218 PLINY'S NATITEAL HISTOEY. [Book XXVII. 



luminaries of heaven ! And then, in addition to all this, that 

 there should be a perpetual interchange going on between all 

 parts of the earth, of productions so instrumental to the welfare 

 of mankind ! Results, all of them, ensured to us by the peace 

 that reigns under the majestic sway of the Roman power, a 

 peace which brings in presence of each other, not individuals 

 only, belonging to lands and nations far separate, but moun- 

 tains even, and heights towering above the clouds, their plants 

 and their various productions ! That this great bounteousness 

 of the gods may know no end, is my prayer, a bounteousness 

 which seems to have granted the Roman sway as a second 

 luminary for the benefit of mankind. 



CHAP. 2. (2.) ACONITE, OTHEKW1SE CALLED THELYPHONON, CAM- 

 MARON, PARDALIANCHES, OB SCORPIO J FOUR REMEDIES. 



Eut who, I say, can sufficiently venerate the zeal and spirit of 

 research displayed by the ancients ? It is they who have shown 

 us that aconite is the most prompt of all poisons in its effects 

 so much so indeed, that female animals, if the sexual parts 5 

 are but touched with it, will not survive a single day. With 

 this poison it was that M. Csecilius 6 accused Calpurnius Bestia 

 of killing his wives in their sleep, and this it was that gave 

 rise to that fearful peroration of his, denouncing the murderous 

 finger of the accused. 7 According to the fables of mythology, 

 this plant was originally produced from the foam of the dog 

 Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules from the Infernal 8 Re- 

 gions ; for which reason, it is said, it is still so remarkably 

 abundant in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus, a spot where 

 the entrance is still pointed out to the shades below. 



And yet, noxious as it is, the ancients have shown us how to 

 employ aconite for the benefit of mankind, and have taught us 

 as the result of their experience, that, taken in mulled wine, 

 it neutralizes the venom of the scorpion : indeed such is the 

 nature of this deadly plant, that it kills man, unless it can find 



* See B. xxv. c. 75. 



6 Properly " Caelius " the same M. Cselius Rufus who is mentioned 

 in B. vii. c. 50. See also B. xxxv. c. 46. 



7 "Hinc ilia atrox peroratio ejus in digitum." Sillig is probably right 

 in his suggestion that the word " mortiferum " is wanting at the end of 

 the sentence. Bestia was accused of having killed his wives by the 

 contact of aconite, applied, through the agency of the finger, to the secret 

 parts. b See B. vi. c. i. 



