Chap. 27.] PABSNIPS. 165 



Medical men recommend raw radishes to be eaten fasting, 

 with salt, for the purpose 3 of collecting the crude humours of 

 the viscera ; and in this way they prepare them for the action 

 of emetics. It is said, too, that the juices of this plant are 

 absolutely necessary for the cure of certain diseases of the 

 diaphragm ; for it has been found by experiment, in Egypt, 

 that the phthiriasis 4 which attaches itself to the internal parts 

 of the heart, cannot possibl} T be eradicated by any other remedy, 

 the kings of that country having ordered the bodies of the 

 dead to be opened and examined, for the purpose of enquiring 

 into certain diseases. 



Such, too, is the frivolity of the Greeks, that, in the temple 

 of Apollo at Delphi, it is said, the radish is so greatly pre- 

 ferred to all other articles of diet, as to be represented there in 

 gold, the beet in silver, and the rape in lead. You might be 

 very sure that Manius Curius was not a native of that country, 

 the general whom, as we find stated in our Annals, the am- 

 bassadors of the Samnites found busy roasting rape at the fire, 

 when they came to offer him the gold which he so indignantly 

 refused. Moschion, too, a Greek author, has written a volume 

 on the subject of the radish. These vegetables are considered 

 a very useful article of food during the winter, but they are at 

 all times very injurious to the teeth, as they are apt to wear 

 them away ; at all events, they give a polish to ivory. There 

 is a great antipathy between the radish 6 and the vine ; which 

 last will shrink from the radish, if sown in its vicinity. 



CHAP. 27. PARSNIPS. 



The other kinds which have been classified by us among the 

 cartilaginous plants, are of a more ligneous nature ; and it is 

 a singular thing, that they have, all of them, a strong flavour. 

 Among these, there is one kind of wild parsnip which grows 



8 Dioscorides recommends these puerilities with the cabbage, and not 

 the radish ; though Celsus gives similar instructions with reference to the 

 radish. 



4 It was a general belief with the ancients that the phthiriasis, or mor- 

 bus pediculosus, has its seat in the heart. It was supposed aJso that the 

 juice of the radish was able, by reason of its supposed subtlety, to penetrate 

 the coats of that organ. 



5 This is said by other ancient authors, in reference to the cabbage and 

 the vine. See B. xxiv. c. i. 



