286 pltny's natural history. [Book XX. 



choly, in doses of three cyathi, and to insane persons^'^ in doses 

 of four. One hemina of the decoction is prescribed, also, for 

 epilepsy. ^^ A warm decoction of the juice is employed, too, as 

 a fomentation for calculus, flatulency, gripings of the stomach, 

 and opisthotony. The leaves are boiled, and applied with oil, 

 as a poultice for erysipelas and burns, and raw, with bread, to 

 arrest inflammation in wounds. A decoction of mallows is 

 beneficial for affections of the sinews and bladder, and for 

 gnawing pains of the intestines ; taken, too, as an aliment, or 

 an injection, they are relaxing to the uterus, and the decoction, 

 taken with oil, facilitates the passage of the urine.^^ 



The root of the althaea ^^ is even more efficacious for all the 

 purposes above enumerated, and for convulsions and ruptures 

 more particularly. Boiled in water, it arrests looseness of the 

 bowels ; and taken in white wine, it is a cure for scrofulous 

 sores, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and inflammations of 

 the mamillae. A. decoction of the leaves in wine, applied as a 

 liniment, disperses inflammatory tumours ; and the leaves, first 

 dried, and then boiled in milk, are a speedy cure for a cough, 

 however inveterate. Hippocrates prescribes a decoction of the 

 root to be drunk by persons wounded or thirsty from loss of 

 blood, and the plant itself as an application to wounds, with 

 honey and resin. He also recommends it to be employed in a 

 similar manner for contusions, sprains, and tumours of the 

 muscles, sinews, and joints, and prescribes it to be taken in 

 wine for asthma and dysentery. It is a singular thing, that 

 water in which this root has been put, thickens when exposed 

 in the open air, and congeals ^^ like ice. The more recently, 

 however, it has been taken up, the greater are the virtues of 

 the root.'^ 



^- It would be of no use wliatever in such cases, Fee says. 



^2 Without any good results, Fee says. 



^* " Permeatus suaves facit." We can only make a vague guess at the 

 meaning ; as the passage is, most probably, corrupt. 



1^ The Altbaea officinalis of Linnaeus, or marsh-mallow. The medicinal 

 properties are similar to those of the other varieties of the mallow. 



^« It is the fact, that water, in which mallows are steeped, owing to the 

 mucilage of the root, assumes the appearance of milk. 



^^ Fee says that this milky appearance of the water does not depend on 

 the freshness of the root ; as it is only the aqueous particles that are dried 

 up, the mucilage preserving its chemical properties in their original in- 

 tegrity. 



