Chap. 16.] GINGIDION". 219 



is a diuretic also, and it will arrest the progress of phagedaenic 

 ulcers, if applied fresh with honey, or else dried and sprinkled 

 on them with meal. 



Dietiches recommends the root of it to be given, with hy- 

 dromel, for affections of the liver and spleen, as also the sides, 

 loins, and kidneys ; and Cleophantus prescribes it for dysen- 

 tery of long standing. Philistio says that it should be boiled 

 in milk, and for strangury he prescribes four ounces of the 

 root. Taken in water, he recommends it for dropsy, as well 

 as in cases of opisthotony, 84 pleurisy, and epilepsy. Persons, 

 it is said, who carry this plant about them, will never be stung 

 by serpents, and those who have just eaten of it will receive 

 no hurt from them. Mixed with axle-grease, 85 it is applied 

 to parts of the body stung by reptiles ; and the leaves of it are 

 eaten as a remedy for indigestion. 



Orpheus has stated that the staphylinos acts as a philtre, 86 

 most probably because, a very-well-established fact, when 

 employed as a food, it is an aphrodisiac ; a circumstance which 

 has led some persons to state that it promotes conception. In 

 other respects the cultivated parsnip has similar properties ; 

 though the wild kind is more powerful in its operation, and 

 that which grows in stony soils more particularly. The seed, 

 too, of the cultivated parsnip, taken in wine, or vinegar and 

 water, 87 is salutary for stings inflicted by scorpions. By 

 rubbing the teeth with the root of this plant, tooth-ache is 

 removed. 



CHAP. 16. GINGIDION : ONE REMEDY. 



The Syrians devote themselves particularly to the cultiva- 

 tion of the garden, a circumstance to which we owe the Greek 

 proverb, " There is plenty of vegetables in Syria." 88 



84 Tetanus, or contraction of the muscles, in which the head is twisted 

 round or stretched backwards. 



85 "Axungia;" properly swine's grease, with which the axle- -trees of 

 chariots were rubbed. See B. xxviii. c. 9. 



86 Diphilus of Siphnos, as quoted in Athenseus, B. ix. c. 3, states that 

 the ancients employed this plant as a philtre, for which reason it was called 

 by some persons QiXrpov. 



87 " Posca." This was the ordinary drink of the lower classes at Rome, 

 as also the soldiers when on service, and the slaves. " Oxycrate" is the 

 scientific name sometimes given to vinegar and water. 



89 [ToXXa Supcuv \d\ava. Similar to our proverb, probably, " There 

 is more corn in Egypt." 



