Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  The same authority recommends fenugreek boiled, with barley or linseed, in hydromel, as a pessary for violent pains in the uterus: he prescribes it also as an external application for the lower regions of the abdomen. He speaks also of treating leprous sores and freckles with a mixture composed of equal proportions of sulphur and meal of fenugreek, recommending it to be applied repeatedly in the course of the day, due care being taken not to rub the part affected.

  For the cure of leprosy, Theodorus prescribes a mixture of fenugreek, and one fourth part of cleaned nasturtium, the whole to be steeped in the strongest vinegar. Damion used to give a potion by way of emmenagogue, consisting of half an acetabulum of fenugreek seed in nine cyathi of boiled must and water. There is no doubt too, that a decoction of it is remarkably useful for diseases of the uterus and for ulcerations of the intestines, and that the seed is beneficial for affections of the joints and chest. Boiled with mallows and then taken in honied wine, fenugreek is extolled in the highest terms, as serviceable for affections of the uterus and intestines. Indeed, the very steam that arises from the decoction may be productive of considerable benefit. A decoction too of fenugreek seed is a corrective of the rank odours of the armpits. Meal of fenugreek, with wine and nitre, speedily removes ring-worm and dandriff of the head; and a decoction of it in hydromel, with the addition of axle-grease, is used for the cure of diseases of the generative organs, inflamed tumours, imposthumes of the parotid glands, gout in the Feet and hands, maladies of the joints, and denudations of the bones. Kneaded with vinegar, it effects the cure of sprains, and, boiled in oxymel only, it is used as a liniment for affections of the spleen. Kneaded with wine, it acts as a detergent upon carcinomatous sores; after which, applied with honey, it effects a perfect cure. A pottage too is made of this meal, which is taken for ulcerations of the chest and chronic coughs; it is kept boiling a considerable time, in order to remove the bitterness, after which honey is added.

  We shall now proceed to speak of the plants which have gained a higher degree of reputation.

  SUMMARY. — Remedies, narratives, and observations, eleven hundred and seventy-six.

  ROMAN ATUTHORS QUOTED. — C. Valgius, Pompeius Lenæus, Sextius Niger who wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus who wrote in Greek, Antonius Castor, Cornelius Celsus.

  FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED. — Theophrastus, Apollodorus, Democritus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Mago, Menan- der who wrote the “Biochresta,” Nicander, 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, Praxagoras, Plistonicus, Medius, Dieuches, Cleophantus, Philistion, Asclepiades, Crateuas, Petronius Diodotus, Iollas, Erasistratus, Diagoras, Andreas, Mnesides, Epicharmus, Damion, Sosimenes, Tlepolemus, Metrodorus, Solon, Lycus, Olympias of Thebes, Philinus, Petrichus, Micton, Glaucias, Xenocrates.

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  BOOK XXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WILD PLANT

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  CHAP. 1. (1.)

  WHEN THE WAILD PLANTS WERE FIRST BROUGHT INTO USE.

  THE more highly esteemed plants of which I am now about to speak, and which are produced by the earth for medicinal purposes solely, inspire me with admiration of the industry and laborious research displayed by the ancients. Indeed there is nothing that they have not tested by experiment or left untried; no discovery of theirs which they have not disclosed, or which they have not been desirous to leave for the benefit of posterity. We, on the contrary, at the present day, make it our object to conceal and suppress the results of our labours, and to defraud our fellow-men of blessings even which have been purchased by others. For true it is, beyond all doubt, that those who have gained any trifling accession of knowledge, keep it to themselves, and envy the enjoyment of it by others; to leave mankind uninstructed being looked upon as the high prerogative of learning. So far is it from being the habit with them to enter upon new fields of discovery, with the view of benefitting mankind at large, that for this long time past it has been the greatest effort of the ingenuity of each, to keep to himself the successful results of the experience of former ages, and so bury them for ever!

  And. yet, by Hercules! a single invention before now has elevated men to the rank of gods; and how many an individual has had his name immortalized in being bestowed upon some plant which he was the first to discover, thanks to the gratitude which prompted a succeeding age to make some adequate return! If it had been expended solely upon the plants which are grown to please the eye, or which invite us by their nutrimental properties, this laborious research on the part of the ancients would not have been so surprising; but in addition to this, we find them climbing by devious tracts to the very summit of mountains, penetrating to the very heart of wilds and deserts, and searching into every vein and fibre of the earth-and all this, to discover the hidden virtues of every root, the properties of the leaf of every plant, and the various purposes to which they might be applied; converting thereby those vegetable productions, which the very beasts of the field refuse to touch, into so many instruments for our welfare.

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  CHAP. 2. (2.)

  THE LATIN AUTHORS WHO HAVE WRITTEN UPON THESE PLANTS.

  This subject has not been treated of by the writers in our own language so extensively as it deserves, eager as they have proved themselves to make enquiry into everything that is either meritorious or profitable. M. Cato, that great master in all useful knowledge, was the first, and, for a long time, the only author who treated of this branch of learning; and briefly as he has touched upon it, he has not omitted to make some mention of the remedial treatment of cattle. After him, another illustrious personage, C. Valgius, a man distinguished for his erudition, commenced a treatise upon the same subject, which he dedicated to the late Emperor Augustus, but left unfinished. At the beginning of his preface, replete as it is with a spirit of piety, he expresses a hope that the majestic sway of that prince may ever prove a most efficient remedy for all the evils to which mankind are exposed.

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  CHAP. 3.

  AT WHAT PERIOD THE ROMANS ACQUIRED SOME KNOW- LEDGE OF THIS SUBJECT.

  The only person among us, at least so far as I have been able to ascertain, who had treated of this subject before the time of Valgius, was Pompeius Lenæus, the freedman of Pompeius Magnus; and it was in his day, I find, that this branch of knowledge first began to be cultivated among us. Mithridates, the most powerful monarch of that period, and who was finally conquered by Pompeius, is generally thought to have been a more zealous promoter of discoveries for the benefit of mankind, than any of his predecessors — a fact evinced not only by many positive proofs, but by universal report as well. It was he who first thought, the proper precautions being duly taken, of drinking poison every day; it being his object, by becoming habituated to it, to neutralize its dangerous effects. This prince was the first discoverer too of the various kinds of antidotes, one of which, indeed, still retains his name; and it is generally supposed that he was the first to employ the blood of the ducks of Pontus as an ingredient in antidotes, from the circumstance that they derive their nutriment from poisons.

  It was to Mithridates that Asclepiades, that celebrated physician, dedicated his works, still extant, and sent them, as a substitute for his own personal attendance, when requested by that monarch to leave Rome and reside at his court. It is a well-known fact, that this prince was the only person that was ever able to converse in so many as two-and-twenty languages, and that, during the whole fifty-six years of his reign, he never required the services of an interpreter when conversing with any individuals of the numerous nations that were subject to his sway.

  Among the other gifts of extraordinary genius with which he was endowed, Mithridates displayed a peculiar fondness for enquiries into the medical arts; and gathering items of in
formation from all his subjects, extended, as they were, over a large proportion of the world, it was his habit to make copies of their communications, and to take notes of the results which upon experiment had been produced. These memoranda, which he kept in his private cabinet, fell into the hands of Pompeius, when he took possession of the royal treasures; who at once commissioned his freedman, Lenæus the grammarian, to translate them into the Latin language: the result of which was, that his victory was equally conducive to the benefit of the republic and of mankind at large.

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  CHAP. 4.

  GREEK AUTHORS WHO HAVE DELINEATED THE PLANTS IN COLOURS.

  In addition to these, there are some Greek writers who have treated of this subject, and who have been already mentioned on the appropriate occasions. Among them, Crateuas, Dionysius, and Metrodorus, adopted a very attractive method of description, though one which has done little more than prove the remarkable difficulties which attended it. It was their plan to delineate the various plants in colours, and then to add in writing a description of the properties which they possessed. Pictures, however, are very apt to mislead, and more particularly where such a number of tints is required, for the imitation of nature with any success; in addition to which, the diversity of copyists from the original paintings, and their comparative degrees of skill, add very considerably to the chances of losing the necessary degree of resemblance to the originals. And then, besides, it is not sufficient to delineate a plant as it appears at one period only, as it presents a different appearance at each of the four seasons of the year.

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  CHAP. 5.

  THE FIRST GREEK AUTHORS WHO WROTE UPON PLANTS.

  Hence it is that other writers have confined themselves to a verbal description of the plants, indeed some of them have not so much as described them even, but have contented themselves for the most part with a bare recital of their names, considering it sufficient if they pointed out their virtues and properties to such as might Feel inclined to make further enquiries into the subject. Nor is this a kind of knowledge by any means difficult to obtain; at all events, so far as regards myself, with the exception of a very few, it has been my good fortune to examine them all, aided by the scientific researches of Antonius Castor, who in our time enjoyed the highest reputation for an intimate acquaintance with this branch of knowledge. I had the opportunity of visiting his garden, in which, though he had passed his hundredth year, he cultivated vast numbers of plants with the greatest care. Though he had reached this great age, he had never experienced any bodily ailment, and neither his memory nor his natural vigour had been the least impaired by the lapse of time.

  There was nothing more highly admired than an intimate knowledge of plants, in ancient times. It is long since the means were discovered of calculating before-hand, not only the day or the night, but the very hour even at which an eclipse of the sun or moon is to take place; and yet the greater part of the lower classes still remain firmly persuaded that these phenomena are brought about by compulsion, through the agency of herbs and enchantments, and that the knowledge of this art is confined almost exclusively to females. What country, in fact, is not filled with the fabulous stories about Medea of Colchis and other sorceresses, the Italian Circe in particular, who has been elevated to the rank of a divinity even? It is with reference to her, I am of opinion, that Æschylus, one of the most ancient of the poets, asserts that Italy is covered with plants endowed with potent effects, and that many writers say the same of Circeii, the place of her abode. Another great proof too that such is the case, is the fact, that the nation of the Marsi, descendants of a son of Circe, are well known still to possess the art of taming serpents.

  Homer, that great parent of the learning and traditions of antiquity, while extolling the fame of Circe in many other respects, assigns to Egypt the glory of having first discovered the properties of plants, and that; too at a time when the portion of that country which is now watered by the river Nilus was not in existence, having been formed at a more recent period by the alluvion of that river. At all events, he states that numerous Egyptian plants were sent to the Helena of his story, by the wife of the king of that country, together with the celebrated nepenthes, which ensured oblivion of all sorrows and forgetfulness of the past, a potion which Helena was to administer to all mortals. The first person, however, of whom the remembrance has come down to us, as having treated with any degree of exactness on the subject of plants, is Orpheus; and next to him Musæus and Hesiod, of whose admiration of the plant called polium we have already made some mention on previous occasions. Orpheus and Hesiod too we find speaking in high terms of the efficacy of fumigations. Homer also speaks of several other plants by name, of which we shall have occasion to make further mention in their appropriate places.

  In later times again, Pythagoras, that celebrated philosopher, was the first to write a treatise on the properties of plants, a work in which he attributes the origin and discovery of them to Apollo, Æsculapius, and the immortal gods in general. Democritus too, composed a similar work. Both of these philosophers had visited the magicians of Persia, Arabia, Æthiopia, and Egypt, and so astounded were the ancients at their recitals, as to learn to make assertions which transcend all belief. Xanthus, the author of some historical works, tells us, in the first of them, that a young dragon was restored to life by its parent through the agency of a plant to which he gives the name of “ballis,” and that one Tylon, who had been killed by a dragon, was restored to life and health by similar means. Juba too assures us that in Arabia a man was resuscitated by the agency of a certain plant. Democritus has asserted — and Theophrastus believes it — that there is a certain herb in existence, which, upon being carried thither by a bird, the name of which we have already given, has the effect, by the contact solely, of instantaneously drawing a wedge from a tree, when driven home by the shepherds into the wood.

  These marvels, incredible as they are, excite our admiration nevertheless, and extort from us the admission that, making all due allowance, there is much in them that is based on truth. Hence it is too that I find it the opinion of most writers, that there is nothing which cannot be effected by the agency of plants, but that the properties of by far the greater part of them remain as yet unknown. In the number of these was Herophilus, a celebrated physician, a saying of whose is reported, to the effect that some plants may possibly exercise a beneficial influence, if only trodden under foot. Be this as it may, it has been remarked more than once, that wounds and maladies are sometimes inflamed upon the sudden approach of persons who have been journeying on foot.

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  CHAP. 6.

  WHY A FEW OF THE PLANTS ONLY HAVE BEEN USED MEDICINALLY. PLANTS, THE MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF WHICH HAVE BEEN MIRACULOUSLY DISCOVERED. THE CYNORRHODOS: TWO REMEDIES. THE PLANT CALLED DRACUNCULUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BRITANNICA: FIVE REMEDIES.

  Such was the state of medical knowledge in ancient times, wholly concealed as it was in the language of the Greeks. But the main reason why the medicinal properties of most plants remain still unknown, is the fact that they have been tested solely by rustics and illiterate people, such being the only class of persons that live in the midst of them: in addition to which, so vast is the multitude of medical men always at hand, that the public are careless of making any enquiries about them. Indeed, many of those plants, the medicinal properties of which have been discovered, are still destitute of names — such, for instance, as the one which we mentioned when speaking of the cultivation of grain, and which we know for certain will have the effect of keeping birds away from the crops, if buried at the four corners of the field.

  But the most disgraceful cause of all, why so few simples are known, is the fact that those even who are acquainted with them are unwilling to impart their knowledge; as though, forsooth, they should lose for ever anything that they might think fit to communicate to others! Added to all this, there is no well-ascertained
method to guide us to the acquisition of this kind of knowledge; for, as to the discoveries that have been made already, they have been due, some of them, to mere accident, and others again, to say the truth, to the interposition of the Deity.

  Down to our own times, the bite of the mad dog, the symptoms of which are a dread of water and an aversion to every kind of beverage, was incurable; and it was only recently that the mother of a soldier who was serving in the prætorian guard, received a warning in a dream, to send her son the root of the wild rose, known as the cynorrhodos, a plant the beauty of which had attracted her attention in a shrubbery the day before, and to request him to drink the extract of it. The army was then serving in Lacetania, the part of Spain which lies nearest to Italy; and it so happened that the soldier, having been bitten by a dog, was just beginning to manifest a horror of water when his mother’s letter reached him, in which she entreated him to obey the words of this divine warning. He accordingly complied with Her request, and, against all hope or expectation, his life was saved; a result which has been experienced by all who have since availed then- selves of the same resource. Before this, the cynorrhodos had been only recommended by writers for one medicinal purpose; the spongy excrescences, they say, which grow in the midst of its thorns, reduced to ashes and mixed with honey, will make the hair grow again when it has been lost by alopecy. I know too, for a fact, that in the same province there was lately discovered in the land belonging to a person with whom I was staying, a stalked plant, the name given to which was dracunculus. This plant, about an inch in thickness, and spotted with various colours, like a viper’s skin, was generally reported to be an effectual preservative against the sting of all kinds of serpents. I should remark, however, that it is a different plant from the one of the same name of which mention has been made in the preceding Book, having altogether another shape and appear- ance. There is also another marvellous property belonging to it: in spring, when the serpents begin to cast their slough, it shoots up from the ground to the height of about a couple of Feet, and again, when they retire for the winter it conceals itself within the earth, nor is there a serpent to be seen so long as it remains out of sight. Even if this plant did nothing else but warn us of impending danger, and tell us when to be on our guard, it could not be looked upon otherwise than as a beneficent provision made by Nature in our behalves.