Chap. 61.] ALICA. 443 



property of drawing 12 out the humours of the body : hence it 

 is applied to bruises gorged with blood, to extract the corrupt* 

 matter, even to soaking the bandages 13 employed : used with 

 boiled must, it is still more efficacious. It is. used as an ap- 

 plication also for callosities of the feet and corns ; boiled with 

 old oil and pitch, and applied as hot as possible, it cures con- 

 dylomata and all other maladies of the fundament in a most 

 surprising manner. Puls 14 is a very feeding diet. The meal" 

 used for pasting the sheets of papyrus is given warm to pa- 

 tients for spitting of blood, and is found to be an effectual 

 cure. 



CHAP. 61. ALICA: six BEMEDIES. 



Alica is quite a Roman invention, and not a very ancient 

 one : for otherwise 16 the Greeks would never have written in 

 such high terms of the praises of ptisan in preference. I do 

 not think that it was yet in use in the days of Pompeius 

 Magnus, a circumstance which will explain why hardly any 

 mention has been made of it in the works of the school of 

 Asclepiades. That it is a most excellent preparation no one 

 can have a doubt, whether it is used strained in hydromel, or 

 whether it is boiled and taken in the form of broth or puls. To 

 arrest flux of the bowels, it is first parched and then boiled 

 with honeycomb, as already mentioned : 17 but it is more par- 

 ticularly useful when there is a tendency to phthisis after a 

 long illness, the proper proportions being three cyathi of it to 

 one sextarius of water. This mixture is boiled till all the 

 water has gone off by evaporation, after which one sextarius 

 of sheep' or goats' milk is added : it is then taken by the 

 patient daily, and after a time some honey is added. By this 

 kind of nutriment a deep decline may be cured. 



12 This statement is probably founded upon the notion that corn has 

 the property of attracting liquids, even when enclosed in vessels. 



13 A paste of this kind, if applied to a recent wound, would have the 

 effect of preventing cicatrization, and giving free access to the flow of 

 blood. u See B. xviii. c. 19. 



15 Or "flour." SeeB. xiii. c. 26. 



16 Fee remarks, that the Greeks were acquainted with alica, to which 

 they gave the name of x 6vSpoe ; indeed, Galen expressly states that it was 

 well known in the days of Hippocrates, who says that it rs more nourish- 

 ing than ptisan. Festus says that alica is so called, " quod alit," because 

 it nourishes the body. See B. xviii. c. 29. 



17 In c. 55 of this Book. 



