320 PLINT'a NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXYIII. 



conceive : children that are suckled by them are known among 

 us as *' colostrati,"^^ their milk being thick, like cheese in ap- 

 pearance — the name *' colostra," "^^ it should be remembered, is 

 given to the first milk secreted after delivery, which assumes a 

 spongy, coagulated form. The most nutritive milk, in all 

 cases, is woman's milk, and next to that goats* milk, to which 

 is owing, probably, the fabulous story that Jupiter was suckled 

 by a goat.'^ The sweetest, next to woman's milk, is camels' 

 milk ; but the most efficacious, medicinally speaking, is asses' 

 milk. It is in animals of the largest size and individuals 

 of the greatest bulk, that the milk is secreted with the greatest 

 facility. Goats' milk agrees the best with the stomach, that 

 animal browsing more than grazing. Cows' milk is considered 

 more medicinal, while ewes' milk is sweeter and more nutri- 

 tive, but not so well adapted to the stomach, it being more 

 oleaginous than any other. 



Every kind of milk is more aqueous in spring than in sum- 

 mer, and the same in all cases where the animal has grazed 

 upon a new pasture. The best milk of all is that which adheres 

 to the finger nail, when placed there, and does not run from off 

 it. Milk is most harmless when boiled, more particularly if 

 sea pebbles''' have been boiled with it. Cows' milk is the most 

 relaxing, and all kinds of milk are less apt to inflate when 

 boiled. Milk is used for all kinds of internal ulcerations, 

 those of the kidneys, bladder, intestines, throat, and lungs in 

 particular ; and externally, it is employed for itching sensations 

 upon the skin, and for purulent eruptions, it being taken fasting 

 for the purpose. We have already" stated, when speaking of 

 the plants, how that in Arcadia cows' milk is administered for 

 phthisis, consumption, and cachexy. Instances are cited, also, 

 of persons who have been cured of gout in the hands and feet, 

 by drinking asses' milk. 



To these various kinds of milk, medical men have added 

 another, to which they have given the name of *' schiston ;""'* 



"•^ See B. xi. c. 96. Dalechamps remarks that Pliny is in error here : 

 this nanae being properly given to infants which have been put to the breast 

 too soon after child-birth. And so it would appear from the context. 



70 The "biestings." 'i Amalthaea, 



•2 Dioscorides says " river pebbles." '^ In B. xxy. c. 53. 



'* From the Greek (txkttov, " divided " milk, or " curds." 



