Note 2690 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES. (continued 2)

Hardouin says, that the weight of the contents of the amphora would be about eighty pounds: it would therefore take eight thousand pounds of material to make five hundred pounds of dye. The passage, however, which runs as follows, “Fervere in plumbo, singulasque amphoras centenas ad quingentenas medicaminis libras æquari,” may be rendered, “It is then set to boil in vessels of tin, and every hundred amphoræ of water ought to be proportioned to five hundred pounds of the material;” indeed, this is probably the correct translation, though Littré, who is generally very exact, adopts that given in the text.