398 
Pliny's natural history. 
[Book XXIX. 
by far the most dangerous ; for while other reptiles attack 
individuals only, and never kill many persons at a time — not 
to mention the fact that after stinging a human being they 
are said to die of remorse, and the earth refuses to harbour^- 
them — the salamander is able to destroy whole nations at once, 
unless they take the proper precautions against it. Eor if this 
reptile happens to crawl up a tree, it infects all the fruit with 
its poison, and kills those who eat thereof by the chilling pro- 
perties of its venom, which in its effects is in no way different 
from aconite. ]S"ay, even more than this, if it only touches 
with its foot the wood upon which bread is baked, or if it 
happens to fall into a well, the same fatal effects will be sure 
to ensue. The saliva, too, of this reptile, if it comes in contact 
with any part of the body, the sole of the foot even, will 
cause the hair to fall off from the whole of the body. And yet 
the salamander, highly venomous as it is, is eaten by certain 
animals, swine for example ; owing, no doubt, to that antipathy 
which prevails in the natural world. 
From what we find stated, it is most probable, that, next 
to the animals which eat it, the best neutralizers of the poison 
of this reptile, are, cantharides taken in drink, or a lizard eaten 
with the food ; other antidotes we have already mentioned, or 
shall notice in the appropriate place. As to what the ma- 
gicians^^ say, that it is proof against fire, being, as they tell us, 
the only animal that has the property of extinguishing fire, if it 
had been true, it would have been made trial of at Rome long 
before this. Sex tins says that the salamander, preserved in 
honey and taken with the food, after removing the intestines, 
head, and feet, acts as an aphrodisiac : he denies also that it 
has the property of extinguishing fire. 
CHAP. 24. EEMEDIES DERIVED EEOM BIRDS EOR INJURIES IN- 
FLICTED BY SERPENTS. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VULTURE, 
Among the birds that afford us remedies against serpents, it 
is the vulture that occupies the highest rank ; the black vulture, 
it has been remarked, being less efficacious than the others. 
The smell of their feathers, burnt, will repel serpents, they say ; 
and it has been asserted that persons who carry the heart of 
32 See B ii. c. 63. 
^'^ He probably alludes to the Magi of Persia here, as most of the stories 
about the salamander appear to bear the aspect of an Eastern origin. 
