Chap. 73.] ANISE. 2/3 



phragm, where the body is tightly laced. It is beneficial, also, 

 to pour a decoction of it, in oil, upon the head for head-ache. 



It is generally thought that there is nothing in existence 

 more beneficial to the abdomen and intestines than anise ; for 

 which reason it is given, parched, for dysenteiy and tenesmus. 

 Some persons add opium to these ingredients, and prescribe 

 three pills a-day, the size of a bean, with one cyathus of wine. 

 Dieuches has emploj'ed the juice of this plant for lumbago, 

 and prescribes the seed of it, pounded with mint, for dropsy 

 and cceliac affections : Evenor recommends the root, also, for 

 affections of the kidneys. Dalion, the herbalist, employed it, 

 with parsley, as a cataplasm for women in labour, as also for 

 pains of the uterus ; and, for women in labour, he pre- 

 scribes a decoction of anise and dill to be taken in drink. It 

 is used as a liniment also in cases of phrenitis, or else applied 

 fresh gathered and mixed with polenta; in which form it is 

 used also for infants attacked with epilepsy ^^ or convulsions. 

 Pythagoras, indeed, assures us that persons, so long as they 

 hold this plant in the hand, will never be attacked with epi- 

 lepsy, for which reason, as much of it as possible should be 

 planted near the house ; he says, too, that women who inhale 

 the odour of it have a more easy delivery, it being his advice 

 also, that, immediately after they are delivered, it should be 

 given them to drink, with a sprinkling of polenta. 



Sosimenes employed this plant, in combination with vinegar, 

 for all kinds of indurations, and for lassitude he prescribes a 

 decoction of it in oil, with the addition of nitre. The same 

 writer pledges his word to all wayfarers, that, if they take 

 aniseed in their drink, they will be comparatively exempt 

 from fatigue^^ on their journey. Heraclides prescribes a pinch 

 of aniseed with three fingers, for inflations of the stomach, to 

 be taken with two oboli of castoreum *^ in lionied wine ; and he 

 recommends a similar preparation for inflations of the abdomen 

 and intestines. In cases of orthopnoea, he recommends a pinch 

 of aniseed with three fingers, and the same quantity of hen- 

 bane, to be mixed in asses' -milk. It is the advice of many to 

 those who are liable to vomit, ^^ to take, at dinner, one ace- 



*^ A mere fable, as Fee remarks. 

 *^ A fiction, -without any foundation in truth. 

 48 See B. viii. c. 47, and B. xxsii. cc. 13, 23, 24, and 28. 

 ^ Fee evidently mistakes the meaning of this passage, and censure. 

 VOL. IV. T 



