Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY. <a href="#note-link1">1</a> It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we regret to say, that we are enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the Bamberg MS., which has been so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number of passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all suspected of being in a mutilated state, this MS. supplies words and clauses, the existence of which in the original was hitherto unknown; indeed by its aid the indefatigable Sillig has been enabled, if we may be allowed the term, almost to rewrite the last six Books of Pliny. From a perusal of these new readings, as Dr. Smith has justly remarked, we have reason to infer "that the text of the earlier Books is still in a very defective state, and that much of the obscurity of Pliny may be traced to this cause."</p>

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CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.

Epileptic patients, as already¹ stated, are recommended to drink the rennet of the sea-calf,² mixed with mares' milk or asses' milk, or else with pomegranate juice, or, in some cases, with oxymel: some persons, too, swallow the rennet by itself, in the form of pills. Castoreum³ is sometimes administered, in three cyathi of oxymel, to the patient fasting; but where the attacks are frequent, it is employed in the form of a clyster, with marvellous effect. The proper proportions, in this last case, are two drachmæ of castoreum, one sextarius of oil and honey, and the same quantity of water. At the moment that the patient is seized with a fit, it is a good plan to give him castoreum, with vinegar, to smell. The liver, too, of the sea- weasel⁴ is given to epileptic patients, or else that of sea-mice,⁵ or the blood of tortoises.

1 In B. viii. c. 49.

2 See Note 14 above.

3 See Chapter 13 of the present Book.

4 See B. ix. c. 29.

5 See B. ix. cc. 35, 76.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.