Chap. 53.] MINT. 257 



the time of Pompeius Magnus, by a person affected with this 

 malady covering his face with the leaves for the purpose of 

 neutralizing the bad smell that arose therefrom. These leaves 

 are employed also as a liniment, and in drink, with a mixture 

 of salt, oil, and vinegar, for the stings of scorpions ; and, in 

 doses of two drachmae to two cyathi of wine, for those of sco- 

 lopendiae and serpents. A decoction, too, of the juice is given 

 for the sting of the scolopendra. 65 Leaves of wild mint are 

 kept, dried and reduced to a fine powder, as a remedy for 

 poisons of every description. Spread on the ground or burnt, 

 this plant has the effect of driving away scorpions. 



Taken in drink, wild mint carries off the lochia in females 

 after parturition ; but, if taken before, it is fatal to the foetus. 

 It is extremely efficacious in cases of rupture and convulsions, 

 and, though in a somewhat less degree, for orthopncea, 66 gripings 

 of the bowels, and cholera : it is good, too, as a topical appli- 

 cation for lumbago and gout. The juice of it is injected into 

 the ears for worms breeding there ; it is taken also for jaun- 

 dice, and is employed in liniments for scrofulous sores. It 

 prevents 67 the recurrence of lascivious dreams ; and taken in 

 vinegar, it expels tape- worm. 68 For the cure of porrigo, it is 

 put in vinegar, and the head is washed with the mixture in 

 the sun. 



CHAP. 53. MINT : FOBTY-ONE EEMEDIES. 



The very smell of mint 69 reanimates the spirits, and its 

 flavour gives a remarkable zest to food : hence it is that it is 

 so generally an ingredient in our sauces. It has the effect of 

 preventing milk from turning sour, or curdling and thickening ; 

 hence it is that it is so generally put into milk used for drink- 

 ing, to prevent any danger of persons being choked 70 by it in a 



65 Galen and Dioscorides say the same ; but it is not the fact; the leaves 

 being of no utility whatever. 



66 Difficulty of breathing, unless the neck is kept in a straight position. 



67 Fee is inclined to think exactly the contrary. 



68 Its properties as a vermifuge are contested. 



69 According to ancient fable," Mintha, the daughter of Cocytus, and he- 

 loved by Pluto, was changed by Proserpine into this plant : it was gene- 

 rally employed also in the mysteries of the Greeks. It is the Mentha 

 sativa of Linna?us. 



70 Fee says that this passage alone would prove pretty clearly that Pliny 

 had no idea'of the existence of the gastric juices. 



VOL. IV. S 



