Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 38. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY. <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. 38. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY.

Recurrent fevers are effectually checked by making the patient taste the liver of a dolphin, just before the paroxysm comes on. Hippocampi¹ are stifled in oil of roses, and the patients are rubbed therewith in cold agues, the fish, also, being worn as an amulet by the patient. In the same way, too, the small stones that are found at full moon in the head of the fish called "asellus"² are worn, attached in a piece of linen cloth to the patient's body. A similar virtue is attributed to the longest tooth of the river-fish called phagrus,³ attached to the patient with a hair, provided he does not see the person who attaches it to him for five days. Frogs are boiled in oil in a spot where three roads meet, and, the flesh being first thrown away, the patients are rubbed with the decoction, by way of cure for quartan fever. Some persons, again, suffocate frogs in oil, and, after attaching them to the patient without his knowing it, anoint him with the oil. The heart of a frog, worn as an amulet, modifies the cold chills in fevers; the same, too, with oil in which the intestines of frogs have been boiled. But the best remedy for quartan fevers, is to wear attached to the body either frogs from which the claws have been⁴ removed, or else the liver or heart of a bramble-frog,⁵ attached in a piece of russet-coloured cloth.

River-crabs,⁶ bruised in oil and water, are highly beneficial in fevers, the patient being anointed with the preparation just before the paroxysms come on: some authorities recommend the addition of pepper to the mixture. Others prescribe for quartan fevers a decoction of river-crabs in wine, boiled down to one fourth, the patient taking it at the moment of leaving the bath: by some, too, it is recommended to swallow the left eye of a river-crab. The magicians engage to cure a tertian fever, by attaching as an amulet to the patient, before sunrise, the eyes of river-crabs, the crabs when thus blinded being set at liberty in the water. They say, too, that these eyes, attached to the body in a piece of deer's hide, with the flesh of a nightingale,⁷ will dispel sleep and promote watchfulness. In cases where there are symptoms of lethargy, the rennet of the balæna⁸ or of the sea-calf⁹ is given to the patient to smell; some persons, too, use the blood of tortoises as a liniment for lethargic patients.

Tertian fevers, it is said, may be cured by wearing one of the vertebræ¹⁰ of a perch attached to the body, and quartan fevers by using fresh river snails, as an aliment. Some persons preserve these snails in salt for this purpose, and give them, pounded, in drink.

1 See B. ix. c. 1.

2 See B. ix. c. 28.

3 See B. ix. c. 24.

4 "Ablatis unguibus."

5 "Rubeta."

6 Our crawfish.

7 Because the nightingale sings at night, instead of sleeping.

8 See B. ix. cc. 2, 5, 6, 7, 15.

9 Or seal.

10 "Spondylus."

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. 38. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY.

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. 38. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY.

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