50 PLINY'S NATUUAL1H8TOKY. [Hook XXXII- 



ns well, are most efficaciously treated with the liver of the 

 ucii 40 boiled in oil. 



CHAP. 41. - KEMEDTES FOR DISEASES OF THE SINEWS. 



The exterior callosity with which the flesh of purples is 

 covered, beaten up, unites the sinews, even when they have 

 been severed asunder. It is a good plan, for patients suffering 

 from tetanus, to take sea-calf s rennet in wine, in doses of one 

 obolus, as also fish-glue. 41 Persons affected with fits of trem- 

 bling find much' relief from castoreum, 4 - provided they are 

 well anointed with oil. 1 find it stated that the surmullet, 1 ' 

 used as an article of diet, acts injuriously upon the sinews. 



CHAP. 42. - METHODS OF AKKESTINO Il.V.MOKUIIAGK AND OF LET- 



TING LLOOD. THE POLYP: ONE KEMEDY. 



Fish, used as an aliment, it is generally thought, make 

 blood. The polyp, 44 bruised and applied, arrests haemorrhage, 

 it is thought: in addition to which we find stated the follow- 

 ing particulars respecting it that of itself it emits a sort of 

 brine, in consequence of which, there is no necessity to use 

 any in cooking it that it should always be sliced with a reed 

 and that it is spoilt by using an iron knife, becoming tainted 

 thereby, owing to the antipathy 48 which naturally exists 

 [between it and iron]. Tor the purpose also of arresting 

 haemorrhage, ashes of burnt frogs are applied topically, or else 

 the dried blood of those animals. Some authorities recom- 

 mend the frog to be used, that is known by the Greeks as 

 " ealamites," 46 from the fact that it lives among reeds* 7 and 

 shrubs ; it is the smallest and greenest of all the frogs, and 

 cither the blood or the ashes of it are recommended to be em- 

 ployed. Others, again, preM-ribe, in cases of bleeding at the 

 nostrils, an injection of the ashes of young water-frogs, in the 

 tadpole state, calcined in a new earthen vessel. 



Or stin^-my. Sec B. ix. cc. 37, 40, G7, 72. 



41 Ichthyocolla. See Chapter 24 of this Uook. 



** See Chapter 13 of this Uook. * a Sec li. ix. c. 30. 



" See 13. ix. c. 46. 



4i This seems to be the meaning of u natura dissidente," if it is the 

 correct reading. That, however, suggested by Daleehamps would seem 

 to be preferable, " natura rctiuentc," "it being the nature of its flesh to 

 vlinz to the knife." 



** See Chapter 24 of tbis Book. *' " Calami." 



