2C0 PLINY's NATUEAL niSTOEY. [Book XX. 



with wine it is a diuretic, and if the wine is the produce 

 of the Aminean^^ grape, it has the additional effect of dispersing 

 calculi of the bladder and removing all internal pains. Taken 

 in conjunction with honey and vinegar, it modifies the men- 

 strual discharge, and brings away the after-birth, restores the 

 uterus, when displaced, to its natural position, and expels the 

 dead^*^ foetus. The seed is given to persons to smell at, who 

 have been suddenly struck dumb, and is prescribed for epi- 

 leptic patients in doses of one cyathus, taken in vinegar. If 

 water is found unwholesome for drinking, bruised pennyroyal 

 should be sprinkled in it ; taken with wine it modifies acri- 

 dities^^ of the body. 



Mixed with salt, it is employed as a friction for the sinews, 

 and with honey and vinegar, in cases of opisthotony . Decoctions 

 of it are prescribed as a drink for persons stung by serpents; and, 

 beaten up in wine, it is employed for the stings of scorpions, 

 that which grows in a dry soil in particular. This plant is 

 looked upon as efficacious also for ulcerations of the mouth, 

 and for coughs. The blossom of it, fresh gathered, and burnt, 

 kills fleas ^^ by its smell. Xenoerates, among the other reme- 

 dies which he mentions, says that in tertian fevers, a sprig of 

 pennyroyal, wrapped in wool, should be given to the patient 

 to smell at, just before the fit comes on, or else it should be 

 put under the bed-clothes and laid by the patient's side. 



CHAP. 55. WILD PElSrXTJaOTAL : SEVENTEEN KEMEDIES. 



For all the purposes already mentioned, wild pennyroyaP^ 

 has exactly the same properties, but in a still higher degree. 

 It bears a strong resemblance to wild marjoram, ^^ and has a 

 smaller leaf than the cultivated kind : by some persons it is 

 known as '' dictamnos."^^ When browsed upon by sheep and 

 goats, it makes them bleat, for which reason, some of the 



"^ See B. xiv. c. 5. 



^^ "Defunctos partus" is certainly a better reading than " defunctis 

 partus," though the latter is the oije adopted by Sillig. 



*^ " Salsitudines." Hardouin is probably right in his conjecture, that 

 the correct reading is " lassitudines," ''lassitude." 



^' '• Pulices." It is to this belief, no doubt, that it owes its Latin name 

 '• paiegium," and ils English appellation, " flea-bane." 



" It differs in no respect whatever from the cxiltivated kind, except that 

 the leaves of the latter are somewhat larger. 



s* Or origanum. ss Whence our name "dittany." 



