344 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book VIII. 



different houses in the city. In the wild state also, they have 

 the sense to pass their urine in plashy places, that they may 

 destroy all traces of them, and so lighten themselves for 

 flight. 5 The female is spayed, just as is done with the camel ; 

 after they have fasted two days, they are suspended by the 

 hind feet, and the orifice of the womb is cut ; after this ope- 

 ration, they fatten more quickly. 6 



M. Apicius 7 made the discovery, that we may employ the 

 same artificial method of increasing the size of the liver of the 

 sow, as of that of the goose ; 8 it consists in cramming them 

 with dried figs, and when they are fat enough, they are drenched 

 with wine mixed with honey, and immediately killed. There 

 is no animal that affords a greater variety to the palate of the 

 epicure ; all the others have their own peculiar flavour, but the 

 flesh of the hog has nearly fifty different flavours. Hence it 

 is, that there are whole pages of regulations made by the cen- 

 sors, forbidding the serving up at banquets of the belly, the 

 kernels, 9 the testicles, the womb, and the cheeks. However, 

 notwithstanding all this, the poet Publius, 10 the author of the 

 Mimes, when he ceased to be a slave, is said to have given 

 no entertainment without serving up the belly of a sow, to 

 which he also gave the name of " sumen." 



CHAP. 78. THE WILD BOAR ; WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ESTABLISH 

 PARKS FOR WILD ANIMALS. 



The flesh of the wild boar is also much esteemed. Cato, 



5 Pliny speaks of this more at large in B. xxviii. c. 60. B. 



6 This operation, and the effect of it, are mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. 

 Anim. B. ix. c. 79, and by Columella, B. vii. c. 9. B. 



7 There were three Romans of this name, celebrated for their skill in 

 gastronomy ; of these the most illustrious lived in the reigns of Augustus 

 and Tiberius. A treatise (probably spurious) is extant, to which his name 

 is attached, entitled " De Arte Culinaria" " On the Art of Cookery." Pliny 

 refers to him again, B. xix. c. 41, and he is mentioned by many others of 

 the classical writers. B. 



8 See B. x. c. 1. A much more cruel mode of increasing the liver of 

 this animal, by confining it in hot ovens, is practised at the present day, to 

 satisfy the palate of the admirers of the Strasburg pates defoies gras. 



9 Pliny, in B. ix. c. 66, employs the expression " tonsilla3 in homine, 

 in sue glandule, " as if he considered them analogous parts, B. See 

 Plautus passim. 



10 Publius Syrus was a comic performer and a writer, who acquired con- 

 siderable celebrity ; he lived during the reign of Augustus. B. 



