[2948] The vinegar of the present day does not appear to have any such property.
[2949] Celsus says the same thing, B. i. c. 3.
[2950] “Posca,” or vinegar and water, sometimes mixed with eggs, was the common drink of the lower classes at Rome, and of the soldiers when on service.
[2951] There is little doubt that it would be advantageous to employ vinegar in such a case; the animal would be compelled to withdraw its hold, and vomiting would be facilitated. Strong salt and water, Fée thinks, would be still more efficacious.
[2952] It would be of no use whatever, Fée thinks, in any of these cases.
[2953] An operation which, though known to the Greeks and Romans, appears to have been completely lost sight of in the middle ages.
[2954] Or leather bag, “utrem.”
[2955] See B. xxx. c. 21. From Livy and Plutarch we learn that Hannibal employed this method of splitting the rocks when making his way across the Alps. Fée, at considerable length, disputes the credibility of this account, and thinks it only a wonderful story invented by the Romans to account for their defeat by Hannibal.
[2957] Sillig has little doubt that this passage is incomplete, and that the end of it should be to the effect, “the result of which was, that he was effectually cured.” A very similar story is related of Servius Clodius, a Roman knight, in B. xxv. c. 7.