158 
Flint's natural histoky. 
[Book VII. 
CHAP. 1 7. CHILDREN EEMAKKABLE FOR THEIR PRECOCITY. 
We find it stated by the historians, that the son of Euthy- 
menes of Salamis had grown to be three cubits in height, at 
the age of three years ; that he was slow of gait and dull of 
comprehension ; that at that age he had attained puberty even, 
and his voice had become strong, like that of a man. We 
hear, also, that he died suddenly of convulsions of the limbs, 
at the completion of his third year.^^ I myself, not very long 
ago, was witness to exactly similar appearances, with the ex- 
ception of the state of puberty, in a son of Cornelius Tacitus, 
a member of the equestrian order, and procurators^ of Belgic 
Gaul.s^ The Greeks call such children as these, ^ETcrpa^sXoi ; 
we have no name for them in Latin. 
(17.) It has been observed, that the height of a man from 
the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is equal to the 
distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands 
when extended in a straight line ; the right side of the body, 
too, is generally stronger than the left ; though in some, the 
strength of the two sides is equal ; while in others again, the 
left side is the strongest. This, however, is never found to be 
the case in women.^^ 
CHAP. 18. SOME REMARKABLE PROPERTIES OF THE BODY. 
Males are heavier than females, and the bodies of all ani- 
mals are heavier when they are dead than when alive ; they 
also weigh more when asleep than when awake. The dead 
bodies of men float upon the back, those of women with the 
23 Seneca also mentions him in his Consolation to Marcia, c. 23. 
2* The procurator of a province was an officer appointed by the Caesar to 
perform the duties discharged by the qusestor in the other provinces. 
25 We have an ingenious dissertation by Ajasson, the object of which is 
to show, that the Tacitus here referred to, is not the historian, but his 
father, and consequently, that the boy prematurely born must have been 
the historian's brother, not his son.— B. 
26 It is not clear whether Pliny intended to apply all these three obser- 
vations to the female, or only the last of them ; it appears, however, that 
the remark is, in either case, without foundation. — B. He appears to in- 
tend that his observations should apply more especially to the strength of 
the arm. 
