NATURAL HISTORY OF^LINY, 



BOOK XXXII.i 



REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



CHAP. 1. (1.) — -THE POWER OF NATURE AS MANIFESTED IN ANTI- 

 PATHIES. THE ECHENEIS I 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 !N^ature quite triumphs over herself, and that, 

 too, in such numberless ways. Por 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, 



^ 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." 



VOL. VI. U 



