it without flying to pieces and breaking up. Nothing but a
mule's hoof can keep it together and hold it, and tradition says that it
was thus conveyed by Antipater through his son Iollas into the province
where Alexander was staying, and that the king was killed by him with
this water.

17. Among the Alps in the kingdom of Cottius there is a water those who
taste of which immediately fall lifeless. In the Faliscan country on the
Via Campana in the Campus Cornetus is a grove in which rises a spring,
and there the bones of birds and of lizards and other reptiles are seen
lying.

Some springs are acid, as at Lyncestus and in Italy in the Velian
country, at Teano in Campania, and in many other places. These when used
as drinks have the power of breaking up stones in the bladder, which
form in the human body.

18. This seems to be due to natural causes, as there is a sharp and acid
juice contained in the soil there, which imparts a sharpness to these
springs as they issue from it; and so, on entering the body, they
disperse all the deposits and concretions, due to the use of other
waters, which they find in the body. Why such things are broken up by
acid waters we can see from the following experiments. If an egg is left
for some time in vinegar, its shell will soften and dissolve. Again, if
a piece of lead, which is very flexible and heavy, is put in a vase and
vinegar poured over it, and the vase covered and sealed up, the lead
will be dissolved and turn into white lead.

19. On the same principle, copper, which is naturally more solid, will
disperse and turn into verdigris if similarly treated. So, also, a
pearl. Even rocks of lava, which neither iron nor fire alone can
dissolve, split into pieces and dissolve when heated with fire and then
sprinkled with vinegar. Hence, since we see these things taking place
before our very eyes, we can infer that on the same principle even
patients with the stone may, in the nature of things, be cured in like
manner by means of acid waters, on account of the sharpness of the
potion.

20. Then there are springs in which wine seems to be mingled, like the
one in Paphlagonia, the water of which intoxicates those who drink of
the spring alone without wine. The Aequians in Italy and the tribe of
the Medulli in the Alps have a kind of water which causes swellings in
the throats of those who drink it.

21. In Arcadia is the well-known town of Clitor, in whose territory is a
cave with ru