A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

420 PLINIUS. PLINIUS.
he has several most extraordinary statements, as, eighteenth book opens with an apology, in Pliny's
e. gr., that the spinal marrow of a man may turn peculiar style, on behalf of the earth, the benign
into a serpent (c. 66), and that mice can generate parent of all, whom men have unjustly blamed for
by licking each other. The generation and fe- the mischievous use which they themselves have
cundity- of these little creatures he regards as made of some of her products. The rest of the
especially astonishing; and what becomes of them book is occupied with an account of the different
all he cannot think, as they are never picked up sorts of grain and pulse, and a general account of
dead, or dug up in winter in the fields (c. 65). agriculture. This and the preceding are by far
IIe then proceeds to some statements as to the the most valuable of the botanical books of the
relative acuteness of the senses in different ani- Historia Naturalis, and exhibit a great amount of
rails, and other miscellaneous matters. The reading, as well as considerable observation.
reciprocal enmities and attachments of different The next eight books (xx.-xxvii.) are devoted,
animals are frequently touched upon by him. generally speaking, to medical botany, though the
The first part of the eleventh book is occupied reader must not expect a writer like Pliny to
with an account of insects. The phaenomena of adhere very strictly to his subject. Thus, a great
the insect kingdom Pliny regards as exhibiting part of the twenty-first book treats of flowers,
the wonderful operations of nature in even a more scents, and the use of chaplets; and some of the
surprising manner than the others. He, however, observations about bees and bee-hives are a little
only notices a few of the most common insects. foreign to the subject. Indeed, the 20th and
On bees he treats at considerable length. He finds part of the 21st book are rather a general account
space, however, to mention the pyralis, an insect of the medical, floral and other productions of
which is produced and lives in the fire of furnaces, gardens (see c. 49, end). Then, after giving an
but dies speedily if too long away from the flame account of various wild plants, and some general
(c. 36). The remainder of the book (c. 37 or botanical remarks respecting them, Pliny returns
44, &c.) is devoted to the subject of comparative to the subject of medicines. The classification of
anatomy, or at least something of an approximation these is chiefly according to the sources from
to that science. Considerable ingenuity has been which they are derived, whether garden or other
shown by those from whom Pliny copies in bring- cultivated plants (xx.-xxii.), cultivated trees
ing together a large number of coincidences and (xxiii.), forest trees (xxiv.), or wild plants (xxv.);
differences, though, as might have been expected, partly according to the diseases for which they are
there are many errors both in the generalisations adapted (xxvi.). Cuvier (1. c.) remarks that almost
and in the particular facts. all that the ancients have told us of the virtues of
Botany, the next division of natural history their plants is lost to us, on account of our not
taken up by Pliny, occupies by far the largest knowing what plants they are speaking of. If we
portion of the work. Including the books on might believe Pliny, there is hardly a single
medical botany, it occupies sixteen books, eight on human malady for which nature has not provided
general botany (xii.-xix.), and eight more on a score of remedies.
medicines derived from plants. Pliny's botany is In the twenty-eighth book Pliny proceeds to
altogether devoid of scientific classification. The notice the medicines derived from the human
twelfth book treats of exotics, especially the spice body, and from other land animals, commencing
and scent bearing trees of India, Arabia, and with what is tantamount to an apology for introSyria. Of the trees themselves Pliny's account is ducing the subject in that part of the work.
extremely unsatisfactory: frequently he merely Three books are devoted to this branch, diversified
names them. The book is chiefly occupied with by some notices respecting the history of medicine
an account of their products, the modes of collect- (xxix. 1-8), and magic, in which he does not
ing and preparing them, &c. The first part of the believe, and which he considers an offshoot from
thirteenth book is occupied with a general account the art of medicine, combined with religion and
of unguents, the history of their use, the modes of astrology (xxx. 1, &c). The thirty-first book treats
compounding them, and the plants from which of the medical properties of various waters; the
they are chiefly derived. Palms and other exotics, thirty-second of those of fishes and other aquatic
chiefly those of Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, taken up creatures.
without any principle of arrangement, are noticed The remaining section of the ilistoria Nalturalis
or described in the remainder of the book. His would doubtless have been headed by Pliny
account of the papyrus (c. 11 or 21-13 or 27) " Mineralogy," though this title would give but a
goes considerably into detail. The fourteenth book small idea of the nature of the contents. In the
is occupied with an account of the vine, and dif- 33d book the subject of metals is taken up. It
ferent notices respecting the various sorts of wines, begins with various denunciations of the wickedness
closing with a somewhat spirited review of the and cupidity of men, who could not be content with
effects of drunkenness. The fifteenth book treats what nature had provided for them on the surface of
of the more common sorts of fruit, the olive, apple, the earth, but must needs desecrate even the abode
fig, &c. The sixteenth passes first to the most of the Manes to find materials for the gratification
common kinds of forest trees, and then contains a of their desires. Pliny's account of gold and silver
great variety of remarks on general botany, and consists chiefly of historical disquisitions about
other miscellaneous notices, especially on the uses rings, money, crowns, plate, statues, and the other
of wood and timber, into the midst of which there various objects in the making of which the precious
is awkwardly thrust some acdount of reeds, metals have been used, in which he has presented
willows, and other plants of that kind. The seven- us with a number of curious and interesting noteenth book treats of the cultivation and arrange- tices. He also specifies when and how metallic
ment of trees and plants, the modes of propagating products are used as remedies. The mention of
and grafting them, the diseases to which they are bronze (book xxxiv.) leads him to a digression
subject, with the modes of curing them, &c. The I about statues and statuaries, again chiefly of ans