For suppurations, however, wheat-meal is much more sooth- ing; it is applied topically also for affections of the sinews, mixed with the juice of henbane, and for the cure of freckles, with vinegar and honey. The meal of zea, from which, as already stated, an alica is made, appears to be more efficacious than that of barley even: but that of the three month kind is the most emollient. It is applied warm, in red wine, to the stings of scorpions, as also for affections of the trachea, and spitting of blood: for coughs, it is employed in combination with goat suet or butter.
The meal of fenugreek, however, is the most soothing of them all: boiled with wine and nitre, it heals running ulcers, eruptions on the body, and diseases of the feet and mamillæ. The meal of æra is more detergent than the other kinds, for inveterate ulcers and gangrenes: in combination with radishes, salt, and vinegar, it heals lichens, and with virgin sulphur, leprosy: for head-ache, it is applied to the forehead with goose-grease. Boiled in wine, with pigeons’ dung and linseed, it ripens inflamed tumours and scrofulous sores.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 59.
POLENTA: EIGHT REMEDIES.
Of the various kinds of polenta we have already treated sufficiently at length, when speaking of the places where it is made. It differs from barley meal, in being parched, a process which renders it more wholesome for the stomach. It arrests looseness of the bowels, and heals inflammatory eruptions; and it is employed as a liniment for the eyes, and for head-ache, combined with mint or some other refreshing herb. It is used in a similar manner also for chilblains and wounds inflicted by serpents; and with wine, for burns. It has the effect also of checking pustular eruptions.
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CHAP. 60.
FINE FLOUR: FIVE REMEDIES. PULS: ONE REMEDY. MEAL USED FOR PASTING PAPYRUS: ONE REMEDY.
The flour of bolted meal, kneaded into a paste, has the property of drawing 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 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 is a very feeding diet. The meal used for pasting the sheets of papyrus is given warm to patients for spitting of blood, and is found to be an effectual cure.
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CHAP. 61.
ALICA: SIX REMEDIES.
Alica is quite a Roman invention, and not a very ancient one: for otherwise 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: 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.
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CHAP. 62.
MILLET: SIX REMEDIES.
Millet 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.
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CHAP. 63.
PANIC: FOUR REMEDIES.
Diodes, the physician, has given to panic the name of “honey of corn.” 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.
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CHAP. 64.
SESAME: SEVEN REMEDIES. SESAMOIDES: THREE REMEDIES. ANTICYRICUM: THREE REMEDIES.
Sesame, 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 alignment 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.” The oil made from it, as already mentioned, is good for the ears.
Sesamoïdes owes its name to its resemblance to sesame; the grain 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 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 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.
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CHAP. 65.
BARLEY: NINE REMEDIES. MOUSE-BARLEY, BY THE GREEKS CALLED PHŒNICE: ONE REMEDY.
The whitest barley is the best. Boiled 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 shrewmouse: 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” by us: pounded and taken in wine, it acts remarkably well as an emmenagogue.
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CHAP. 66.
PTISAN: FOUR REMEDIES.
To ptisan, which is a preparation of barley, Hippocrates 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, 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 k
ind of ptisan is made, which is found to be still more efficacious for ulcerations of the trachea.
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CHAP. 67.
AMYLUM: EIGHT REMEDIES. OATS: ONE REMEDY.
Amylum weakens the eyesight, 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 con- gestions 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.
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CHAP. 68.
BREAD: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES.
Bread, 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,” is the best.
It is applied also to whitlows, in vinegar, and to callosities of the feet. Stale bread, or sailors’-bread, 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 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, it neutralizes bad odours in wine.
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CHAP. 69.
BEANS: SIXTEEN REMEDIES.
Beans, too, furnish us with some remedies. Parched whole, and thrown hot into strong vinegar, they are a cure for grip- ings 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.
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CHAP. 70.
LENTILS: SEVENTEEN REMEDIES.
Those lentils are the best which boil the most easily, and those in particular which absorb the most water. They injure the eye-sight, 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. 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 ap- plied 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 gangrences. 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, 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 indura- tions 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.
There is a marsh-lentil also, which grows spontaneously in stagnant waters. It is of a cooling nature, for which rea- son it is employed topically for abscesses, and for gout in par- ticular, either by itself or with polenta. Its glutinous properties render it a good medicine for intestinal hernia.
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CHAP. 71.
THE ELELISPHACOS, SPHACOS, OR SALVIA: THIRTEEN REMEDIES.
The plant called by the Greeks “elelisphacos,” 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 kind of it, of a wilder nature, and possessed of a powerful smell, the other one being milder. It 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, 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” 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.
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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, 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, again, acts more bene- ficially 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” 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 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.
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CHAP. 73.
THE FITCH: TWENTY REMEDIES.
In speaking of the fitch, 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 fomenta- tion, 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.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder Page 163
