256 ( PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



of the mamillae, and, combined with wax, for eruptions of 

 pituitous matter. 61 It is applied with tender sprigs of laurel, in 

 cases of defhixion of the testes ; and it exercises so peculiar an 

 effect upon those organs, that old rue, it is said, employed in 

 a liniment, with axle-grease, is a cure for hernia. The 

 seed pounded, and applied with wax, is remedial also for 

 broken limbs. The root of this plant, applied topically, is a 

 cure for effusion of blood in the eyes, and, employed as a lini- 

 ment, it removes scars or spots on all parts of the body. 



Among the other properties which are attributed to rue, it 

 is a singular fact, that, though it is universally agreed that it 

 is hot by nature, a bunch of it, boiled in rose-oil, with the 

 addition of an ounce of aloes, has the effect of checking the 

 perspiration in those who rub themselves with it ; and that, 

 used as an aliment, it impedes the generative functions. 

 Hence it is, that it is so often given in cases of spermatorrhoBa, 

 and where persons are subject to lascivious dreams. Every pre- 

 caution should be taken by pregnant women to abstain from 

 rue as an article of diet, for I find it stated that it is productive 

 of fatal results to the foetus. 62 



Of all the plants that are grown, rue is the one that is most 

 generally employed for the maladies of cattle, whether arising 

 from difficulty of respiration, or from the stings of noxious 

 creatures in which cases it is injected with wine into the 

 nostrils or whether they may happen to have swallowed a 

 horse-leech, under which circumstances it is administered in 

 vinegar. In all other maladies of cattle, the rue is prepared 

 just as for man in a similar case. 



CHAP. 52. (14.) WILD MINT I TWENTY KEMEDIES. 



Mentastrum, or wild mint, 63 differs from the other kind in 

 the appearance of the leaves, which have the form of those of 

 ocimum and the colour of pennyroyal ; for which reason, some 

 persons, in fact, give it the name of wild pennyroyal. 64 The 

 leaves of this plant, chewed and applied topically, are a cure 

 for elephantiasis ; a discovery which was accidentally made in 



61 " Pituitae eruptionibus." 



62 This prejudice, Fee says, still survives. 



63 The Menta silvestris of Linnaeus ; though Clusius was of opinion that 

 it is the Nepeta tuberosa of Linnaeus. 



64 " Silrestre puleium." 



