PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



partem eius vomitione biles extrahere, inferiorem 

 per alvum taquaf.^ 

 74 XLVII. Tormina diseutit quodcumque panaces, 

 vettonica praeterquam a cruditate, peucedani sucus et 

 inflationes, ructus gignens, item acori radix daucumve, 

 si lactucae modo sumatur. ladanum Cyprium potum 

 interaneorum vitiis occun'it, gentianae farina ex aqua 

 tepida fabae magnitudine, plantago mane sumpta 

 duabus lingulis et tertia papaveris in vini cyathis 

 quattuor non veteris. datur et in somnum euntibus 

 addito nitro vel polenta, si multo post cibum detur. 

 colo infunditur hemina suci vel in febri. 



^ taquaf codd. : aquam lanus : aeque Detlefsen : in aqua 

 Mayhoff, qui coni. (e Dioscoride) sed totam utraque. 



° Dioscorides (IV, 175) has : Tavrrjs t6 fiev dvwOev fiepos Trjs 

 pi^rjg X-qn<f>dev St' efxeTOJv dyeL ^^oAtjt Kal <f>Xeyfia, t6 8e Trpos Trj pil,r) 

 KaTco Kadalpet, oXrj §e Xr]p.(f>9eiaa dp.4>oTepas Taj Kaddpaei.s Kt-vel. 

 The last clause has only aqua to correspond to it in the MSS. 

 of Pliny; hence Mayhoff's conjecture (for the MSS. aqua) sed 

 totam utraque. This suggestion implies that a scribe's eye 

 passed from alvum to utr]aque. This is the least unsatisfactory 

 solution yet proposed of this particular difficulty, but there are 

 other perplexing features of the chapter besides the one 

 mentioned here. 



(] ) KovTe Tas piias shows that tusa is tusa radix, but nascitur 

 in the sentence above refers to the plant. This change of 

 subject causes no difficulty, but the last sentence of Plinj', 

 eorresponding to the first sentence in the section of 

 Dioscorides, contains an ambiguous and perplexing eius. 

 Does this refer to the plant or to the root ? Littre translates 

 it " de la racLne," but the words of Dioscorides, to 8e Trpos tjJ 

 pltr) (scil. p.epos) Kdro} KaOaipei, can only mean " the part near 

 the root pxu-ges by stool " ; it cannot mean " the lower part 

 of the root purges by stool." Pliny translates as though it 

 were to Se Kdro) p.epos Trjs pitjts. The fiev clause may mean 

 " the upper part of this root," although Tavrrjs is strangely 

 placed and could more naturally be translated : " Of this 

 plant the part above the root etc." Furthermore, it is odd to 



