Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/432

Rh 420 PLINIUS. he has several most extraordinary statements, as, e. gr., that the spinal marrow of a man may turn into a serpent (c. 66), and that mice can generate by licking each other. The generation and fe- cundity of these little creatures he regards as especially astonisliing ; and what becomes of them all he cannot think, as they are never picked up dead, or dug up in winter in the fields (c. 65). He then proceeds to some statements as to the relative acuteness of the senses in different ani- mals, and other miscellaneous matters. The reciprocal enmities and attachments of different animals are frequently touched upon by him. The first part of the eleventh book is occupied with an account of insects. The phaenomena of the insect kingdom Pliny regards as exhibiting the wonderful operations of nature in even a more surprising manner than the others. He, however, only notices a few of the most common insects. On bees he treats at considerable length. He finds space, however, to mention the pyralis, an insect which is produced and lives in the fire of furnaces, but dies speedily if too long away from the flame (c. 36). The remainder of the book (c. 37 or 44, &c.) is devoted to the subject of comparative anatomy, or at least something of an approximation to that science. Considerable ingenuity has been shown by those from whom Pliny copies in bring- ing together a large number of coincidences and differences, though, as might have been expected, there are many errors both in the generalisations and in the particular facts. Botany, the next division of natural history taken up by Pliny, occupies by far the largest portion of the work. Including the books on medical botany, it occupies sixteen books, eight on general botany (xii. — xix.), and eight more on medicines derived from plants. Pliny's botany is altogether devoid of scientific classification. The twelfth book treats of exotics, especially the spice and scent bearing trees of India, Arabia, and Syria. Of the trees themselves Pliny's account is extremely unsatisfactory: frequently he merely names them. The book is chiefly occupied with an account of their products, the modes of collect- ing and preparing them, &c. The first part of the thirteenth book is occupied with a general account of unguents, the history of their use, the modes of compounding them, and the plants from which they are chiefly derived. Palms and other exotics, chiefly those of Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, taken up without any principle of arrangement, are noticed or described in the remainder of the book. His account of the papyrus (c. 11 or 21 — 13 or 27) goes considerably into detail. The fourteenth book is occupied with an account of the vine, and dif- ferent notices respecting the various sorts of wines, closing with a somewhat spirited review of the effects of drunkenness. The fifteenth book treats of the more common sorts of fruit, the olive, apple, fig, &c. The sixteenth passes first to the most common kinds of forest trees, and then contains a great variety of remarks on general botany, and other miscellaneous notices, especially on the uses of wood and timber, into the midst of which there is awkwardly thrust some account of reeds, willows, and other plants of that kind. The seven- teenth book treats of the cultivation and arrange- ment of trees and plants, the modes of propagating and grafting them, the diseases to which they are subject, with the modes of curing them, &c. The PLINIUS. eighteenth book opens with an apology, in Pliny's peculiar style, on behalf of the earth, the benigu parent of all, whom men have unjustly blamed for the mischievous use which they themselves have made of some of her products. The rest of the book is occupied with an account of the different sorts of grain and pulse, and a general account of agriculture. This and the preceding are by far the most valuable of the botanical books of the Historia Naturalis, and exhibit a great amount of reading, as well as considerable observation. The next eight books (xx. — xxvii.) are devoted, generally speaking, to medical botany, though the reader must not expect a writer like Pliny to adhere very strictly to his subject. Thus, a great part of the twenty-first book treats of flowers, scents, and the use of chaplets ; and some of the observations about bees and bee-hives are a little foreign to the subject. Indeed, the 20th and part of the 21st book are rather a general account of the medical, floral and other productions of gardeMs (see c. 49, end). Then, after giving an account of various wild plants, and some general botanical remarks respecting them, Pliny returns to the subject of medicines. The classification of these is chiefly according to the sources from which they are derived, whether garden or other cultivated plants (xx. — xxii.), cultivated trees (xxiii.), forest trees (xxiv.), or wild plants (xxv.) ; partly according to the diseases for which they are adapted (xxvi.). Cuvier (/. c.) remarks that almost all that the ancients have told us of the virtues of their plants is lost to us, on account of our not knowing what plants they are speaking of. If we might believe Pliny, there is hardly a single human malady for which nature has not provided a score of remedies. In the twenty-eighth book Pliny proceeds to notice the medicines derived from the human body, and from other land animals, commencing with what is tantamount to an apology for intro- ducing the subject in that part of the work. Three books are devoted to this branch, diversified by some notices respecting the history of medicine (xxix. 1 — 8), and magic, in which he does not believe, and which he considers an offshoot from the art of medicine, combined with religion and astrology (xxx. 1, &c). The thirty-first book treats of the medical properties of various waters ; the thirty-second of those of fishes and other aquatic creatures. The remaining section of the Ffisioria Nairtralia would doubtless have been headed by Pliny " Mineralogy," though this title would give but a small idea of the nature of the contents. In the 33d book the subject of metals is taken up. It begins with various denunciations of the wickedness and cupidity of men, who could not be content with what nature had provided for them on the surface of the earth, but must needs desecrate even the abode of the Manes to find materials for the gratification of their desires. Pliny's account of gold and silver consists chiefly of historical disquisitions about rings, money, crowns, plate, statues, and the other various objects in the making of which the precious metals have been used, in which he has presented us with a number of curious and interesting no- tices. He also specifies when and how metallic products are used as remedies. The mention of bronze (book xxxiv.) leads him to a digression about statues and statuaries, again chiefly of an