274 pliny's natural history. [Book XX, 



tabuli^m of aniseed and ten laurel-leaves, the whole to be 

 beaten up and drunk in water. 



Anise, chewed and applied warm, or else taken with casto- 

 reum in oxj-mel, allays suffocations of the uterus. It ako 

 dispels vertigo after child-birth, taken with a pinch of cucum- 

 ber seed in three fingers and the same quantity of linseed, in 

 three cyathi of white wine. Tlepolemus has employed a pinch 

 of aniseed and fennel in three fingers, mixed with vinegar 

 and one cyathus of honey, for the cure of quartan fever. Ap- 

 plied topically with bitter almonds, aniseed is beneficial for 

 maladies of the joints. There are some persons who look upon 

 it as, by nature, an antidote to the venom of the asp. It is a 

 diuretic, assuages thirst, and acts as an aphrodisiac. Taken in 

 wine, it promotes a gentle perspiration, and it has the property 

 of protecting cloth from the ravages of moths. The more 

 recently it has been gathered, and the darker its colour, the 

 greater are its virtues : still, however, it is injurious to the 

 stomach, except when suffering from flatulency. 



CHAP. 74. (18.) DILL : NINE REMEDIES. 



DilP acts also as a carminative, allays gripings of the sto- 

 mach, and arrests looseness of the bowels. The roots of this 

 plant are applied topically in water, or else in wine, for de- 

 fluxions of the eyes. The seed of it, if smelt at while boil- 

 ing, will arrest hiccup ; and, taken in water, it dispels indi- 

 gestion. The ashes of it are a remedy for swellings of the 

 uvula ; but the plant itself weakens the eyesight and the ge- 

 nerative powers. 



CHAP 75. SACOPENIUM, OR SAGAPENON : THIRTEEN REMEDIES, 



The sacopenium which grows in Italy is totally different 

 from that which comes from beyond sea. This last, in fact, 

 is similar to gum ammoniac, and is known as '^ sagapenon."^^ 

 Pliny for speaking of anise as an emetic. On the contrary, he here pre- 

 scribes it to counteract vomiting, and he has previously stated, in this 

 Chapter, that it arrests vomiting. 



*" The Anethum graveolens of Linnaeus : originally a native of the hot 

 climates. Its properties are very similar to those of anise. 



*' Or Sagapenum. This is a fetid gum-resin, imported from Persia and 

 Alexandria, and supposed, though without sufficient proof, Fee says, to be 

 the produce of the Ferula Persica. It is occasionally used in medicine as a 

 stimulating expectorant. In odour it somewhat resembles assafoetida, 

 only it is much weaker. Galen speaks of it as the produce of a Ferula. 

 It acts also as a purgative and a vermifuge. 



