Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  He recommends, also, the warm juice of cabbage to be injected into the ears, in combination with wine, and assures us that it is a capital remedy for deafness: and he says that the cabbage is a cure for impetigo without the formation of ulcers.

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  CHAP. 34.

  PINIONS OF THE GREEKS RELATIVE THERETO.

  As we have already given those of Cato, it will be as well to set forth the opinions entertained by the Greek writers on this subject, only in relation, however, to those points upon which he has omitted to touch. They are of opinion that cabbage, not thoroughly boiled, carries off the bile, and has the effect of loosening the bowels; while, on the other hand, if it is boiled twice over, it will act as an astringent. They say, too, that as there is a natural enmity between it and the vine, it combats the effects of wine; that, if eaten before drinking, it is sure to prevent drunkenness, being equally a dispellent of crapulence if taken after drinking: that cabbage is a food very beneficial to the eyesight, and that the juice of it raw is even more so, if the corners of the eyes are only touched with a mixture of it with Attic honey. Cabbage, too, according to the same testimony, is extremely easy of digestion, and, as an aliment, greatly tends to clear the senses.

  The school of Erasistratus proclaims that there is nothing more beneficial to the stomach and the sinews than cabbage; for which reason, he says, it ought to be given to the paralytic and nervous, as well as to persons affected with spitting of blood. Hippocrates prescribes it, twice boiled, and eaten with salt, for dysentery and cœliac affections, as also for tenesmus and diseases of the kidneys; he is of opinion, too, that, as an aliment, it increases the quantity of the milk in women who are nursing, and that it promotes the menstrual discharge. The stalk, too, eaten raw, is efficacious in expelling the dead fœtus. Apollodorus prescribes the seed or else the juice of the cabbage to be taken in cases of poisoning by fungi; and Philistion recommends the juice for persons affected with opisthotony, in goats’-milk, with salt and honey.

  I find, too, that persons have been cured of the gout by eating cabbage and drinking a decoction of that plant. This decoction has been given, also, to persons afflicted with the cardiac disease and epilepsy, with the addition of salt; and it has been ad- ministered in white wine, for affections of the spleen, for a period of forty days.

  According to Philistion, the juice of the raw root should be given as a gargle to persons afflicted with icterus or phrenitis, and for hiccup he prescribes a mixture of it, in vinegar, with coriander, anise, honey, and pepper. Used as a liniment, cabbage, he says, is beneficial for inflations of the stomach; and the very water, even, in which it has been boiled, mixed with barley-meal, is a remedy for the stings of serpents and foul ulcers of long standing; a result which is equally effected by a mixture of cabbage-juice with vinegar or fenugreek. It is in this manner, too, that some persons employ it topically, for affections of the joints and for gout. Applied topically, cabbage is a cure for epinyetis, and all kinds of spreading eruptions on the body, as also for sudden attacks of dimness; indeed, if eaten with vinegar, it has the effect of curing the last. Applied by itself, it heals contusions and other livid spots; and mixed with a hall of alum in vinegar, it is good as a liniment for leprosy and itch-scabs: used in this way, too, it prevents the hair from falling off.

  Epicharmus assures us that, applied topically, cabbage is extremely beneficial for diseases of the testes and genitals, and even better still when employed with bruised beans; he says, too, that it is a cure for convulsions; that, in combination with rue, it is good for the burning heats of fever and maladies of the stomach; and that, with rue-seed, it brings away the after-birth. It is of use, also, for the bite of the shrew-mouse. Dried cabbage-leaves, reduced to a powder, are a cathartic both by vomit and by stool.

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  CHAP. 35.

  CABBAGE-SPROUTS.

  In all varieties of the cabbage, the part most agreeable to the taste is the cyma, although no use is made of it in medicine, as it is difficult to digest, and by no means beneficial to the kidneys. At the same time, too, it should not be omitted, that the water in which it has been boiled, and which is so highly praised for many purposes, gives out a very bad smell when poured upon the ground. The ashes of dried cabbage-stalks are generally reckoned among the caustic substances: mixed with stale grease, they are employed for sciatica, and, used as a liniment, in the form of a depilatory, toge- ther with silphium and vinegar, they prevent hair that has been once removed from growing again. These ashes, too, are taken lukewarm in oil, or else by themselves, for convulsions, internal ruptures, and the effects of falls with violence.

  And are we to say then that the cabbage is possessed of no evil qualities whatever? Certainly not, for the same authors tell us, that it is apt to make the breath smell, and that it is injurious to the teeth and gums. In Egypt, too, it is never eaten, on account of its extreme bitterness.

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  CHAP. 36.

  THE WILD CABBAGE: THIRTY-SEVEN REMEDIES.

  Cato extols infinitely more highly the properties of wild or erratic cabbage; so much so, indeed, as to affirm that the very powder of it, dried and collected in a scent-box, has the property, on merely smelling at it, of removing maladies of the nostrils and the bad smells resulting therefrom. Some persons call this wild cabbage “petræa:” it has an extreme antipathy to wine, so much so, indeed, that the vine invariably avoids it, and if it cannot make its escape, will be sure to die. This vegetable has leaves of uniform shape, small, rounded, and smooth: bearing a strong resemblance to the cultivated cabbage, it is whiter, and has a more downy leaf.

  According to Chrysippus, this plant is a remedy for flatu- lency, melancholy, and recent wounds, if applied with honey, and not taken off before the end of six days: beaten up in water, it is good also for scrofula and fistula. Other writers, again, say that it is an effectual cure for spreading sores on the body, known as “nomæ;” that it has the property, also, of removing excrescences, and of reducing the scars of wounds and sores; that if chewed raw with honey, it is a cure for ulcers of the mouth and tonsils; and that a decoction of it used as a gargle with honey, is productive of the same effect. They say, too, that, mixed in strong vinegar with alum, in the proportion of three parts to two of alum, and then applied as a liniment, it is a cure for itch-scabs and leprous sores of long standing. Epicharmus informs us, that for the bite of a mad dog, it is quite sufficient to apply it topically to the part affected, but that if used with silphium and strong vinegar, it is better still: he says, too, that it will kill a dog, if given to it with flesh to eat.

  The seed of this plant, parched, is remedial in cases of poison- ing, by the stings of serpents, eating fungi, and drinking bulls’ blood. The leaves of it, either boiled and taken in the food or else eaten raw, or applied with a liniment of sulphur and nitre, are good for affections of the spleen, as well as hard tumours of the mamillæ. In swelling of the uvula, if the parts affected are only touched with the ashes of the root, a cure will be the result; and applied topically with honey, they are equally beneficial for reducing swellings of the parotid glands, and curing the stings of serpents. We will add only one more proof of the virtues of the cabbage, and that a truly marvellous one — in all vessels in which water is boiled, the incrustations which adhere with such tenacity that it is otherwise impossible to detach them, will fall off immediately if a cabbage is boiled therein.

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  CHAP. 37.

  THE LAPSANA: ONE REMEDY.

  Among the wild cabbages, we find also the lapsana, a plant which grows a foot in height, has a hairy leaf, and strongly resembles mustard, were it not that the blossom is whiter. It is eaten cooked, and has the property of soothing and gently relaxing the bowels.

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  CHAP. 38.

  THE SEA-CABBAGE: ONE REMEDY.

  Sea-cabbage is the most strongly purgative of all these
plants. It is cooked, in consequence of its extreme pungency, with fat meat, and is extremely detrimental to the stomach.

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  CHAP. 39.

  THE SQUILL: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

  In medicine, we give the name of white squill to the male plant, and of black to the female: the whiter the squill, the better it is for medicinal purposes. The dry coats being first taken off of it, the remaining part, or so much of it as retains life, is cut into pieces, which are then strung and suspended on a string, at short distances from each other. After these pieces are thoroughly dried, they are thrown into a jar of the very strongest vinegar, suspended in such a way, however, as not to touch any portion of the vessel. This is done forty-eight days before the summer solstice. The mouth of the jar is then tightly sealed with plaster; after which it is placed beneath some tiles which receive the rays of the sun the whole day through. At the end of forty-eight days the vessel is removed, the squills are taken out of it, and the vinegar poured into another jar.

  This vinegar has the effect of sharpening the eyesight, and, taken every other day, is good for pains in the stomach and sides: the strength of it, however, is so great, that if taken in too large a quantity, it will for some moments produce all the appearance of death. Squills, too, if chewed by themselves even, are good for the gums and teeth; and taken in vinegar and honey they expel tapeworm and other intestinal worms. Put fresh beneath the tongue, they prevent persons afflicted with dropsy from experiencing thirst.

  Squills are cooked in various ways; either in a pot with a lining of clay or grease, which is put into an oven or furnace, or else cut into pieces and stewed in a saucepan. They are dried also in a raw state, and then cut into pieces and boiled with vinegar; in which case, they are employed as a liniment for the stings of serpents. Sometimes, again, they are roasted and then cleaned; after which, the middle of the bulb is boiled again in water.

  When thus boiled, they are used for dropsy, as a diuretic, being taken in doses of three oboli, with oxymel: they are employed also in a similar manner for affections of the spleen, and of the stomach, when it is too weak to digest the food, provided no ulcerations have made their appearance; also for gripings of the bowels, jaundice, and inveterate cough, accompanied with asthma. A cataplasm of squill leaves, taken off at the end of four days, has the effect of dispersing scrofulous swellings of the neck; and a decoction of squills in oil, applied as a liniment, is a cure for dandriff and running ulcers of the head.

  Squills are boiled with honey also for the table, with the view of aiding the digestion more particularly; used in this way, too, they act upon the inside as a purgative. Boiled with oil, and then mixed with resin, they are a cure for chaps on the feet; and the seed, mixed with honey, is applied topically, for the cure of lumbago. Pythagoras says that a squill, suspended at the threshold of the door, effectually shuts all access to evil spells and incantations.

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  CHAP. 40.

  BULBS: THIRTY REMEDIES.

  Bulbs, steeped in vinegar and sulphur, are good for the cure of wounds in the face; beaten up and used alone, they are beneficial for contractions of the sinews, mixed with wine, for porrigo, and used with honey, for the bites of dogs; in this last case, however, Erasistratus says that they ought to be mixed with pitch. The same author states that, applied topically with honey, they stanch the flowing of blood; other writers say, however, that in cases of bleeding at the nose, coriander and meal should be employed in combination with them. Theodorus prescribes bulbs in vinegar for the cure of lichens, and for eruptions in the head he recommends bulbs mixed with astringent wine, or an egg beaten up; he treats defluxions of the eyes also with bulbs, applied topically, and uses a similar method for the cure of ophthalmia. The red bulbs more particularly, will cause spots in the face to disappear, if rubbed upon them with honey and nitre in the sun: and applied with wine or boiled cucumber they will remove freckles. Used either by themselves, or as Damion recommends, in combination with honied wine, they are remarkably efficacious for the cure of wounds, care being taken, however, not to remove the application till the end of four days. The same author prescribes them, too, for the cure of fractured ears, and collections of crude humours in the testes.

  For pains in the joints, bulbs are used with meal; boiled in wine, and applied to the abdomen, they reduce hard swellings of the viscera. In dysentery, they are given in wine mixed with rain water; and for convulsions of the intestines they are employed, in combination with silphium, in pills the size of a bean: bruised, they are employed externally, for the purpose of checking perspiration. Bulbs are good, too, for the sinews, for which reason it is that they are given to paralytic patients. The red bulb, mixed with honey and salt, heals sprains of the feet with great rapidity. The bulbs of Megara act as a strong aphrodisiac, and garden bulbs, taken with boiled must or raisin wine, aid delivery.

  Wild bulbs, made up into pills with silphium, effect the cure of wounds and other affections of the intestines. The seed, too, of the cultivated kinds is taken in wine as a cure for the bite of the phalangium, and the bulbs themselves are applied in vinegar for the cure of the stings of serpents. The ancients used to give bulb-seed to persons afflicted with madness, in drink. The blossom, beaten up, removes spots upon the legs, as well as scorches produced by fire. Diodes is of opinion that the sight is impaired by the use of bulbs; he adds, too, that when boiled they are not so wholesome as roasted, and that, of whatever nature they may be, they are difficult of digestion.

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  CHAP. 41.

  BULBINE; ONE REMEDY. BULB EMETIC.

  The Greeks give the name bulbine to a plant with leaves resembling those of the leek, and a red bulbous root. This plant, it is said, is marvellously good for wounds, but only when they are of recent date. The bulbous plant known as the “emetic” bulb, from the effects which it produces, has dark leaves, and longer than those of the other kinds.

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  CHAP. 42. (10.)

  GARDEN ASPARAGUS; WITH THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES.

  Asparagus is said to be extremely wholesome as an aliment to the stomach. With the addition of cummin, it dispels flatulency of the stomach and colon; it sharpens the eyesight also, acts as a mild aperient upon the stomach, and, boiled with wine, is good for pains in the chest and spine, and diseases of the intestines. For pains in the loins and kidneys asparagus- seed is administered in doses of three oboli, taken with an equal proportion of cummin-seed. It acts as an aphrodisiac, and is an extremely useful diuretic, except that it has a tendency to ulcerate the bladder.

  The root, also, pounded and taken in white wine, is highly extolled by some writers, as having the effect of disengaging calculi, and of soothing pains in the loins and kidneys; there are some persons, too, who administer this root with sweet wine for pains in the uterus. Boiled in vinegar the root is very beneficial in cases of elephantiasis. It is said that if a person is rubbed with asparagus beaten up in oil, he will never be stung by bees.

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  CHAP. 43.

  CORRUDA, LIBYCUM, OR ORMINUM.

  Wild asparagus is by some persons called “corruda,” by others “libycum,” and by the people of Attica “orminus.” For all the affections above enumerated it is more efficacious even than the cultivated kind, that which is white more particularly. This vegetable has the effect of dispelling the jaundice, and a decoction of it, in doses of one hemina, is recommended as an aphrodisiac; a similar effect is produced also by a mixture of asparagus seed and dill in doses of three oboli respectively. A decoction of asparagus juice is given also for the stings of serpents; and the root of it, mixed with that of marathrum, is reckoned in the number of the most valuable remedies we are acquainted with.

  In cases of hæmaturia, Chrysippus recommends a mixture of asparagus, parsley, and cummin seed, to be given to the patient every five days, in doses of three oboli, mixed with two cy
athi of wine. He says, however, that though employed this way, it is a good diuretic, it is bad for dropsy, and acts as an antaphrodisiac; and that it is injurious to the bladder, unless it is boiled first. He states also, that if the water in which it is boiled is given to dogs, it will kill them; and that the juice of the root boiled in wine, kept in the mouth, is an effectual cure for tooth-ache.