NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. 



BOOK XXXII.' 



REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



CHAP. 1. (1.) THE POWER OF NATURE AS MANIFKSTED IN ANTI- 

 PATHIES. THE KCIIKNKIS: TWO KKMEDIKS. 



FOLLOWING the proper order of things, we have now arrived 

 nt the culminating point of the wonders manifested to us by 

 the operations of .Nature. And even at the very outset, we 

 find spontaneously presented to us an incomparable illustration 

 of her mysterious powers : so much so, in fact, that beyond it 

 we it-el ourselves bound to forbear extending our enquiries, 

 there being nothing to be found either equal or analogous to an 

 element in which Nature quite triumphs over herself, and that, 

 too, in such numberless ways. For what is there more unruly 

 than the sea, with its winds, its tornadoes, and its tempests : 

 And yet in what department of her works has Nature- b- :i 

 more seconded by the ingenuity of n.an, than in this, by his 

 invention - of sails and of oars? In addition to this, \ve are 

 htruck with the ineffable might displayed by the Ocean's tidi-s, 



1 It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we r-gret to s jy, 

 that we arc enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the 1 5am berg 

 jMS.. which has txvn so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number 

 of passages previously looked upon as hopcb-ssly corrupt, or else not at all 

 suspecti d of helni: in a mutilated state, this MtS. supplies words and chinas, 

 the existence of which in the original'was hitherto unknown ; indeed by its 

 aid the indefatigable Sillii* lias been enabled, if we maybe allowed the 

 term, almost to n-n-n'tc the last six l!ooks of Pliny. From a perusal ot 

 the>c now readings, as I r. Smith has justly remarked, we have rea.son to 

 infer "that the text of the earlier Hooks is still in a very defective state, 

 and that much of the obscurity of 1'liuy may be traced to this eau.se." 



VOL. M. B 



