384 pliny's natural histoet. [Book XXXVI, 



productive of beneficial results in numerous ways. Empedocles 

 and Hippocrates have proved this in several passages. 



*' For convulsions or contusions of the viscera," says M. 

 Varro — for it is his own words that I use — " let the hearth be 

 your medicine-box ; for lie of ashes,"* taken from thence, mixed 

 with your drink, will effect a cure. Witness the gladiators, for 

 example, who, when disabled at the Games, refresh themselves 

 with this drink." Carbuncle too, a kind of disease which, as 

 already^ stated, has recently carried off two persons of consular 

 rank, admits of being successfully treated with oak-charcoal,^ 

 triturated with honey. So true is it that things which are des- 

 pised even, and looked upon as so utterly destitute of all virtues, 

 have still their own remedial properties, charcoal and ashes for 

 example. 



CHAP. 70. — PEOniGIES CONNECTED WITH THE HEARTH. 



1 must not omit too, one portentous fact connected with the 

 hearth, and famous in Eoman history. In the reign of Tarqui- 

 nius Priscus, it is said, there appeared upon his hearth a re- 

 semblance of the male generative organ in the midst of the 

 ashes. The captive Ocrisia, a servant of Queen Tanaquil, who 

 happened to be sitting there, arose from her seat in a state of 

 pregnancy, and became the mother of Servius Tullius, who even- 

 tually succeeded to the throne.® It is stated, too, that while the 

 child was sleeping in the palace, a flame was seen playing 

 round his head ; the consequence of which was, that it was 

 believed that the Lar of the household was his progenitor. It 

 was owing to this circumstance, we are informed, that the 

 Compitalia,® games in honour of the Lares, were instituted. 



SuMMAEY. — Remedies mentioned, eighty-nine. Pacts and 

 narratives, four hundred and thirty-four. 



2* Acacia charcoal is still recommended as a vakiable tonic, and as good 

 for internal ulcerations and irritations of the mucous membrane. 



2 In B. xxvi. c. 4. * " Querneus." 



5 It is much more likely that he was the son of Tarquin himself, who 

 not improbably, if indeed there ever was such a person, invented the story, 

 to escape the wrath of Queen Tanaquil. This absurd story is mentioned 

 also by Ovid, Arnobius, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. 



^ See B. iii. c. 9, and B. xix. c. 4. 



