218 
Pliny's katueal histokt. 
[Book XXVII. 
luminaries of heaven ! And then, in addition to all this, that 
there should be a perpetual interchange going on between all 
parts of the earth, of productions so instrumental to the welfare 
of mankind ! Eesults, all of them, ensured to us by the peace 
that reigns under the majestic sway of the Roman power, a 
peace which brings in presence of each other, not individuals 
only, belonging to lands and nations far separate, but moun- 
tains even, and heights towering above the clouds, their plants 
and their various productions ! That this great bounteousness 
of the gods may know no end, is my prayer, a bounteousness 
which seems to have granted the Eoman sway as a second 
luminary for the benefit of mankind. 
CHA.P. 2. (2.) — ACONITE, OTHEEWISE CALLED THELYPHONON, CAM- 
MAEON, PAEDALIANCHES, OE SCOEPIO ; FOUE EEMEDIES. 
But who, I say, can sufficiently venerate the zeal and spirit of 
research displayed by the ancients ? It is they who have shown 
us that aconite is the most prompt of all poisons in its effects 
—so much so indeed, that female animals, if the sexual parts ^ 
are but touched with it, will not survive a single day. With 
this poison it was that M. Csecilius ^ accused Calpurnius Bestia 
of killing his wives in their sleep, and this it was that gave 
rise to that fearful peroration of his, denouncing the murderous 
finger of the accused/ According to the fables of mythology, 
this plant was originally produced from the foam of the dog 
Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules from the Infernal ^ Ee- 
gions ; for which reason, it is said, it is still so remarkably 
abundant in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus, a spot where 
the entrance is still pointed out to the shades below. 
And yet, noxious as it is, the ancients have shown us how to 
employ aconite for the benefit of mankind, and have taught us 
as the result of their experience, that, taken in mulled wine, 
it neutralizes the venom of the scorpion : indeed such is the 
nature of this deadly plant, that it kills man, unless it can find 
5 See B. XXV. c. 75. 
^ Properly " Caelius " — the same M. Cselius Rufus who is mentioned 
in B. vii. c. 50. See also B. xxxv. c. 46. 
** Hinc ilia atrox peroratio ejus in digitum.'* Sillig is probably right 
in his suggestion that the word raortiferum " is wanting at the end of 
the sentence, Bestia was accused of having killed his wives by the 
contact of aconite, applied, through the agency of the finger, to the secret 
parts. ^ See B. vi. c. i. 
