258 pliny's natural iiisToiir. [Book XX. 



curdled state. It is administered also for this purpose in 

 water or honied wine. It is generally thought, too, that it is 

 in consequence of this property that it impedes generation, by 

 preventing the seminal fluids from obtaining the requisite con- 

 sistency. In males as well as females it arrests bleeding, and 

 it has the property, with the latter, of suspending the men- 

 strual discharge. Taken in water, with amylum,"^ it prevents 

 looseness in coeliac complaints, Syriation employed this plant 

 for the cure of abscesses of the uterus, and, in doses of 

 three oboli, with honied wine, for diseases of the liver : he 

 prescribed it also, in pottage, for spitting of blood. It is an 

 admirable remedy for ulcerations of the head in children, and 

 has the effect equally of drying the trachea when too moist, 

 and of bracing it when too dry. Taken in honied wine and 

 water, it carries off purulent phlegm. 



The juice of mint is good for the voice when a person is 

 about to engage in a contest of eloquence, but only when taken 

 just before. It is employed also with milk as a gargle for 

 swelling of the uvula, with the addition of rue and coriander. 

 "With alum, too, it is good for the tonsils of the throat, and, 

 mixed with honey, for roughness of the tongue. Employed 

 by itself, it is a remedy for internal convulsions and affections 

 of the lungs. Taken with pomegranate juice, as Democrites 

 tells us, it arrests hiccup and vomiting. The juice of mint 

 fresh gathered, inhaled, is a remed}' for affections of the nos- 

 trils. Beaten up and taken in vinegar, mint is a cure for 

 cholera, and for internal fluxes of blood : applied externally, 

 Avith pole-nta, it is remedial for the iliac passion and tension of 

 the mamillse. It is applied, too, as a liniment to the temples 

 for head-ache ; and it is taken internally, as an antidote for 

 the stings of scolopendrse, sea-scor2)ions, and serpents. As a 

 liniment it is applied also for defluxions of the eyes, and all 

 eruptions of the head, as well as maladies of the rectum. 



Mint is an effectual preventive, too, of chafing of the skin, 

 even if held in the hand only. In combination with honied 

 wine, it is employed as an injection for the ears. It is said, 

 too, that this plant will cure affections of the spleen, if tasted 

 in the garden nine days consecutively, Avithout plucking it, the 

 person who bites it saying at the same moment that he does 

 so for the benefit of the spleen : and that, if dried, and re- 

 '"1 See B. xviii. c. 17, and B. xxii. c. 67. 



