342 plint's natural histoet. [Book XXI. 



which, steeped in the rains of a wet spring, contract most 

 noxious properties. Hence it is that it is not every year that 

 tnese dangerous results are experienced. The following are 

 the signs of the honey being''' poisonous : it never thickens, 

 the colour is redder than usual, and it emits a peculiar smell 

 which immediately produces sneezing ; while, at the same 

 time, it is more weighty than a similar quantity of good 

 honey. Persons, when they have eaten of it, throw them- 

 selves on the ground to cool the body, which is bathed with a 

 profuse perspiration. There are numerous remedies, of which 

 we shall have occasion to speak in a more appropriate place ;"* 

 but as it will be as well to mention some of them on the pre- 

 sent occasion, by way of being provided for such insidious acci- 

 dents, I will here state that old honied wine is good, mixed 

 with the finest honey and rue ; salt meats, also, taken re- 

 peatedly in small quantities, and as often brought up again. 



It is a well-known fact that dogs, after tasting the excre- 

 tions of persons suffering from these attacks, have been at- 

 tacked with similar symptoms, and have experienced the same 

 kind of pains. 



Still, however, it is equally well ascertained, that honied 

 wine prepared from this honey, when old, is altogether innoxi- 

 ous ; and that there is nothing better than this honey, mixed 

 with costus,"^ for softening the skin of females, or, combined 

 with aloes, for the treatment of bruises. 



CHAP. 45. MADDENING HONEY. 



In the country of the Sanni, in the same part of Pontus, 

 there is another kind of honey, which, from the madness it 

 produces, has received the name of ''msenomenon."^^ This 

 evil effect is generally attributed to the flowers of the rhodo- 

 dendron,^^ with which the woods there abound ; and that people, 

 though it pays a tribute to the Romans in wax, derives no 

 profit whatever from its honey, in consequence of these dan- 

 gerous properties. In Persis, too, and in Gaetulia, a district 



^^ In reality, tliere are no visible signs by which to detect that the honey 

 is poisonous. 



''• B- xxix. c. 31. " See ^^ j,[i c. 25. 



73 Waivo^iivoi'j "maddening." 



80 The aegolethron of tlie preceding Chapter, Fee thinks. If so, the 

 word rhododendron, he says, would apply to two plants, the Nerion oleander 

 or rose laurel (see li. xvi. c. 33), and the Ehododendron Ponticum. 



