Chap. 18.] THE FEOG. 21 



the wound has not been cauterized with hot iron, this is found 

 to be sufficiently effectual as a remedy. Tor injuries, also, 

 inflicted by the sea-dragon," an application is made of salt 

 fish steeped in vinegar. Cybium,^^ too, is productive of similar 

 effects. As a cui-e for the venomous sting inflicted with its 

 stickle by the sea- dragon, the fish itself is applied topically 

 to the wound, or else its brain, extracted whole, 



CHAP. 18. THE SEA-FEOG : SIX EEMEDIES. THE EIVER-FEOG : 



FIFTY- TWO EEMEDIES. THE EfiAMBLE-FROG I ONE EEMEDT. 

 THIKTT-TWO OBSEEVATIONS ON THESE ANIMALS. 



The broth prepared from sea-frogs,^^ boiled in wine and vine- 

 gar, is taken internally as a neutralizer of poisons and of the 

 venom of the bramble-frog, ^° as also for injuries inflicted by 

 the salamander.^^ For the cure of injuries caused by the sea- 

 hare and the various serpents above mentioned, it is a good 

 plan to eat the flesh of river-frogs, or to drink the liquor in 

 which they have been boiled : as a neutralizer, too, of the 

 venom of the scorpion, river-frogs are taken in wine. Demo- 

 critus assures us that if the tongue is extracted from a live 

 frog, with no other part of the body adhering to it, and is 

 then applied — the frog being first replaced in the water — to a 

 woman while asleep, just at the spot w^here the heart is felt to 

 palpitate, she will be sure to give a truthful answer to any 

 question that may be put to her. 



To this the Magi^^ add some other particulars, which, if there 

 is any truth in them, would lead us to believe that frogs ought 

 to be considered much more useful to society than laws.^^ 

 They say, for instance, that if a man takes a frog and trans- 

 fixes it with a reed, entering the body at the sexual parts and 

 coming out at the mouth, and then dips the reed in the men- 

 strual discharge of his wife, she will be sure to conceive an 

 aversion for all paramours. That the flesh of frogs, attached 



^'^ See Note 16 above. 



2^ Tunny cut into slices, and pickled. See B. ix. c. 18. 



29 See B. ix. cc. 40, 67, 74, 83. 



'0 See B. viii. c. 48, B. xi. cc. 19, 76, 116, B. xxv. c. 76. 



31 See B. X. c. 86. 



32 Under the name "magi," he is probably speaking here, not of the 

 ordinary magicians, but the Magi of the East, from whom Democritus 

 largely borrowed. 



33 A piece of wit on the part of our author, in which he seldom indulges. 



