328 
plint's natural history. [Book XXVIII. 
custom to immolate one^^ of these animals at the public sacri- 
fices at Eome. 
CHAP. 41. — BLOOD. 
The blood, also, of the horse is possessed of certain corrosive 
properties ; and so, too, is mare's blood — except, indeed, where 
the animal has not been covered — it having the effect of 
cauterizing the margins of ulcers, and so enlarging them. 
Euirs blood too, taken fresh, is reckoned^* among the poisons ; 
except, indeed, at ^gira,^^ at which place the priestess of the 
Earth, when about to foretell coming events, takes a draught 
of bull's blood before she descends into the cavern : so power- 
ful, in fact, is the agency of that sympathy so generally spoken 
of, that it may occasionally originate, we find, in feelings of re- 
ligious awe,^^ or in the peculiar nature of the locality. 
Drusus,^"^ the tribune of the people, drank goats' blood, it is 
said ; it being his object by his pallid looks to suggest that his 
enemy, Q. Csepio, had given him poison, and so expose him to 
public hatred. So remarkably powerful is the blood of the he- 
goat, that there is nothing better in existence for sharpening 
iron implements, the rust produced by this blood giving them 
a better edge even than a file. Considering, however, that the 
blood of all animals cannot be reckoned as a remedy in common, 
will it not be advisable, in preference, to speak of the effects 
that are produced by that of each kind ? 
CHAP. 42. PECULIAR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM VARIOUS ANIMALS, 
AND CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE MALADIES. REMEDIES 
AGAINST THE POISON OP SERPENTS, DERIVED PROM THE STAG, 
THE PAWN, THE OPHION, THE SHE- GOAT, THE EJD, AND THE 
ASS. 
We will therefore classify the various remedies, according 
to the maladies for which they are respectively used ; and, first 
of all, those to which man has recourse for injuries inflicted by 
^3 The " Equus October," sacrificed to Mars on the Campus Martius in 
October. This sacrifice was attended with some very ridiculous ceremonies. 
This, as already observed, was probably a fallacy. 
95 See B. iv. c. 6. 
96 His meaning is, that the excitement produced by religious feeling- 
neutralizes that antipathy which, under ordinary circumstances, is manifested 
towards the system by bull's blood. 
See B. xxxiii. c. 6. 
