514 Pliny's natueal histoet. [Book XXIII. 



to be a cure for jaundice. Used alone, they are employed 

 topically for the treatment of diseases of the fundament, and 

 condylomata in particular, as also cough and spitting of blood. 



CHAP. 77. WALNUTS I TWENTY-FOUR EEMEDIES. THE MITHEI- 



DATIC ANTIDOTE. 



"Walnuts'* have received their name in Greek from being 

 oppressive ^'^ to the head; for, in fact, the emanations^^ from the 

 tree itself and the leaves penetrate to the brain. The kernels, 

 also, have a similar effect when eaten, though not in so marked 

 a degree. When fresh gathered, they are most agreeable 

 eating ; for when dry, they are more oleaginous, unwholesome 

 to the stomach, difficult of digestion, productive of head-ache, 

 and bad for cough,^^ or for a person when about to take an emetic 

 fasting : they ai"e good in cases of tenesmus only, as they carry 

 off the pituitous humours of the body. Eaten beforehand, they 

 deaden the effects of poison, and, employed with rue and oil, 

 they are a cure for quinsy. They act as a corrective, also, to 

 onions, and modify their flavour. They are applied to inflam- 

 mations of the ears, with a little honey, and with rue they are 

 used for affections of the mamillas, and for sprains. With 

 onions, salt, and honey, they are applied to bites inflicted by 

 dogs or human beings. Walnut-shells are used for cauteri- 

 zing 2^ carious teeth ; and with these shells, burnt and then 

 beaten up in oil or wine, the heads of infants are anointed, 

 they having a tendency to make the hair grow ; hence they 

 are used in a similar manner for alopecy also. These nuts, 

 eaten in considerable numbers, act as an expellent upon tape- 

 worm. ^^ Walnuts, when very old, are**' curative of gangrenous 

 sores and carbuncles, of bruises also. Green walnut-sheUs *^ 



31 See B. XV. c. 24. 



35 JLcipva, from Kupog, "heaviness," or Kaptj, the "head." See Vol. 

 III. p. 316. 



36 A mere prejudice, no doubt. 



^"^ The rancidity of the oil which they contain, renders them irritating 

 to the throat and stomach. 



38 Fee remarks, that it is difficult to see how this could be done. 



39 This statement, as Fee remarks, is quite unfounded. 

 *o This assertion is also entirely imaginary. 



*i "Cortex juglandium." Fee says that hy this term is meant, not tlie 

 green out?r shell, husk, or pericarpus of the walnut, but the bark of the 

 tree. 



