BOOK XXII. THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS AND FRUITS. (continued 2)
John Bostock translation
CHAP. 60.—FINE FLOUR: FIVE REMEDIES. PULS: ONE REMEDY. MEAL USED FOR PASTING PAPYRUS: ONE REMEDY.
The flour2763 of bolted meal, kneaded into a paste, has the property of drawing2764 out the humours of the body: hence it is applied to bruises gorged with blood, to extract the corrupt matter, even to soaking the bandages2765 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. Puls2766 is a very feeding diet. The meal2767 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 otherwise2768 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:2769 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.
Millet2770 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 panic2771 the name of “honey of corn.”2772 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,2773 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.”2774 The oil made from it, as already2775 mentioned, is good for the ears.
Sesamoïdes2776 owes its name to its resemblance to sesame; the grain2777 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 another2778 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 speak2779 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. Boiled2780 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”2781 by us: pounded and taken in wine, it acts remarkably well as an emmenagogue.
CHAP. 66.—PTISAN: FOUR REMEDIES.
To ptisan,2782 which is a preparation of barley, Hippocrates2783 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,2784 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.
Amylum2785 weakens the eyesight,2786 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,2787 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,”2788 is the best.
It is applied also to whitlows, in vinegar, and to callosities of the feet. Stale bread, or sailors’-bread,2789 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-month2790 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,2791 it neutralizes bad odours in wine.
CHAP. 69.—BEANS: SIXTEEN REMEDIES.
Beans,2792 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 lentils2793 are the best which boil the most easily, and those in particular which absorb the most water. They injure the eye-sight,2794 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.2795 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,2796 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.2797
There is a marsh-lentil2798 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,”2799 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 another2800 kind of it, of a wilder nature, and possessed of a powerful smell, the other one being milder. It2801 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,2802 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”2803 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,2804 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,2805 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”2806 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 columbine2807 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,2808 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,2809 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,2810 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 useful2811 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,2812 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,2813 also, is boiled with lupines, and the water of it strained off, to be used as a potion for cattle. Lupines boiled in amurca,2814 or a decoction of them mixed with amurca, heals the itch in beasts. The smoke of lupines kills2815 gnats.
CHAP. 75.—IRIO, OR ERYSIMUM, BY THE GAULS CALLED VELA: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
When treating of the cereals, we have already stated2816 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,2817 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,2818 in its seed; but in other respects, it is like the leek.2819 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. Darnel2820 has received from Virgil2821 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”2822 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.
Bromos2823 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 locusts2824 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 mentioned2825 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 solipuga2826 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.2827 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, cervesia2828 and numerous liquors in Gaul and other provinces. The yeast2829 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.