"Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison."

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Source: 'Historia Naturalis' bk. 7, ch. 4

About the author

Pliny the Elder

Naturalist, Author

Pliny the Elder was a Roman author and naturalist, known for his encyclopedic work 'Natural History,' which explores the natural world and human knowledge.

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"The feasant hens of Colchis, which have two ears as it were consisting of feathers, which they will set up and lay down as they list."

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