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

Fennel-giant makes very agreeable fodder for the ass; to other beasts of burden, however, it is a quick poison. For this reason the animal is sacred to Father Liber, as is also fennel-giant. Lifeless things also, even the most insignificant, have each their own special poisons. By means of linden bark and fine flour, cooks extract excessive salt from food; salt reduces the sickliness of over-sweet things; water that is nitrous or bitter is sweetened by the addition of pearl barley, so that within two hours it is drinkable, and for this reason, pearl barley is put into linen wine-strainers. The chalk of Rhodes and the potter's earth of our own country possess a similar property. Affinities show their power when pitch is taken out by oil, both being of a greasy nature. Oil alone mixes with lime, both hating water. Gum is more easily removed by vinegar, ink by water, and countless other examples besides will be carefully given in their proper place.

The origin of medicine.

Hence sprang the art of medicine. Such things alone had Nature decreed should be our remedies, provided everywhere, easy to discover and costing nothing—the things in fact that support our life. Later on the deceit of men and cunning profiteering led to the invention of the quack laboratories, in which each customer is promised a new lease of his own life at a price. At once compound prescriptions and mysterious mixtures are glibly repeated; Arabia and India are judged to be storehouses of remedies, and a small sore is charged with the cost of a medicine from the Red Sea, although the genuine remedies...