LIBER VIII · CAPUT 41
REMEDIES AGAINST CANINE MADNESS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
a morsu vero unicum remedium, oraculo quodam nuper repertum, radix silvestris rosae, quae cynorrhoda appellatur. Columella auctor est, si XL die quam sit natus castretur morsu cauda summusque eius articulus auferatur spinae nervo exempto, nec caudam crescere nec canes rabidos fieri. canem locutum in prodigiis, quod equidem adnotaverim, accepimus et serpentem latrasse, cum pulsus Tarquinius est regno.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
We have a single remedy against the bite, which has been but lately discovered, by a kind of oracle, as it were—the root of the wild rose, which is called cynorrhodos, or dog-rose. Columella informs us, that if, on the fortieth day after the birth of the pup, the last bone of the tail is bitten off, the sinew will follow with it; after which, the tail will not grow, and the dog will never become rabid. It is mentioned, among the other prodigies, and this I take to be one indeed, that a dog once spoke; and that when Tarquin was expelled from the kingdom, a serpent barked.