Chaps. 34-44.

Chap. 34.—How Artificial Sea-water May Be Made in Places at a Distance from the Sea.

I am by no means unaware that these details may very possibly appear superfluous to persons who live at a distance from the sea; but scientific research has made provision against this objection, by discovering a method of enabling every one to make sea-water [The ancients being unable to analyze sea-water, could only imitate it very clumsily.] for himself. It is a singular fact in connexion with this discovery, that if more than one sextarius of salt is put into four sextarii of water, the liquefying properties of the water will be overpowered, and the salt will no longer melt. On the other hand, again, a mixture of one sextarius of salt with four sextarii of water, acts as a good substitute for the efficacy and properties of the very saltest sea-water. The most reasonable proportion, however, is generally thought to be eight cyathi of salt, diluted in the quantity of water above mentioned; a preparation which has been found to have a warming effect upon the sinews, without in any degree chafing the body.

Chap. 35.—How Thalassomeli Is Made.

There is also a composition made to ripen for use, known as “thalassomeli,” [“Sea-water honey.”] and prepared with equal parts of sea-water, honey, and rain-water. For this purpose, also, the water is brought from out at sea, and the preparation is kept in an earthen vessel well pitched. It acts most efficiently as a purgative, and without in the least fatiguing the stomach; the taste, too, and smell of it, are very agreeable.

Chap. 36.—How Hydromeli Is Made.

Hydromeli, [See B. xiv. c. 20, and B. xxii. c. 51. He is speaking, probably, of fermented hydromel, a sort of mead.] also, was a mixture formerly made with pure rain-water and honey, and was prescribed for patients who were anxious for wine, as being a more harmless drink. For these many years past, however, it has been condemned, as having in reality all the inconveniences of wine, without the advantages.

Chap. 37.—Methods of Providing Against the Inconvenience of Drinking Suspected Water.

As persons out at sea often suffer great inconvenience from the want of fresh water, we will here describe some methods of obviating it. Fleeces are spread round the ship, and on becoming moistened with the exhalations arising from the sea, the water is wrung from them, and found to be quite fresh. Hollow balls of wax, also, or empty vessels sealed at the mouth, upon being let down into the sea in a net, become filled with water that is fresh and potable. On shore, too, sea-water may be made fresh, by filtering it through argillaceous earth.

By swimming in water of any kind, sprains of the limbs in man or beast are reduced [The joints being rendered more supple thereby.] with the greatest facility. Persons when travelling, are sometimes apprehensive that the use of water, the quality of which is unknown to them, may prove injurious to their health: as a precaution against this, they should drink the suspected water cold, immediately after leaving the bath.

Chap. 38.—Six Remedies Derived from Moss. Remedies Derived from Sand.

Moss which has grown in water [He probably means sea-water, alluding to certain kinds of sea-weed. Dioscorides speaks of it, in B. iv. c. 99, as being good for gout. It is, in reality, of some small utility in such cases.] is excellent as a topical application for gout; and, in combination with oil, it is good for pains and swellings in the ankles. The foam that floats [He most probably means sea-water.] upon the surface of the water, used as a friction, causes warts to disappear. The sand, [The Greeks used sand-baths for the purpose of promoting the perspiration; the names given to them were παρόπτησις and φοίνιγμος.] too, of the sea-shore, that more particularly which is very fine and burnt white by the heat of the sun, is used remedially for its desiccative properties, the bodies of dropsical or rheumatic patients being entirely covered with it.

Thus much with reference to water itself; we will now turn to the aquatic productions, beginning, as in all other instances, with the principal of them, namely, salt and sponge.

Chap. 39. (7.)—The Various Kinds of Salt; the Methods of Preparing It, and the Remedies Derived from It. Two Hundred and Four Observations Thereupon.

All salt is either native or artificial; [“Sal fit.” This expression is not correct, there being no such thing as made salt. It is only collected from a state of suspension or dissolution. Pliny, however, includes under the name “sal” many substances, which in reality are not salt. His “hammoniacum,” for instance, if identical with hydrochlorate of ammonia, can with justice be said to be made, being formed artificially from other substances.] both kinds being formed in various ways, but produced from one of these two causes, the condensation or the desiccation, of a liquid. [“Coacto humore vel siccato.” These two terms in reality imply the same process, by the medium of evaporation; the former perfect, the latter imperfect.] The Lake of Tarentum is dried up by the heat of the summer sun, and the whole of its waters, which are at no time very deep, not higher than the knee in fact, are changed into one mass of salt. The same, too, with a lake in Sicily, Cocanicus by name, and another in the vicinity of Gela. But in the case of these two last, it is only the sides [The evaporation not being sufficiently strong to dry up the deeper parts.] that are thus dried up; whereas in Phrygia, in Cappadocia, and at Aspendus, where the same phænomena are observable, the water is dried up to a much larger extent, to the very middle of the lake, in fact. There is also another marvellous [There is in reality nothing wonderful in this, considering that most lakes are constantly fed with the streams of rivers, which carry mineral salts along with them, and that the work of evaporation is always going on.] circumstance connected with this last—however much salt is taken out of it in the day, its place is supplied again during the night. Every kind of lake-salt is found in grains, and not in the form of blocks. [“Glæbas.”]

Sea-water, again, spontaneously produces another kind of salt, from the foam which it leaves on shore at high-water mark, or adhering to rocks; this being, in all cases, condensed by the action of the sun, and that [Because it is necessarily purer than that found upon the sand.] salt being the most pungent of the two which is found upon the rocks.

There are also three different kinds of native salt. In Bactriana there are two vast lakes; [The description is not sufficiently clear to enable us to identify these lakes with certainty. Ajasson thinks that one of them may be the Lake of Badakandir in the Khanat of Bokhara; and the other the lake that lies between Ankhio and Akeha, in the west of the territory of Balkh, and near the Usbek Tartars.] one of them situate on the side of Scythia, the other on that of Ariana, both of which throw up vast quantities of salt. [“Sale exæstuant.”] So, too, at Citium, in Cyprus; and, in the vicinity of Memphis, they extract salt from the lake and dry it in the sun. The surface-waters of some rivers, also, condense [In consequence of the intense heat.] in the form of salt, the rest of the stream flowing beneath, as though under a crust of ice; such as the running waters near the Caspian Gates [All these regions, Ajasson remarks, are covered with salt. An immense desert of salt extends to the north-east of Irak-Adjemi, and to the north of Kerman, between Tabaristan, western Khoracan, and Khohistan.] for instance, which are known as the “Rivers of Salt.” The same is the case, too, in the vicinity of the Mardi and of the people of Armenia. In Bactriana, also, the rivers Ochus [Identified by Ajasson with the Herat and the Djihoun. He thinks that it is of some of the small affluents of this last that Pliny speaks.] and Oxus carry down from the mountains on their banks, fragments of salt. There are also in Africa some lakes, the waters of which are turbid, that are productive of salt. Some hot springs, too, produce salt—those at Pagasæ for example. Such, then, are the various kinds of salt produced spontaneously by water.

There are certain mountains, also, formed of native salt; that of Oromenus, in India, for example, where it is cut out like blocks from a quarry, and is continually reproduced, bringing in a larger revenue to the sovereigns of those countries than that arising from their gold and pearls. In some instances it is dug out of the earth, being formed there, evidently, by the condensation of the moisture, as in Cappadocia for example, where it is cut in sheets, like those of mirror-stone. [“Lapis specularis.”] The blocks of it are very heavy, the name commonly given to them being “mica.” [A “crumb” properly, in the Latin language.] At Gerrhæ, [See B. vi. c. 32.] a city of Arabia, the ramparts and houses are constructed of blocks of salt, which are soldered together by being moistened with water. King Ptolemæus discovered salt also in the vicinity of Pelusium, when he encamped there; a circumstance which induced other persons to seek and discover it in the scorched tracts that lie between Egypt and Arabia, beneath the sand. In the same manner, too, it has been found in the thirsting deserts of Africa, as far as the oracle of Hammon, [More commonly known as Jupiter Hammon.] a locality in which the salt increases at night with the increase of the moon.

The districts of Cyrenaica are ennobled, too, by the production of hammoniacum, [See B. xii. c. 49, and B. xxiv. c. 28, for an account of gum resin ammoniac, a produce of the same locality. The substance here spoken of is considered by Beckmann to be nothing but common salt in an impure state. See his Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 398-9, where this passage is discussed at considerable length. Ajasson, on the other hand, considers it to be Hydrochlorate of ammonia, the Sal ammoniac of commerce. According to some accounts, it was originally made in the vicinity of the Temple of Jupiter Hammon, by burning camels’ dung.] a salt so called from the fact of its being found beneath the sands [Called ἄμμος, in Greek.] there. It is similar in colour to the alum known as “schiston,” [See B. xxxv. c. 52.] and consists of long pieces, by no means transparent, and of an unpleasant flavour, but highly useful in medicine; that being held in the highest esteem, which is the clearest and divides into straight [Sal ammoniac crystallizes in octahedrons.] flakes. There is one remarkable fact mentioned in connexion with it: so long as it lies under ground in its bed [“Intra specus suos.” On this passage, Beckmann says, “From what is said by Pliny it may with certainty be concluded that this salt was dug up from pits or mines in Africa.—Many kinds of rock-salt, taken from the mines of Wieliczka, experience the same change in the air; so that blocks which a labourer can easily carry in the mine, can scarcely be lifted by him after being for some time exposed to the air. The cause here is undoubtedly the same as that which makes many kinds of artificial salt to become moist and to acquire more weight.”—Vol. II. p. 399, Bohn’s Ed.] it is extremely light, but the moment it is exposed to the light, it is hardly credible to what an extent its weight is increased. The reason for this is evident: [According to modern notions, his reason is anything but evident.] the humid vapours of the excavations bear the masses upwards, as water does, and so aid the workmen. It is adulterated with the Sicilian salt which we have mentioned as being found in Lake Cocanicus, as also with that of Cyprus, which is marvellously like it. At Egelasta, [In Celtiberia. He alludes to the mountain of salt at Cardona, near Montserrat in Catalonia.] in Nearer Spain, there is a salt, hewn from the bed in almost transparent blocks, and to which for this long time past most medical men, it is said, have given the preference over all other salt. Every spot in which salt [Speaking generally, this is true; but soils which contain it in small quantities are fruitful.] is found is naturally barren, and produces nothing. Such are the particulars, in general, which have been ascertained with reference to native salt.

Of artificial salt there are several kinds; the common salt, and the most abundant, being made from sea-water drained into salt-pans, and accompanied with streams of fresh water; but it is rain more particularly, and, above all things, the sun, that aids in its formation; indeed without this last it would never dry. In the neighbourhood of Utica, in Africa, they build up masses of salt, like hills in appearance; and when these have been hardened by the action of the sun and moon, no moisture will ever melt them, and iron can hardly divide them. In Crete, however, salt is made without the aid of fresh water, and merely by introducing sea-water into the salt-pans. On the shores of Egypt, salt is formed by the overflow of the sea upon the land, already prepared for its reception, in my opinion, by the emanations of the river Nilus. It is made here, also, from the water [A similar method is still employed, Ajasson says, at the salt-mines near Innspruck in the Tyrol.] of certain wells, discharged into salt-pans. At Babylon, the result of the first condensation is a bituminous [Native bitumen; always to be found in greater or less quantities, in saliferous earths.] liquid, like oil, which is used for burning in lamps; when this is skimmed off, the salt is found beneath. In Cappadocia, also, both well and spring-water are introduced into the salt-pans. In Chaonia there is a spring, from the water of which, when boiled [The process of artificial evaporation.] and left to cool, there is an inert salt obtained, not so white as ordinary salt. In the Gallic provinces and in Germany, it is the practice to pour salt-water upon burning wood. [This would produce an impure alkaline salt. According to Townson, this practice still prevails in Transylvania and Moldavia.]

Chap. 40.—Muria.

In one part of Spain, they draw a brine for this purpose from deep-sunk pits, to which they give the name of “muria;” being of opinion, also, that it makes a considerable difference upon what kind of wood it is poured. That of the quercus they look upon as the best, as the ashes of it, unmixed, have the pungency of salt. [“The water, evaporating, would leave the salt behind, but mixed with charcoal, ashes, earth, and alkaline salts; consequently it must have been moist, or at any rate nauseous, if not refined by a new solution.”—Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 493. Bohn’s Ed.] In other places, again, the wood of the hazel is held in high esteem; and thus, we see, by pouring brine upon it, charcoal even is converted into salt. All salt that is thus prepared with burning wood is black. I find it stated by Theophrastus, that the Umbri [Not improbably a people of India so called, and mentioned in B. vi. c. 20.] are in the habit of boiling ashes of reeds and bulrushes in water, till there remains but little moisture unconsumed. The brine, too, of salted provisions is sometimes boiled over again, and, as soon as all the moisture has evaporated, the salt resumes its original form. That prepared from the pickle of the mæna [See B. ix. c. 42.] has the finest flavour.

Chap. 41.—The Various Properties of Salt: One Hundred and Twenty Historical Remarks Relative Thereto.

Of the various kinds of sea-salt, the most esteemed is that of Salamis, in Cyprus; and of the lake-salts, that of Tarentum, and the salt known as Tattæan salt, which comes from Phrygia: these last two are also good for the eyes. That of Cappadocia, which is imported in small cubes, [“In laterculis.” Hardouin considers this to mean small earthen vessels or pipes.] imparts a fine colour, it is said, to the skin; but, for effacing wrinkles, that which we have [In c. 39 of this Book.] already spoken of as the salt of Citium is the best: hence it is that, in combination with gith, [“Melanthium.” See B. xx. c. 17.] it is used by females as a liniment for the abdomen after childbirth. The drier the salt, the stronger it is in taste; but the most agreeable of all, and the whitest known, is that of Tarentum. In addition to these particulars, we would remark also, that the whiter salt is, the more friable it is. Rain-water deadens every kind of salt, but dew-water makes it more delicate in flavour. North-easterly winds render the formation of salt more abundant, but, while south winds prevail, it never increases. It is only while north-easterly winds prevail, that flower of salt [“Flos salis.” Further mentioned in c. 42.] is formed. Neither the salt of Tragasa, nor the Acanthian salt—so called from the town [See B. iv. c. 17.] where it is found—will decrepitate or crackle in the fire; nor will the froth of salt do so, or the outside scrapings, or refined salt. The salt of Agrigentum [St. Augustin mentions this marvellous kind of salt. De Civit. Dei, B. xxi. cc. 5, 7.] resists fire, but decrepitates in water.

There are differences, too, in the colour of salt: at Memphis it is deep red, russet-coloured in the vicinity of the Oxus, purple at Centuripa, and so remarkably bright at Gela, situate also [As well as Centuripa.] in Sicily, as to reflect the image of objects. In Cappadocia there is a saffron-coloured fossil salt, transparent and remarkably odoriferous. For medicinal purposes, the ancients esteemed the salt of Tarentum in particular, and next to that all the marine salts, those collected from sea-foam more especially. For maladies of the eyes in cattle and beasts of burden, the salt of Tragasa and that of Bætica are employed. For made dishes [“Opsonium.”] and ordinary food, the more easily a salt liquefies and the moister it is, the more highly it is esteemed; there being less bitterness in salt of this description, that of Attica and of Eubœa, for example. For keeping meat, a pungent, dry, salt, like that of Megara, is best. A conserve of salt is also made, with the addition of various odoriferous substances, which answers all the purpose of a choice sauce, [“Pulmentarii.”] sharpening the appetite, and imparting a relish to all kinds of food: indeed, among the innumerable condiments which we use, the flavour of salt is always distinctly perceptible; and when we take garum [See c. 43 of this Book.] with our food, it is its salt flavour that is considered so exquisite. And not only this, but sheep even, cattle, and beasts of burden, are induced to graze all the better [This is consistent with modern experience.] by giving them salt; it having the effect, also, of considerably augmenting the milk, and imparting a superior flavour to the cheese.

We may conclude, then, by Hercules! that the higher enjoyments of life could not exist without the use of salt: indeed, so highly necessary is this substance to mankind, that the pleasures of the mind, even, can be expressed by no better term, than the word “salt,” [“Sales.”] such being the name given to all effusions of wit. All the amenities, in fact, of life, supreme hilarity, and relaxation from toil, can find no word in our language to characterize them better than this. Even in the very honours, too, that are bestowed upon successful warfare, salt plays its part, and from it, our word “salarium” [Literally, “salt money”—“argentum” being understood. The term was originally applied to the pay of the generals and military tribunes. Hence our word “salary.”] is derived. That salt was held in high esteem by the ancients, is evident from the Salarian [Beginning at the Colline Gate.] Way, so named from the fact that, by agreement, the Sabini carried all their salt by that road. King Ancus Martius gave six hundred modii of salt as a largess [“In congiario.”] to the people, and was the first to establish salt-works. Varro also informs us, that the ancients used salt by way of a relishing sauce; and we know, from an old proverb, [Most probably “He cannot earn salt to his bread,” or something similar, like our saying, “He cannot earn salt to his porridge.” The two Greek proverbs given by Dalechamps do not appear to the purpose.] that it was the practice with them to eat salt with their bread. But it is in our sacred rites more particularly, that its high importance is to be recognized, no offering ever being made unaccompanied by the salted cake. [“Mola salsa.”]

Chap. 42.—Flower of Salt: Twenty Remedies. Salsugo: Two Remedies.

That which mainly distinguishes the produce of salt-works, in respect of its purity, is a sort of efflorescence, [“Favillam.”] which forms the lightest and whitest part of salt. The name “flower of salt” [“Schroder thinks that in what Pliny says of Flos Salis, he can find the martial sal-ammoniac flowers of our chemists, [the double chloride of ammonium and iron], or the so-called flores sales ammoniaci martiales.—It is certain that what Dioscorides and Pliny call flos salis, has never yet been defined. The most ingenious conjecture was that of Cordus, who thought that it might be Sperma ceti; but though I should prefer this opinion to that of Schroder, I must confess that, on the grounds adduced by Matthiali and Conrad Gesner, it has too much against it to be admitted as truth.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 193. Bohn’s Ed.] is given, also, to a substance of an entirely different character, more humid by nature, and of a red or saffron colour; a kind of “rust of salt,” as it were, with an unpleasant smell like that of garum, and differing therein not only from froth of salt, [Salt collected from the foam on the sea-shore.] but from salt itself. This substance is found in Egypt and, as it would appear, is conveyed thither by the waters of the Nilus; though it is to be found floating upon the surface of certain springs as well. The best kind is that which yields a certain fatty [A sort of bitumen, probably.] substance, like oil—for salt even, a thing that is quite marvellous to think of, is not without a degree of unctuousness.

This substance is sophisticated, and coloured with red earth, or in most instances, with powdered potsherds; an adulteration to be detected by the agency of water, which washes off the fictitious colour, the natural colour being only removable by the agency of oil. Indeed, it is for its colour that perfumers more particularly make such extensive use of this drug. When seen in the vessels, the surface of it is white, but that which lies in the middle is moister, as already stated. It is of an acrid nature, calorific, and bad for the stomach. It acts also as a sudorific, and, taken with wine and water, has a purgative effect upon the bowels. It is very useful, also, as an ingredient in acopa [Medicines for relieving weariness. See B. xxiii. c. 45, and B. xxix. c. 13.] and in detersive [“Smegmatis.”] compositions, and is remarkably efficacious for the removal of hairs from the eye-lids. It is the practice to shake up the sediment, in order to renovate the saffron colour of the drug.

In addition to these substances, there is another, known in the salt-works by the name of “salsugo,” or “salsilago:” it is quite liquid, salter in taste than sea-water, but inferior to it in its properties.

Chap. 43.—Garum: Fifteen Remedies.

Another liquid, too, of a very exquisite nature, is that known as “garum:” [It was, probably, of an intermediate nature, between caviar and anchovy sauce.] it is prepared from the intestines of fish and various parts which would otherwise be thrown away, macerated in salt; so that it is, in fact, the result of their putrefaction. Garum was formerly prepared from a fish, called “garos” [See B. xxxii, c. 53. It does not appear to have been identified.] by the Greeks; who assert, also, that a fumigation made with its head has the effect of bringing away the afterbirth.

(8.) At the present day, however, the most esteemed kind of garum is that prepared from the scomber, [As to the identity of the Scomber, see B. ix. c. 19.] in the fisheries of Carthago Spartaria: [See B. xix. c. 7.] it is known as “garum of [“Garum sociorum.”] the allies,” and for a couple of congii we have to pay but little less than one thousand sesterces. Indeed, there is no liquid hardly, with the exception of the unguents, that has sold at higher prices of late; so much so, that the nations which produce it have become quite ennobled thereby. There are fisheries, too, of the scomber on the coasts of Mauretania, and at Carteia in Bætica, near the Straits [The present Straits of Gibraltar.] which lie at the entrance to the Ocean; this being the only use that is made of the fish. For the production of garum, Clazomenæ is also famed, Pompeii, too, and Leptis; while for their muria, Antipolis, [In Gallia Narbonensis.] Thurii, and of late, Dalmatia, [Sillig reads “Delmatia” here.] enjoy a high reputation.

Chap. 44.—Alex: Eight Remedies.

Alex, which is the refuse of garum, properly consists of the dregs of it, when imperfectly strained: but of late they have begun to prepare it separately, from a small fish that is otherwise good for nothing, the apua [See B. ix. c. 74. The fry of larger fish, Cuvier says.] of the Latins, or aphua of the Greeks, so called from the fact of its being engendered from rain. [Ajasson considers this to be an absurd derivation; and thinks it much more probable, that the name is from ἀ privative, and φύω “to beget;” it being a not uncommon notion that these small fish were produced spontaneously from mud and slime.] The people of Forum Julii [The present Frejus, in the south of France.] make their garum from a fish to which they give the name of “lupus.” [“Wolf.” Not the fish of that name, Hardouin says, mentioned in B. ix. c. 28.] In process of time, alex has become quite an object of luxury, and the various kinds that are now made are infinite in number. The same, too, with garum, which is now prepared in imitation of the colour of old honied wine, and so pleasantly flavoured as to admit of being taken as a drink. Another kind, again, is dedicated to those superstitious observances [The festivals of Ceres. The devotees, though obliged to abstain from meat, were allowed the use of this garum, it would appear.] which enjoin strict chastity, and that prepared from fish without [Gesner proposes to read “ non carêntibus,” “ with scales”—fishes without scales being forbidden to the Jews by the Levitical Law. See Lev. c xi. ver. 10. It is, most probably, Pliny’s own mistake.] scales, to the sacred rites of the Jews. In the same way, too, alex has come to be manufactured from oysters, sea-urchins, sea-nettles, cammari, [See B. xxvii. c. 2.] and the liver of the surmullet; and a thousand different methods have been devised of late for ensuring the putrefaction of salt in such a way as to secure the flavours most relished by the palate.

Thus much, by the way, with reference to the tastes of the present day; though at the same time, it must be remembered, these substances are by no means without their uses in medicine. Alex, for instance, is curative of scab in sheep, incisions being made in the skin, and the liquor poured therein. It is useful, also, for the cure of wounds inflicted by dogs or by the sea-dragon, the application being made with lint. Recent burns, too, are healed by the agency of garum, due care being taken to apply it without mentioning it by name. It is useful, too, for bites inflicted by dogs, and for that of the crocodile in particular; as also for the treatment of serpiginous or sordid ulcers. For ulcerations, and painful affections of the mouth and ears, it is a marvellously useful remedy.

Muria, also, as well as the salsugo which we have mentioned, [At the end of c. 42.] has certain astringent, mordent, and discussive properties, and is highly useful for the cure of dysentery, even when ulceration has attacked the intestines. Injections are also made of it for sciatica, and for cœliac fluxes of an inveterate nature. In spots which lie at a distance in the interior, it is used as a fomentation, by way of substitute for sea-water.