236 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOUY. [Book XX. 



have given the name of " selino'ides," 76 from the resemblance 

 of its leaf to that of parsley, beneficial to the stomach, and 

 moderately relaxing to the bowels ; the " helia," with broad 

 leaves running out from the stalk a circumstance, owing to 

 which some persons have given it the name of " caulodes"- 

 of no use whatever in a medicinal point of view ; and a third, 

 the name of which is properly " crambe," with thinner leaves, 

 of simple form, and closely packed, more bitter than the others, 

 but extremely efficacious in medicine. 77 



Cato 78 esteems the curly cabbage the most highly of all, 

 and next to it, the smooth cabbage with large leaves and 

 a thick stalk. He says that it is a good thing for head- 

 ache, dimness of the sight, and dazzling 79 of the eyes, the 

 spleen, stomach, and thoracic organs, taken raw in the morn- 

 ing, in doses of two acetabula, with oxymel, coriander, rue, 

 mint, and root of silphium. 80 He says, too, that the virtue of 

 it is so great that the very person even who beats up this mix- 

 ture feels himself all the stronger for it ; for which reason he 

 recommends it to be taken mixed with these condiments, or, 

 at all events, dressed with a sauce compounded of them. For 

 the gout, too, and diseases of the joints, a liniment of it should 

 be used, he says, with a little rue and coriander, a sprinkling 

 of salt, and some barley meal : the very water even in which 

 it has been boiled is wonderfully efficacious, according to him, 

 for the sinews and joints. For wounds, either recent or of 

 long standing, as also for carcinoma, 81 which is incurable by 

 any other mode of treatment, he recommends fomentations to 

 be made with warm water, and, after that, an application of 

 cabbage, beaten up, to the parts affected, twice a-day. He says, 

 also, that fistulas and sprains should be treated in a similar 

 way, as well as all humours which it may be desirable to bring 

 to a head and disperse ; and he states that this vegetable, 

 boiled and eaten fasting, in considerable quantities, with oil 



76 "Parsley-like.** 



77 The only use now made of the cabbage, in a medicinal point of view, 

 is the extraction from the red cabbage, which is rich in saccharine matter, 

 of a pectoral, and the employment of the round cabbage, in the form of 

 sour-krout, as an antiscorbutic.. The great majority of the statements as 

 to the virtues of the cabbage, though supported by Cato, and in a great 

 measure by Hippocrates, are utterly fallacious. 



78 De Re Rust. 157. 79 " Scintillationibus." 

 80 See B. xix. c. 15. 81 Or cancer. 



