Chap. 56.] NEP. 2G1 



Greeks, changing a single letter in its name, have called it 

 *' blechon,"^ [instead of ''glechon."] 



This plant is naturally so heating as to blister the parts of the 

 body to which it is applied. For a cough which results from 

 a chill, it is a good plan for the patient to rub himself with it 

 before taking the bath ; it is similarly employed, too, in shiver- 

 ing fits, just before the attacks come on, and for convulsions 

 and gripings of the stomach. It is also remarkably good for 

 the gout. 



To persons afflicted with spasms, this plant is administered 

 in drink, in combination with honey and salt ; and it renders 

 expectoration easy in affections of the lungs.^" Taken with 

 salt it is beneficial for the spleen and bladder, and is cura- 

 tive of asthma and flatulency. A decoction of it is equally 

 as good as the juice : it restores the uterus when displaced, and 

 is prescribed for the sting of either the land or the sea scolopen- 

 dra, as well as the scorpion. It is particularly good, too, for 

 bites inflicted by a human being. The root of it, newly taken 

 up, is extremely efficacious for corroding ulcers, and in a dried 

 btate tends to efface the deformities produced by scars. 



CHAP. 56. NEP : NINE ILEMEDIES. 



Nep^ has also some affinity in its effects with pennyroyal. 

 Boiled down in water to one third, these plants dispel sudden 

 chills : they promote the menstrual discharge also in females, 

 and allay excessive heats in summer. iSTep possesses certain 

 virtues against the stings of serpents ; at the very smoke and 

 smellof it they will instantly take to flight, and persons who have 

 to sleep in places where they are apprehensive of them, will do 

 well to place it beneath them. IJruised, it is employed to- 

 pically for lacrymal fistulas ^^ of the eye : fresh gathered and 



^ The " bleating plant ;" from (iXrjxdoiJiai, " to bleat." Dioscorides, 

 B. ii. c. 36, says the same of cultivated pennyroyal. 



®' "Pulmonum vitia exscreabilia facit." 



^^ Or "catmint;" the variety " longifolia," Fee thinks, of the Menta 

 silvestris of Linnaeu^ ; or else the IMelissa altissima of Sibthorp. Sprengel 

 identifies it with the Thymus Barrelieri, the Melissa Cretica of Liunajus. 

 Dioscorides, B. iii. c. 42, identifies the " Calamintha " of tlie Greeks with 

 the Xepeta of the Eonians. The medicinal properties of Nep, or catmint, 

 are the same as those of the other mints. 



83 '< ^gilopiis." 



