BOOK VI I .] History of Nature. 24 1 



may also be certainly seen in the aspect of the Eyes and 

 Nose, as also in the manner of lying always upon the Back 

 supine : also by the unequal stroke of the Veins, as if an 

 Ant crept under it, with other Signs which Hippocrates, the 

 prince of Medicine, hath observed. And whilst there are 

 innumerable Signs that presage Death, there is not one that 

 can assure a Man certainly of Life and Health. For Cato 1 

 the Censor, writing to his Son concerning robust Health, 

 hath delivered from some Oracle, that Youth resembling 

 Age is a Sign of untimely Death. Diseases are so innu- 

 merable, that Pherecydes, of the Island of Syros, died of a 

 great quantity of Creepers 2 bursting out of his Body. Some 

 are never free of a Fever, as C. Meccenas. The same Man, 

 for three whole Years before he died, never was asleep for 

 a single Minute. Antipater Sidonius the Poet, once a year 

 during his Life was seized with an Ague-fit upon his Birth- 

 day only, and at last he died in such a Fit in a good 

 old Age. 



CHAPTER LII. 



Of such as were carried forth to their Funeral and revived 



again. 



A. VIOLA, who had been Consul, came to himself when 

 he was on the Funeral Pile ; but because the Flame was so 

 Strong that he could not be got away, he was burnt alive. 



1 Cato's knowledge of medical subjects may be judged of from the 

 specimens of miserable quackery contained in his " Treatise on Agricul- 

 ture." Much of it consisted of charms, in unintelligible jargon. 

 Wern. Club. 



2 Pliny sometimes employs unusual words to express plain and com- 

 mon things; or he may have adopted the term to avoid what among 

 polite people would have excited loathing. For the same reason another 

 author speaks of the same creatures under the name of animalia tetra, or 

 foul creatures. It was the disease which afflicted Herod, Acts of the 

 Apostles, xii. 23 ; and in modern times Dr. Heberden records a case, 

 " Commentaries," c. Ixxi : but it is not certain that they are of the same 

 species as that which commonly attacks the human body. The fate of 

 Sylla, from the same cause, is referred to in the 4Md chapter of this Book. 

 - Wern. Clnl*. 



VOL. II. R 



