Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

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  CHAP. 73.

  MEDLARS: TWO REMEDIES. SORBS: TWO REMEDIES.

  Medlars, the setania excepted, which has pretty nearly the same properties as the apple, act astringently upon the stomach and arrest looseness of the bowels. The same is the case, too, with dried sorbs; but when eaten fresh, they are beneficial to the stomach, and are good for fluxes of the bowels.

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  CHAP. 74. (8.)

  PINE-NUTS: THIRTEEN REMEDIES.

  Pine-nuts, with the resin in them, are slightly bruised, and then boiled down in water to one-half; the proportion of water being one sextarius to each nut. This decoction, taken in doses of two cyathi, is used for the cure of spitting of blood. The bark of the tree, boiled in wine, is given for griping pains in the bowels. The kernels of the pine-nut allay thirst, and assuage acridities and gnawing pains in the stomach; they tend also to neutralize vicious humours in that region, recruit the strength, and are salutary to the kidneys and the bladder. They would seem, however, to exercise an irritating effect upon the fauces, and to increase cough. Taken in water, wine, raisin wine, or a decoction of dates, they carry off bile. For gnawing pains in the stomach of extreme violence, they are mixed with cucumber-seed and juice of purslain; they are employed, too, in a similar manner for ulcerations of the bladder and kidneys, having a diuretic effect.

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  CHAP. 75.

  ALMONDS: TWENTY-NINE REMEDIES.

  A decoction of the root of the bitter almond clears the complexion, and gives the face a brighter colour. Bitter al- monds are provocative of sleep, and sharpen the appetite; they act, also, as a diuretic and as an emmenagogue. They are used topically for head-ache, when there is fever more particularly. Should the head-ache proceed from inebriation, they are applied with vinegar, rose-oil, and one sextarius of water. Used in combination with amylum and mint, they arrest hæmorrhage. They are useful, also, for lethargy and epilepsy, and the head is anointed with them for the cure of epinyctis. In combination with wine, they heal putrid ulcers of an inveterate nature, and, with honey, bites inflicted by dogs. They are employed, also, for the cure of scaly erup- tions of the face, the parts affected being fomented first.

  Taken in water, or, as is often done, in an electuary, with resin of terebinth, they remove pains in the liver and kidneys; used with raisin wine, they are good for calculus and strangury. Bruised in hydromel, they are useful for cleansing the skin; and taken in an electuary with the addition of a small proportion of elelisphacus, they are good for diseases of the liver, cough, and colic, a piece about the size of a hazel-nut being taken in honey. It is said that if five bitter almonds are taken by a person before sitting down to drink, he will be proof against inebriation; and that foxes, if they eat bitter almonds, will be sure to die immediately, if they cannot find water to lap.

  As to sweet almonds, their remedial properties are not so extensive; still, however, they are of a purgative nature, and are diuretic. Eaten fresh, they are difficult of digestion.

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  CHAP. 76.

  GREEK NUTS: ONE REMEDY.

  Greek nuts, taken in vinegar with wormwood seed, are said to be a cure for jaundice. Used alone, they are employed topically for the treatment of diseases of the fundament, and condylomata in particular, as also cough and spitting of blood.

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  CHAP. 77.

  WALNUTS: TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. THE MITHRIDATIC ANTIDOTE.

  Walnuts have received their name in Greek from being oppressive to the head; for, in fact, the emanations from the tree itself and the leaves penetrate to the brain. The kernels, also, have a similar effect when eaten, though not in so marked a degree. When fresh gathered, they are most agreeable eating; for when dry, they are more oleaginous, unwholesome to the stomach, difficult of digestion, productive of head-ache, and bad for cough, or for a person when about to take an emetic fasting: they are good in cases of tenesmus only, as they carry off the pituitous humours of the body. Eaten beforehand, they deaden the effects of poison, and, employed with rue and oil, they are a cure for quinsy. They act as a corrective, also, to onions, and modify their flavour. They are applied to inflammations of the ears, with a little honey, and with rue they are used for affections of the mamille, and for sprains. With onions, salt, and honey, they are applied to bites inflicted by dogs or human beings. Walnut-shells are used for cauterizing carious teeth; and with these shells, burnt and then beaten up in oil or wine, the heads of infants are anointed, they having a tendency to make the hair grow; hence they are used in a similar manner for alopecy also. These nuts, eaten in considerable numbers, act as an expellent upon tapeworm. Walnuts, when very old, are curative of gangrenous sores and carbuncles, of bruises also. Green walnut-shells are employed for the cure of lichens and dysentery, and the leaves are beaten up with vinegar as an application for earache.

  After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Cneius Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own hand-writing; it was to the following effect: — Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day. Walnut kernels, chewed by a man fasting, and applied to the wound, effect an instantaneous cure, it is said, of bites inflicted by a mad dog.

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  CHAP. 78.

  HAZEL-NUTS: THREE OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. PISTACHIO-NUTS: EIGHT OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. CHESNUTS: FIVE OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM.

  Hazel-nuts are productive of head-ache, and flatulency of the stomach; they contribute, however, to the increase of flesh more than would be imagined. Parched, they are remedial for catarrhs, and beaten up and taken with hydromel, they are good for an inveterate cough. Some persons add grains of pepper, and others take them in raisin wine.

  Pistachio-nuts have the same properties, and are productive of the same effects, as pine-nuts; in addition to which, they are used as an antidote to the venom of serpents, eaten or taken in drink.

  Chesnuts have a powerful effect in arresting fluxes of the stomach and intestines, are relaxing to the bowels, are beneficial in cases of spitting of blood, and have a tendency to make flesh.

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  CHAP. 79.

  CAROBS: FIVE OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. THE CORNEL; ONE REMEDY. THE FRUIT OF THE ARBUTUS.

  Fresh carobs are unwholesome to the stomach, and relaxing to the bowels; in a dried state, however, they are astringent, and are much more beneficial to the stomach; they are diuretic also. For pains in the stomach, persons boil three Syrian carobs with one sextarius of water, down to one-half, and drink the decoction.

  The juices which exude from the branches of the cornel are received on a plate of red-hot iron without it touching the wood; the rust of which is applied for the cure of incipient lichens. The arbutus or unedo bears a fruit that is difficult of digestion, and injurious to the stomach.

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  CHAP. 80.

  THE LAUREL; SIXTY-NINE OBSERVATIONS UPON IT.

  All parts of the laurel, both the leaves, bark, and berries, are of a warming nature; and a decoction of them, the leaves in particular, is very useful for affections of the bladder and uterus. The leaves, applied topically, neutralize the poison of wasps, bees, and hornets, as also that of serpents, the seps, dipsas, and viper, in particular. Boiled in oil, they promote the catamenia; and the more tender of the leaves beaten up with polenta, are used for inflammations of the eyes. with rue for inflammations of the testes, and with rose-oil, or oil of iris, for head-ache. Three leaves, chewed and swallowed for three days in succession, are a cure for cough, and beaten up with honey, for asthma. The bark of the root is dangerous to pregnant women; the root itself disperses calculi, and taken in doses of three oboli in aromatic wine, it acts beneficially on
the liver. The leaves, taken in drink, act as an emetic; and the berries, pounded and applied as a pessary, or else taken in drink, promote menstruation. Two of the berries with the skin removed, taken in wine, are a cure for inveterate cough and hardness of breathing; if, however, this is accompanied with fever, they are given in water, or else in an electuary with raisin wine, or boiled in hydromel. Employed in a similar manner, they are good for phthisis, and for all defluxions of the chest, as they have the effect of detaching the phlegm and bringing it off.

  For stings inflicted by scorpions, four laurel-berries are taken in wine. Applied with oil, they are a cure for epinyctis, freckles, running sores, ulcers of the mouth, and scaly eruptions. The juice of the berries is curative of porrigo and phthiriasis; and for pains in the ears, or hardness of hearing, it is injected into those organs with old wine and oil of roses. All venomous creatures fly at the approach of persons who have been anointed with this juice: taken in drink, the juice of the small-leaved laurel in particular, it is good for stings inflicted by them. The berries, used with wine, neu- tralize the venom of serpents, scorpions, and spiders; they are applied also, topically, with oil and vinegar, in diseases of the spleen and liver, and with honey to gangrenous sores. In cases of lassitude and shivering fits, it is a very good plan to rub the body with juice of laurel-berries mixed with nitre. Some persons are of opinion that delivery is accelerated by taking laurel-root to the amount of one acetabulum, in water, and that, used fresh, it is better than dried. It is recommended by some authorities, to take ten of the berries in drink, for the sting of the scorpion; and in cases of relaxation of the uvula, to boil a quarter of a pound of the berries, or leaves, in three sextarii of water, down to one third, the decoction being used warm, as a gargle. For head-ache, also, it is recommended to bruise an uneven number of the berries in oil, the mixture being warmed for use.

  The leaves of the Delphic laurel bruised and applied to the nostrils from time to time, are a preservative against conta- gion in pestilence, and more particularly if they are burnt. The oil of the Delphic laurel is employed in the preparation of cerates and the medicinal composition known as “acopum,” and is used for fits of shivering occasioned by cold, for the relaxation of the sinews, and for the cure of pains in the side and the cold attacks in fevers. Warmed in the rind of a pomegranate, it is applied topically for the cure of ear-ache. A decoction of the leaves boiled down in water to one third, used as a gargle, braces the uvula, and taken in drink allays pains in the bowels and intestines. The more tender leaves, bruised in wine and applied at night, are a cure for pimples and prurigo.

  The other varieties of the laurel possess properties which are nearly analogous. The root of the laurel of Alexandria, or of Mount Ida, accelerates delivery, being administered in doses of three denarii to three cyathi of sweet wine; it acts also as an emmenagogue, and brings away the after-birth. Taken in drink in a similar manner, the wild laurel, known as “daphnoides” and by the other names which we have mentioned, is productive of beneficial effects. The leaves of it, either fresh or dried, taken in doses of three drachmœ, in hydromel with salt, act as a purgative upon the bowels. The wood, chewed, brings off phlegm, and the leaves act as an “emetic;” they are unwholesome, however, to the stomach. The berries, too, are sometimes taken, fifteen in number, as a purgative.

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  CHAP. 81.

  MYRTLE; SIXTY OBSERVATIONS UPON IT.

  The white cultivated myrtle is employed for fewer medicinal purposes than the black one. The berries of it are good for spitting of blood, and taken in wine, they neutralize the poison of fungi. They impart an agreeable smell to the breath, even when eaten the day before; thus, for instance, in Menander we find the Synaristosæ eating them. They are taken also for dysentery, in doses of one denarius, in wine: and they are employed lukewarm, in wine, for the cure of obstinate ulcers on the extremities. Mixed with polenta, they are employed topically in ophthalmia, and for the cardiac disease they are applied to the left breast. For stings inflicted by scorpions, diseases of the bladder, head-ache, and fistulas of the eye before suppuration, they are similarly employed; and for tumours and pituitous eruptions, the kernels are first removed and the berries are then pounded in old wine. The juice of the berries acts astringently upon the bowels, and is diuretic: mixed with cerate it is applied topically to blisters, pituitous eruptions, and wounds inflicted by the phalangium; it imparts a black tint, also, to the hair.

  The oil of this myrtle is of a more soothing nature than the juice, and the wine which is extracted from it, and which possesses the property of never inebriating, is even more so. This wine, used when old, acts astringently upon the stomach and bowels, cures griping pains in those regions, and dispels nausea.

  The dried leaves, powdered and sprinkled upon the body, check profuse perspirations, in fever even; they are good, too, used as a fomentation, for cœliac affections, procidence of the uterus, diseases of the fundament, running ulcers, erysipelas, loss of the hair, scaly and other eruptions, and burns. This powder is used as an ingredient, also, in the plasters known as “liparæ;” and for the same reason the oil of the leaves is used for a similar purpose, being extremely efficacious as an application to the humid parts of the body, the mouth and the uterus, for example.

  The leaves themselves, beaten up with wine, neutralize the bad effects of fungi; and they are employed, in combination with wax, for diseases of the joints, and gatherings. A decoction of them, in wine, is taken for dysentery and dropsy. Dried and reduced to powder, they are sprinkled upon ulcers and hæmorrhages. They are useful, also, for the removal of freckles, and for the cure of hang-nails, whitlows, condylo- mata, affections of the testes, and sordid ulcers. In combination with cerate, they are used for burns.

  For purulent discharges from the ears, the ashes of the leaves are employed, as well as the juice and the decoction: the ashes are also used in the composition of antidotes. For a similar purpose the blossoms are stripped from off the young branches, which are burnt in a furnace, and then pounded in wine. The ashes of the leaves, too, are used for the cure of burns. To prevent ulcerations from causing swellings in the inguinal glands, it will suffice for the patient to carry a sprig of myrtle about him which has never touched the ground or any implement of iron.

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  CHAP. 82.

  MYRTIDANUM: THIRTEEN REMEDIES.

  We have already described the manner in which myrtidanum is made. Applied in a pessary, or as a fomentation or liniment, it is good for affections of the uterus, being much more efficacious than the bark of the tree, or the leaves and seed. There is a juice also extracted from the more tender leaves, which are pounded in a mortar for the purpose, astringent wine, or, according to one method, rain-water, being poured upon them a little at a time. This extract is used for the cure of ulcers of the mouth, the fundament, the uterus, and the abdomen. It is employed, also, for dyeing the hair black, the suppression of exudations at the arm-pits, the removal of freckles, and other purposes in which astringents are required.

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  CHAP. 83.

  THE WILD MYRTLE, OTHERWISE CALLED OXYMYRSINE, OR CHAMÆMYRSINE, AND THE RUSCUS: SIX REMEDIES.

  The wild myrtle, oxymyrsine, or chamæmyrsine, differs from the cultivated myrtle in the redness of its berries and its diminutive height. The root of it is held in high esteem; a decoction of it, in wine, is taken for pains in the kidneys and strangury, more particularly when the urine is thick and fetid. Pounded in wine, it is employed for the cure of jaundice, and as a purgative for the uterus. The same method is adopted, also, with the young shoots, which are sometimes roasted in hot ashes and eaten as a substitute for asparagus.

  The berries, taken with wine, or oil and vinegar, break calculi of the bladder: beaten up with rose-oil and vinegar, they allay head-ache. Taken in drink, they are curative of jaundice. Castor calls the wild myrtle with prickly leaves, or oxymyrsine, from which brooms are made, by
the name of “ruscus” — the medicinal properties of it are just the same.

  Thus much, then, with reference to the medicinal pro- perties of the cultivated trees; let us now pass on to the wild ones.

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

  Roman Authors Quoted. — C. Valgius, Pompeius Linnæus, Sextius Niger who wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus who wrote in Greek, Antonius Castor, M. Varro, Cornelius Celsus, Fabianus.

  Foreign Authors Quoted. — Theophrastus, Democritus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Mago, Menander who wrote the “Biochresta,” Nicandcr, Homer, Hesiod, Musæus, Sophocles, Anaxilaüs.

  Medical Authors Quoted. — Mnesitheus, Callimachus, Phanias the physician, Timaristus, Simus, Hippocrates, Chrysippus, Diocles, Ophelion, Heraclides Hicesius, Dionysius, Apollodorus of Citium, Apollodorus of Tarentum, Plistonicus, Medius, Dieuches, Cleophantus, Philistion, Asclepiades, Crateuas, Petronius Diodotus, Iollas, Erasistratus, Diagoras, Andreas, Mnesides, Epicharmus, Damion, Dalion, Sosimenes, Tlepolemus, Metrodorus, Solo, Lycus, Olympias of Thebes, Philinus, Petrichus, Micton, Glaucias, Xenocrates.

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  BOOK XXIV. THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FOREST TREES.