Aristotimus
Yet again, they relate that elephants employ surgery: they do, in fact, bring aid to the woundedFor an example see the anecdote of Porus in 970 d supra, 977 b infra; Juba, frag. 52 (Jacoby); Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 45. by easily and harmlessly drawing out spears and javelins and arrows without any laceration of the flesh. And Cretan goats, Cf. 991 f infra; Philo, 38 (p. 119); Vergil, Aen. xii. 415; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 3); Pease, Melanges Marouzeau, 1948, p. 472. when they eat dittany,Cretan dittany (Origanum dictamnus L.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. xx. 156. easily expel arrows from their bodies and so have presented an easy lesson for women with child to take to heart, that the herb has an abortive property Cf. Pease, op. cit. p. 471.; for there is nothing except dittany that the goats, when they are wounded, rush to search for.
