Cliap. 6.] 
THE BRITANNICA. 
85 
(3.) It is not, however, the animals only that are endowed 
with certain baneful and noxious properties, but, sometimes, 
waters^^ even, and localities as well. Upon one occasion, in his 
German campaign, Germanicus Csesar had pitched his camp 
beyond the river Ehenus ; the only fresh water to be obtained 
being that of a single spring in the vicinity of the sea-shore. 
It was found, however, that within two years the habitual use 
of this water was productive of loss of the teeth and a total 
relaxation of the joints of the knees : the names given to 
these maladies, by medical men, were stomacace''^^ and 
*^ sceloturbe." A remedy for them was discovered, however, 
in the plant known as the britannica,"^^ which is good, not 
only for diseases of the sinews and mouth, but for quinzy^^ also, 
and injuries inflicted by serpents. This plant has dark oblong 
leaves and a swarthy root : the name given to the flower of it 
is *^ vibones,"^^ and if it is gathered and eaten before thunder 
has been heard, it will ensure safety in every respect. The 
Prisii, a nation then on terms of friendship with us, and within 
whose territories the Eoman army was encamped, pointed out 
this plant to our soldiers : the name^* given to it, however, 
29 As Fee remarks, the influence of water impregnated with selenite 
upon the health is well known. 
30 Fee says that this disease was an " intense gastritis, productive of a 
fetid breath." It would seem, however, to be neither more nor less than 
the malady now known as ''scurvy of the gums." Galen describes the 
"sceloturbe," as a kind of paralysis. ''Stomacace" means " disease of 
the mouth " sceloturbe " " disease of the legs." 
3^ Sprengel and Desfontaines identify it with the Eumex aquaticus, but 
Fee considers it to be the Inula Britannica of Linnaeus. The Statice 
armeria, Statice plantaginea, and Polygonum persicaria have also been 
suggested. 
'^'^ The pseudo-Apuieius, in B. xxix. t. 7, says, that if gathered before 
thunder has been heard, it will be a preservative against quinzy for a whole 
year. 
^ The flower of the Inula Britannica, Fee says, is much more likely, 
from its peculiarities, to have merited a peculiar name, than that of the 
Euraex. 
2* Lipsius, in his Commentaries upon Tacitus, Ann. i. 63, has very 
satisfactorily shown that it did not derive its name from the islands of 
Britain, but from a local appellation, the name given by the natives to the 
marshy tracts upon the banks of the Ems, between Lingen and Covoerden, 
which are still known as the "Bretaasche Heyde.'' Munting and Poin- 
sinet de Sivry suggest that it may have received its name from being used 
as a strengthener of the teeth in their sockets, being compounded of the 
words tanuy '' tooth," and briia, " to break." 
