Chap. 18.] MEfiCURTALTS. 93 



female plant the seed is very abundant, but in the male'^ it is 

 less so, lies closer to the joints, and is short and wreathed. In 

 the female plant the seed hangs more loosely, and is of a white 

 colour. The leaves of the male plant are swarthy, while 

 those of the female are whiter : the root, which is made no 

 use of, is very diminutive. 



Eoth of these plants grow in cultivated champaign local- 

 ities. A marvellous property is mentioned as belonging to 

 them : the male plant, they say,^^ ensures the conception of 

 male children, the female plant of females ; a result Avhich is 

 ensured by drinking the juice in raisin wine, the moment after 

 conception, or by eating the leaves, boiled with oil and salt, 

 or raw with vinegar. Some persons, again, boil the plant 

 in a new earthen vessel with heiiotropium and two or three 

 ears of corn, till it is thoroughly done ; and say that the decoc- 

 tion should be taken in drink by the female, and the plant 

 eaten for three days successively, the regimen being com- 

 menced the second day of menstruation. This done, on the 

 fourth day she m.ust take a bath, immediately after which the 

 sexual congress must take place. 



Hippocrates^^ has lavished marvellous encomiums upon these 

 plants for the maladies of females, while at the present day 

 no physician recognizes their utility for such purpose. It was 

 his practice to employ them for affections of the uterus, in the 

 form of a pessary, in combination with honey, rose-oil, oil of 

 iris, or oil of lilies. He employed them also as an emmena- 

 gogue, and for the purpose of bringing away the after-birth ; 

 effects which are equally produced, according to him, by taking 

 them in drink, or using them in the form of a fomentation. It 

 was his practice also, to inject the juice of these plants in cases 

 of fetid odours of the ears, and then to wash the ear with old 

 wine. The leaA^es also were used by him as a cataplasm for 

 the abdomen, defluxions of the eyes, strangury, and affections 

 of the bladder ; a decoction too, of the plants is prescribed by 

 him, with frankincense and myrrh. 



For the purpose of relaxing^- the bowels, or in cases of fever, 



"'^ The male, as Fee suggests, bears no seed at all. 

 ®" A mere absurdity, of course. 



81 De Nat. Mul. and De Morb. :Mu1. B. i. and B. ii. 



82 The medicinal properties of the Mercurialis are not by any means 

 energetic, but it is still used, Fee says, as a gentle aperient. 



