208 
pliny's natural histoet. 
[Book VII. 
And then, too, there is another kind of fatal disease, that 
which is produced by over-exertion of the mental faculties.^ 
iS'ature has appointed certain laws as well for our maladies ; 
quartan fevers never commence at the winter solstice, nor yet 
during the winter months ; some diseases never attack us after 
the sixtieth year ; some again disappear at the age of puberty, 
especially in females while aged persons are but seldom 
affected by the plague. There are some diseases which attack 
whole nations ; others prevail among classes ; some among 
slaves, others among the higher ranks, and others among other 
classes of society. It has been remarked, in reference to this 
subject, that the plague always takes a course from the south to- 
wards the west,*"^ and scarcely ever in an opposite direction ; it 
never appears in the winter, or lasts longer than three months. 
CHAP. 52. (51.) DEATH. 
And now to speak of the premonitory signs of death. Among 
these are laughter, in madness f '^ in cases of delirium,^^ the 
patient carefully folding the fringe or the plaits of the bed- 
" Per sapientiam mori." Many conjectures kave been formed respect- 
ing the meaning of this passage, which is obscure. Attempts have been 
made to amend the reading of the text, but, as it appears, without success ; 
see the notes of Hardouin, Ajasson, and others, Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 197, 
8. — B. It is pretty clear, however, that Pliny here refers to what, in the 
next Chapter, he calls " sapientise segritudo," the malady by the Greeks 
called " phrenesisj" and by us " frenzy," which attacks the seat of wisdom, 
the understanding. Many pages have been written upon the meaning of 
this passage, obvious as it seems to be. 
^1 The same doctrine is advanced in B. xxviii., which treats of medicine, 
seec. 10.— B. 
Among the ancients, all the manufactures and mechanical arts were 
carried on by slaves ; they were, consequently, subjected to the same kinds 
of morbid causes which are found, in modern times, to be so detrimental 
to certain descriptions of workmen. — B. 
^'^ Our own experience has taught us the truth of this observation in the 
case of the cholera; and the great plague of 1348, which is thought to 
have swept off one-third of mankind, is supposed to have travelled to 
Europe from the vicinity of the Ganges. 
Dalechamps correctly remarks, that the laughter here referred to, is 
not the indication of mirth, but what has been termed the ^' risus Sar- 
donicus/' the " Sardonic laugh," produced by a convulsive action of the 
muscles of the face ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 201. — B. 
Sapientiae segritudine." See Note 80 above. 
