta.

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