Chaps. 60-82.

Chap. 60.—Fine Flour: Five Remedies. Puls: One Remedy. Meal Used for Pasting Papyrus: One Remedy.

The flour [The flour of the grain called “far,” Fée thinks. See B. xviii. c..] of bolted meal, kneaded into a paste, has the property of drawing [This statement is probably founded upon the notion that corn has the property of attracting liquids, even when enclosed in vessels.] out the humours of the body: hence it is applied to bruises gorged with blood, to extract the corrupt matter, even to soaking the bandages [A paste of this kind, if applied to a recent wound, would have the effect of preventing cicatrization, and giving free access to the flow of blood.] employed: used with boiled must, it is still more efficacious. It is used as an application also for callosities of the feet and corns; boiled with old oil and pitch, and applied as hot as possible, it cures condylomata and all other maladies of the fundament in a most surprising manner. Puls [See B. xviii. c..] is a very feeding diet. The meal [Or “flour.” See B. xiii. c..] used for pasting the sheets of papyrus is given warm to patients for spitting of blood, and is found to be an effectual cure.

Chap. 61.—Alica: Six Remedies.

Alica is quite a Roman invention, and not a very ancient one: for otherwise [Fée remarks, that the Greeks were acquainted with alica, to which they gave the name of χόνδρος; indeed, Galen expressly states that it was well known in the days of Hippocrates, who says that it is more nourishing than ptisan. Festus says that alica is so called, “quod alit,” because it nourishes the body.—See B. xviii. c..] the Greeks would never have written in such high terms of the praises of ptisan in preference. I do not think that it was yet in use in the days of Pompeius Magnus, a circumstance which will explain why hardly any mention has been made of it in the works of the school of Asclepiades. That it is a most excellent preparation no one can have a doubt, whether it is used strained in hydromel, or whether it is boiled and taken in the form of broth or puls. To arrest flux of the bowels, it is first parched and then boiled with honeycomb, as already mentioned: [In c. 55 of this Book.] but it is more particularly useful when there is a tendency to phthisis after a long illness, the proper proportions being three cyathi of it to one sextarius of water. This mixture is boiled till all the water has gone off by evaporation, after which one sextarius of sheep’ or goats’ milk is added: it is then taken by the patient daily, and after a time some honey is added. By this kind of nutriment a deep decline may be cured.

Chap. 62.—Millet: Six Remedies.

Millet [See B. xviii. c..] arrests looseness of the bowels and dispels gripings of the stomach, for which purposes it is first parched. For pains in the sinews, and of various other descriptions, it is applied hot, in a bag, to the part affected. Indeed, there is no better topical application known, as it is extremely light and emollient, and retains heat for a very long time: hence it is that it is so much employed in all those cases in which the application of heat is necessary. The meal of it, mixed with tar, is applied to wounds inflicted by serpents and millepedes.

Chap. 63.—Panic: Four Remedies.

Diocles, the physician, has given to panic [See B. xviii. c..] the name of “honey of corn.” [“Mel frugum.”] It has the same properties as millet, and, taken in wine, it is good for dysentery. In a similar manner, too, it is applied to such parts of the body as require to be treated with heat. Boiled in goats’-milk, and taken twice a-day, it arrests looseness of the bowels; and, used in a similar manner, it is very good for gripings of the stomach.

Chap. 64.—Sesame: Seven Remedies. Sesamoides: Three Remedies. Anticyricum: Three Remedies.

Sesame, [See B. xviii. c.. It is still used in medicine in Egypt, and as a cosmetic.] pounded and taken in wine, arrests vomiting: it is applied also topically to inflammations of the ears, and burns. It has a similar effect even while in the blade; and in that state, a decoction of it in wine is used as a liniment for the eyes. As an aliment it is injurious to the stomach, and imparts a bad odour to the breath. It is an antidote to the bite of the spotted lizard, and heals the cancerous sore known as “cacoethes.” [Or “bad habit.”] The oil made from it, as already [In B. xv. c. 7. See also B. xxiii. c.. Fée thinks it not unlikely that oil of sesame might have this effect. The people of Egypt still look upon this grain as an antophthalmic, but, as Fée says, without any good reason.] mentioned, is good for the ears.

Sesamoïdes [“Like sesame.”] owes its name to its resemblance to sesame; the grain [Sprengel has identified this plant, the “smaller” Sesamoides of Dioscorides, with the Astragalus sesameus of Linnæus, or else with the Reseda canescens. Other naturalists have mentioned the Catananche cærulea of Linnæus, the Passerina hirsuta of Linnæus, and the Passerina polygalæofolia of Lapeyrouse. Fée is of opinion that it has not been identified.] of it, however, is bitter, and the leaf more diminutive: it is found growing in sandy soils. Taken in water, it carries off bile, and, with the seed, a liniment is made for erysipelas: it disperses inflamed swellings also. Besides this, there is another [Altogether a different plant; Sprengel identifies it with the Reseda Mediterranea, but Fée dissents from that opinion, and is inclined to agree with the opinion of Dalechamps, that it is the Daphne Tartonraira of Linnæus, which is a strong purgative.] sesamoïdes, which grows at Anticyra, and, for that reason, is known by some as “anticyricon.” In other respects, it is similar to the plant erigeron, of which we shall have to speak [In B. xxv c. 106.] on a future occasion; but the seed of it is like that of sesame. It is given in sweet wine as an evacuant, in doses of a pinch in three fingers, mixed with an obolus and a half of white hellebore; this preparation being employed principally as a purgative, in cases of insanity, melancholy, epilepsy, and gout. Taken alone, in doses of one drachma, it purges by stool.

Chap. 65.—Barley: Nine Remedies. Mouse-barley, by the Greeks Called Phœnice: One Remedy.

The whitest barley is the best. Boiled [Fée remarks that this Chapter includes a number of gross prejudices which it is not worth while to examine or contradict.] in rain-water, the pulp of it is divided into lozenges, which are used in injections for ulcerations of the intestines and the uterus. The ashes of barley are applied to burns, to bones denuded of the flesh, to purulent eruptions, and to the bite of the shrew-mouse: sprinkled with salt and honey they impart whiteness to the teeth, and sweetness to the breath. It is alleged that persons who are in the habit of eating barley-bread are never troubled with gout in the feet: they say, too, that if a person takes nine grains of barley, and traces three times round a boil, with each of them in the left hand, and then throws them all into the fire, he will experience an immediate cure. There is another plant, too, known as “phœnice” by the Greeks, and as “mouse-barley” [“Hordeum murinum.” Anguillara, Matthioli, and Sprengel identify it with the Lolium perenne of Linnæus; but, as Fée says, it is clear that Pliny had in view the modern Hordeum murinum, mouse-barley.] by us: pounded and taken in wine, it acts remarkably well as an emmenagogue.

Chap. 66.—Ptisan: Four Remedies.

To ptisan, [See B. xviii. c..] which is a preparation of barley, Hippocrates [At the present day, as Fée says, oatmeal is preferred to barley-meal.] has devoted a whole treatise; praises, however, which at the present day are all transferred to “alica,” being, as it is, a much more wholesome preparation. Hippocrates, however, recommends it as a pottage, for the comparative ease with which, from its lubricous nature, it is swallowed; as also, because it allays thirst, never swells in the stomach, passes easily through the intestines, and is the only food that admits of being given twice a-day in fever, at least to patients who are in the habit of taking two meals—so opposed is his method to that of those physicians who are for famishing their patients. He forbids it to be given, however, without being first strained; for no part, he says, of the ptisan, except the water, [Being our “barley-water,” in fact.] should be used. He says, too, that it must never be taken while the feet are cold, and, indeed, that no drink of any kind should be taken then. With wheat a more viscous kind of ptisan is made, which is found to be still more efficacious for ulcerations of the trachea.

Chap. 67.—Amylum: Eight Remedies. Oats: One Remedy.

Amylum [Our “starch” probably. See B. xviii. c..] weakens the eyesight, [A prejudice, Fée says, which is totally without foundation.] and is bad for the throat, whatever opinions may be held to the contrary. It has the effect also of arresting looseness of the bowels, and curing defluxions and ulcerations of the eyes, as also pustules and congestions of the blood. It mollifies indurations of the eyelids, and is given with egg to persons when they vomit blood. For pains of the bladder, half an ounce of it is prescribed with an egg, and as much raisin wine as three egg-shells will hold, the mixture to be made lukewarm and taken immediately after the bath. Oatmeal, boiled in vinegar, removes moles.

Chap. 68.—Bread: Twenty-one Remedies.

Bread, [Bread, as made at the present day, is but little used in modern medicine, beyond being the basis of many kinds of poultices. A decoction of bread with laudanum, is known in medicine, Fée says, as the “white decoction.”] too, which forms our ordinary nutriment, possesses medicinal properties, almost without number. Applied with water and oil, or else rose-oil, it softens abscesses; and, with hydromel, it is remarkably soothing for indurations. It is prescribed with wine to produce delitescence, or when a defluxion requires to be checked; or, if additional activity is required, with vinegar. It is employed also for the morbid defluxions of rheum, known to the Greeks as “rheumatismi,” and for bruises and sprains. For all these purposes, however, bread made with leaven, and known as “autopyrus,” [“Unseparated from the bran.”] is the best.

It is applied also to whitlows, in vinegar, and to callosities of the feet. Stale bread, or sailors’-bread, [Probably like the military bread, made of the coarsest meal, and unfermented.] beaten up and baked again, arrests looseness of the bowels. For persons who wish to improve the voice, dry bread is very good, taken fasting; it is useful also as a preservative against catarrhs. The bread called “sitanius,” and which is made of three-month [See B. xviii. c..] wheat, applied with honey, is a very efficient cure for contusions of the face and scaly eruptions. White bread, steeped in hot or cold water, furnishes a very light and wholesome aliment for patients. Soaked in wine, it is applied as a poultice for swellings of the eyes, and used in a similar manner, or with the addition of dried myrtle, it is good for pustules on the head. Persons troubled with palsy are recommended to take bread soaked in water, fasting, immediately after the bath. Burnt bread modifies the close smell of bedrooms, and, used in the strainers, [“Saccos.” See B. xiv. c. 28.] it neutralizes bad odours in wine.

Chap. 69.—Beans: Sixteen Remedies.

Beans, [See B. xviii. c.. Bean meal is but little used in modern medicine, but most that Pliny here says is probably well founded; with the exception, however, of his statement as to its employment for diseases of the chest.] too, furnish us with some remedies. Parched whole, and thrown hot into strong vinegar, they are a cure for gripings of the bowels. Bruised, and boiled with garlic, they are taken with the daily food for inveterate coughs, and for suppurations of the chest. Chewed by a person fasting, they are applied topically to ripen boils, or to disperse them; and, boiled in wine, they are employed for swellings of the testes and diseases of the genitals. Bean-meal, boiled in vinegar, ripens tumours and breaks them, and heals contusions and burns. M. Varro assures us that beans are very good for the voice. The ashes of bean stalks and shells, with stale hogs’-lard, are good for sciatica and inveterate pains of the sinews. The husks, too, boiled down, by themselves, to one-third, arrest looseness of the bowels.

Chap. 70.—Lentils: Seventeen Remedies.

Those lentils [Most of the properties here ascribed to the lentil, Fée says, are quite illusory.] are the best which boil the most easily, and those in particular which absorb the most water. They injure the eye-sight, [This, Fée remarks, is not the fact.] no doubt, and inflate the stomach; but taken with the food, they act astringently upon the bowels, more particularly if they are thoroughly boiled in rain-water: if, on the other hand, they are lightly boiled, they are laxative. [This statement, Fée thinks, is probably conformable with truth.] They break purulent ulcers, and they cleanse and cicatrize ulcerations of the mouth. Applied topically, they allay all kinds of abscesses, when ulcerated and chapped more particularly; with melilote or quinces they are applied to defluxions of the eyes, and with polenta they are employed topically for suppurations. A decoction of them is used for ulcerations of the mouth and genitals, and, with rose-oil or quinces, for diseases of the fundament. For affections which demand a more active remedy, they are used with pomegranate rind, and the addition of a little honey; to prevent the composition from drying too quickly, beet leaves are added. They are applied topically, also, to scrofulous sores, and to tumours, whether ripe or only coming to a head, being thoroughly boiled first in vinegar. Mixed with hydromel they are employed for the cure of chaps, and with pomegranate rind for gangrenes. With polenta they are used for gout, for diseases of the uterus and kidneys, for chilblains, and for ulcerations which cicatrize with difficulty. For a disordered stomach, thirty grains should be eaten.

For cholera, [Fée remarks, that we must not confound the cholera of the ancients with the Indian cholera, our cholera morbus. Celsus describes the cholera with great exactness, B. iv. c. 11.] however, and dysentery, it is the best plan to boil the lentils in three waters, in which case they should always be parched first, and then pounded as fine as possible, either by themselves, or else with quinces, pears, myrtle, wild endive, black beet, or plantago. Lentils are bad for the lungs, head-ache, all nervous affections, and bile, and are very apt to cause restlessness at night. They are useful, however, for pustules, erysipelas, and affections of the mamillæ, boiled in sea-water; and, applied with vinegar, they disperse indurations and scrofulous sores. As a stomachic, they are mixed, like polenta, with the drink given to patients. Parboiled in water, and then pounded and bolted through a sieve to disengage the bran, they are good for burns, care being taken to add a little honey as they heal: they are boiled, also, with oxycrate for diseases of the throat. [They would be of no benefit, Fée thinks, in such a case.]

There is a marsh-lentil [It bears no relation whatever to the lentil, not being a leguminous plant. Fée would include under this head the Lemna minor, the Lemna gibba, and the Lemna polyrrhiza of modern botany, all being found together in the same stagnant water.] also, which grows spontaneously in stagnant waters. It is of a cooling nature, for which reason it is employed topically for abscesses, and for gout in particular, either by itself or with polenta. Its glutinous properties render it a good medicine for intestinal hernia.

Chap. 71.—The Elelisphacos, Sphacos, or Salvia: Thirteen Remedies.

The plant called by the Greeks “elelisphacos,” [Fée remarks, that Pliny is clearly speaking of two essentially different plants under this name; the first, he thinks, may very probably be the Ervum tetraspermum of Linnæus.] or “sphacos,” is a species of wild lentil, lighter than the cultivated one, and with a leaf, smaller, drier, and more odoriferous. There is also another [This, Fée thinks, is the Salvia officinalis of Linnæus, our common sage, which has no affinity whatever with the lentil.] kind of it, of a wilder nature, and possessed of a powerful smell, the other one being milder. It [Sprengel thinks that he is speaking here of the Salvia triloba of Linnæus.] has leaves the shape of a quince, but white and smaller: they are generally boiled with the branches. This plant acts as an emmenagogue and a diuretic: and it affords a remedy for wounds inflicted by the sting-ray, [The Trygon pastinaca of Linnæus.] having the property of benumbing the part affected. It is taken in drink with wormwood for dysentery: employed with wine it accelerates the catamenia when retarded, a decoction of it having the effect of arresting them when in excess: the plant, applied by itself, stanches the blood of wounds. It is a cure, too, for the stings of serpents, and a decoction of it in wine allays prurigo of the testes.

Our herbalists of the present day take for the “elelisphacos” of the Greeks the “salvia” [“Sage,” the plant, no doubt, that he has been describing.] of the Latins, a plant similar in appearance to mint, white and aromatic. Applied externally, it expels the dead fœtus, as also worms which breed in ulcers and in the ears.

Chap. 72.—The Chickpea and the Chicheling Vetch: Twenty-three Remedies.

There is a wild chickpea also, which resembles in its leaf the cultivated kind, [See B. xviii. c.. Fée thinks that the wild cicer is identical with our cultivated one, the Cicer rietinum.] and has a powerful smell. Taken in considerable quantities, it relaxes the bowels, and produces griping pains and flatulency; parched, however, it is looked upon as more wholesome. The chicheling vetch, [See B. xviii. cc. and.] again, acts more beneficially upon the bowels. The meal of both kinds heals running sores of the head—that of the wild sort being the more efficacious of the two—as also epilepsy, swellings of the liver, and stings inflicted by serpents. It acts as an emmenagogue and a diuretic, used in the grain more particularly, and it is a cure for lichens, inflammations of the testes, jaundice, and dropsy. All these kinds, however, exercise an injurious effect upon ulcerations of the bladder and kidneys: but in combination with honey they are very good for gangrenous sores, and the cancer known as “cacoethes.” The following is a method adopted for the cure of all kinds of warts: on the first day of the moon, each wart must be touched with a single chickpea, after which, the party must tie up the pease in a linen cloth, and throw it behind him; by adopting this plan, it is thought, the warts will be made to disappear.

Our authors recommend the plant known as the “arietinum” [Or “ram’s head” cicer; from its fancied resemblance to it: the name is still given to the cultivated plant.] to be boiled in water with salt, and two cyathi of the decoction to be taken for strangury. Employed in a similar manner, it expels calculi, and cures jaundice. The water in which the leaves and stalks of this plant have been boiled, applied as a fomentation as hot as possible, allays gout in the feet, an effect equally produced by the plant itself, beaten up and applied warm. A decoction of the columbine [Or “pigeon” cicer. See B. xviii. c.. Fée thinks it probable that this plant may be a variety of the Ervum.] chickpea, it is thought, moderates the shivering fits in tertian or quartan fevers; and the black kind, beaten up with half a nut-gall, and applied with raisin wine, is a cure for ulcers of the eyes.

Chap. 73.—The Fitch: Twenty Remedies.

In speaking of the fitch, [In B. xviii. c. 38. The Ervum ervilia of Linnæus; it is no longer employed in medicine.] we have mentioned certain properties belonging to it; and, indeed, the ancients have attributed to it no fewer virtues than they have to the cabbage. For the stings of serpents, it is employed with vinegar; as also for bites inflicted by crocodiles and human beings. If a person eats of it, fasting, every day, according to authors of the very highest authority, the spleen will gradually diminish. The meal of it removes spots on the face and other parts of the body. It prevents ulcers from spreading also, and is extremely efficacious for affections of the mamillæ: mixed with wine, it makes carbuncles break. Parched, and taken with a piece of honey the size of a hazel nut, it cures dysuria, flatulency, affections of the liver, tenesmus, and that state of the body in which no nourishment is derived from the food, generally known as “atrophy.” For cutaneous eruptions, plasters are made of it boiled with honey, being left to remain four days on the part affected. Applied with honey, it prevents inflamed tumours from suppurating. A decoction of it, employed as a fomentation, cures chilblains and prurigo; and it is thought by some, that if it is taken daily, fasting, it will improve the complexion of all parts of the body.

Used as an aliment, this pulse is far from wholesome, [Fée says that this is the case, and that the use of it is said to produce a marked debility.] being apt to produce vomiting, disorder the bowels, and stuff the head and stomach. It weakens the knees also; but the effects of it may be modified by keeping it in soak for several days, in which case it is remarkably beneficial for oxen and beasts of burden. The pods of it, beaten up green with the stalks and leaves, before they harden, stain the hair black.

Chap. 74.—Lupines: Thirty-five Remedies.

There are wild lupines, [See B. xviii. c..] also, inferior in every respect to the cultivated kinds, except in their bitterness. Of all the alimentary substances, there are none which are less heavy or more useful [Fée remarks that it is surprising to find the ancients setting so much value on the lupine, a plant that is bitter and almost nauseous, difficult to boil, and bad of digestion.] than dried lupines. Their bitterness is considerably modified by cooking them on hot ashes, or steeping them in hot water. Employed frequently as an article of food, they impart freshness to the colour; the bitter lupine, too, is good for the sting of the asp. Dried lupines, stripped of the husk and pounded, are applied in a linen cloth to black ulcers, in which they make new flesh: boiled in vinegar, they disperse scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid glands. A decoction of them, with rue and pepper, is given in fever even, as an expellent of intestinal worms, [It must be the rue, Fée says, that acts as the vermifuge.] to patients under thirty years of age. For children, also, they are applied to the stomach as a vermifuge, the patient fasting in the meantime: and, according to another mode of treatment, they are parched and taken in boiled must or in honey.

Lupines have the effect of stimulating the appetite, and of dispelling nausea. The meal of them, kneaded up with vinegar, and applied in the bath, removes pimples and prurigo; employed alone, it dries up ulcerous sores. It cures bruises also, and, used with polenta, allays inflammations. The wild lupine is found to be the most efficacious for debility of the hips and loins. A decoction of them, used as a fomentation, removes freckles and improves the skin; and lupines, either wild or cultivated, boiled down to the consistency of honey, are a cure for black eruptions and leprosy. An application of cultivated lupines causes carbuncles to break, and reduces inflamed tumours and scrofulous sores, or else brings them to a head: boiled in vinegar, they restore the flesh when cicatrized to its proper colour. Thoroughly boiled in rain-water, the decoction of them furnishes a detersive medicine, of which fomentations are made for gangrenes, purulent eruptions, and running ulcers. This decoction is very good, taken in drink, for affections of the spleen, and with honey, for retardations of the catamenia. Beaten up raw, with dried figs, lupines are applied externally to the spleen. A decoction of the root acts as a diuretic.

The herb chamæleon, [See c. of this Book.] also, is boiled with lupines, and the water of it strained off, to be used as a potion for cattle. Lupines boiled in amurca, [Lees of olive oil.] or a decoction of them mixed with amurca, heals the itch in beasts. The smoke of lupines kills [This is not the fact.] gnats.

Chap. 75.—Irio, or Erysimum, by the Gauls Called Vela: Fifteen Remedies.

When treating of the cereals, we have already stated [In B. xviii. c. 22. Racine, in his letters to Boileau, speaks of a chorister of Notre Dame, who recovered his voice by the aid of this plant.] that the irio, which strongly resembles sesame, is also called “erysimon” by the Greeks: the Gauls give it the name of “vela.” It is a branchy plant, with leaves like those of rocket, but a little narrower, and a seed similar to that of nasturtium. With honey, it is extremely good for cough and purulent expectorations: it is given, also, for jaundice and affections of the loins, pleurisy, gripings of the bowels, and cœliac affections, and is used in liniments for imposthumes of the parotid glands and carcinomatous affections. Employed with water, or with honey, it is useful for inflammations of the testes, and is extremely beneficial for the diseases of infants. Mixed with honey and figs, it is good for affections of the fundament and diseases of the joints; and taken in drink, it is an excellent antidote to poisons. It is used, also, for asthma, [It is still used, Fée says, for coughs.] and with stale axle-grease for fistulas; but it must not be allowed to touch the interior of them.

Chap. 76.—Horminum: Six Remedies.

Horminum resembles cummin, as already stated, [In B. xviii. c. 22.] in its seed; but in other respects, it is like the leek. [Dioscorides says, horehound. The Horminum, apparently, has not been identified.] It grows to some nine inches in height, and there are two varieties of it. In one of these the seed is oblong, and darker than that of the other, and the plant itself is in request as an aphrodisiac, and for the cure of argema and albugo in the eyes: of the other kind the seed is whiter, and of a rounder form. Both kinds, pounded and applied with water, are used for the extraction of thorns from the body. The leaves, steeped in vinegar, disperse tumours, either used by themselves, or in combination with honey; they are employed, also, to disperse boils, before they have come to a head, and other collections of acrid humours.

Chap. 77.—Darnel: Five Remedies.

Even more than this—the very plants which are the bane of the corn-field are not without their medicinal uses. Darnel [See B. xviii. c.. Darnel acts upon the brain to such an extent as to produce symptoms like those of drunkenness; to which property it is indebted for its French name of ivraie. It is no longer used in medicine.] has received from Virgil [Georg. i. 153; “Infelix lolium, et steriles dominantur avenæ.”] the epithet of “unhappy;” and yet, ground and boiled with vinegar, it is used as an application for the cure of impetigo, which is the more speedily effected the oftener the application is renewed. It is employed, also, with oxymel, for the cure of gout and other painful diseases. The following is the mode of treatment: for one sextarius of vinegar, two ounces of honey is the right proportion; three sextarii having been thus prepared, two sextarii of darnel meal are boiled down in it to a proper consistency, the mixture being applied warm to the part affected. This meal, too, is used for the extraction of splinters of broken bones.

Chap. 78.—The Plant Miliaria: One Remedy.

“Miliaria” [Fée identifies this plant with the Cuscuta Europæa of Linnæus. Sprengel takes it to be the Panicum verticillatum of Linnæus.] is the name given to a plant which kills millet: this plant, it is said, is a cure for gout in beasts of burden, beaten up and administered in wine, with the aid of a horn.

Chap. 79.—Bromos: One Remedy.

Bromos [The Avena sativa of Linnæus; the cultivated oat, and not the Greek oat of B. xviii. c. 42.] is the seed also of a plant which bears an ear. It is a kind of oat which grows among corn, to which it is injurious; the leaves and stalk of it resemble those of wheat, and at the extremity it bears seeds, hanging down, something like small locusts [The term “locusta” has been borrowed by botanists to characterize the fructification of gramineous plants.] in appearance. The seed of this plant is useful for plasters, like barley and other grain of a similar nature. A decoction of it is good for coughs.

Chap. 80.—Orobanche, or Cynomorion: One Remedy.

We have mentioned [In B. xviii. c. 44. The present, Fée thinks, is a different plant from the Cuscuta Europæa, and he identifies it with the Orobanche caryophyllacea of Smith, or else the Orobanche ramosa of Linnæus. The Orobanche is so called from its choking (ἄγχει) the orobus or ervum. It is also found to be injurious to beans, trefoil, and hemp. In Italy, the stalks are eaten as a substitute for asparagus.] orobanche as the name of a plant which kills the fitch and other leguminous plants. Some persons have called it “cynomorion,” from the resemblance which it bears to the genitals of a dog. The stem of it is leafless, thick, and red. It is eaten either raw, or boiled in the saucepan, while young and tender.

Chap. 81.—Remedies for Injuries Inflicted by Insects Which Breed Among Leguminous Plants.

There are some venomous insects also, of the solipuga [See B. viii. c..] kind, which breed upon leguminous plants, and which, by stinging the hands, endanger life. For these stings all those remedies are efficacious which have been mentioned for the bite of the spider and the phalangium. [See B. x. c. 95, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28.] Such, then, are the medicinal properties for which the cereals are employed.

Chap. 82.—The Use Made of the Yeast of Zythum.

Different beverages, too, are made from the cereals, zythum in Egypt, cælia and cerea in Spain, cervesia [As to the beers of the ancients, see B. xiv. c. 29. Very few particulars are known of them; but we learn from the Talmud, where it is called zeitham, that zythum was an Egyptian beverage made of barley, wild saffron, and salt, in equal parts. In the Mishna, the Jews are enjoined not to use it during the Passover.] and numerous liquors in Gaul and other provinces. The yeast [“Spuma;” literally, “foam.”] of all of these is used by women as a cosmetic for the face.—But as we are now speaking of beverages, it will be the best plan to pass on to the various uses of wine, and to make a beginning with the vine of our account of the medicinal properties of the trees.

Summary. —Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine hundred and six.

Authors quoted. —All those mentioned in the preceding Book; and, in addition to them, Chrysermus, [A physician who lived, probably, at the end of the second or the beginning of the first century B.C., as he was one of the tutors of Heraclides of Erythræ. His definition of the pulse has been preserved by Galen, De Differ. Puls. B. iv. c. 10, and an anecdote of him is mentioned by Sextus Empiricus.] Eratosthenes, [See end of B. ii.] and Alcæus. [A native of Mytilene, in the island of Lesbos, the earliest of the Æolian lyric poets. He flourished at the latter end of the seventh century B.C. Of his Odes only a few fragments, with some Epigrams, have come down to us.]