solid, if it is treated in like manner, will be dissolved and changed into verdigris. So also pearls; and flints, which neither iron nor fire can dissolve of itself, when they are heated in the fire ...">

Book VIII: Chapter III (original) (raw)

Vitruvius

natura, similiter curatum si fuerit, dissipabitur et fiet aerugo. Item margarita. Non minus saxa silicea, quae neque ferrum neque ignis potest per se dissolvere, cum ab igni sunt percalefacta, aceto sparso dissiliunt et dissolvuntur. Ergo cum has res ante oculos ita fieri videamus, ratiocinemur isdem rationibus ex acidis propter acritudinem suci etiam calculosos e natura rerum similiter posse curari.

20Sunt autem etiam fontes uti vino mixti, quemadmodum est unus Paphlagoniae, ex quo eam sine vino potantes fiunt temulenti. Aequiculis autem in Italia et in Alpibus natione Medullorum est genus aquae, quam qui bibunt, efficiuntur turgidis gutturibus.21Arcadia vero civitas est non ignota Clitor,1 in cuius agris est spelunca profluens aqua, e qua qui2 biberint, fiunt abstemii. Ad eum autem fontem epigramma est in lapide inscriptum: haec sententiae versibus graecis: eam non esse idoneam ad lavandum, sed etiam inimicam vitibus, quod apud eum fontem Melampus sacrificiis purgavisset rabiem Proeti filiarum restituissetque earum virginum mentes in pristinam sanitatem. Epigramma autem est id, quod est subscriptum:

ἀγρότα,3 ϲὺν ποίμναιϲ τὸ μεϲημβρινὸν ἤν ϲε βαρύνῃ4 δίψοϲ ἀν᾿ ἐϲχατιὰϲ Κλείτοροϲ5 ἐρχόμενον,

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solid, if it is treated in like manner, will be dissolved and changed into verdigris. So also pearls; and flints, which neither iron nor fire can dissolve of itself, when they are heated in the fire and sprinkled with acid, fly asunder and are dissolved.1 Therefore, since we see these processes before our eyes, we shall conclude by the same arguments that persons suffering from stone can be cured naturally in like manner by acids owing to their pungency.

20. There are also springs, as it were, mixed with wine, such as one in Paphlagonia, and persons drinking it without wine become drunk. Among the Aquiculi in Italy and among the tribe of the Medulli in the Alps, there is a kind of water which causes goitre2 among those who drink it. 21. In Arcadia there is the city of Clitor, not unknown,3 in the lands of which there is a cave with running water, and those who drink of it become abstemious.4 Against the spring there is an inscription engraved on the stone. This is the meaning of the Greek verses: that the water is not fit for washing and is also harmful to vines, because at this spring Melampus with sacrifices cleansed the madness of the daughters of Proetus and restored the minds of the girls to their former sanity. This is the inscription5 written below:Shepherd, if at noon thirst oppress thee as thou comest with thy flocks to the bounds of Clitor,

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