378 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book XXL 



properties ; hence it is, that it is so beneficial for maladies of 

 the sinews, 2 for cough, hardness of breathing, convulsions, rup- 

 tures, lumbago, and strangury. Several handfuls of this plant 

 are boiled down to one-third, and the decoction of it, in doses 

 of four eyathi, is administered in drink. The seed is given, 

 pounded, in water, in doses of one drachma; it is very good 

 for affections of the uterus. 



Mixed with barley-meal, this plant brings tumours to 1 a 

 head, and boiled with quinces, it is employed as a liniment for 

 inflammations of the eyes. It keeps away serpents, and for 

 their stings it is either taken in wine, or else employed in 

 combination with it as a liniment. It is extremely efficacious, 

 also, for the stings of those noxious insects by which shivering 

 fits and chills are produced, such as the scorpion and the spider 

 called " phalangium," 3 for example ; taken in a potion, it is 

 good for other kinds of poison, as also for shivering fits, how- 

 ever produced, and for the extraction of foreign substances ad- 

 hering to the flesh ; it has the effect, also, of expelling intes- 

 tinal worms. It is stated that a sprig of this plant, if put be- 

 neath the pillow, will act as an aphrodisiac, and that it is of 

 the very greatest efficacy against all those charms and spells by 

 which impotence is produced. 



CHAP. 93. (22.) ONE REMEDY DERIVED FROM THE LEUCANTHK- 

 MUM. NINE REMEDIES DERIVED PROM THE AMARACUS. 



The leucanthemum, 4 mixed with two-thirds of vinegar, is 

 curative of asthma. The sampsuchum or amaracus, 5 that of 

 Cyprus being the most highty esteemed, and possessed of the 

 finest smell is a remedy for the stings of scorpions, applied 

 to the wound with vinegar and salt. Used as a pessary, too, 

 it is very beneficial in cases of menstrual derangement ; but 

 when taken in drink, its properties are not so powerfully de- 

 veloped. Used with polenta, it heals defluxions of the eyes ; 

 and the juice of it, boiled, dispels gripings of the stomach. It 

 is useful, too, for strangury and dropsy ; and in a dry state, it 

 promotes sneezing. There is an oil extracted from it, known 



2 " Nervis." Pliny had no knowledge, probably, of the nervous system ; 

 but Fee seems to think that such is his meaning here. See B. xi. c. 88. 

 s See B. xi. cc. 24, 28, and 29. 

 4 See c. 34 of this Book ; also B. xxii. c. 26. 

 See c. 35 of this Book, 



