454 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXII. 



the joints ; and taken in drink, it is an excellent antidote to 

 poisons. It is used, also, for asthma, 65 arid with stale axle- 

 grease for fistulas ; but it must not be allowed to touch the 

 interior of them. 



CHAP. 76. HORMINUM : SIX REMEDIES. 



Horminum resembles cummin, as already stated, 66 in its 

 seed ; but in other respects, it is like the leek. 67 It grows to 

 some nine inches in height, and there are two varieties of it. 

 In one of these the seed is oblong, and darker than that of the 

 other, and the plant itself is in request as an aphrodisiac, and 

 for the cure of argema and albugo in the eyes : of the other 

 kind the seed is whiter, and of a rounder form. Both kinds, 

 pounded and applied with water, are used for the extraction 

 of thorns from the body. The leaves, steeped in vinegar, dis- 

 perse tumours, either used by themselves, or in combination 

 with honey ; they are employed, also, to disperse boils, before 

 they have come to a head, and other collections of acrid hu- 

 mours. 



CHAP. 77. DAENEL I FIVE REMEDIES. 



Even more than this the very plants which are the bane of 

 the corn-field are not without their medicinal uses. Darnel 68 

 has received from Virgil 69 the epithet of " unhappy ;" and yet, 

 ground and boiled with vinegar, it is used as an application for 

 the cure of impetigo, which is the more speedily effected the 

 oftener the application is renewed. It is employed, also, with 

 oxymel, for the cure of gout and other painful diseases. The 

 following is the mode of treatment : for one sextarius of vine- 

 gar, two ounces of honey is the right proportion ; three sex- 

 tarii having been thus prepared, two sextarii of darnel meal 

 are boiled down in it to a proper consistency, the mixture being 

 applied warm to the part affected. This meal, too, is used for 

 the extraction of splinters of broken bones. 



65 It is still used, Fee says, for coughs. 66 In B. xviii. c. 22. 



67 Dioscorides says, korehound. The Horminum, apparently, has not 

 been identified. 



68 See B. xviii. c. 44. Darnel acts upon the hrain to such an extent as 

 to produce symptoms like those of drunkenness ; to which property it is 

 indebted for its French name of ivraie. It is no longer used in medicine. 



69 Georg. i. 153 ; " Infelix lolium, et steriles domiiiantur aveme." 



