Produced by Turgut Dincer, Brian Wilcox and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s notes: Italic text is denoted _thus_. The spelling, hyphenation, punctuation and accentuation are as the original, except for apparent typographical errors which have been corrected. In footnote 3897:— See B. ii. c. 116. corrected to read:— See B. ii. c. 110. In footnote 4348:— A king of ... see B. xvi. c. 89 of the present Book. is incorrect, as B. xvi is to be found in Vol. III. BOHN’S CLASSICAL LIBRARY. PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. TRANSLATED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE LATE JOHN BOSTOCK, M.D., F.R.S. AND H. T. RILEY, ESQ., B.A., LATE SCHOLAR OF CLARE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLV. PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. PREFACE The only translation of PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY which has hitherto appeared in the English language is that by Philemon Holland, published in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth. It is no disparagement to Holland’s merits, as a diligent and generally faithful translator, to say that his work is unsuited to the requirements of the nineteenth century. In the present translation, the principal editions of Pliny have been carefully consulted, and no pains have been spared, as a reference to the Notes will show, to present to the reader the labours of recent Commentators, among whom stands pre-eminent the celebrated Cuvier. It has been a primary object to bring to the illustration of the work whatever was afforded by the progress of knowledge and modern discoveries in science and art. Without ample illustration, Pliny’s valuable work would want much of the interest which belongs to it, and present difficulties scarcely surmountable by any one who has not made the Author his especial study. In the first two Books, the text of Hardouin, as given in Lemaire’s edition (Paris, 1827), has been followed; in the remainder that of Sillig (Gotha, 1851-3), excepting in some few instances, where, for reasons given in the Notes, it has been deemed advisable to depart from it. The first two Books, and portions of others, are the performance of the late Dr. Bostock, who contemplated a translation of the entire work; but, unfortunately for the interests of science, he was not permitted to carry his design into execution. Upwards of a hundred pages had been printed off before the present Translator entered on his duties; and as they had not the advantage of Dr. Bostock’s superintendence through the press, some trifling oversights have occurred. These are, for the most part, corrected in a short Appendix. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PLINY.