BOOK XXIV. T. 2-5 



burden know at once when their load consists of fruit, 

 and unless it is first shown to them straightway begin 

 to sweat, however small thcir load may be. Fennel- 

 giant makes very agreeable fodder for the ass ; to other 

 beasts of burden, however, it is a quick poison. For 

 this reason the animal is sacred to Father Liber, as is 

 also fennel-giant. Lifeless things also, even the most 

 insignificant, have eacli their ov.n special poisons. 

 By means of Unden bark and fine flour cooks extract 

 excessive salt from food ; salt reduces the sickH- 

 ness of over-sweet things ; water that is nitrous or 

 bitter is sweetened by the addition of pearl barley, 

 so that within two hours it is drinkable, and for this 

 reason pearl barley is put into linen wine-strainers. 

 Thechalk^of Rhodes and the potter's earth of our own 

 country possess a similar property. Affinities show 

 their power when pitch is taken out by oil, both being 

 of a greasy nature. Oil alone mixes with Ume, both 

 hating water. Gum is more easily removed by 

 vinegar, ink by water, and countless other examples 

 besides wiU be carefuUy given in their proper 

 place. 



Hence sprang the art of medicine. Such things The arigm oj 

 alone had Nature decreed shouldbe our remedies,pro- ""^ ''"'"' 

 vided evervwhere, easy to discover and costing noth- 

 ing — the things in fact that support our Ufe. Later 

 on the deceit of men and cunning profiteering led to 

 the invention of the quack laboratories, in which each 

 customer is promised a new lease of his own life at a 

 price. At once compound prescriptions and mysteri- 

 ous mixtures are gUbly repeated, Arabia and India * 

 are judged to be storehouses of remedies, and a smaU 

 sore is charged '^ with the cost of a medicine from the 

 Red Sea, although the genuine remedies form the 



