Note 334 — APPENDIX
Reading edition
The use of matters derived from the animal kingdom, carbonised toads or moles, may be illustrated from the Liber Dyabesi (Ricc. ms. l. iii. 13, 119, p. 4 recto) which treats of what had been ‘ab omni Latinitate intemptatum’ viz. the distillation of a white land-tortoise (v. p. 7 verso). Pliny remarks that goat’s blood sharpens and hardens iron tools and polishes steel better than any file.