544 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY, [Book X. 



also, that mares in harness desire the horse sixty days sooner 

 than those that live in herds ; that it is swine only that foam 

 at the mouth during the time of coupling ; and that a boar, if 

 it hears the voice of a sow in heat, will refuse to take its food, 

 to such' a degree, indeed, as to starve itself, if it is not al- 

 lowed to cover while the female is reduced to such a state of 

 frantic madness, as to attack and tear a man, more especially if 

 wearing a white garment. This frenzy, however, is appeased 

 by sprinkling vinegar on the sexual parts. It is supposed also 

 that salacity is promoted by certain aliments ; the herb rocket, 

 for instance, in the case of man, and onions in that of cattle. 

 Wild animals that have been tamed, do not conceive, the goose, 

 for instance ; the wild boar and the stag will only produce late 

 in life, and even then they must have been taken and tamed 

 when very young ; a singular fact. The pregnant females, 

 among the quadrupeds, refuse the male, with the exception, 

 indeed, of the mare and the sow ; superfoetation, however, 

 takes place in none but the dasypus and the hare. 



CHAP. 84. (64.) THE POSITION OF ANIMALS IN THE UTERUS. 



All those animals that are viviparous produce their young 

 with the head first, the young animal about the time of yeaning 

 turning itself round in the womb, where at other times it lies 

 extended at full length. Quadrupeds during the time of ges- 

 tation have the legs extended, and lying close to the belly ; 

 while, on the other hand, man is gathered up into a ball, with 

 the nose between the knees. With reference to moles, of 

 which we have previously 46 spoken, it is supposed that they 

 are produced when a female has conceived, not by a male, but 

 of herself only. Hence it is that there is no vitality in this 

 false conception, because it does not proceed from the con- 

 junction of the two sexes ; and it has only that sort of vegeta- 

 tive existence in itself which we see in plants and trees. 



(65.) Of all those which produce their young in a perfect 

 state, the swine is the only one that bears them in consider- 

 able numbers as well ; and, indeed, several times in the year 

 a thing that is contrary to the usual nature of animals with a 

 solid or cloven hoof. 



CHAP. 85. ANIMALS WHOSE ORIGIN IS STILL UNKNOWN. 



But it is mice that surpass all the other animals in fecundity ; 

 *e B. vii. c. 13. 



