328 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



custom to immolate one 93 of these animals at the public sacri- 

 fices at Eoine. 



CHAP. 41. BLOOD. 



The blood, also, of the horse is possessed of certain corrosive 

 properties ; and so, too, is mare's blood except, indeed, where 

 the animal has not been covered it having the effect of 

 cauterizing the margins of ulcers, and so enlarging them. 

 Bull's blood too, taken fresh, is reckoned 94 among the poisons ; 

 except, indeed, at -^Egira, 95 at which place the priestess of the 

 Earth, when about to foretell coming events, takes a draught 

 of bull's blood before she descends into the cavern : so power- 

 ful, in fact, is the agency of that sympathy so generally spoken 

 of, that it may occasionally originate, we find, in feelings of re- 

 ligious awe, 96 or in the peculiar nature of the locality. 



Drusus, 97 the tribune of the people, drank goats' blood, it is 

 said ; it being his object by his pallid looks to suggest that his 

 enemy, Q, Caepio, had given him poison, and so expose him to 

 public hatred. So remarkably powerful is the blood of the he- 

 goat, that there is nothing better in existence for sharpening 

 iron implements, the rust produced by this blood giving them 

 a better edge even than a file. Considering, however, that the 

 blood of all animals cannot be reckoned as a remedy in common, 

 will it not be advisable, in preference, to speak of the effects 

 that are produced by that of each kind ? 



CHAP. 42. PECULIAR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM VARIOUS ANIMALS, 



AND CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE MALADIES. REMEDIES 

 AGAINST THE POISON OF SERPENTS, DERIVED FROM THE STAG, 

 THE FAWN, THE OPHION, THE SHE-GOAT, THE KID, AND THE 

 ASS. 



We will therefore classify the various remedies, according 

 to the maladies for which they are respectively used ; and, first 

 of all, those to which man has recourse for injuries inflicted by 



93 The " Equus October," sacrificed to Mars on the Campus Martius in 

 October. This sacrifice was attended with some very ridiculous ceremonies. 



84 This, as already observed, was probably a fallacy. 



95 See B. iv. c. 6. 



s6 His meaning is, that the excitement produced hy religious feeling 

 neutralizes that antipathy which, under ordinary circumstances, is manifested 

 towards the system by bull's blood. 



97 See B. xxxiii. c. 6. 



