Chap. 43.] CORRUDA, LTBYCUM, OR ORMINUM. 245 



CHAP. 42. (10.) GARDEN ASPARAGUS; WITH THE NEXT 



TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. 



Asparagus 14 is said to be extremely wholesome as an aliment 

 to the stomach. With the addition of cummin, it dispels 

 flatulency of the stomach and colon ; it sharpens the eyesight 

 also, acts as a mild aperient upon the stomach, and, boiled with 

 wine, is good for pains in the chest and spine, and diseases of 

 the intestines. For pains in the loins and kidneys asparagus- 

 seed 15 is administered in doses of three oboli, taken with an 

 equal proportion of cummin- seed. It acts as an aphrodisiac, 

 and is an extremely useful diuretic, except that it has a ten- 

 dency to ulcerate the bladder. 16 



The root, also, pounded and taken in white wine, is highly 

 extolled by some writers, as having the effect of disengaging 

 calculi, and of soothing pains in the loins and kidneys ; 

 there are some persons, too, who administer this root with 

 sweet wine for pains in the uterus. Boiled in vinegar the 

 root is very beneficial in cases of elephantiasis. It is said that 

 if a person is rubbed with asparagus beaten up in oil, he will 

 never be stung by bees. 



CHAP, 43. CORUUDA, LIBYCUM, OR ORMINUM. 



Wild asparagus is by some persons called " corruda," by 

 others " libycum," and by the people of Attica " orminus." 17 

 For all the affections above enumerated it is more efficacious 

 even than the cultivated kind, that which is white 13 more 

 particularly. This vegetable has the effect of dispelling the 

 jaundice, and a decoction of it, in doses of one hemina, is 

 recommended as an aphrodisiac ; a similar effect is produced 

 also by a mixture of asparagus seed and dill in doses of three 



14 Asparagus is recognized in modern times, as exercising a strong action 

 on the kidneys. Fee says, that according to Dr. Broussais, it is a sedative 

 to palpitations of the heart, an assertion, the truth of which, he says, his 

 own experience has confirmed. The root is also looked upon as diuretic. 



15 Asparagus seed is not used in modern pharmacy, and it is very doubt- 

 ful if it possesses any virtues at all. 



16 Fee says that there is no truth in this assertion. 



17 See B. xix. c. 42 : the Asparagus tenuifolius of Linnseus, the wild 

 asparagus, or Corruda of the South of France. 



18 Fee says that in the South of Europe there is a kind, known to bota- 

 nists as white asparagus, with a prickly stem : he suggests that it may 

 possibly be the same as that here spoken of. 



