280 



PLIirr's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



persons give it the name of ''mecon," others of '' paralion.'* 

 It has a white leaf, resembling that of flax, and a head the size 

 of a bean. It is gathered when the vine is in blossom, and 

 dried in the shade. The seed, taken in drink, purges the 

 bowels, the dose being half an acetabulum, in honied wine. 

 The head of every species of poppy, whether green or dry, used 

 as a fomentation, assuages defluxions^^ of the eyes. Opium, if 

 taken in pure wine immediately after the sting of a scorpion, 

 prevents any dangerous results. Some persons, however, at- 

 tribute this virtue to the black poppy only, the head or leaves 

 being beaten up for the purpose. 



CHAP. 81. (20.) PORCILLACA OR PTJRSLAIN, OTHERWISE CALLED 



PEPLIS : TWENTV-FIVE REMEDIES. 



There is a wild purslain,^^ too, called **peplis," not much 

 superior in its virtues to the cultivated ^* kind, of which such 

 remarkable properties are mentioned. It neutralizes the effects, 

 it is said, of poisoned arrows, and the venom of the serpents 

 known as haemorrhois and prester ;^^ taken with the food and 

 applied to the wound, it extracts the poison. The juice, too, 

 they say, taken in raisin wine, is an antidote for henlDane. 

 When the plant itself cannot be procured, the seed of it is 

 found to be equally efficacious. It is a corrective, also, of im- 

 purities in water ; and beaten up in wine and applied topically, 

 it is a cure for head-ache and ulcers of the head. Chewed in 

 combination with honey, it is curative of other kinds of sores. 

 It is similarly applied to the region of the brain in infants, and 

 in cases of umbilical hernia; as also for defluxions of the eyes, 

 in persons of all ages, being applied to the forehead and tem- 

 ples with polenta. If employed as a liniment for the eyes, 

 milk and honey are added, and when used for proptosis ^^ of 



^3 The fructiferous heads of the Euphorbiaceae, thus employed, would, 

 as Fee remarks, be productive of most disastrous results. 



^ The Euphorbia pcplis of Linnreus. 



^ See B. xiii, c. 40. By Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 165, all these virtues are 

 attributed exclusively to the cultivated purslain. Indeed, there is no ana- 

 logy between the properties of the two plants ; though neither of them 

 is possessed of the wonderful virtues as antidotes here mentioned, and they 

 would only increase the sufferings of asthmatic patients. 



86 As to this serpent, see Lucan's Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 722, et seq. 



8'' A kind of spreading tumour, which, according to Scribonius Largus, 

 would appear as if about to force the eye out of the socket. Fee remarks, 

 that this malady is no longer known. 



