PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



eadem et dracones marinos efficax. contra serpentes 

 quoque ex oleo perungui ea prodest. hysopi fasci- 

 culus cum quadrante mellis decoquitur ad tussim, 

 lateris, pectoris dolores, verbascum cum ruta ex aqua, 

 vettonicae farina bibitur ex aqua calida. 



32 XVIII. Stomachum conroborat scordotis suco,cen- 

 taurium, gentiana ex aqua pota, plantago aut per se 

 in cibo sumpta aut cum lente ahcaeve sorbitione. 

 vettonica ahas gravis stomacho vitia tamen sanat pota 

 vel foHis conmanducata, item aristolochia pota, 

 agaricum manducatum siccum, ut ex intervallo 

 merum sorbeatur, nymphaea heracha inhta, peuce- 

 dani sucus. psylhon ardoribus inponitur, vel cotyle- 

 don ti^ita cum polenta vel aizoum. 



33 XIX. Molon scapo est striato, fohis molhbus, 

 parvis, radice quattuor digitorum in qua extrema ahi 

 caput est. vocatur a quibusdam syron. ex vino 

 stomacho et ^ dyspnoeae medetur, centaurium maius 

 echgmate, plantago suco vel cibo, vettonicae tusae 



1 et om. Mayhoff, qui lacunam indicat. 



" It is difficult to translate draco marinus, probably Tra- 

 chinus draco, the greater weever, that can inflict poisonous 

 woimds with its dorsal spines. " Sea snaks " and " sea 

 serpent " are unsuitable for obvious reasons. 



* For alica, groats-from wheat used to make a weak gruel, 

 see XXII, §§ 128, 129. The Romans used it in preference to 

 barley water. 



" Ardores is a difficult, at least an ambiguous, term. It 

 occurs five times in Pliny, and except here always as the direct 

 object of the verb refrigerare ; it is also always in the plural. 

 It could therefore mean : (1) superficial inflammation, (2) 

 feverishness, or (3) a feeling of being stifled by heat. In this 

 passage the verb inponitur makes (1) the most likely meaning. 

 The other passages are : ad refrigerandos in morhis corporum 



