Pliny Natural History, Vol. VI (Loeb Latin-English)

so fully, but he often speaks of two other dangerous forms, phrenitis (brain fever) and lethargus (a state of deep unconsciousness), the former characterized by wild delirium, the latter by a heavy coma. As we should expect, these terms are often used to describe not the disease itself, but its characteristic symptom, even when that symptom was not caused by severe malaria.

Malaria is most common in marshy places and is epidemic in summer and autumn. One of its usual after-effects is an enlarged spleen, which is not as frequently heard of in countries free from malaria. As the ancients believed that malaria was caused by black bile (original: "μέλαινα χολή"), the terms melancholia and melancholic were often used to describe the depressed mental condition that tends to accompany or follow the illness. Pliny refers to those suffering from melancholia (melancholici) about a dozen times, but we cannot be certain that he is speaking of malarial melancholia rather than chronic biliousness.

REMEDIES AND DRUGS.

The remedies mentioned in Pliny’s prescriptions are chiefly herbal, and the chemicals used are mostly for external application. Writing for laymen, he is concerned almost entirely with what may be called home medicines, but the number of these is enormous. The simple, often superstitious, remedies of the countryside were at an early date prepared for town dwellers by druggists (original: "φαρμακοπῶλαι"), who are referred to by AristophanesSee Clouds 767. These druggists had their “side-lines,” dyes, poisons, and probably charms. and other writers, although the contemporary physicians of the Hippocratic school made little use of drugs, relying on regimen and the healing power of nature (vis naturae medicatrix) to bring about