482 PLINY'S NATTJBAL HISTOET. [Book XXIII. 



but must boiled down to one third : tbat which is prepared 

 from white must is the best. It is used medicinally in cases 

 of injuries inflicted by cantharides, the buprestis, S2 the pine- 

 caterpillars known as pityocampa3, 33 salamanders, and all ve- 

 nomous bites and stings. Taken with onions it has the effect 

 of bringing away the dead foetus and the after-birth. Accord- 

 ing to Fabianus, it acts as a poison, if taken by a person fast- 

 ing, immediately after the bath. 34 



CHAP. 3 1 . LEES OF WINE : TWELVE REMEDIES, 



Next in the natural order come the lees of these several 

 liquids. The lees of 35 wine are so extremely powerful as to 

 prove fatal to persons on descending into the vats. 36 The 

 proper precaution for preventing this, is to let down a light first, 

 which so long as it refuses to burn, is significant of danger. 

 "Wine-lees, in an unrinsed 37 state, form an ingredient in several 

 medicinal preparations : with an equal proportion of iris, 38 a 

 liniment is prepared from them for purulent eruptions ; and 

 either moist or dried, they are used for stings inflicted by the 

 phalangium, and for inflammations 39 of the testes, mamillse, 

 or other parts of the body. A decoction of wine-lees is pre- 

 pared, too, with barley-meal and powdered frankincense ; after 

 which it is first parched and then dried. The test of its being 

 properly boiled, is its imparting, when cold, a burning sensa- 

 tion to the tongue. When left exposed to the air, wine-lees 

 very rapidly lose their virtues ; which, on the other hand, are 

 greatly heightened by the action of fire. 



Wine-lees are very useful, too, boiled with figs, for the cure 



32 See c. 18 of this Book. The account here given of the medicinal 

 properties of sapa is altogether unfounded. 



3a A worm that grows in the pine-tree, the Phalaeua bombyx pityocampa 

 of Linnaeus. 



34 A mere absurdity, of course. See c. 18 of this Book. 



35 The lees of wine are charged with sub-tartarate of potash, a quan- 

 tity of colouring matter more or less, and a small proportion of wine. They 

 are no longer used in medicine. Under the term " faox vini," Pliny includes 

 the pulp or husks of grapes after the must has been expressed. 



36 In consequence of the carbonic gas disengaged before the fermenta- 

 tion is finished, asphyxia being the result. 



37 By the use of this term he evidently means grope husks. 



38 Or flower-de-luce. See B. xxi. cc. 19, 83. 



39 Wine-lees would only have the effect of increasing the inflammation. 



