B. vi. c. 20 [V. ii. p. 36]. Dr. Yates is of opinion that Pliny has here mistranslated a passage of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. v. 19 and that he has mistaken the word βομβύκια, “cocoons,” for webs, similar to those of the spider, attached to the leaves of trees. Not understanding the original, he would seem to have given a distorted account of the simple operation of winding the threads from off the cocoons of the silkworm upon bobbins, by the hands of females; the threads upon which bobbins would be afterwards unwound for the manufacture of silken fabrics. See Notes 303 and 304 on the passage in question; also B. xi. c. 26.
B. viii. c. 74 [V. ii. p. 336]. For the word “Sororiculata,” Dr. Yates proposes to read “Soriculata,” and he suggests that the cloth thus called may have been a velvet or plush, which received its name from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse, “sorex,” the diminutive of which would be “soricula.”
B. xix. c. 2 [V. iv. p. 133] and c. 6 [p. 138], Dr. Yates expresses it as his opinion that the words “Carbasus” and “Carbasa” are derived from the oriental word Carpos, signifying “cotton,” and thinks that Pliny, in B. xix. c. 2, may have used the word by Catachresis, as meaning linen, in the same manner as the Latin poets repeatedly use the word “carbasa,” as signifying various kinds of woven textures. If this view be correct, the word “Carbasina” in B. xix. c. 6, will probably mean “awnings of woven material” generally, and not of fine linen, or cambric, as suggested in Note 856.
B. xix. c. 2 [V. iv. p. 134]. The genuineness of the passage which makes mention of the “Gossypium,” is questioned by Dr. Yates, who thinks it possible that it is an interpolation: such, however, if we may judge from the result of Sillig’s researches, does not appear to have been the case. If, on the other hand, the passage is genuine, Dr. Yates is of opinion that the statement is incorrect, and that cotton was not grown in Egypt. It seems just possible, however, that Pliny may have had in view the trees mentioned by him in B. xiv. c. 28.
B. xix. c. 4 [V. iv. p. 137, also p. 134, Note 837]. Dr. Yates has adduced a number of convincing arguments to prove that the “Byssus” of the ancients cannot have been cotton, but that in all probability it was a texture of fine flax. The passages of Pausanias, (B. v. c. 25, and B. vi. c. 26) in which “Byssus” is mentioned, would certainly seem to apply to flax, a product which is still cultivated near the mouth of the river Peneus, in ancient Elis. There is no doubt, however, that Philostratus, though perhaps erroneously, has used the word “Byssus” as meaning cotton.
BOOK XXVIII.
REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.
CHAP. 1. (1.)—INTRODUCTION.
We should have now concluded our description of the various things[2085] that are produced between the heavens and the earth, and it would have only remained for us to speak of the substances that are dug out of the ground itself; did not our exposition of the remedies derived from plants and shrubs necessarily lead us into a digression upon the medicinal properties which have been discovered, to a still greater extent, in those living creatures themselves which are thus indebted [to other objects] for the cure of their respective maladies. For ought we, after describing the plants, the forms of the various flowers, and so many objects rare and difficult to be found—ought we to pass in silence the resources which exist in man himself for the benefit of man, and the other remedies to be derived from the creatures that live among us—and this more particularly, seeing that life itself is nothing short of a punishment, unless it is exempt from pains and maladies? Assuredly not; and even though I may incur the risk of being tedious, I shall exert all my energies on the subject, it being my fixed determination to pay less regard to what may be amusing, than to what may prove practically useful to mankind.
Nay, even more than this, my researches will extend to the usages of foreign countries, and to the customs of barbarous nations, subjects upon which I shall have to appeal to the good faith of other authors; though at the same time I have made it my object to select no[2086] facts but such as are established by pretty nearly uniform testimony, and to pay more attention to scrupulous exactness than to copiousness of diction.