471 
BOOK XXXI. 
REMEDIES DEKIVED FROM THE AQUATIC PRODUCTIONS. 
CHAP. 1. (1.) — EEMABKABLE EACTS CONNECTED WITH "WATER. 
"We have now to speak of the benefits derived, in a medicinal 
point of view, from the aquatic productions ; for not here even 
has all-bounteous JS'ature reposed from her work. Amid waves 
and billows, and tides of rivers for ever on the ebb and flow, 
she still unceasingly exerts her powers ; and nowhere, if we 
must confess the truth, does she display herself in greater 
might, for it is this among the elements that holds sway over 
all the rest. It is water that swallows up dry land, that 
extinguishes flame, that ascends aloft, and challenges posses- 
sion of the very heavens : it is water that, spreading clouds as 
it does, far and wide, intercepts the vital air we breathe ; and, 
through their collision, gives rise to thunders and lightnings,^ 
as the elements of the universe meet in conflict. 
What can there be more marvellous than waters suspended 
aloft in the heavens And yet, as though it were not enough to 
reach so high an elevation as this, they sweep along with them 
whole shoals of fishes, and often stones as well, thus lading 
themselves with ponderous masses which belong to other 
elements, and bearing them on high. Falling upon the earth, 
these waters become the prime cause of all that is there pro- 
duced ; a truly wondrous provision of I^ature, if we only con- 
sider, that in order to give birth to grain and life to trees and 
to shrubs, water must first leave the earth for the heavens, and 
thence bring down to vegetation the breath of life ! The 
admission must be surely extorted from us, that for all our 
resources the earth is indebted to the bounteousness of water. 
1 See B. ii. c. 43. Ajasson remarks, that the electric fluid, forming 
lightning, escapes from the clouds through causes totally independent of 
water. Still, Pliny would appear to be right in one sense ; for if there 
were no water, there would be no clouds ; and without clouds the electric 
fluid would probably take some other form than that of lightning. 
