50 pliny's natural history. [Book XXXII. 



as well, are most efficaciously treated with the liver of the 

 pastinaca*" boiled in oil. 



CHAP. 41. REMEDIES FOE DISEASES OF THE SINEWS. 



The exterior callosity with which the flesh of purples is 

 covered, beaten up, unites the sinews, even when they have 

 been severed asunder. It is a good plan, for patients suifering 

 from tetanus, to take sea-calf's rennet in wine, in doses of one 

 obolus, as also fish-glue.^^ Persons affected with fits of trem- 

 bling find much relief from castoreum/- provided they are 

 well anointed with oil. I find it stated that the surmullet,"^^ 

 used as an article of diet, acts injuriously upon the sinews. 



CHAP. 42. METHODS OF ARRESTING HEMORRHAGE AND OF LET- 

 TING BLOOD. THE POLYPI ONE REMEDY. 



Fish, used as an aliment, it is generally thought, make 

 blood. The polyp,** bruised and applied, arrests haemorrhage, 

 it is thought : in addition to Avhich we find stated the follow- 

 ing particulars respecting it — that of itself it emits a sort of 

 brine, in consequence of which, there is no necessity to use 

 any in cooking it — that it should always be sliced with a reed 

 — and that it is spoilt by using an iron knife, becoming tainted 

 thereby, owing to the antipathy*^ which naturally exists 

 [between it and iron]. For the purpose also of arresting 

 haemorrhage, ashes of burnt frogs are applied topically, or else 

 the dried blood of those animals. Some authorities recom- 

 mend the frog to be used, that is known by the Greeks as 

 " calamites,"**^ from the fact that it lives among reeds" and 

 shrubs ; it is the smallest and greenest of all the frogs, and 

 either the blood or the ashes of it are recommended to be em- 

 ployed. Others, again, prescribe, in cases of bleeding at the 

 nostrils, an injection of the ashes of young water-frogs, in the 

 tadpole state, calcined in a new earthen vessel. 



40 Or sting-ray. See B. ix. cc. 37, 40, 67, 72. 



41 Ichthyocolla. See Chapter 24 of this liook. 



42 See Chapter 13 of this Book. ^'^ See B. ix. c. 30. 



44 See B. ix. c. 46. 



45 This seems to be the meaning of " natura dissidente," if it is the 

 correct reading. That, however, suggested by Dalechanips would seem 

 to be preferable, " natura retinente," — "it being the nature of its flesh to 

 cling to the knife." 



46 See Chapter 24 of this Book. 47 u Calami." 



