384 PLINY'S NATUHAL HISTOHY. [Books 



productive of beneficial results in numerous ways. Empedoclcs 

 and Hippocrates have proved this in several passages. 



" For convulsions or contusions of the viscera," says M. 

 Varro for it is his own words that I use " let the hearth be 

 your medicine-box ; for lie of ashes,-' taken from thence, mixed 

 with your drink, will effect u cure. Witness the gLdiators, for 

 example, who, when disabled at the Games, refresh themselves 

 with this drink/' Carbuncle too, a kind of disease which, as 

 already 5 stated, has recently carried off two persons of consular 

 rank, admits of being successfully treated with oak-charcoal, 4 

 triturated with honey. So true is it that things which arc des- 

 pised oven, and looked upon as BO utterly destitute of all virtues, 

 have still their own remedial properties, charcoal and ashes for 

 example. 



CHAP. 70. - PRODIGIES CONNECTED WITH THE REAllTD. 



I must not omit too, one portentous fact connected with the 

 hearth, and famous in lloman history. In the reign of Tarqui- 

 nius Priscus, it is said, there appeared upon his hearth a re- 

 semblance of the male generative organ in the midst of the 

 ashes. The captive Ocrisia, a servant of Queen Tanaquil, who 

 happened to be sitting there, arose from her seat in a state of 

 pregnancy, and became the mother of Servius Tullius, who even- 

 tually succeeded to the throne. 5 It is stated, too, that while the 

 child was sleeping in the palace, a liame was seen playing 

 round his head ; the consequence of which was, that it was 

 believed that the Lar of the household was his progenitor. It 

 was owing to this circumstance, we arc informed, that the 

 Cornpitulia, 6 games in honour of the Lares, were instituted. 



. Remedies mentioned, eighty-nine. Facts and 

 narratives, four hundred and thirty-four. 



a * Acaciachorco.il is still recommended as a valuable tonic, and as good 

 for internal ulcerations aiid irritations of the mucous membrane. 

 In B. xxvi. c. 4. * "Querneus." 



5 It is much more likely that he was the son of Tarquin himself, who 

 not improbably, if indeed there ever was such a person, invented the story, 

 to escape the wrath of Queen Tanaquil. This absurd btory is mentioned 

 also by Ovid, Arnobius, and Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus. 



6 See B. iii. c. 9, and B. iix. c. 4. 



