370 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book XXI. 



with wormwood it is good for dropsy. It has the property, 

 also, of arresting excessive discharges of the catamenia. 



CHAP. 80. FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE PLANT CALLED 

 "PHU." 



The root of the plant which we have mentioned in the same 

 place under the name of "phu,' m is given in drink, either 

 bruised or boiled, in cases of hysterical suffocation, and for 

 pains of the chest or sides. It acts as an emmenagogue, and is 

 generally taken in wine. 



CHAP. 81. TWENTY REMEDIES DERIVED FROM SAFFRON. 



Saffron does not blend well with honey, or, indeed, with any 

 sweet substance, though very readily with wine or water : it 

 is extremely useful in medicine, and is generally kept in horn 

 boxes. Applied with egg it disperses all kinds of inflamma- 

 tion, those of the eyes in particular : it is employed also for 

 hysterical suffocations, and for ulcerations of the stomach, chest, 

 kidneys, liver, lungs, and bladder. It is particularly useful 

 also in cases of inflammation of those parts, and for cough and? 

 pleurisy. It likewise removes itching 75 sensations, and acts as 

 a diuretic. Persons who have used the precaution of first 

 taking saffron in drink will never experience surfeit or head- 

 ache, and will be proof against inebriation. Chaplets too, 

 made of saffron, and worn on the head, tend to dispel the fumes 

 of wine. The flower of it is employed topically with Cimo- 

 lian 76 chalk for erysipelas. It is used also in the composition 

 of numerous other medicaments. 



CHAP. 82. SYRIAN CROCOMAGNA I TWO REMEDIES. 



There is also an eye-salve 77 which is indebted to this plant 

 for its name. The lees 78 of the extract of saffron, employed in 

 the saffron unguent known as " croeomagma," have their own 

 peculiar utility in cases of cataract and strangury. These lees 



74 B. xii. c. 26. Either the Valeriana Italica, Fee says, or the Vale- 

 riana Dioscoridis of Sibthorpe. The Valeriana phu and the Valeriana 

 officinalis of Linnaeus have been suggested by some commentators. 



75 Or " prurigo." 76 See B. xxxv. cc. 18 and 57. 



77 " Coliyrium." Saffron is still the base of certain eye-salves. 



78 Formed, most probably, of all the insoluble substances contained in 

 the oil employed in making the " unguentum crocinum." 



