CHAP. 81. (20.)—REMARKABLE FACTS RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.
In addition to those already mentioned, there are various
other marvellous facts related, with reference to these animals.
When a horse-shoe becomes detached from the hoof, as often
is the case, if a person takes it up and puts it by, it will act as
a remedy for hiccup the moment he calls to mind the spot
where he has placed it. A wolf's liver, they say, is similar to
a horse's hoof in appearance; and a horse, they tell us, if
it follows in the track of a wolf, will burst[1] asunder beneath
its rider. The pastern-bones of swine have a certain tendency
to promote discord, it is said. In cases of fire, if some of the
dung can be brought away from the stalls, both sheep and
oxen may be got out all the more easily, and will make no attempt to return. The flesh of a he-goat will lose its rank
smell, if the animal has eaten barley-bread, or drunk an infusion of laser[2] the day on which it was killed. Meat that
has been salted while the moon was on the wane, will never
be attacked by worms. In fact, so great has been the care
taken to omit no possible researches, that a deaf hare, we find,
will grow fat[3] sooner than one that can hear!
As to the remedies for the diseases of animals—If a beast of
burden voids blood, an injection must be used of swine's dung
mixed with wine. For the maladies of oxen, a mixture of suet
is used with quicksilver, and wild garlic boiled; the whole
eaten up and administered in wine. The fat, too, of a fox
is employed. The liquor of boiled horse-flesh, administered in
their drink, is recommended for the cure of diseased swine:
and, indeed, the maladies of all four-footed beasts may be effec-
tually treated by boiling a she-goat whole, in her skin, along
with a bramble-frog. Poultry, they say, will never be touched
by a fox, if they have eaten the dried liver of that animal, or
if the cock, when treading the hen, has had a piece of fox's
skin about his neck. The same property, too, is attributed to
a weazel's gall. The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said, by swallowing[4]
human excrements: the feet, too, of oxen will never be worn
to the quick, if their hoofs are well rubbed with tar before
they begin work. Wolves will never approach a field, if, after
one has been caught and its legs broken and throat cut, the
blood is dropped little by little along the boundaries of the
field, and the body buried on the spot from which it was
first dragged. The share, too, with which the first furrow
in the field has been traced in the current year, should be taken
from the plough, and placed upon the hearth of the Lares,
where the family is in the habit of meeting, and left there till
it is consumed: so long as this is in doing, no wolf will attack
any animal in the field.
We will now turn to an examination of those animals which,
being neither tame nor wild, are of a nature peculiar to them-
selves.
SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, one
thousand six hundred and eighty-two.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,[5] L. Piso,[6] Fabianus,[7] Va-
lerius Antias,[8] Verrius Flaccus,[9] Cato the Censor,[10] Servius Sul-
picius,[11] Licinius Macer,[12] Celsus,[13] Massurius,[14] Sextius Niger[15]
who wrote in Greek, Bithus[16] of Dyrrhachium, Opilius[17] the
physician, Granius[18] the physician.
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—-Democritus,[19] Apollonius[20] who
wrote the "Myrosis," Melitus,[21] Artemon,[22] Sextilius,[23] Au-
tæus,[24] Homer, Theophrastus,[25] Lysimachus,[26] Attalus,[27] Xenocrates,[28] Orpheus[29] who wrote the "Idiophya," Archelaüs[30]
who wrote a similar work, Demetrius,[31] Sotira,[32] Laïs,[33] Ele-
phantis,[34] Salpe,[35] Olympias[36] of Thebes, Diotimus[37] of Thebes,
Iollas,[38] Andreas,[39] Marcion[40] of Smyrna, Æschines[41] the
physician, Hippocrates,[42] Aristotle,[43] Metrodorus[44] of Scepsos,
Icetidas[45] the physician, Apelles[46] the physician, Hesiod,[47]
Dalion,[48] Cæcilius,[49] Bion[50] who wrote "On Powers,"[51] Anaxilaiis,[52] King Juba.[53]
1. He has already stated, in c. 44, that a horse will become torpid if it
follows in the track of a wolf; for which statement, according to Ajasson,
there appears to be some foundation.
2. See B. xix. c. 15.
3. This is not unlikely; for it has no alarms to make it grow thin.
4. See B. viii. c. 41, as to a similar practice on the part of the panther.
5. See end of B. ii.
6. See end of B. ii.
7. For Fabianus Papirius, see end of B. ii. For Falbianus Sabinus,
see end of B. xviii.
8. See end of B. ii.
9. See end of B. iii.
10. See end of B. iii.
11. Servius Sulpicius Lemonia Rufus, a contemporary and friend of Cicero.
He was Consul with M. Claudius Marcellus, B.C. 51, and died B.C. 43, at
the siege of Mutina. He left about 180 treatises on various subjects; but
beyond the fact that he is often quoted by the writers whose works form
part of the Digest, none of his writings (with the exception of two letters
to Cicero) have come down to us.
12. See end of B. xix.
13. See end of B. vii.
14. See end of B. vii.
15. See end of B. xii.
16. From the mention made of him in Chap. 23, he was probably a
physician. Nothing further is known of him.
17. Aurelius Opilius, the freedman of an Epicurean. He taught philosophy,
rhetoric, and grammar at Rome. but finally withdrew to Smyrna. One of
his works, mentioned by A. Gellius, was entitled "Musæ," and the name
of another was "Pinax."
18. From the mention made of his profound speculations in Chap. 9,
Fabricius has reckoned him among the medical writers of Rome. It has
also been suggested that he may have been the Granius Flaccus mentioned
by Censorinus as the author of the "Indigitamenta," or Register of the
Pontiffs.
19. See end of B. ii.
20. Probably Apollonius Mus, or Myronides, a physician who flourished
in the first century B.C., who is mostly identified with Apollonius Herophileius. His "Myrosis" here mentioned is probably the work "On
Unguents" mentioned by Athenæus, B. xv.
21. Nothing whatever is known of him. It has been suggested that the
name may have been "Melitus." A contemporary of Socrates, an orator
and tragic writer, was so named.
22. Beyond the mention of him in c. 2 of this Book, nothing is known
relative to this medical writer no great loss, perhaps, if we may judge from
the extract there given.
23. Though mentioned among the foreign writers, the name is evidently
Roman. Nothing relative to him is ;known.
24. See end of B. xii.
25. See end of B. iii.
26. Probably the writer mentioned at the end of B. viii.
27. See end of B. viii.
28. See end of B. xx.
29. See end of B. xx. The "Idiophya" was probably a work "On the,
Peculiar Animals," which passed as the composition of the mythic Orpheus.
30. A Greek poet, said to have been born at Chersonesus, a town in Egypt.
Some of his Epigrams are still extant in the Anthology, and it has been
suggested that he flourished either in the time of Ptolemy Soter, of Peculiar
Euergetes II., or of Ptolemy Philadelphus. His work "On Peculiar
Animals," here mentioned, was probably written in verse.
31. See end of B. viii.
32. A female writer on medical subjects. In addition to her work mentioned in Chap. 23 of this Book, Labbe speaks of a work of hers in MS.
"On Menstruation," preserved in the Library at Florence.
33. The female who is mentioned in Chap. 23 of this Book as having
written on Abortion, or the Diseases peculiar to Females, was probably a
different person from either of the two famous courtesans of that name.
Nothing whatever is known of her.
34. The writer of certain amatory poems, much admired by the Emperor
Tiberius, generally supposed, from the grammatical form of the name, to
have been a female. Galen quotes a work "On Cosmetics," as written by
a person of this name.
35. A native of Lemnos, who wrote on the Diseases of Women. Nymphodorus, as quoted by Athenæus, states that she also wrote verses on
Sportive subjects.
36. See end of B. xx.
37. Beyond the mention made of him in c. 23, nothing further is known
relative to this writer. Theophrastus, in his work on Sudorifics, speaks of
a person of this name as having written on Perspiration.
38. See end of B. xii.
39. See end of B. xx.
40. Beyond the mention made of him in c. 7 of this Book, nothing is
known of this writer. Hardouin suggests that he may have been identical
with the Micton mentioned at the end of B. xx.
41. He is spoken of as a native of Athens, in c. 10 of this Book. Beyond this, nothing is known of him.
42. See end of B. vii.
43. See end of B. ii.
44. See end of B. iii.
45. Or more probably, Hicetidas. Nothing is known of this writer.
46. A native of Thasos. He is also mentioned by Galen.
47. See end of B. vii.
48. See end of B. vi.
49. Probably a physician, of whom Athenæus speaks as being a native of
Argos, and writer of a treatise on Fish.
50. Probably a different writer from the one of that name mentioned at
the end of B. vi.
51. Peri\ duna/mewn.
52. See end of B. xxi.
53. See end of 13. v.