Note 1430 — BOOK XX. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE GARDEN PLANTS.
John Bostock translation
Fée is of opinion that this in reality is not a lettuce, but that Pliny has been led, by the milky juice which it contains, to that conclusion. In B. xxvi. c. 39, he calls it “tithymalum.” Hardouin conjectures it to have been the spurge, or Euphorbia lathyris of Linnæus, the juice of which is a violent drastic; and Fée is of opinion that it must have been one of the Euphorbiaceæ. At the same time, he says, powerful as their properties are, we cannot believe that they exercise the destructive effects on fish here stated.