294 PLI^t's NATURAIi HISTOET. [Book XXXV 



cinal properties are similar to those of sulphur, it being naturally 

 astringent, dispersive, contractive, and agglutinating : ignited, 

 it drives away serpents by the smell. Babylonian bitumen is 

 very efficacious, it is said, for the cure of cataract and albugo, 

 as also of leprosy, lichens, and pruriginous affections. Bitu- 

 men is employed, too, in the form of a liniment, for gout ; and 

 every variety of it is useful for making bandolines for eye- 

 lashes that are refractory and impede the sight. Applied topi- 

 cally with nitre,^ it is curative of tooth-ache, and, taken in- 

 ternally, with wine, it alleviates chronic coughs and difficulty 

 of respiration. It is administered in a similar manner for 

 dysentery, and is very good for arresting looseness of the 

 bowels. Taken internally with vinegar, it dissolves and brings 

 away coagulated blood. It modifies pains also in the loins 

 and j oints, and, applied with barley-meal, it forms a peculiar 

 kind of plaster, to which it has given its name.'' It stanches 

 blood also, heals wounds, and unites the sinews when severed. 

 Bitumen is administered for quartan fevers, in doses of one 

 drachma to an equal quantity of hedyosmos,^ the whole kneaded 

 up with one obolus of myrrh. The smell of burnt bitu- 

 men detects a tendency to epilepsy, and, applied to the 

 nostrils with wine and castoreum,^ it dispels suffocations of 

 the uterus. Employed as a fumigation, it acts as a check upon 

 procidence of the uterus, and, taken internally with wine, it 

 has the effect of an emmenagogue. 



Another use that is made of it, is for coating the inside 

 of copper vessels, it rendering them proof against the action 

 of fire. It has been already^" stated that bitumen was formerly 

 employed for staining copper and coating statues. It has been 

 used, too, as a substitute for lime ; the walls of Babylon, for 

 instance, which are cemented with it. In the smithies they are 

 in the habit of varnishing iron and heads of nails with it, and 

 of using it for many other purposes as well. 



CHAP. 52. ALIJMEN, AND THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF IT J 



THIRTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. 



Kot less important, or indeed very dissimilar, are the uses 



^ As to the "nitrum" of Pliny, see B. xxxi. c. 46. 

 ■^ *' Asphalt plaster," probably. 

 ^ Or mint. See B. xLx. c. 47, and B. xx. c. 53. 

 9 See B. xxxii. c. 13. lo In B. xxxiv. c. 9. 



