32 PLINY's IfATURAL HISTOET. [Book XXXII. 



with sea-shore pebbles, to make it melt the more easily. It 

 is generally asserted that this substance is good for pains in 

 the head and for tetanus. 



The right eye of a frog, suspended from the neck in a piece 

 of cloth made from wool of the natural colour,' is a cure for 

 ophthalmia in the right eye ; and the left eye of a frog, simi- 

 larly suspended, for ophthalmia in the left. If the eyes, too, 

 of a frog are taken out at the time of the moon's conjunction, 

 and similarly worn by the patient, enclosed in an eggshell, 

 they will effectually remove indurations of the membrane of 

 the eyes. The rest of the flesh applied topically, removes 

 all marks resulting from blows. The eyes, too, of a crab, 

 worn attached to the neck, by way of amulet, are a cure for 

 ophthalmia, it is said. There is a small frog* which lives in 

 reed-beds and among grass more particularly, never croaks, 

 being quite destitute of voice, is of a green colour, and is apt 

 to cause tympanitis in cattle, if they should happen to swallow 

 it. The slimy moisture on this reptile's body, scraped off with 

 a spatula and applied to the eyes, greatly improves the sight, 

 they say : the flesh, too, is employed as a topical application 

 for the removal of pains in the eyes. 



Some persons take fifteen frogs, and after spitting them 

 upon as many bulrushes, put them into a new earthen vessel : 

 they then mix the juices which flow from them, with gum of 

 the white vine,^ and use it as an application for the eye-lids ; 

 first pulling out such eye-lashes as are in the way, and then 

 dropping the preparation with the point of a needle into the 

 places from which the hairs have been removed. Meges^° 

 used to prepare a depilatory for the eyelids, by killing frogs 

 in vinegar, and leaving them to putrefy ; for which purpose 

 he employed the spotted frogs which make their appearance in 

 vast numbers ^^ during the rains of autumn. Ashes of burnt 



' " Nativi colons." See B. viii. c. 23. Beckmann says, in reference 

 to the present passage : "We manufacture the wool of our brown sheep 

 in its natural colour, and this was done also by the ancients." — Hist. 

 Inv. vol. ii. p. 110, Bohn's Ed. 



8 The "calaraites" above mentioned, so called from "calamus," a reed. 



9 The Bryonia Cretica of Linneeus ; see B. xxiii. c. 16. 



^° An eminent surgeon, born at Sidon in Phoenicia, who practised at 

 Rome, probably in the first century B.C. 



11 " Mutis," "silent," or "voiceless" frogs, as suggested by Gessner, 

 Hist. Anim. B. ii., would almost seem to be a preferable reading here to 

 "multis," "many." 



