Book XXVIII. Remedies Derived from Living Creatures.

Chaps. 1-6.

Chap. 1. (1.)—Introduction.

We should have now concluded our description of the various things [The trees and plants.] that are produced between the heavens and the earth, and it would have only remained for us to speak of the substances that are dug out of the ground itself; did not our exposition of the remedies derived from plants and shrubs necessarily lead us into a digression upon the medicinal properties which have been discovered, to a still greater extent, in those living creatures themselves which are thus indebted [to other objects] for the cure of their respective maladies. For ought we, after describing the plants, the forms of the various flowers, and so many objects rare and difficult to be found—ought we to pass in silence the resources which exist in man himself for the benefit of man, and the other remedies to be derived from the creatures that live among us—and this more particularly, seeing that life itself is nothing short of a punishment, unless it is exempt from pains and maladies? Assuredly not; and even though I may incur the risk of being tedious, I shall exert all my energies on the subject, it being my fixed determination to pay less regard to what may be amusing, than to what may prove practically useful to mankind.

Nay, even more than this, my researches will extend to the usages of foreign countries, and to the customs of barbarous nations, subjects upon which I shall have to appeal to the good faith of other authors; though at the same time I have made it my object to select no [On the contrary, this and the four following Books are full of the most extravagant assertions, which bear ample testimony to his credulity notwithstanding the author’s repeated declarations that he does not believe in Magic. As Ajasson says, he evidently does not know what he ought to have inserted in his work, and what to reject as utterly unworthy of belief. His faults, however, were not so much his own as those of his age. Want of space, equally with want of inclination, compels us to forego the task of entering into an examination of the system of Animal Therapeutics upon which so much labour has been wasted by our author.] facts but such as are established by pretty nearly uniform testimony, and to pay more attention to scrupulous exactness than to copiousness of diction.

It is highly necessary, however, to advertise the reader, that whereas I have already described the natures of the various animals, and the discoveries [See B. viii. c. 97, et seq., and B. xxv. c. 89, et seq.] due to them respectively—for, in fact, they have been no less serviceable in former times in discovering remedies, than they are at the present day in providing us with them—it is my present intention to confine myself to the remedial properties which are found in the animal world, a subject which has not been altogether lost sight of in the former portion of this work. These additional details therefore, though of a different nature, must still be read in connexion with those which precede.

Chap. 2. Remedies Derived from Man.

We will begin then with man, and our first enquires will be into the resources which he provides for himself—a subject replete with boundless difficulties at the very outset. [See B. xxviii. c. 3.]

Epileptic patients are in the habit of drinking the blood even of gladiators, draughts teeming with life, [This practice is mentioned with reprobation by Celsus and Tertullian. It was continued, however, in some degree through the middle ages, and Louis XV. was accused by his people of taking baths of infants’ blood to repair his premature decrepitude.] as it were; a thing that, when we see it done by the wild beasts even, upon the same arena, inspires us with horror at the spectacle! And yet these persons, forsooth, consider it a most effectual cure for their disease, to quaff the warm, breathing, blood from man himself, and, as they apply their mouth to the wound, to draw forth his very life; and this, though it is regarded as an act of impiety to apply the human lips to the wound even of a wild beast! Others there are, again, who make the marrow [In recent times, Guettard, a French practitioner, recommended human marrow as an emollient liniment.] of the leg-bones, and the brains of infants, the objects of their research!

Among the Greek writers, too, there are not a few who have enlarged upon the distinctive flavours of each one of the viscera and members of the human body, pursuing their researches to the very parings of the nails! as though, forsooth, it could possibly be accounted the pursuit of health for man to make himself a wild beast, and so deserve to contract disease from the very remedies he adopts for avoiding it. Most righteously, by Hercules! if such attempts are all in vain, is he disappointed of his cure! To examine human entrails is deemed an act of impiety; [Hence, as Ajasson remarks, the ignorance of anatomy displayed by the ancients.] what then must it be to devour them?

Say, Osthanes, [For further particulars as to Osthanes, see B. xxix. c. 80, and B. xxx. cc. 5 and 6; also cc. 19 and 77 of the present Book. The reading, however, is very doubtful.] who was it that first devised these practices; for it is thee that I accuse, thou uprooter of all human laws, thou inventor of these monstrosities; devised, no doubt with the view that mankind might not forget thy name! Who was it that first thought of devouring each member of the human body? By what conjectural motives was he induced? What can possibly have been the origin of such a system of medicine as this? Who was it that thus made the very poisons less baneful than the antidotes prescribed for them? Granted that barbarous and outlandish tribes first devised such practices, must the men of Greece, too, adopt these as arts of their own?

We read, for instance, in the memoirs of Democritus, still extant, that for some diseases, the skull of a malefactor is most efficacious, while for the treatment of others, that of one who has been a friend or guest is required. Apollonius, again, informs us in his writings, that the most effectual remedy for tooth-ache is to scarify the gums with the tooth of a man who has died a violent death; and, according to Miletus, human gall is a cure for cataract. [“Oculorum suffusiones.” As Ajasson says, the remedy here mentioned reminds us of the more harmless one used by Tobias for the cure of the blindness of his father Tobit.] For epilepsy, Artemon has prescribed water drawn from a spring in the night, and drunk from the skull of a man who has been slain, and whose body remains unburnt. From the skull, too, of a man who had been hanged, Antæus made pills that were to be an antidote to the bite of a mad dog. Even more than this, man has resorted to similar remedies for the cure of four-footed beasts even—for tympanitis in oxen, for instance, the horns have been perforated, and human bones inserted; and when swine have been found to be diseased, fine wheat has been given them which has lain for a night in the spot where a human being has been slain or burnt!

Far from us, far too from our writings, be such prescriptions [He gives a great many, however, which are equally abominable.] as these! It will be for us to describe remedies only, and not abominations; [“Piacula.”] cases, for instance, in which the milk of a nursing woman may have a curative effect, cases where the human spittle may be useful, or the contact [We may here discover the first rudiments of the doctrine of Animal Magnetism.] of the human body, and other instances of a similar nature. We do not look upon life as so essentially desirable that it must be prolonged at any cost, be it what it may—and you, who are of that opinion, be assured, whoever you may be, that you will die none the less, even though you shall have lived in the midst of obscenities or abominations!

Let each then reckon this as one great solace to his mind, that of all the blessings which Nature has bestowed on man, there is none greater than the death [In accordance with the republican doctrines of Cato of Utica, Brutus, Cassius, and Portia.] which comes at a seasonable hour; and that the very best feature in connexion with it is, that every person has it in his own power to procure it for himself. [Holland remarks, “Looke for no better divinitie in Plinie, a meere Pagan, Epicurean, and professed Atheist.” See B. vii. cc. 53, 54.]

Chap. 3. (2.)—Whether Words Are Possessed of Any Healing Efficacy.

In reference to the remedies derived from man, there arises first of all one question, of the greatest importance and always attended with the same uncertainty, whether words, charms, and incantations, are of any efficacy or not? [Whether or not, they cannot, as Ajasson remarks, be regarded as remedies derived from the human body, being no part of the human body.] For if such is the case, it will be only proper to ascribe this efficacy to man himself; [“Homini acceptum fieri oportere conveniat.” This passage is probably corrupt.] though the wisest of our fellow-men, I should remark, taken individually, refuse to place the slightest faith in these opinions. And yet, in our every-day life, we practically show, each passing hour, that we do entertain this belief, though at the moment we are not sensible of it. Thus, for instance, it is a general belief that without a certain form of prayer [Beginning with an address to Janus and Vesta, imploring their intercession with the other divinities, and concluding with an appeal to Janus.] it would be useless to immolate a victim, and that, with such an informality, the gods would be consulted to little purpose. And then besides, there are different forms of address to the deities, one form for entreating, [“Impetritis.”] another form for averting their ire, and another for commendation.

We see too, how that our supreme magistrates use certain formulæ for their prayers: that not a single word may be omitted or pronounced out of its place, it is the duty of one person to precede the dignitary by reading the formula before him from a written ritual, of another, to keep watch upon every word, and of a third to see that [“Qui favere linguis jubeat.” “Favete linguis” were the words used in enjoining strict silence.] silence is not ominously broken; while a musician, in the meantime, is performing on the flute to prevent any other words being heard. [By him who is offering up the prayer.] Indeed, there are memorable instances recorded in our Annals, of cases where either the sacrifice has been interrupted, and so blemished, by imprecations, or a mistake has been made in the utterance of the prayer; the result being that the lobe of the liver or the heart has disappeared in a moment, or has been doubled, [A trick adroitly performed by the priests, no doubt.] while the victim stood before the altar. There is still in existence a most remarkable testimony, [Given by Livy, in Books viii. and x.] in the formula which the Decii, father and son, pronounced on the occasions when they devoted themselves. [To death, in battle, for the good of their country.] There is also preserved the prayer uttered by the Vestal Tuccia, [Preserved by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. Tertullian and Saint Augustin doubt the authenticity of the story. She is said to have carried water in a sieve from the river Tiber to the temple of Vesta.] when, upon being accused of incest, she carried water in a sieve—an event which took place in the year of the City 609. Our own age even has seen a man and a woman buried alive in the Ox Market, [“Forum Boarium;” in the Eighth Region of the City.] Greeks by birth, or else natives of some other [Of Gaul, as Plutarch informs us, who mentions also the Greek victims, The immolation of the Gauls is supposed to have happened in the beginning of the reign of Vespasian.] country with which we were at war at the time. The prayer used upon the occasion of this ceremonial, and which is usually pronounced first by the Master of the College of the Quindecimviri, [Originally the “Decemviri Sacris Faciundis,” whose number was increased by Sylla to fifteen. They had the management of the Games of Apollo, and the Secular Games.] if read by a person, must assuredly force him to admit the potency of formulæ; when it is recollected that it has been proved to be effectual by the experience of eight hundred and thirty years.

At the present day, too, it is a general belief, that our Vestal virgins have the power, by uttering a certain prayer, to arrest the flight of runaway slaves, and to rivet them to the spot, provided they have not gone beyond the precincts of the City. If then these opinions be once received as truth, and if it be admitted that the gods do listen to certain prayers, or are influenced by set forms of words, we are bound to conclude in the affirmative upon the whole question. Our ancestors, no doubt, always entertained such a belief, and have even assured us, a thing by far the most difficult of all, that it is possible by such means to bring down lightning from heaven, as already [In B. ii. c. 54.] mentioned on a more appropriate occasion.

Chap. 4.—That Prodigies and Portents May Be Confirmed, or Made of No Effect.

L. Piso informs us, in the first Book of his Annals, that King Tullus Hostilius, [It has been suggested that Tullus Hostilius was acquainted with some of the secrets of electricity, and that he met his death while trying experiments with a lightning conductor. See B. ii. c. 54.] while attempting, in accordance with the books of Numa, to summon Jupiter from heaven by means of a sacrifice similar to that employed by him, was struck by lightning in consequence of his omission to follow certain forms with due exactness. Many other authors, too, have attested, that by the power of words a change has been effected in destinies and portents of the greatest importance. While they were digging on the Tarpeian Hill for the foundations of a temple, a human head was found; upon which deputies were sent to Olenus Calenus, the most celebrated diviner of Etruria. He, foreseeing the glory and success which attached to such a presage as this, attempted, by putting a question to them, to transfer the benefit of it to his own nation. First describing, on the ground before him, the outline of the temple with his staff—“Is it so, Romans, as you say?” said he; “here then must be the temple [Ajasson thinks that there is an equivoque here upon the word “templum,” which signified not only a building, but certain parts of the heavens, and corresponding lines traced on the earth by the augur’s staff.] of Jupiter, all good and all powerful; it is here that we have found the head”—and the constant asseveration of the Annals is, that the destiny of the Roman empire would have been assuredly transferred to Etruria, had not the deputies, forewarned by the son of the diviner, made answer—“No, not here exactly, but at Rome, we say, the head was found.”

It is related also that the same was the case when a certain four-horse chariot, made of clay, and intended for the roof of the same temple, had considerably increased while in the furnace; [This story is mentioned by Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola.] and that on this occasion, in a similar manner, the destinies of Rome were saved. Let these instances suffice then to show, that the virtues of presages lie in our own hands, and that they are valuable in each instance according as they are received. [In which case it was considered necessary to repeat the words, “Accipio omen,” “I accept the omen.”] At all events, it is a principle in the doctrine of the augurs, that neither imprecations nor auspices of any kind have any effect upon those who, when entering upon an undertaking, declare that they will pay no attention whatever to them; a greater instance than which, of the indulgent disposition of the gods towards us, cannot be found.

And then besides, in the laws themselves of the Twelve Tables, do we not read the following words—“Whosoever shall have enchanted the harvest,” [“Qui fruges excantassit.”] and in another place, “Whosoever shall have used pernicious incantations”? [“Qui malum carmen incantassit.”] Verrius Flaccus cites authors whom he deems worthy of credit, to show that on the occasion of a siege, it was the usage, the first thing of all, for the Roman priests to summon forth the tutelary divinity of that particular town, and to promise him the same rites, or even a more extended worship, at Rome; and at the present day even, this ritual still forms part of the discipline of our pontiffs. Hence it is, no doubt, that the name [Ajasson is of opinion that this name was either Favra or Fona, Acca, Flora, or Valesia or Valentia.] of the tutelary deity of Rome has been so strictly kept concealed, lest any of our enemies should act in a similar manner. There is no one, too, who does not dread being spell-bound by means of evil imprecations; [“As in saying thus, The Devill take thee, or The Ravens peck out thine eyes, or I had rather see thee Pie peckt, and such like.”— Holland.] and hence the practice, after eating eggs or snails, of immediately breaking [It is a superstition still practised to pierce the shell of an egg after eating it, “lest the witches should come.” Holland gives the following Note—“Because afterwards no witches might pricke them with a needle in the name and behalfe of those whom they would hurt and mischeefe, according to the practice of pricking the images of any person in wax; used in the witchcraft of these daies.” We learn from Ajasson that till recently it was considered a mark of ill-breeding in France not to pierce the shell after eating the egg. See also Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 19, Bohn’s Ed.] the shells, or piercing them with the spoon. Hence, too, those love-sick imitations of enchantments which we find described by Theocritus among the Greeks, and by Catullus, and more recently, Virgil, [See the Eighth Eclogue of Virgil.] among our own writers. Many persons are fully persuaded that articles of pottery may be broken by a similar agency; and not a few are of opinion even that serpents can counteract incantations, and that this is the only kind of intelligence they possess—so much so, in fact, that by the agency of the magic spells of the Marsi, they may be attracted to one spot, even when asleep in the middle of the night. Some people go so far, too, as to write certain words [“That is to say, Arse verse, out of Afranius, as Festus noteth, which in the old Tuscane language signifieth, Averte ignem, Put backe the fire.”— Holland.] on the walls of houses, deprecatory of accident by fire.

But it is not easy to say whether the outlandish and unpronounceable words that are thus employed, or the Latin expressions that are used at random, and which must appear ridiculous to our judgment, tend the most strongly to stagger our belief—seeing that the human imagination is always conceiving something of the infinite, something deserving of the notice of the divinity, or indeed, to speak more correctly, something that must command his intervention perforce. Homer [Odyss. xix. 457. It is not Ulysses, but the sons of Autolycus that do this. Their bandages, however, were more likely to be effectual.] tells us that Ulysses arrested the flow of blood from a wound in the thigh, by repeating a charm; and Theophrastus [De Enthusiasmo.] says that sciatica may be cured by similar means. Cato [See B. xvii. c. 47.] has preserved a formula for the cure of sprains, and M. Varro for that of gout. The Dictator Cæsar, they say, having on one occasion accidentally had a fall in his chariot, [In passing along the Velabrum, on the occasion of his Gallic triumph, the axle of the carriage having broke.] was always in the habit, immediately upon taking his seat, of thrice repeating a certain formula, with the view of ensuring safety upon the journey; a thing that, to my own knowledge, is done by many persons at the present day.

Chap. 5.—A Description of Various Usages.

I would appeal, too, for confirmation on this subject, to the intimate experience of each individual. Why, in fact, upon the first day of the new year, do we accost one another with prayers for good fortune, [See Ovid’s Fasti, B. i. l. 175, et seq., and Epist. de Ponto. B. iv. El. 4. l. 23, et seq.] and, for luck’s sake, wish each other a happy new year? Why, too, upon the occasion of public lustrations, do we select persons with lucky names, to lead the victims? Why, to counteract fascinations, do we Romans observe a peculiar form of adoration, in invoking the Nemesis of the Greeks; whose statue, for this reason, has been placed in the Capitol at Rome, although the goddess herself possesses no Latin name? [See B. xi. c. 103.] Why, when we make mention of the dead, do we protest that we have no wish [Hence the saying, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum.”] to impeach their good name? [“Defunctorum memoriam a nobis non sollicitari.”] Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual; [It is still a saying, and perhaps a belief, that “There is luck in odd numbers.”] —a thing that is particularly observed with reference to the critical days in fevers? Why is it that, when gathering the earliest fruit, apples, or pears, as the case may be, we make a point of saying—“This fruit is old, may other fruit be sent us that is new?” Why is it that we salute [This has been a practice from the earliest times to the present day. See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 123, Bohn’s Ed.] a person when he sneezes, an observance which Tiberius Cæsar, they say, the most unsociable of men, as we all know, used to exact, when riding in his chariot even? Some there are, too, who think it a point religiously to be observed to mention the name as well of the person whom they salute.

And then, besides, it is a notion [In France and England, at the present day, this notion, or rather, perhaps, the memory of it, is universally to be found. If the right ear tingles, some one is speaking well of us; if the left ear, the reverse.] universally received, that absent persons have warning that others are speaking of them by the tingling of the ears. Attalus [King Attalus Philometor. See end of B. viii.] assures us, that if a person, the moment he sees a scorpion, says “Duo,” [“Two.”] the reptile will stop short, and forbear to sting. And now that I am speaking of the scorpion, I recall to mind that in Africa no one ever undertakes any matter without prefacing with the word “Africa;” while in other countries, before an enterprise is commenced, it is the practice to adjure the gods that they will manifest their good will.

In addition to this, it is very clear that there are some religious observances, unaccompanied by speech, which are considered to be productive of certain effects. Thus, [This passage, it is pretty clear, ought to follow the preceding one, though in the Latin it is made to precede.] when we are at table, for instance, it is the universal practice, we see, to take the ring from off the finger. Another person, again, will take some spittle from his mouth and place it with his finger behind the ear, to propitiate and modify disquietude of mind. When we wish to signify applause, we have a proverb even which tells us we should press the thumbs. [The thumb was turned upwards as a mark of favour, downwards, as a mark of disfavour.] When paying adoration, we kiss the right hand, and turn the whole body to the right: while the people of the Gallic provinces, on the contrary, turn to the left, and believe that they show mere devoutness by so doing. To salute summer lightning with clapping of the hands, is the universal practice with all nations. If, when eating, we happen to make mention of a fire that has happened, we avert the inauspicious omen by pouring water beneath the table. To sweep the floor at the moment that a person is rising from table, or to remove the table or tray, [“Repositorium.”] as the case may be, while a guest is drinking, is looked upon as a most unfortunate presage. There is a treatise, written by Servius Sulpicius, a man of the highest rank, in which reasons are given why we should never leave the table we are eating at; for in his day it was not yet [It was not yet the custom to bring in several courses, each served up on a separate table.] the practice to reckon more tables than guests at an entertainment. Where a person has sneezed, it is considered highly ominous for the dish or table to be brought back again, and not a taste thereof to be taken, after doing so; the same, too, where a person at table eats nothing at all.

These usages have been established by persons who entertained a belief that the gods are ever present, in all our affairs and at all hours, and who have therefore found the means of appeasing them by our vices even. It has been remarked, too, that there is never a dead silence on a sudden among the guests at table, except when there is an even number present; when this happens, too, it is a sign that the good name and repute of every individual present is in peril. In former times, when food fell from the hand of a guest, it was the custom to return it by placing it on the table, and it was forbidden [Good manners possibly, more than superstition, may have introduced this practice.] to blow upon it, for the purpose of cleansing it. Auguries, too, have been derived from the words or thoughts of a person at the moment such an accident befalls him; and it is looked upon as one of the most dreadful of presages, if this should happen to a pontiff, while celebrating the feast of Dis. [Or Pluto. He alludes to the Feralia, or feasts celebrated, in the month of February, in honour of the dead.] The proper expiation in such a case is, to have the morsel replaced on table, and then burnt in honour of the Lar. [Or household god.] Medicines, it is said, will prove ineffectual, if they happen to have been placed on a table before they are administered. It is religiously believed by many, that it is ominous in a pecuniary point of view, for a person to pare his nails without speaking, on the market days [The “Nundinæ,” held every ninth day; or rather every eighth day, according to our mode of reckoning.] at Rome, or to begin at the forefinger [Gronovius suggests a reading which would make this to mean that it is “ominous to touch money with the forefinger.” It does not appear to be warranted, however.] in doing so: it is thought, too, to be a preventive of baldness and of head-ache, to cut the hair on the seventeenth and twenty-ninth [Twenty-eighth, according to our reckoning.] days of the moon.

A rural law observed in most of the farms of Italy, forbids [Probably from their ominous resemblance to the Parcæ, or Fates, with their spindles.] women to twirl their distaffs, or even to carry them uncovered, while walking in the public roads; it being a thing so prejudicial to all hopes and anticipations, those of a good harvest [“Frugum.”] in particular. It is not so long ago, that M. Servilius Nonianus, the principal citizen at Rome, [“Princeps civitatis.”] being apprehensive of ophthalmia, had a paper, with the two Greek letters P and A [“Rho” and “Alpha.”] written upon it, wrapped in linen and attached to his neck, before he would venture to name the malady, and before any other person had spoken to him about it. Mucianus, too, who was thrice consul, following a similar observance, carried about him a living fly, wrapped in a piece of white linen; and it was strongly asserted, by both of them, that to the use of these expedients they owed their preservation from ophthalmia. There are in existence, also, certain charms against hail-storms, diseases of various kinds, and burns, some of which have been proved, by actual experience, to be effectual; but so great is the diversity of opinion upon them, that I am precluded by a feeling of extreme diffidence from entering into further particulars, and must therefore leave each to form his own conclusions as he may feel inclined.

Chap. 6. (3.)—Two Hundred and Twenty-six Observations on Remedies Derived from Man. Eight Remedies Derived from Children.

We have already, [In B. vii. c. 2.] when speaking of the singular peculiarities of various nations, made mention of certain men of a monstrous nature, whose gaze is endowed with powers of fascination; and we have also described properties belonging to numerous animals, which it would be superfluous here to repeat. In some men, the whole of the body is endowed with remarkable properties, as in those families, for instance, which are a terror to serpents; it being in their power to cure persons when stung, either by the touch or by a slight suction of the wound. To this class belong the Psylli, the Marsi, and the people called “Ophiogenes” [In B. vii. c. 2, he speaks of these people—“the serpent-born”—as natives of Parium, a town of the Hellespont. Ajasson suggests that they may have been a branch of the Thamirades, a sacerdotal family of Cyprus.] in the Isle of Cyprus. One Euagon, a member of this family, while attending upon a deputation at Rome, was thrown by way of experiment, by order of the consuls, into a large vessel [“Dolium.”] filled with serpents; upon which, to the astonishment of all, they licked his body all over with their tongues. One peculiarity of this family—if indeed it is still in existence—is the strong offensive smell which proceeds from their body in the spring; their sweat, too, no less than their spittle, was possessed of remedial virtues. The people who are born at Tentyris, an island in the river Nilus, are so formidable [See B. viii. c. 38.] to the crocodiles there, that their voice even is sufficient to put them to flight. The presence even, it is well known, of all these different races, will suffice for the cure of injuries inflicted by the animals to which they respectively have an antipathy; just in the same way that wounds are irritated by the approach of persons who have been stung by a serpent at some former time, or bitten by a dog. Such persons, too, by their presence, will cause the eggs upon which a hen is sitting to be addled, and will make pregnant cattle cast their young and miscarry; for, in fact, so much of the venom remains in their body, that, from being poisoned themselves, they become poisonous to other creatures. The proper remedy in such case is first to make them wash their hands, and then to sprinkle with the water the patient who is under medical treatment. When, again, persons have been once stung by a scorpion they will never afterwards be attacked by hornets, wasps, or bees: a fact at which a person will be the less surprised when he learns that a garment which has been worn at a funeral will never be touched by moths; [Ajasson has thought it worth while to contradict this assertion.] that it is hardly possible to draw serpents from their holes except by using the left hand; and that, of the discoveries made by Pythagoras, one of the most unerring, is the fact, that in the name given to infants, an odd number of vowels is portentous of lameness, loss of eyesight, or similar accidents, on [Meaning, of course, in case such an accident should befall the party. The passage appears, however, to be corrupt.] the right side of the body, and an even number of vowels of the like infirmities on the left.

(4.) It is said, that if a person takes a stone or other missile which has slain three living creatures, a man, a boar, and a bear, at three blows, and throws it over the roof of a house in which there is a pregnant woman, her delivery, however difficult, will be instantly accelerated thereby. In such a case, too, a successful result will be rendered all the more probable, if a light infantry lance [“Hasta velitaris.”] is used, which has been drawn from a man’s body without touching the earth; indeed, if it is brought into the house it will be productive of a similar result. In the same way, too, we find it stated in the writings of Orpheus and Archelaüs, that arrows, drawn from a human body without being allowed to touch the ground, and placed beneath the bed, will have all the effect of a philtre; and, what is even more than this, that it is a cure for epilepsy if the patient eats the flesh of a wild beast killed with an iron weapon with which a human being has been slain.

Some individuals, too, are possessed of medicinal properties in certain parts of the body; the thumb of King Pyrrhus, for instance, as already [In B. vii. c. 2.] mentioned. At Elis, there used to be shown one of the ribs [It is the shoulder-blade of Pelops that is generally mentioned in the ancient Mythology. Pliny omits to say of what medicinal virtues it was possessed.] of Pelops, which, it was generally asserted, was made of ivory. At the present day even, there are many persons, who from religious motives will never clip the hair growing upon a mole on the face.