Chap. 94.] THE PEKICLTAIENOS. 261 



are dried in the sun and used for ulcerations of the head, and 

 other affections which require detergents. It is sometimes 

 given for cough, a pinch in three fingers in wine, and, in the 

 form of an electuary, for pains in the side or peripneumony. 



It is administered, also, in wine, for sciatica, griping pains 

 in the bowels, and retardations of the catamenia. 



CHAP. 93. — THE PEPLIS, SYCE, MECONION, OE MECON APHRODES! 

 THEEE HEMEDIES. 



The peplis,^^ known by the various names of " syce,'*^^ 

 " meconion," and " mecon aphrodes," is a shrub-like plant, 

 springing from a single, diminutive, root. The leaves of it 

 resemble those of rue, but are a little larger ; the seed, which 

 lies beneath the leaves, is round, and smaller than that of the 

 white poppy. It is ordinarily gathered in vineyards, at 

 harvest-time, and is dried with the seed on, receivers being 

 placed beneath to catch it as it falls. This seed, taken in drink, 

 purges the bowels, and carries off bile andpituitous secretions: 

 one acetabulum, taken in three heminae of hydromel, is a 

 middling dose. It is sprinkled also upon meat and other articles 

 of food, as a laxative medicine. , 



CHAP. 94. THE PEEICLYMENOS : FIVE EEMEDIES. 



The periclymenos^^ is also a shrub-like plant, with two 

 whitish, soft, leaves, arranged at intervals. At the extremity, 

 among the leaves, is the seed, hard, and very difficult to 

 pluck. It grows in ploughed fields and hedges, entwining 

 around every object from which it can gain support. The seed 

 is dried in the shade, pounded, and divided into lozenges. 

 These lozenges are left to dissolve, in three cyathi of white 

 wine, for a period of thirty days, and are given for diseases of 

 the spleen ; the volume of which is gradually diminished either 

 by discharges of bloody urine, or else by alvine evacuation, 

 the effects of the medicament being perceptible at the end of 

 ten days. The leaves, boiled, act as a diuretic, and are useful 

 for hardness of breathing. Taken in drink, in manner above- 



^^ Probably the Euphorbia peplis of Linnaeus; see B. xx. c. 81. It is a 

 strong purgative. 



61 •« Fig-plant," "poppy-juice," and "poppy- froth." In reference, 

 no doubt, to its milky juice. 



^- See the Clymenus, B. xxv. c. 33. 



