418 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXII. 



bread in which they have been kneaded up with the meal, is 

 extremely wholesome. Nicander 76 recommends also, for the 

 stings of serpents and scorpions, either the stalk, which we 

 have already 77 spoken of under the name of " anthericus," or 

 else the seed or bulbs, to be taken in wine, in doses of three 

 drachmae ; and he says that these should be strewed beneath 

 the bed, if there is any apprehension of their presence. The 

 asphodel is prescribed also for wounds inflicted by marine 

 animals of a venomous nature, and the bite of the land scolo- 

 pendra. It is quite wonderful how the snails, in Campania, 

 seek the stalk of this plant, and dry it by extracting the 

 inside. The leaves, too, are applied with wine to wounds 

 made by venomous animals, and the bulbs are beaten up with 

 polenta and similarly used for affections of the sinews and 

 joints. It is also a very good plan to rub lichens with them 

 chopped up and mixed with vinegar, and to apply them in 

 water to putrid sores, as also to inflammations of the testes or 

 mamillse. Boiled in lees of wine, and applied in a linen pledget, 

 they are used for the cure of defluxions of the eyes. 



Whatever the malady may happen to be, it is generally in 

 a boiled 78 state that the bulbs are employed; but for foul 

 ulcers of the legs and for chaps upon any part of the body, 

 they are dried and reduced to powder. The bulbs are usually 

 gathered in autumn, 79 a period when their medicinal properties 

 are most fully developed. The juice extracted from them 

 pounded, or else a decoction of them, is good, mixed with honey, 

 for pains in the body : it is employed also with dried iris and a 

 little salt by those who wish to impart an agreeable odour to 

 the person. The leaves are used for the cure of the various 

 maladies above mentioned, as also, boiled in wine, for scrofu- 

 lous sores, inflamed tumours, and ulcers of the face. The ashes 

 of the root are a remedy for alopecy and chaps on the feet ; 

 and an extract of the root, boiled in oil, is good for burns and 

 chilblains. It is injected also into the ears for deafness, and, 

 for tooth- ache, it is poured into the ear opposite to the part 

 affected. A moderate dose of the root, taken in drink, acts as 



76 Theriaca, p. 39. 77 i n B. xxi. c. 68. 



78 This practice, as Fee remarks, was based on sound principles, the 

 acrid properties of the bulbs being removed by boiling. 



79 Most medicinal roots are gathered at this period, their properties 

 being, as Pliny says, most fully developed in the autumn. 



