320 
pliny's natural history. 
[BookXXVllI. 
conceive : children that are suckled by them are known among 
us as colostrati/'^^ their milk being thick, like cheese in ap- 
pearance — the name colostra," "^^ it should be remembered, is 
given to the first milk secreted after delivery, which assumes a 
spongy, coagulated form. The most nutritive milk, in all 
cases, is woman's milk, and next to that goats' milk, to which 
is owing, probably, the fabulous story that Jupiter was suckled 
by a goat.*^^ The sweetest, next to woman's milk, is camels' 
milk ; but the most efficacious, medicinally speaking, is asses' 
milk. It is in animals of the largest size and individuals 
of the greatest bulk, that the milk is secreted with the greatest 
facility. Goats' milk agrees the best with the stomach, that 
animal browsing more than grazing. Cows' milk is considered 
more medicinal, while ewes' milk is sweeter and more nutri- 
tive, but not so well adapted to the stomach, it being more 
oleaginous than any other. 
Every kind of milk is more aqueous in spring than in sum- 
mer, and the same in all cases where the animal has grazed 
upon a new pasture. The best milk of all is that which adheres 
to the finger nail, when placed there, and does not run from olf 
it. Milk is most harmless when boiled, more particularly if 
sea pebbles"^^ have been boiled with it. Cows' milk is the most 
relaxing, and all kinds of milk are less apt to inflate when 
boiled. Milk is used for all kinds of internal ulcerations, 
those of the kidneys, bladder, intestines, throat, and lungs in 
particular ; and externally, it is employed for itching sensations 
upon the skin, and for purulent eruptions, it being taken fasting 
for the purpose. We have already"^^ stated, when speaking of 
the plants, how that in Arcadia cows' milk is administered for 
phthisis, consumption, and cachexy. Instances are cited, also, 
of persons who have been cured of gout in the hands and feet, 
by drinking asses' milk. 
To these various kinds of milk, medical men have added 
another, to which they have given the name of schiston 
See B. xi. c. 96. Dalechamps remarks that Pliny is in error here : 
this name being properly given to infants which have been put to the breast 
too soon after child-birth. And so it would appear from the context. 
''^ The "biestings." Amalthgea, 
• - Dioscorides says '* river pebbles." "^^ ^xv. c. 53. 
From the Greek (Txi(^r6vf divided " milk, or curds." 
