250 PLINY'S NATTJBAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



as well as inflammations ; that employed as a cooling lini- 

 ment, with rose oil, myrtle oil, or vinegar, it is good for head- 

 ache ; and that applied topically with wine, it is beneficial for 

 defluxions of the eyes. It has been found also, that it is good 

 for the stomach ; that taken with vinegar, it dispels flatulent 

 eructations ; that applications of it arrest fluxes of the bowels ; 

 that it acts as a diuretic, and that in this way it is good for 

 jaundice and dropsy, as well as cholera and looseness of the 

 bowels. 



Hence it is that Philistio has prescribed it even for cceliac 

 affections, and boiled, for dysentery. Some persons, too, 

 though contrary to the opinion of Plistonicus, have given it 

 in wine for tenesmus and spitting of blood, as also for ob- 

 structions of the viscera. It is employed, too, as a liniment 

 for the mamillae, and has the effect of arresting the secretion 

 of the milk. It is very good also for the ears of infants, when 

 applied with goose-grease more particularly. The seed of it,, 

 beaten up, and inhaled into the nostrils, is provocative of 

 sneezing, and applied as a liniment to the head, of running 

 at the nostrils : taken in the food, too, with vinegar, it purges 

 the uterus. Mixed with copperas 38 it removes warts. It acts/ 

 also, as an aphrodisiac, for which reason it is given to horses 

 and asses at the season for covering. 



(13.) Wild ocimum has exactly the same properties in every 

 respect, though in a more active degree. It is particularly 

 good, too, for the various affections produced by excessive vo- 

 miting, and for abscesses of the womb. The root, mixed with 

 wine, is extremely efficacious for bites inflicted by wild 

 beasts. 



CHAP. 49. ROCKET I TWELVE REMEDIES. 



The seed of rocket 39 is remedial for the venom of the scor- 

 pion and the shrew-mouse : it repels, too, all parasitical in- 

 sects which breed on the human body, and applied to the face, 

 as a liniment, with honey, removes 40 spots upon the skin. 

 Used with vinegar, too, it is a cure for freckles ; and mixed 

 with ox-gall it restores the livid marks left by wounds to their 



38 " Atramento sutorio.'' 

 29 The Brassica eruca of Linnaeus. 



40 None of the numerous remedies mentioned by Pliny for removing 

 spots on the skin, are at all efficacious, in Fee's opinion. 



