384 PLINY'S NATURAL KISTOET. [Book XXI. 



while doing so : a leaf of it should be laid beneath the patient's 

 tongue, after which it must be eaten in u cyathus of water. 



CHAP. 105. (31.) EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED PROM THE TRYCH- 

 NUM OK STRYCHNUM, HALICACABUM, CALLIAS, DORCYNION, 

 MANICON, NEURAS, MORIO, OR MOLY. 



The trychnon 31 is by some called " strychnon ;" I only wish 

 that the garland-makers of Egypt would never use this plant 

 in making their chaplets, being deceived as they are by the 

 resemblance in the leaves of both kinds to those of ivy. One 

 of these kinds, bearing scarlet berries with a stone, enclosed 

 in follicules, is by some persons called the "halicacabum," 32 by 

 others the "callion," and by the people of our country, the 

 " vesicaria," from the circumstance of its being highly bene- 

 ficial to the bladder 33 and in cases of calculus. 



The trychnon is more of a woody shrub than a herb, with 

 large follicules, broad and turbinated, and a large berry within,; 

 which ripens in the month of November. A third 34 kind, 

 again, has a leaf resembling that of ocimum but it is not my 

 intention to give an exact description of it, as I am here speak- 

 ing of remedies, and not of poisons ; for a few drops of the 

 juice, in fact, are quite sufficient to produce insanity. The 

 Greek writers, however, have even turned this property into 

 matter for jesting ; for, according to them, taken in doses of 

 one drachma, this plant is productive of delusive and prurient 

 fancies, and of vain, fantastic visions, which vividly present all 

 the appearance of reality : they say, too, that if the dose is 

 doubled, it will produce downright madness, and that any fur- 

 ther addition to it, will result in instant death. 



This is the same plant which the more well-meaning writers 

 have called in their innocence " dorycnion," 36 from the circum- 

 stance that weapons used in battle are poisoned with it for it 

 grows everywhere while others, again, who have treated of it 



31 The Solanum nigrum of Linnaeus, or black night-shade. See B. 

 xxiii. c. 108. 



32 The Physalis alkekengi of Linnteus ; red night-shade, alkekengi, or 

 winter cherry. Fee remarks, that the varieties of this plant in Egypt are 

 very numerous, and that in many places, till very recently, it was em- 

 ployed as an article of food. 33 " Vesica." 



34 The Solanum villosum of Lamarck. 



35 From opv, a u spear." 



