Chap. 81.] PORCILLACA OR PIIRSLAIN. 281 



the eyes, the leaves are beaten up with bean-shells. In com- 

 bination with polenta, salt, and vinegar, it is employed as a 

 fomentation for blisters. 



Chewed raw, purslain reduces ulcerations of the mouth and 

 gum-boils, and cures tooth-ache ; a decoction of it is good, too, 

 for ulcers of the tonsils. Some persons have added a little 

 myrrh to it, when so employed. Chewed, it strengthens such 

 teeth as may happen to be loose, dispels crudities, imparts ad- 

 ditional strength to the voice, and allays thirst. Used with nut- 

 galls, linseed, and honey, in equal proportions, it assuages pains 

 in the neck ; and, combined with honey or Cimolian chalk, it is 

 good for diseases of the maraillse. The seed of it, taken with 

 honey, is beneficial for asthma. Eaten in salads,'''' this plant 

 is very strengthening to the stomach. In burning fevers, ap- 

 plications of it are made with polenta ; in addition to which, 

 if chewed, it will cool and refresh the intestines. It arrests 

 vomiting, also, and for dysentery and abscesses, it is eaten with 

 vinegar, or else taken with cummin in drink : boiled, it is good 

 for tenesmus. Taken either in the food or drink, it is good for 

 epilepsy ; and, taken in doses of one acetabulum in boiled 

 wine,^ it promotes the menstrual discharge. Employed, also, 

 as a liniment with salt, it is used as a remedy for fits of hot 

 gout and erysipelas. 



The juice of this plant, taken in drink, strengthens the kid- 

 neys and bladder, and expels intestinal worms. In conjunc- 

 tion with oil, it is applied, with polenta, to assuage the pain 

 of wounds, and it softens indurations of the sinews. Metro- 

 dorus, who wrote an Abridgment of Botany, ^^ says that it should 

 be given after delivery, to accelerate the lochia! discharge. It 

 is also an antaphrodisiac, and prevents the recurrence of las- 

 civious dreams. One of the principal personages of Spain, 

 whose son has been Pragtor, is in the habit of carrying the root 

 of it, to my knowledge, suspended by a string from his neck, 

 except when he is taking the bath, for an incurable affection 

 of the uvula ; a precaution by which he has been spared all 

 inconvenience. 



I have found it stated, too, in some authors, that if the head 

 is rubbed with a liniment of this plant, there will be no de- 



83 See B. XXXV. c. 57. ^^ *' Acetariis." 



^'^ " Sapa." Grape-juice, boiled down to one third. 

 *^ 'ETTiroui'jv 'piZoTOVfxipuiv. 



