460 Pliny's natural htstobt. [Book XXIII. 



jflands, and generative organs, for example; it is very good, 

 too, for the sight, for rough spots upon the eyelids, ulcers at the 

 corners of the eyes, films upon the eyes, running sores on all 

 parts of the hody, cicatrizations" slow in forming, and purulent 

 discharges from the ears. The powerful action of omphaciuru 

 is modified by the admixture of honey or raisin wine. It is 

 very useful, too, for dysentery, spitting of blood, and quinsy. 



CHAP. 5.— (ENANTHE I TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES. 



Next to omphacium comes oenanthe, a product of the wild 

 vine, described by us already ^^ when treating of the unguents. 

 The most esteemed kind is that of Syiia, the produce of the 

 ■white vine ^^ in the vicinity of the mountains of Antiochia and 

 Laodicea in particular. Being of a cooling, astringent nature, 

 it is used for sprinkling upon sores, and is employed as a to- 

 pical application for diseases of the stomach. It acts also as a 

 diuretic, and is good for maladies of the liver, head-ache, 

 dysentery, cceliac affections, and attacks of cholera : for nausea, 

 it is taken in doses of one obolus in vinegar. It acts as a desic- 

 cative upon running eruptions of the head, and is extremely 

 efficacious for maladies of the humid parts of the body ; hence 

 it is that it is employed, with honey and saffron, for ulcers of 

 the mouth, and for diseases of the generative organs and the 

 fundament. It arrests looseness of the bowels, and heals erup- 

 tions of the eyelids and runnings at the eyes : taken with wine, 

 it cures derangements of the stomach, and with cold water, 

 Bintting of blood. 



The ashes of oenanthe are highly esteemed as an ingredient 

 in eye- salves, and as a detergent for ulcers, whitlows, and 

 hang-nails ;^* to obtain these ashes, it is put into an oven, and 

 left there till the bread is thoroughly baked. 



1' Saraceniis, upon Dioscorides, B. v. c. 6, thinks that Pliny, in copying 

 from the Greek, has made a mistake here, and tliat he lias taken ov\op^ 

 the "gums," for oi/Xj}, a "cicatrix;" the corresponding passage in 

 Dioscorides being ovXa TrXaSapa, "flaccidity," or "humidity of the 

 gums." 



i'^ In B. xii. c. 61. See also B. xiii. c. 2, B, xiv. c. 18, and B. xv. c. 7. 

 (Enanthc, or vine-blossom, possesses no active medicinal properties, and 

 the statements made liere by Pliny are in all probability unfounded. 



^3 Not tlie white vine, or Bryonia alba of modern botany, but probably 

 some variety of the cultivated vine with white fruit, Tlje flower of the 

 bryony is inodorous, and would be of no utility in the composition of 

 perfumes. ^* "Pterygia." 



