260 PLINY'S NATUUAL HISTOBY. [Book XX. 



with wine it is a diuretic, and if the wine is the produce 

 of the Aminean 79 grape, it has the additional effect of dispersing 

 calculi of the Madder and removing all internal pains. Taken 

 in conjunction with honey and vinegar, it modifies the men- 

 strual discharge, and brings away the after-birth, restores the 

 uterus, when displaced, to its natural position, and expels the 

 dead 80 foetus. The seed is given to persons to smell at, who 

 have been suddenly struck dumb, and is prescribed for epi- 

 leptic patients in doses of one cyathus, taken in vinegar. If 

 water is found unwholesome for drinking, bruised pennyroyal 

 should be sprinkled in it ; taken with wine it modifies acri- 

 dities 81 of the body. 



Mixed with salt, it is employed as a friction for the sinews, 

 and with honey and vinegar, in cases of opisthotony . Decoctions 

 of it are prescribed as a drink for persons stung by serpents ; and, 

 beaten up in wine, it is employed for the stings of scorpions, 

 that which grows in a dry soil in particular. This plant is 

 looked upon as efficacious also for ulcerations of the mouth, 

 and for coughs. The blossom of it, fresh gathered, and burnt, 

 kills fleas 82 by its smell. Xenocrates, among the other reme- 

 dies which he mentions, says that in tertian fevers, a sprig of 

 pennyroyal, wrapped in wool, should be given to the patient 

 to smell at, just before the fit comes on, or else it should be 

 put under the bed-clothes and laid by the patient's side. 



CHAP. 55. WILD PENNYBOYAL t SEVENTEEN KEMED1ES. 



Tor all the purposes already mentioned, wild pennyroyal 83 

 has exactly the same properties, but in a still higher degree. 

 It bears a strong resemblance to wild marjoram, 84 and has a, 

 smaller leaf than the cultivated kind : by some persons it is 

 known as " dictamnos." 85 When browsed upon by sheep and 

 goats, it makes them bleat, for which reason, some of the 



so "Defunctos partus" is certainly a better reading than " defunctis 

 partus," though the latter is the one adopted by Sillig. 



81 " Salsitudines." Hardouin is probably right m his conjecture, that 

 the correct reading is " lassitudines," " lassitude." _ 



^ " Pulices." It is to this belief, no doubt, that it owes its Latin name 

 "pulegium," and its English appellation, " flea-bane." 



* 3 It differs in no respect whatever from the cultivated kind, except that 

 the leaves of the latter are somewhat larger. 



si Or origanum. 85 Whence our name " dittany. 



