238 pliny's natural iiistokt. [Book XX. 



according to the same testimony, is extremely easy of diges- 

 tion,^^ 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 tlie 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 dysent<^rv and coeliac affections, as also for tenesmus 

 and diseases of the kidneys ; he is of opinion, too, that, us 

 an aliment, it increases the quantity of the milk in women 

 who are nursing, and that it promotes the menstrual dis- 

 charge.^^ The stalk, too, eaten raw, is efficacious in expelling 

 the dead foetus. Apollodorus prescribes the seed or else the 

 jjsice of the cubbage to betaken in cases of poisoning bj' fungi; 

 and Pliilistion 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, cab- 

 bage, he says, is beneficial for inflations of the stomach ; and 

 the very water, even, in which it has been boiled, mixed with 

 barlej'-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, cab- 

 bage is a cure for epinyctis, and all kinds of spreading eruptions 

 on the body, as also for suddeu^^ attacks of dimness ; indeed, if 



^7 The contrary is in reality the case, it being a diet only suitable to 

 strong stomachs. 



8^ De Uorh. Mulier. B. i. cc. 73 and 74. De Nat. Mulier. 29 and 31. 



89 The jaundice. 



"0 Fee is inclined to account for the numerous antidotes and remedies 

 mentioned for the stings of serpents, by supposing that the stings them- 

 selves of many of tliem were not really venomous, but only supposed to be so. 



5^ " Ilepeutinas caligiues." 



