368 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book XXI, 



it effectually cleanses wounds, and speedily removes black 

 morphews from the skin. Of this flower oil of narcissus is 

 made, good for softening indurations of the skin, and for warm- 

 ing parts of the body that have been frost-bitten. It is very 

 beneficial, also, for the ears, but is very apt to produce 

 head-ache. 



CHAP. 76. SEVENTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VIOLET. 



There are both wild and cultivated violets. 65 The purple 

 violet is of a cooling nature : for inflammations they are ap- 

 plied to the stomach in. the burning heats, and for pains in the 

 head they are applied to the forehead. Yiolets, in particular, 

 are used for defluxions of the eyes, prolapsus of the fundament 

 and uterus, and suppurations. Worn in chaplets upon the 

 head, or even smelt at, they dispel the fumes of wine and head- 

 ache ; and, taken in water, they are a cure for quinsy. The 

 purple violet, taken in water, is a remedy for epilepsy, in 

 children, more particularly : violet seed is good for the stings 

 of scorpions. 



On the other hand, the flower of the white violet opens sup-* 

 purations, and the plant itself disperses them. Both the white 

 and the yellow violet check the menstrual discharge, and act 

 as diuretics. When fresh gathered, they have less virtue, and 

 hence it is that they are mostly used dry, after being kept a 

 year. The yellow violet, taken in doses of half a cyathus to 

 three cyathi of water, promotes the catamenia ; and the roots 

 of it, applied with vinegar, assuage affections of the spleen, as 

 also the gout. Mixed with myrrh and saffron, they are good 

 for inflammation of the eyes. The leaves, applied with honey, 

 cleanse ulcerous sores of the head, and, combined with cerate, 66 

 they are good for chaps of the fundament and other moist parts 

 of the body. Employed with vinegar, they effect the cure of 

 abscesses. 



CHAP. 77. SEVENTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BACCHAR. 



ONE REMEDY DERIVED FROM THE COMBRETUM. 



The bacchar that is used in medicine is by some of our 

 writers called the " perpressa." It is very useful for the stings 

 of serpents, head-ache and burning heats in the head, and 



65 See e. 14 of this Book. 



C6 An ointment made of wax and cil. 



