Chap. 48.] OCIMUM. 249 



which differs only from the cultivated kind in the shortness 

 of the stalk and the red colour of the root, the medicinal 

 properties being just the same. Taken in drink or ap- 

 plied topically, it is an excellent remedy for the stings of 

 serpents. 



CHAP. 48. OCIMUM ; THIRTY- FIVE REMEDIES. 



Chrysippus has exclaimed as strongly, too, against ocimum 35 

 as he has against parsley, declaring that it is prejudicial to the 

 stomach and the free discharge of the urine, and is injurious 

 to the sight ; that it produces insanity, too, and lethargy, as 

 well as diseases of the liver ; and that it is for this reason that 

 goats refuse to touch it. Hence he comes to the conclusion, 

 that the use of it ought to be avoided by man. Some persons 

 go so far as to say, that if beaten up, and then placed beneath 

 a stone, a scorpion will breed there j 36 and that if chewed, and 

 then placed in the sun, worms will breed in it. The people of 

 Africa maintain, too, that if a person is stung by a scorpion 

 the same day on which he has eaten ocimum, his life cannot 

 possibly be saved. Even more than this, there are some who 

 assert, that if a handful of ocimum is beaten up with ten sea 

 or river crabs, all the scorpions in the vicinity will be attracted 

 to it. Diodotus, too, in his Book of Recipes, 37 says, that 

 ocimum, used as an article of food, breeds lice. 



Succeeding ages, again, have warmly defended this plant ; it 

 has been maintained, for instance, that goats do eat it, that 

 the mind of no one who has eaten of it is at all affected, and, 

 that mixed with wine, with the addition of a little vinegar, it is 

 a cure for the stings of land scorpions, and the venom of those 

 found in the sea. Experience has proved, too, that the smell 

 of this plant in vinegar is good for fainting fits and lethargy, 



ticum or Agriopastinaca of Crete ; but, as Fee remarks, it is not clear to 

 which of the Umbelliferse he refers under that name. 



35 The Ocimum basilicum of Linnreus, according to most commentators : 

 though Fee is not of that opinion, it being originally from India, and never 

 found in a wild state. From what Varro says, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 31, 

 he thinks that it must be sought among the leguminous plants, the enus 

 Hedysarum, Lathyrus, or Medicago. He remarks also, that Pliny is the 

 more to be censured for the absurdities contained in this Chapter, as the 

 preceding writers had only mentioned them to ridicule them. 



35 See B. ix. c. 51. 



& {< In Empericis." 



