Chap. 25.1 HELLEBORE. 101 



the patient going without his evening meal the previous day. 

 "White hellebore, too, is administered in a sweet ^^ medium, 

 though lentils or pottage are found to be the best for the pur- 

 pose. There has been a plan also, lately discovered, of splitting 

 a radish, and inserting the hellebore in it, after which the 

 sections are pressed together ; theobject being that the strength 

 of the hellebore may be incorporated with the radish, and mo- 

 dified thereby. 



At the end of about four hours it generally begins to be 

 brought up again ; and within seven it has operated to the full 

 extent. Administered in this manner, it is good for epilepsy, 

 as already^'' stated, vertigo, melancholy, insanity, delirium, 

 white elephantiasis, leprosy, tetanus, palsy, gout, dropsy, in- 

 cipient tympanitis, stomachic affections, cynic spasms,^^ sciatica, 

 quartan fevers which defy ail other treatment, chronic coughs, 

 flatulency, and recurrent gripings in the bowels. 



CHAP. 25. TO WHAT PERSONS HELLEBORE SHOULD NEVER BE 



ADMINISTERED. 



It is universally recommended not to give hellebore to aged 

 people or children, to persons of a soft and effeminate habit of 

 body or mind, or of a delicate or tender constitution. It is given 

 less frequently too to females than to males ; and persons of a 

 timorous disposition are recommended not to take it : the same 

 also, in cases where the viscera are ulcerated or tumefied, and 

 more particularly when the patient is afflicted with spitting of 

 blood, or with maladies of the side or fauces. Hellebore is ap- 

 plied, too, externally, with salted axle-grease, to morbid eruptions 

 of the body and suppurations of long standing : mixed with 

 polenta, it destroys rats and mice. The people of Gaul, when 

 hunting, tip their arrows with hellebore, taking care to cut 

 away the parts about the wound in the animal so slain : the 

 flesh, they say, is all the more tender for it. Flies are destroyed 

 with white hellebore, bruised and sprinkled about a place with 

 milk : phthiriasis is also cured by the use of this mixture. 



^' This he has stated to be attended with danger, in the case of black 

 hellebore, should the dose be too strong. 



-*' In c. 21 of this Hook. 

 ^ '-' Twitchings of the mouth, which cause the patient to show his teeth, 

 like a dojc. 



