208 pltnt's itatitral history. [Book Yll. 



And then, too, there is another kind of fatal disease, that 

 which is produced by over-exertion of the mental faculties.®" 

 Nature has appointed certain laws as well for our maladies ; 

 quartan fevers never commence at the winter solstice, nor yet 

 during the winter months ; some diseases never attack us after 

 the sixtieth year ; some again disappear at the age of puberty, 

 especially in females ;®^ while aged persons are but seldom 

 affected by the plague. There are some diseases which attack 

 whole nations; others prevail among classes; some among 

 slaves,®- others among the higher ranks, and others among other 

 classes of society. It has been remarked, in reference to this 

 subject, that the plague always takes a course from the south to- 

 wards the west,^^ and scarcely ever in an opposite direction ; it 

 never appears in the winter, or lasts longer than three months. 



CHAP. 52. (51.) DEATH. 



And now to speak of the premonitory signs of death. Among 

 these are laughter, in madness f^ in cases of delirium,®^ the 

 patient carefully folding the fringe or the plaits of the bed- 



^° " Per sapientiam mori." Many conjectures have been formed respect- 

 ing the meaning of this passage, which is obscure. Attempts have be^n 

 made to amend the reading of the text, but, as it appears, without success ; 

 see the notes of Hardouin, Ajasson, and others, Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 197, 

 8. — B. It is pretty clear, however, that Pliny here refers to what, in the 

 next Chapter, he calls " sapientiae aegritudo," the malady by the Greeks 

 called " phrenesis," and by us " h-enzy," which attacks the seat of wisdom, 

 the understanding. Many pages have been written upon the meaning of 

 this passage, obvious as it seems to be. 



81 The same doctrine is advanced in B. xxviii., which treats of medicine, 

 see c. 10. — B. 



^'- Among the ancients, all the manufactures and mechanical arts were 

 carried on by slaves ; they were, consequently, subjected to the same kinds 

 of morbid causes which are found, in modern times, to be so detrimental 

 to certain descriptions of workmen. — B. 



^^ Our own experience has taught us the truth of this observation in the 

 case of the cholera; and the great plague of 1348, which is thought to 

 have swept off one-third of mankind, is supposed to have travelled to 

 Europe from the vicinity of the Ganges. 



*^* Dalecharaps correctly remarks, that the laughter here referred to, is 

 not the indication of mirth, but what has been termed the '* risus Sar- 

 donicus," the " Sardonic laugh," produced by a convulsive action of the 

 muscles of the face ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 201. — B. 



"^ " Sapientiie segritudine." See Note 80 above. 



