228 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



purations of the chest, however violent they may be ; to ob- 

 tain which result, another method is followed, it being 

 boiled with broken beans, and employed as a diet till the 

 cure is fully effected. It is a soporific also, and in general 

 imparts to the body an additional ruddiness of colour. 



Garlic acts as an aphrodisiac, beaten up with fresh cori- 

 ander, and taken in pure wine. The inconveniences which 

 result from the use of it, are dimness of the sight and flatu- 

 lency ; and if taken in too large quantities, it does injury to 

 the stomach, and creates thirst. In addition to these parti- 

 culars, mixed with spelt flour, and given to poultry in their 

 food, it preserves them from attacks of the pip. 38 Beasts of 

 burden, it is said, will void their urine all the more easily, 

 and without any pain, if the genitals are rubbed with garlic. 



CHAP. 24. THE LETTUCE : FORTY-TWO REMEDIES. THE GOAT- 

 LETTUCE : FOUR REMEDIES. 



The first kind of lettuce which grows spontaneously, is the 

 one that is generally known as " goat 39 -lettuce ;" thrown into 

 the sea, this vegetable has the property of instantaneously kill- 

 ing all the fish that come into its vicinity. The milky juice 

 of this lettuce, 40 left to thicken and then put into vinegar, 

 is given in doses of two oboli, with the addition of one cyathus 

 of water, to patients for dropsy. The stalk and leaves, bruised 

 and sprinkled with salt, are used for the cure of wounds of 

 the sinews. Pounded with vinegar, and employed as a 

 gargle in the morning twice a month, they act as a preventive 

 of tooth- ache. 



CHAP. 25. CMSA PON : ONE REMEDY. ISATT8 I ONE REMEDY. THE 

 WILD LETTUCE : SEVEN REMEDIES. 



There is a second kind of wild lettuce, known by the Greeks 



38 See B. x. c. 78. 39 " Caprina." See B. xxvi. c. 39. 



40 Fee is of opinion that this in reality is not a lettuce, but that Pliny 

 has been led, by the milky juice which it contains, to that conclusion. In 

 B. xxvi. c. 39, he calls it "tithymalum." Hardouin conjectures it to 

 have been the spurge, or Euphorbia lathyris of Linnaeus, the juice or 

 which is a violent drastic ; and Fee is of opinion that it must have been 

 one of the Euphorbiacese. At the same time, he says, powerful as their 

 properties are, we cannot believe that they exercise the destructive effects 

 on fish here stated. 



