Chap. 4.] ompuacil'm:. 459 



The bark of the vine and the dried leaves arrest the flou-mg 

 of blood from wounds, and make the sores cicatrize more 

 rapidly. The juice of the white vine,® extracted from it wliile 

 green, effectually removes cutaneous'' eruptions. The ashes® 

 of the cuttings of vines, and of the husks of the grapes, ap- 

 plied with vinegar, are curative of condylomata and diseases 

 of the fundament ; as also of sprains, burns, and swellings of 

 the spleen, applied with rose-oil, rue, and vinegar. Used with 

 wine, but without oil, they make a fomentation for erysipelas 

 and parts of the body which are chafed ; they act as a depila- 

 tory also.^ For affections of the spleen the ashes of vine- 

 cuttings, moistened with vinegar, are administered in drink, 

 being taken in doses of two cyathi in warm water ; after which 

 the patient must take due care to lie upon the side in which 

 the spleen is situate. 



The tendrils, too, which the vine throws out as it climbs, 

 beaten up in water and drunk, have the effect of arresting 

 habitual vomiting. The ashes of the vine, used with stale 

 axle- grease, are good for tumours, act as a detergent upon fis- 

 tulas, and speedily effect a radical cure ; the same, too, with 

 pains and contractions of the sinews, occasioned by cold. Ap- 

 plied with oil, they are useful for contusions, and with vinegar 

 and nitre, for fleshy excrescences upon the bones : in combina- 

 tion with oil, they are good, too, for wounds inflicted by scor- 

 pions and dogs. The ashes of the bark, employed by them- 

 selves, restore the hair to such parts of the body as have suf- 

 fered from the action of fire. 



CHAP. 4. — OMPHACIUM EXTRACTED FROil THE VINE I FOURTEEN 

 RKMEDIES. 



We have already ^^ mentioned, when speaking of the com- 

 position of unguents, how omphacium is made from the grape, 

 when it is just beginniDg to form : we shall now proceed to 

 speak of its medicinal properties. Omphacium heals ulcerations 

 of the humid parts of the body, such as the mouth, tonsillary 



6 This cannot be the bryony, Fee says, but simply a variety of the grape 

 vine with white fruit. See further in c. 5 of ttiis liook. 



" " Impetigines." 



« Alkaline ashes, which would differ but very little, F^ says, from those 

 of other vegetable productions. 



9 This statement as to the caustic properties of the ashes is bised upon 

 U-uth. 1" lu 1^. xii. c. 60. 



