224 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



the nostrils being plugged with the plant, pounded, or else 

 mixed with nut-galls or mint. The juice of it, taken with 

 woman's milk, arrests floodings after a miscarriage ; and it is 

 remedial in cases even of inveterate cough, and of affections 

 of the chest 15 and lungs. The leaves, applied topically, are 

 employed for the cure of pimples, burns, and epinyctis 16 

 this last being the name given to an ulcer, known also as 

 " syce," 17 situate in the corner of the eye, from which there 

 is a continual running : some persons, however, give this 

 name to livid pustules, which cause great restlessness in the 

 night. Other kinds of ulcers, too, are treated with leeks 

 beaten up with honey : used with vinegar, they are exten- 

 sively employed also for the bites of wild beasts, as well as 

 of serpents and other venomous creatures. Mixed with goats' 

 gall, or else honied wine in equal proportions, they are used 

 for affections of the ears, and, combined with woman's milk, 

 for singing in the ears. In cases of head-ache, the juice is 

 injected into the nostrils, or else into the ear at bed-time, 

 two spoonfuls of juice to one of honey. 



This juice is taken too with pure wine, 18 for the stings of 

 serpents and scorpions, and, mixed with a semi-sextarius of 

 wine, for lumbago. The juice, or the leek itself, eaten as a 

 food, is very beneficial to persons troubled with spitting of 

 blood, phthisis, or inveterate catarrhs ; in cases also of jaun- 

 dice or dropsy, and for nephretic pains, it is taken in barley- 

 water, in doses of one acetabulum of juice. The same dose, 

 too, mixed with honey, effectually purges the uterus. Leeks 

 are eaten, too, in cases of poisoning by fungi, 19 and are applied 

 topically to wounds : they act also as an aphrodisiac, 20 allay 

 thirst, and dispel the effects of drunkenness ; but they 

 have the effect of weakening the sight and causing flatulency, 

 it is said, though, at the same time, they are not injurious to 



15 Fee thinks that boiled leeks may possibly, with some justice, be 

 ranked among the pectorals. 



16 This, as Pliny himself here remarks, is a different disease from that 

 previously mentioned in c. 6 of this Book. 



17 From the Greek <rwc}, " a fig." 



18 "Merum." 



19 They would be of no utility whatever. 



20 This is an unfounded statement, Fee says. 



