158 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book VII. 



CHAP. 1 7. CHILDREN REMARKABLE FOR THEIR PRECOCITY* 



We find it stated by the historians, that the son of Euthy- 

 menes of Salamis had grown to be three cubits in height, at 

 the age of three years ; that he was slow of gait and dull of 

 comprehension ; that at that age he had attained puberty even, 

 and his voice had become strong, like that of a man. We 

 hear, also, that he died suddenly of convulsions of the limbs, 

 at the completion of his third year. 23 I myself, not very long 

 ago, was witness to exactly similar appearances, with the ex- 

 ception of the state of puberty, in a son of Cornelius Tacitus, 

 a member of the equestrian order, and procurator 24 of Belgic 

 Gaul. 25 The Greeks call such children as these, 'E%Tpa<xzXoi; 

 we have no name for them in Latin. 



(17.) It has been observed, that the height of a man from 

 the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is equal to the 

 distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands 

 when extended in a straight line ; the right side of the body, 

 too, is generally stronger than the left ; though in some, the 

 strength of the two sides is equal ; while in others again, the 

 left side is the strongest. This, however, is never found to be 

 the case in women. 26 



^ CHAP. 18. SOME REMARKABLE PROPERTIES OF THE BODY. 



Males are heavier than females, and the bodies of all ani- 

 mals are heavier when they are dead than when alive ; they 

 also weigh more when asleep than when awake. The dead 

 bodies of men float upon the back, those of women with the 



23 Seneca also mentions him in his Consolation to Marcia, c. 23. 



24 The procurator of a province was an officer appointed by the Caesar to 

 perform the duties discharged by the quaestor in the other provinces. 



25 We have an ingenious dissertation by Ajasson, the object of which is 

 to show, that the Tacitus here referred to, is not the historian, but his 

 father, and consequently, that the boy prematurely born must have been 

 the historian's brother, not his son. B. 



It is not clear whether Pliny intended to apply all these three obser- 

 vations to the female, or only the last of them ; it appears, however, that 

 the remark is, in either case, without foundation. B. He appears to in- 

 tend that his observations should apply more especially to the strength of 

 the arm. 



