Chap. 73.] THE BEAMBLE. 47 



house, is a preservative against sorceries and spells. The 

 blossom of it, according to Pythagoras, congeals^^ water, and a 

 staflP- made of the wood, if, when thrown at any animal, from 

 want of strength in the party throwing it, it falls short of the 

 mark, will roll back again^^ towards the thrower, of its own 

 accord — so remarkable are the properties of this tree. The 

 smoke of the yew kills®^ rats and mice. 



CHAP. 73. — THE BEAMBLE I FIFTY-ONE EEMEDIES. 



Nor yet has Nature destined the bramble''® to be only an 

 annoyance to mankind, for she has bestowed upon it mul- 

 berries of its own,^ or, in other words, a nutritive aliment even 

 for mankind. These berries are of a desiccative, astringent, 

 nature,^' and are extremely useful for maladies of the gums, 

 tonsillary glands, and generative organs. They neutralize also 

 the venom of those most deadly of serpents, the hsemorrhois^^ 

 and the prester f^ and the flowers or fruit will heal wounds 

 inflicted by scorpions, without any danger of abscesses forming. 

 The shoots of the bramble have a diuretic efiect: and the 

 more tender ones are pounded, and the juice extracted and then 

 dried in the sun till it has attained the consistency of honey, 

 being considered a most excellent remedy, taken in drink or 

 applied externally, for maladies of the mouth and eyes, dis- 

 charges of blood from the mouth, quinzy, afiections of the 



It is not improbable that Pliny, in copying from some other author, has 

 mistaken the one for the other. 



*^ An exaggeration, no doubt. The Cissampelos Pareira of Lamarck, an 

 Indian plant, abounds in mucilage to such an extent, that an infusion of it 

 in water becomes speedily coagulated. 



82 One would be induced to think that this story is derived from some 

 vague account of the properties of the Boomerang. Although supposed 

 by many to have been the invention of the natives of Australasia, repre- 

 sentations of it are found on the sculptures of Nineveh. It is not 

 improbable that Pythagoras may have heard of it from the Magi during 

 his travels in the East. 8ee£onomi's Nineveh, p. 136. 



S3 "Eecubitu" seems preferable to " cubitu." 



8* This is very doubtful, Fee says. 



^5 See B. xvi. c. 71. «« See B. xvi. c. 71. 



"' Blackberries are still used in the country, Fee says, as an astringent 

 medicine, and all here stated that is based upon that property is rational 

 enough. The same cannot, however, be said of the greater part of the 

 other statements in this Chapter. 



*^^ See B. XX. cc. '23, 81, and B. xxiii. cc. 12, 18. 



89 See B. XX. c, 81, B. xxii. c. 13, and B. xxiii. c. 23. 



