Chap. 76.] THE WHITE AND BLACK POPPY. 275 



52 Sacopenium is good for pains of the sides and chest, for 

 convulsions, coughs of long standing, expectorations, and 

 swellings of the thoracic organs : it is a cure also for vertigo, 

 palsy, opisthotony, affections of the spleen and loins, and for 

 shivering fits. For suffocations of the uterus, this plant is 

 given in vinegar to smell at ; in addition to which, it is some- 

 times administered in drink, or employed as a friction with 

 oil. It is a good antidote, also, for medicaments of a noxious 

 nature. 



CHAP. 76. THE WHITE POPPY! THREE REMEDIES. THE 

 BLACK POPPY : EIGHT REMEDIES. REMARKS ON SLEEP. 

 OPIUM. REMARKS IN DISFAVOUR OP THE POTIONS 

 KNOWN AS " ANODYNES, FEBRIFUGES, DIGESTIVES, AND 

 CCELIACS." IN WHAT WAY THE JUICES OF THESE PLANTS 

 ARE TO BE COLLECTED. 



"We have already 53 stated that there are three varieties of 

 the cultivated poppy, and, on the same occasion, we promised 

 to describe the wild kinds. With reference to the cultivated 

 varieties, the calyx 54 of the white 65 poppy is pounded, and is 

 taken in wine as a soporific ; the seed of it is a cure, also, for 

 elephantiasis. The black 66 poppy acts as a soporific, by the 

 juice which exudes from incisions 57 made in the stalk at the 

 time when the plant is beginning to flower, Diagoras says ; 

 but when the blossom has gone off, according to lollas. This 

 is done at the third 58 hour, in a clear, still, day, or, in other 

 words, when the dew has thoroughly dried upon the poppy. It 

 is recommended to make the incision just beneath the head 



52 See B. xii. c. 56, and B. xix, c. 52. Some writers have supposed, 

 but apparently without any sufficient authority, that this is the Ferula com- 

 munis of Linnaeus. Fee is of opinion that one of the Umbelliferae is meant. 



53 In B. xix. c. 53. 



54 It is probable, Fee says, that Pliny does not intend here to speak of 

 the calyx as understood by modern botanists, but the corolla of the plant. 

 The calyx disappears immediately after the plant has blossomed ; and is 

 never employed by medical men at the present day, who confine themselves 

 to the heads or capsules. 



55 The variety Album of the Papaver somniferum. See B. xix. c. 53. 



56 The variety A. nigruni of the Papaver somniferum of Decandolle. 



57 The incisions are made in the capsules, and towards the upper part 

 of the peduncle. The account given by Pliny, Fee remarks, differs but 

 little from that by Kaempfer, in the early part of last century. 



is Nine in the morning. 



T 2 



