Chap. 11.] THE GLTCYEEHIZA. 399 



CilAP. 11. THE GLYCYRKHIZA OK ADIPSOS : FIFTEEN" 



REMEDIES. 



Other authors, again, have erroneously taken the glycyrr- 

 hiza^' to be a kind of eryngium : it will, therefore, be as well 

 to take this opportunity of making some further mention of it. 

 There can be no doubt, however, that this is one of the thorny 

 plants, the leaves of it being covered with prickles,^*^ substan- 

 tial, and viscous and gummy to the touch : it has much the 

 appearance of a shrub, is a couple of cubits in height, and 

 bears a flower like that of the hyacinth, and a fruit the size 

 of the little round balls^" of the plane. The best kind is that 

 grown in Cilicia, and the next best that of Pontus ; the root 

 of it is sweet, and this is the only part that is used. It is 

 gathered at the setting of the Vergiliae,^^ the root of it being 

 long, like that of the vine.^^ That which is yellow, the co- 

 lour of boxwood in fact, is superior to the darker kind, and 

 the flexible is better than the brittle. Boiled down to one- 

 third, it is employed for pessaries ; but, for general purposes, 

 a decoction is made of it of the consistency of honey. Some- 

 times, also, it is used pounded, and it is in this form that it is 

 applied as a liniment for wounds and all affections of the 

 throat. The juice*^" of it is also very good for the voice, for 

 which purpose it is thickened and then placed beneath the 

 tongue : it is good, too, for the chest and liver. 



We have already stated^^ that this plant has the effect of 



=5 Or "sweet-root," our liquorice; the Glj'cyrrhiza glabra of Linnaeus. 

 In reality, Fee remarks, there is no resemblance whatever between it and 

 the Eryngium, no kind of liquorice being prickly. 



^6 "Echinatis;" literally, '*likea hedge-bog." Phny, it is supposed, 

 read here erroneously in the Greek text, (from which Dioscorides has also 

 borrowed) hiKOTa ^x'^'V) "like a hedge-hog," for loLKora (rx^^ft "like 

 those of the lentisk." 



" " Pilularum." ss Qr Pleiades. 



^* Dioscorides compares the root, with less exactness, with that of gentian. 



^^ The same preparation that is known to us as Spanish liquorice or 

 Spanish juice. 



^^ In B. xi. c. 119. It certainly has the effect of palling the appetite, 

 but in many people it has the effect of creating thirst instead of allaying 

 it. Fee thinks that from the fecula and sugar that it contains, it may 

 possibly be nourishing, and he states that it is the basis of a favourite 

 liquor in the great cities of France. Spanish liquorice water is used in 

 England, but only by school-boys, as a matter of taste, and by patients 

 as a matter of necessity. 



