9 2 APPENDIX. 



in Italy, and he was often produced in games as low a 

 Heliogabalus. 



As all thefe were from Afia, it fecfns moil probable they 

 had but one horn, and they are rcprefented as fuch in the 

 medals of Domitian. Yet Martial * fpeaks of one with two 

 horns ; and the reality of the rhinoceros fo armed being 

 till now uncertain, commentators have taken pains to per- 

 fuade us that this was an error of the poet ; but there can 

 be now'no doubt that the poet was right, and the commen- 

 tators wrong, a cafe that often happens. 



I do not know from what authority the author of the En- 

 cyclopedia I refers to the medals of Domitian, where the rhi- 

 noceros, he fays, has a double horn • in all thofe that have been 

 publifhed,one horn only is figured. The ufe made of thefe 

 horns is in the turning- loom; they are made into cups, and 

 fold toignorantpeopleas containing antidotes againflpoifons ; 

 for this quality they generally make part of the prcients of 

 the Mogul and' kings of -Perfia at Conilantinople. Some mo- 

 dern naturalifts have fcarce yet given over this prejudice ; 

 which might have had a poflibility of truth while the 

 Galenical fchool flourished, and vegetable poifons were 

 chiefly ufed ; but it is abfurd to fuppofe, that what might: 

 difcover folanum, or deadly night-made, upon contaci, 

 would have the like c fleet upon the application of arfenic ' r 

 and from experience I can pronounce, that a cup of this 

 is alike ufeleis in the difcovery of either. The handles 



of 



* Martial de Sjeilac. f See Supplement to Chambers's Didb. 



