Chap. S9.] THE TITHTMALOS CHARACIAS. 177 



This last feature is recognized in the spurious scammony 

 also, a compound of meal of fitches and juice of marine tithy- 

 malos,^° which is mostly imported from Judea, and is very apt 

 to choke those who use it. The difference may be easily 

 detected, however, by the taste, as tithymalos imparts a burn- 

 ing sensation to the tongue. To be fully efficacious, scammony 

 should be two®^ years old ; before or after that age it is useless. 

 It has been prescribed to be taken by itself also, in doses of 

 four oboli, with hydromel and salt : but the most advantageous 

 mode of using it is in combination with aloes, care being taken 

 to drink honied wine the moment it begins to operate. The 

 root, too, is boiled down in vinegar to the consistency of honey, 

 and the decoction used as a liniment for leprosy. The head is 

 also rubbed with this decoction, mixed with oil, for head- ache. 



CHAP. 39. THE TITHYMALOS CHARACIA8. 



The tithymalos is called by our people the ''milk plan t,"*^ 

 and by some persons the ''goat lettuce. "^^ They say, that if 

 characters are traced upon the body with the milky juice of 

 this plant, and powdered with ashes, when dry, the letters will 

 be perfectly visible ; an expedient which has been adopted 

 before now by intriguers, for the purpose of communicating 

 with their mistresses, in preference to a correspondence by 

 letter. There are numerous varieties of this plant. ^^ The 

 first kind has the additional name of "characias,"^^ and is 

 generally looked upon as the male plant. Its branches are 

 about a finger in thickness, red and full of juice, five or six in 

 number, and a cubit in length. The leaves near the root are 

 almost exactly those of the olive, and the extremity of the 

 stem is surmounted with a tuft like that of the bulrush : it is 

 found growing in rugged localities near the sea-shore. The 

 seed is gathered in autumn, together with the tufts, and after 

 being dried in the sun, is beaten out and put by for keeping. 



^^ See the following Chapters. 



^^ This assertion is erroneous ; it has all its properties in full vigour im- 

 mediately after extraction, and retains them for an indefinite period. 



^2 "Herba lactaria." 



^^ Because goats are fond of it. See B. xx. c. 24. 



'* Known to us by the general name of Euphorbia of Spurge. 



*^ The Euphorbia characias of Linnagus, Red spurge. Au oil is still 

 extracted from the seed of several species of Euphorbia, as a purgative ; 

 but they are in general highly dangerous, taken internally 

 VOL. V. N 



