Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

Table of contents, Natural History,

 77

Remarkable facts connected with water.

Remedies derived from water.

Waters productive of fecundity; waters curative of insanity.

Waters that color the hair.

Waters that color the human body.

Waters that aid the memory, or are productive of forgetfulness.

Waters that sharpen or dull the senses; waters that improve the voice.

Waters that cause a distaste for wine; waters that produce inebriety.

Waters that serve as a substitute for oil.

Waters that throw up stones; waters that cause laughter and weeping; waters that are said to be curative of love.

Other marvelous facts connected with water; water in which everything will sink; water in which nothing will sink.

Waters that petrify themselves, or cause other objects to petrify.

Historical observations upon waters that have suddenly made their appearance or suddenly ceased.

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Leonardo da Vinci

Notes for a book about water,

 c. 1500

A book of driving back armies by the force of a flood made by releasing waters.

A book showing how the waters safely bring down timber cut in the mountains.

A book of raising large bridges higher simply by the swelling of the waters.

A book of the mountains that would stand forth and become land if our hemisphere were to be uncovered by the water.

A book of the earth carried down by the waters to fill up the great abyss of the seas.

A book of the formation of hills of sand or gravel at great depths in water.

A book of the leveling of waters by various means.

A book of guiding rivers that occupy too much ground.

A book of parting rivers into several branches and making them fordable.

A book of the origin of rivers that flow from the high tops of mountains.

A book of controlling rivers so that the little beginnings of mischief caused by them may not increase.

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