Chap. 51. BUE. 255 



wild thyme and laurel leaves, rubbing the heacl and neck as 

 well with the liniment. It has been given in vinegar to 

 lethargic patients to smell at, and a decoction of it is admi- 

 nistered for epilepsy, in doses of four cyathi, as also just be- 

 fore the attacks in fever of intolerable chills. It is likewise 

 given raw to persons for shivering fits Rue is a provoca- 

 tive^ of the urine to bleeding even : it promotes the men- 

 strual discharge, also, and brings away the after-birth, as 

 well as the dead foetus even, according to Hippocrates,'® if 

 taken in sweet red wine. The same author, also, recommends 

 applications of it, as well as fumigations, for affections of the 

 uterus. 



For cardiac diseases. Diodes prescribes applications of rue, 

 in combination with vinegar, honey, and barley-meal : and 

 for the iliac passion, he says that it should be mixed with 

 meal, boiled in oil, and spread upon the wool of a sheep's 

 fleece. Many persons recommend, for purulent expectorations, 

 two drachmae of dried rue to one and a half of sulphur ; and, 

 for spitting of blood, a decoction of three sprigs in wine. It is 

 given also in dysentery, with cheese, the rue being first beaten 

 up in wine ; and it has been prescribed, pounded with bitumen, 

 as a potion for habitual shortness of breath. For persons suf- 

 fering from violent falls, three ounces of the seed is recom- 

 mended. A pound of oil, in which rue leaves have been 

 boiled, added to one sextarius of wine, forms a liniment for 

 parts of the body which are frost-bitten. If rue really is a 

 diuretic, as Hippocrates^'^ thinks, it is a singular thing that 

 some persons should give it, as being an anti-diuretic, for the 

 suppression of incontinence of urine. 



Applied topically, with honey and alum, it cures itch-scabs, 

 and leprous sores ; and, in combination with nightshade and 

 hogs'-lard, or beef-suet, it is good for morphew, Avarts, scrofula, 

 and maladies of a similar nature. Used with vinegar and oil, 

 or else white lead, it is good for erysipelas ; and, applied with 

 vinegar, for carbuncles. Some persons prescribe silphium 

 also as an ingredient in the liniment ; but it is not employed 

 by them for the cure of the pustules known as epinyctis. 

 Boiled rue is recommended, also, as a cataplasm for swellings 



58 -Dioscorides says however, B. iii. c. 52, that it arrests iucontinenee 

 of the urine. See below. 



59 De Morb. Mid. B. i. c. 128. ^ De Diteta, B. ii. c. 26. 



