Cliap. 23.] PITCH. 17 



Icntisk :^° it possesses astringent properties, and is the most 

 powerful diuretic of them all. The other resins are laxative 

 to the bowels, promote the digestion of crudities, allay the 

 violence of inveterate coughs, and, employed as a fumigation, 

 disengage the uterus of foreign" bodies with which it is sur- 

 charged : they are particularly useful too as neutralizing the 

 effects of mistletoe ; and, mixed with bull suet and honey, 

 they are curative of inflamed tumours and affections of a similar 

 nature. The resin of the lentisk is very convenient as a ban- 

 doline for keeping stubborn eyelashes in their place : it is 

 useful also in cases of fractures, suppurations of the ears, and 

 prurigo of the generative organs. The resin of the pine is the 

 best of them all for the cure of wounds in the head. 



CHAP. 23. (7.) PITCH : TWEXTY-THEEE EEMEDIES. 



We have also stated on a previous occasion^^ from what 

 tree pitch is extracted, and the methods employed for that 

 purpose. Of this also there are two kinds ; thick pitch and 

 liquid pitch. ^^ Of the several varieties of thick pitch the 

 most useful for medicinal purposes is that of Bruttium ;^* for 

 being both extremely unctuous and very resinous, it reunites 

 the properties both of resin and of pitch, that of a yellow 

 reddish colour being the most highly esteemed. As to the 

 statement made in addition to this, that the produce of the 

 male tree is the best, I do not believe that any such distinc- 

 tion is at all possible. 



Pitch is of a warming, cicatrizing tendency : mixed with 

 polenta it is particularly useful as a neutralizer of the venom 

 of the cerastes, ^^ and in combination with honey it is used 

 for quinzy, catarrhs, and fits of sneezing caused by phlegm. 

 With oil of roses it is used as an injection for the ears, and 

 employed as a liniment with wax it heals lichens. It relaxes^*"* 

 the bowels, also, and used as an electuary, or applied with 



^° Maslich. The medicinal properties here attributed to it. Fee says, 

 do not exist. 



" " Onera." 12 i^ g. xiv. c. 25, and B. xvi. ce. 21, 22. 



13 Tar. See B. xvi. c. 21. 



'■* Tlie pitch of Calabria, Fee says, is known at the present day as 

 ])itch resin. All that Pliny states as to the medicinal proptrties of pitch, 

 it-: destitute, Fee thinks, of the slightest probability. 



^^ Or horned serpent. ^* Taken internally, of course. 



VOL. V. 



