^84 pli:st's NATIJEAL HISTOET. [Book XXIII. 



CHAP. 33. — LEES OF SAPA : FOTJE KEMEDIES. 



The lees*'^ of sapa are used for the cure of burns, it being 

 the best plan to employ with them the down that grows on 

 the reed ; a decoction too, of these lees, is good for the cure of 

 an inveterate cough. They are boiled also in a saucepan with 

 salt and grease as an ointment for tumours of the jaws and 

 neck. 



CHAP. 34. (3.) THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE : TWENTY-THREE 



REMEDIES. 



The next rank, after the vine, clearly belongs to the oHve. 

 The leaves of the olive-tree are astringent,*® detergent, and 

 binding in the highest degree. Chewed and applied to sores, 

 they are of a healing nature ; and applied topically with oil, 

 they are good for head-ache. A decoction of them with honey 

 makes a good liniment for such parts of the body as have been 

 subjected to cauterization, as also for inflammations of the gums, 

 whitlows, and foul and putrid ulcers : combined with honey, 

 they arrest discharges of blood from the nervous *^ parts of the 

 body. The juice of olive leaves is efficacious for carbuncular 

 ulcers and pustules about the eyes, and for procidence of the 

 pupil ; hence it is much employed in the composition of eye- 

 salves, having the additional propert}^ of healing inveterate 

 runnings of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids. 



This juice is extracted by pouring wine and rain-water 

 upon the leaves, and then pounding them ; after which the 

 pulp is dried and divided into lozenges. Used with wool, 

 as a pessary, this preparation arrests menstruation when in 

 excess, and is very useful for the treatment of purulent sores, 

 condylomata, eiysipelas, spreading ulcers, and epinyctis. 



CHAP. 35 — THE BLOSSOM OF THE OLIVE : FOUR BEilEDIES. 



The blossom,^ too, of the olive-tree possesses similar pro- 



*" The thicker parts of boiled grape-juice. These lees have no affinity 

 ■with those of wine or \nnegar. 



*^ They are rich in tannin and gallic acid, and Fee states that they 

 have been proposed as a substitute for quinine. The statements here made 

 by Pliny, he says, in reference to their properties, are hypothetical. 



■^^ " Nervosis." 



^'' X'o medicinal use is now made of it, but its properties would be very 

 similar to those of the leaves. 



