450 PLINY' S NATUllAL HISTORY. [Book XXII. 



of a powerful smell, the other one being milder. It^^ has leaves 

 the shape of a quince, but white and smaller : they are gene- 

 rally boiled with the branches. Tliis plant acts as an emme- 

 nagogue and a diuretic : and it affords a remedy for wounds 

 inflicted by the sting-ray/^ having the property of benumbing 

 Ihe part affected. It is taken in drink with wormwood for 

 dysjmtery : employed with wine it accelerates the catamenia 

 when retarded, a decoction of it having the effect of arresting 

 them when in excess : the plant, applied by itself, stanclies 

 the blood of wounds. It is a cure, too, for the stings of ser- 

 pents, and a decoction of it in wine allays prurigo of the 

 testes. 



Our herbalists of the present day take for the '' elelisphacos" 

 of the Greeks tlie "salvia"*^ of the Latins, a plant similar in 

 appearance to mint, white and aromatic. Applied externally, 

 it expels the dead foetus, as also worms which breed in ulcers 

 and in the ears. 



CHAP. 72. THE CHICKPEA AND THE CHICHELING VETCH I 



TWENTY-THEEE REMEDIES. 



There is a wild chickpea also, which resembles in its leaf the 

 cultivated kind,*^ and has a powerful smell. Taken in con- 

 siderable quantities, it relaxes the bowels, and produces griping 

 pains and flatulency ; parched, however, it is looked upon as 

 more wholesome. The chicheling vetch, ^'^ again, acts more bene- 

 ficially upon the bowels. The meal of both kinds heals running 

 sores of the head — that of the wdld sort being the more effica- 

 cious of the two — as also epilepsy, swellings of the liver, and 

 stings inflicted by serpents. It acts as an emmenagogue and 

 a diuretic, used in the grain more particularly, and it is a cure 

 for lichens, inflammations of the testes, jaundice, and dropsy. 

 All these kinds, however, exercise an injurious effect upon 

 ulcerations of the bladder and kidneys : but in combination 

 with honey they are verj- good for gangrenous sores, and the 

 cancer known as '* cacoethes." The following is a method 



" Sprengel thinks that he is speaking here of the Salvia triloba of 

 Linnreus. 



^ The Trygon pastinnca of Linnjeus. 



51 " Sa^e," the phmt, no doubt, tliat lie has been dcscribinfif. 



" See B. xviii, c. 32. Fee tliinks tliat the wild cicer is identical with 

 our cultivated one, the Cicer rietinum. 



53 See B. xviii. ec. 26 and 32. 



