Chap. 16.] THE WHITE VINE. 467 



removing spots upon the face, moles and freckles, as well as 

 scars and bruises : a decoction of it in oil is productive of a 

 similar effect. A decoction of it is given to drink for epi- 

 lepsy/ 6 and to persons troubled with a disordered mind or 

 suffering from vertigo, the dose being one drachma daily, for a 

 whole year : taken in larger quantities, it is apt sometimes to 

 disorder 57 the senses. It is possessed, also, of one very remark- 

 able property, applied with water in the same manner as 

 bryonia, of extracting splintered bones, for which reason it is 

 known to some persons by the name of white bryonia : the 

 other kind, however, which is black, is found to answer 

 the purpose better, in combination with honey and frank- 

 incense. 



The white vine disperses incipient suppurations, ripens 

 them when they are inveterate, and acts as a detergent : it 

 operates also as an emmenagogue and diuretic. An electu- 

 ary is prepared from it for asthma and pains in the sides, as 

 also for convulsions and ruptures. Taken in drink for thirty 

 days together, in doses of three oboli, it has the effect of re- 

 ducing the spleen ; and it is used, in combination with figs, 

 for the cure of hangnails 58 on the fingers. Applied with wine, 

 it brings away the after-birth, and, taken in hydromel, in 

 doses of one drachma, it carries off phlegm. The juice of the 

 root should be extracted before the fruit ripens ; applied either 

 by itself or with meal of fitches, it imparts an improved com- 

 plexion and a certain degree of suppleness to the skin : it has 

 the effect also of repelling serpents. The root itself, too, 

 beaten up with a pulpy fig, will remove wrinkles on the body, 

 if the person using it takes care to walk a couple of stadia im- 

 mediately after the application ; otherwise it would leave marks 

 upon the skin, unless, indeed, it were washed off immediately 

 with cold water. The black vine, too, is better for this pur- 

 pose than the white one, as the latter is very apt to be pro- 

 ductive of itching. 



5(5 It would be productive of no good effect in such case, nor, indeed, in 

 most of the cases here mentioned. 



57 "Purgat" is the reading given by Sillig; but, judging from the cor- 

 responding passage in Dioscorides, vTrorapciTTei, V turbat," or " contur- 

 bat," is the proper reading. 68 " Pterygiis." 



HH2 



