Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 39.—REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY. <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. 39.—REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.

Strombi,¹ left to putrefy in vinegar, act as an excitant upon lethargic patients by their smell; they are very useful, too, for the cure of cardiac diseases. For cachectic patients, where the body is wasting with consumption, tetheæ² are considered beneficial, mixed with rue and honey. For the cure of dropsy, dolphin's fat is melted and taken with wine, the repulsive taste of it being neutralized by first touching the nostrils with unguent or some other odoriferous substance, or else by plugging the nostrils in some way or other. The flesh of strombi, pounded and given in three heminæ of honied wine and the same quantity of water, or, if there is fever, in hydromel, is very useful for dropsy: the same, too, with the juice of river-crabs, administered with honey. Water frogs, too, are boiled with old wine and spelt,³ and taken as food, the liquor in which they have been boiled being drunk from the same vessel: or else the feet, head, and tail of a tortoise are cut off, and the intestines removed, the rest of the flesh being seasoned in such a manner as to allow of its being taken without loathing. River-crabs, too, eaten with their broth, are said to be very good for the cure of phthisis.

1 See Chapter 29 of this Book.

2 See Chapters 30 and 31 of the present Book.

3 See B. xviii. c. 19.

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. 39.—REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.

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. 39.—REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.

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