Chap. 45.] THE COIS^DEION. 427 



remedy for diseases of the ears — all these remedies, however, 

 be it remembered, are derived from the white kind. 



As to the black sonchos, Cieemporus forbids it to be eaten, 

 as being productive of diseases, but at the same time he ap- 

 proves of the use of the white. Agathocles, however, goes so 

 far as to assert that the juice of the black kind is an antidote 

 for poisoning by bulls' blood ; and, indeed, it is generally agreed 

 that the black sonchos has certain refreshing properties ; for 

 which reason cataplasms of it may be advantageously applied 

 with polenta. Zeno recommends the root of the white kind 

 for strangury. 



CHAP. 45. THE CONDEION OE CHONDRTLLA : SIX EEMEDIES. 



The condrion,^^ or chondrylla, has leaves, eaten away, as it 

 were, at the edges, and similar to those of endive, a 

 stalk less than a foot in length and full of a bitter juice, 

 and a root resembling that of the bean, and occasionally very 

 ramified. It produces, near the surface of the earth, a sort 

 of mastich,^ in a tubercular form, the size of a bean ; this 

 mastich, it is said, employed as a pessary, promotes the men- 

 strual discharge. This plant, pounded whole with the roots, 

 is divided into lozenges, which are employed for the stings of 

 serpents, and probably with good effect ; for field mice, it is 

 said, when injured by those reptiles, are in the habit of eating 

 this plant. A decoction of it in wine arrests looseness of the 

 bowels, and makes a most excellent substitute for gum, as a 

 bandoline for the eye-lashes,^ even when the hairs are most 

 stubborn. Dorotheus says, in his poems, that it is extremely 

 good for the stomach and the digestive organs. Some persons, 

 however, have been of opinion that it is unwholesome for fe- 

 males, bad for the eyesight, and productive of impotence in 

 the male sex. 



22 Sibthorpe thinks that this is the Chondrilla ramosissiraa of Linnaeus ; 

 but F6e identifies it with the Chondrilla juncea of Linnaeus. The Lac- 

 tuca perennis has also been suggested. See B. xxi. cc. 52 and 65. 



23 In the Isle of Lemnos, at the present day, a milky juice is extracted 

 from tlie root of the Chondrilla juncea. 



2* To keep the hairs in their proper place._ 



