222 Pliny's natural history. [Book XX. 



CHAP. 19. — ELECAMPANE *. ELETEN REMEDIES. 



Elecampane,^ too, chewed fasting, has the eifect of strength- 

 ening the teeth, if, from the moment that it is plucked, it is 

 not allowed to touch the ground : a confection of it is a cure 

 for cough. The juice of the root boiled is an expellent of in- 

 testinal tapeworm; and dried in the shade and reduced to 

 powder, the root^ is curative in cases of cough, convulsions, 

 flatulency, and affections of the trachea. It is useful too, for 

 the bites of venomous animals ; and the leaves steeped in wine 

 are applied topically for pains in the loins. 



CHAP. 20. ONIONS : TWENTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. 



There are no such things in existence as wild onions. The 

 cultivated onion is employed for the cure of dimness* of sight, 

 the patient being made to smell at it till tears come into the 

 eyes : it is still better even if the eyes are rubbed with the 

 juice. It is said, too, that onions are soporific,^ and that they 

 are a cure for ulcerations of the mouth, if chewed with bread. 

 Fresh onions in vinegar, applied topically, or dried onions with 

 wine and honey, are good for the bites of dogs, care being 

 taken not to remove the bandage till the end of a couple of 

 days. Applied, too, in the same way, they are good for heal- 

 ing excoriations. Roasted in hot ashes, many persons have 

 applied them topically, with barley meal, for defluxions of the 

 eyes and ulcerations of the genitals. The juice, too, is em- 

 ployed as an ointment for sores of the eyes, albugo,® and 

 argema/ Mixed with honey, it is used as a liniment for the 

 stings® of serpents and all kinds of ulcerous sores. In com- 

 bination with woman's milk, it is employed for affections of the 

 ears ; and in cases of singing in the ears and hardness of hear- 

 ing, it is injected into those organs with goose-grease or honey. 



2 The Inula Uelenium of botanists. See B. xix. c. 29. 



' Modern notions, Fee says, do not agree with those of the ancients on 

 the subject of elecampane. The root owes the energy of its action to the 

 camphor wliich it contains. 



* This notion of the virtues of the onion is quite erroneous, though it 

 still prevails to a considerable degree. Hippocrates, however, Dioscorides, | 

 and Galen, like Plinj^, attribute this property to the onion. 



^ This, Fee says, is not the fact. 



6 A disease of the eye, by which the cornea contracts a whiteness. 



' A white speck within the black of the eye. 



8 It is of no use whatever for such a purpose. 



