Chap. 97.] HEMP. 297 



seed, in fevers even, acts as an astringent upon a relaxed sto- 

 mach, and beaten up with water, it allays nausea : it is highly 

 esteemed, also, for affections of the lungs and liver. Taken 

 in moderate quantities, it arrests looseness of the bowels, and 

 acts as a diuretic ; a decoction of it is good for gripings of the 

 stomach, and taken in drink, it restores the milk. The root, 

 taken in a ptisan, 76 purges the kidneys an eifect which is 

 equally produced by a decoction of the juice or of the seed ; the 

 root is good too, boiled in wine, for dropsy and convulsions. 

 The leaves are applied to burning tumours, with vinegar, 

 expel calculi of the bladder, and act as an aphrodisiac. 



In whatever way it is taken in drink, fennel lias the pro- 

 perty of promoting the secretion of the seminal fluids ; and it 

 is extremely beneficial to the generative organs, whether a de- 

 coction of the root in wine is employed as a fomentation, or 

 whether it is used beaten up in oil. Many persons apply 

 fennel with wax to tumours and bruises, and employ the root, 

 with the juice of the plant, or else with honey, for the bites of 

 dogs, and with wine for the stings of multipedes. 



Hipponmrathron is more efficacious, in every respect, than 

 cultivated fennel ; 77 it expels calculi more particularly, and, 

 taken with weak wine, is good for the bladder and irregula- 

 rities of the menstrual discharge. 



In this plant, the seed is more efficacious than the root ; 

 the dose of either of them being a pinch with two fingers, 

 beaten up, and mixed with the usual drink. Petrichus, who 

 wrote a work " On Serpents/' 78 and Micton, who wrote a trea- 

 tise <k On 79 Botany," are of opinion that there is nothing in 

 existence of greater efficacy against serpents than hippoma- 

 rathron : indeed, Nicander 80 has ranked it by no means among 

 the lowest of antidotes. 



CHAP. 9V. HEMP I NINE REMEDIES. 



Hemp originally grew in the forests, 81 where it is found 

 with a blacker and rougher leaf than in the other 82 kinds. 



76 See B. xviii. c. 13. 



77 Their properties, Fee says, are very similar. 



78 "Ophiaca." 79 " Khizotomumena." 



80 Theriaca, 1. 59(?. et seq. 



81 The wild hemp of Pliny is the Althaea eannabina of Linnaeus : the 

 hemp marsh-mallow. 



w The cultivated hemp is the Caimabis sativa of Linnaeus. 



