496 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book XXXI. 



of necessity medicated, those of Segesta in Sicily, for example, 

 of Larissa, Troas, Magnesia, Melos, and Lipara. Nor is the 

 very general supposition a correct one, that waters, to be medi- 

 cinal, must of necessity discolour copper or silver ; no such 

 effect being produced by those of Patavium, 67 or there being 

 the slightest difference perceptible in the smell. 



CHAP. 33. THE USES OF SEA-WATEB. THE ADVANTAGES OF 



A SEA-VOYAGE. 



Sea- water also is employed in a similar manner for the cure 

 of diseases. It is used, made hot, for the cure of pains in the 

 sinews, for reuniting fractured bones, and for its desiccative 

 action upon the body : for which last purpose, it is also used 

 cold. There are numerous other medicinal resources derived 

 from the sea ; the benefit of a sea- voyage, more particularly, 

 in cases of phthisis, as already 68 mentioned, and where patients 

 are suffering from hsemoptosis, as lately experienced, in our 

 own memory, by Annaeus Gallic, 69 at the close of his consul- 

 ship : 70 for it is not for the purpose of visiting the country, that 

 people so often travel to Egypt, but in order to secure the 

 beneficial results arising from a long sea- voyage. Indeed, the 

 very sea-sickness that is caused by the rocking of the vessel 

 to and fro, is good for many affections of the head, eyes, and 

 chest, all those cases, in fact, in which the patient is recom- 

 mended to drink an infusion of hellebore. Medical men con- 

 sider sea- water, employed by itself, highly efficacious for the 

 dispersion of tumours, and, boiled with barley-meal, for the 

 successful treatment of imposthumes of the parotid glands : it 

 is used also as an ingredient in plasters, white plasters more 

 particularly, and for emollient 71 poultices. Sea-water is very 

 good, too, employed as a shower-bath ; and it is taken inter- 

 nally, though not without 72 injury to the stomach, both as a 



67 See B. ii c. 106. 



68 In B. xxiv. c. 19, and B. xxviii. c, 14. 



69 An elder brother of the philosopher Seneca. His original name was 

 M. Annseus Noratus ; but upon being adopted by the rhetorician Junius 

 Gallio, he changed his name into L. Junius Annasus or Annseanus 

 Gallic. He destroyed himself, A.D. 65. 



70 He was " Consul subrogatus " only. 

 11 " Malagmatis." 



72 It acts in most cases as an emetic, and is highly dangerous if taken 

 in considerable quantities. 



