De sollertia animalium

[*](On this chapter see T. Weidlich, Die Sympathie in Altertum, p. 42.) Yet perhaps it is ridiculous for us to make a parade of animals distinguished for learning when Democritus[*](Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. ii, p. 173, frag. 154; Cf. Bailey on Lucretius, v. 1379 (vol. iii, p. 1540 of his edition); Aelian, De Natura Animal. xii. 16.) declares that we have been their pupils in matters of fundamental importance: of the spider in weaving and mending, of the swallow in homebuilding, of the sweet-voiced swan and nightingale[*](Cf. 973 a supra.) in our imitation of their song. Further, of the three divisions of medicine,[*](As given here, cure by (1) drugs, (2) diet, (3) surgery. There are five divisions in Diogenes Laertius, iii. 85; al. ) we can discern in animals a generous portion of each; for it is not cure by drugs alone of wrhich they make use. After devouring a serpent tortoises[*](Cf. Mor. 918 c, 991 e; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 12 and Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 24); of wounded partridges and storks and doves in Aelian, op. cit. v. 46 (Aristotle, op. cit. 612 a 32).) take a dessert of marjoram, and weasels[*](Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 28).) of rue. Dogs[*](See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 6); add Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, i. 71.) purge themselves when bilious by a certain kind of grass. The snake[*](Pliny, Nat. Hist. xx. 254. Other details of snake diet in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 4.) sharpens and restores its fading sight with fennel. When the she-bear comes forth from her lair,[*](As in 971 d-e supra.) the first thing she eats is wild arum[*](Probably the Adam-and-Eve (Arum maculatum L.), since the Italian arum (Arum italicum Mill.) was cultivated. See Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 17 (600 b 11); ix. 6 (611 b 34); Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 129; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 3. Oribasius (Coll. Med. iii. 24. 5) characterizes wild arum as an aperient.); for its acridity opens her gut which has become constricted. At other times, when she suffers from nausea,[*](When she has swallowed the fruit of the mandrake, according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 101.) she resorts to anthills and sits, holding out her tongue all running and juicy with sweet liquor until it is covered with ants; these she swallows[*](Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 4 (594 b 9); Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 3; Sextus Empiricus, op. cit. i. 57.) and is

alleviated. The Egyptians[*](Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 35; vii. 45; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 97; Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 50.) declare that they have observed and imitated the ibis’ clyster-like purging of herself with brine; and the priests make use of water from which an ibis has drunk to purify themselves; for if the water is tainted or unhealthy in any way, the ibis will not approach it.

Then, too, some beasts cure themselves by a short fast, like wolves[*](Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 15; see the hippopotamus in Amm. Marc. xx. 15. 23.) and lions who, when they are surfeited with flesh, lie still for a while, basking in the sun. And they say a tigress, if a kid is given her, will keep fasting for two days without eating; on the third, she grows hungry and asks for some other food. She will even pull her cage to pieces, but will not touch the kid which she has now come to regard as a fellow-boarder and room mate.[*](Of a leopard in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 2. This account seems to indicate a lacuna in our text explaining why the tigress did not eat the kid in the first place: because she had already had enough to eat. )

Yet again, they relate that elephants employ surgery: they do, in fact, bring aid to the wounded[*](For an example see the anecdote of Porus in 970 d supra, 977 b infra; Juba, frag. 52 (Jacoby); Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 45.) by easily and harmlessly drawing out spears and javelins and arrows without any laceration of the flesh. And Cretan goats,[*](Cf. 991 f infra; Philo, 38 (p. 119); Vergil, Aen. xii. 415; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 3); Pease, Melanges Marouzeau, 1948, p. 472.) when they eat dittany,[*](Cretan dittany (Origanum dictamnus L.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. xx. 156.) easily expel arrows from their bodies and so have presented an easy lesson for women with child to take to heart, that the herb has an abortive property[*](Cf. Pease, op. cit. p. 471.); for there is nothing except dittany that the goats, when they are wounded, rush to search for.