Chap. 02.] THE ABROTONTJM. 377 



from the tears of Helena, is generally thought to have been 

 produced for improving the appearance, and to maintain un- 

 impaired the freshness of the skin in females, both of the face 

 and of other parts of the body. Besides this, it is generally 

 supposed that the use of it confers additional graces on the 

 person, and ensures universal attraction. They say, too, that, 

 taken with wine, it promotes gaiety of spirit, having, in fact, a 

 similar effect to the nepenthes, which has been so much vaunted 

 by Homer," as producing forgetfulness of all sorrow. The 

 juice of this plant is remarkably sweet, and the root of it, taken 

 fasting in water, is good for hardness of breathing ; it is white 

 within, and sweet. An infusion of it is taken in wine for the 

 stings of serpents ; and the plant, bruised, it is said, will kill 

 mice. 



CHAP. 92. TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE 

 ABROTONUM. 



We find two varieties of abrotonum 1 mentioned, the field, 

 and the mountain kind ; this last, it is generally understood, 

 is the female plant, the other the male. They are both of them 

 bitter, like wormwood. That of Sicily is the most esteemed, 

 and next to it, that of Galatia. The leaves of it are sometimes 

 employed, but it is the seed that possesses the most warming 



99 Od. iv. 1. 221. This has been supposed by many commentators to 

 have been opium. The origin of the word is vfi, " not," and irkvOog, 

 " grief;" and, as Fee says, it would seem to indicate rather a composition 

 than a plant. Saffron, mandragore, nightshade, and even tea and coffee, 

 have been suggested by the active imaginations of various writers^ Fee is 

 of opinion that it is impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion, but 

 inclines to the belief that either the poppy or a preparation from it, is 

 meant. In confirmation of this opinion, it is a singular fact, that, as Dr. 

 Paris remarks (in his Pharmacologia), the Nepenthes of Homer was ob- 

 tained from Thebes in Egypt, and that tincture of opium, or laudanum, 

 has received the name of " Thebaic tincture." Gorraeus, in his " Defini- 

 tiones Medicce," thinks that the herb alluded to is the Inula Campania, 

 or Elecampane, which was also said to have derived its name of 

 " Helenium" from Helen. Dr. Greenhill, in Smith's Dictionary of An- 

 tiquities, inclines to the opinion that it was opium. See the article 

 " Pharmaceutica." 



1 See c. 34 of this Book. Both of the plants mentioned share the me- 

 dicinal properties of wormwood, being stimulants, tonics, anthelmintics, 

 and febrifuges. It would be dangerous, however, Fee says, to administer 

 them in most of the cases mentioned by Pliny, nor would they be good for 

 strangury, or affections of the chest. 



