496 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book XXIII. 



for diseases of the testes. Used as a fumigation, it turns the 

 hair black, and brings away the foetus. It is given in drink, 

 also, for diseases of the kidneys, bladder, and thoracic organs ; 

 but it acts injuriously upon the head and nerves. The decoc- 

 tion of this bark has the effect, also, of arresting fluxes of the 

 uterus and the bowels : the ashes of it are used with white wine 

 for griping pains in the stomach, and form a very efficacious 

 remedy for affections of the uterus. 



CHAP. 54. (6.) REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BLOSSOMS, LEAVES, 

 FRUIT, BRANCHES, .BARK, JUICES, WOOD, ROOTS, AND ASHES OF 

 VARIOUS KINDS OF TREES. SIX OBSERVATIONS UPON APPLES. 

 TWENTY-TWO OBSERVATIONS UPON QUINCES. ONE OBSERVATION 

 UPON STRUTHEA. 



We next come to the medicinal properties of the various 

 kinds of apples. The spring fruits of this nature are sour and 

 unwholesome 31 to the stomach, disturb the bowels, contract the 

 bladder, and act injuriously upon the nerves ; when cooked, 

 however, they are of a more harmless nature. Quinces are 

 more pleasant eating when cooked; still however, eaten 

 raw, provided they are ripe, they are very useful 32 for spitting 

 of blood, dysentery, cholera, and cceliac affections ; indeed, 

 they are not of the same efficacy when cooked, as they then 

 lose the astringent properties which belong to their juice. 

 They are applied also to the breast in the burning attacks of 

 fever, and, in spite of what has been stated above, they are 

 occasionally boiled in rain-water for the various purposes be- 

 fore-mentioned. For pains in the stomach they are applied 33 

 like a cerate, either raw or boiled. The down upon them 

 heals 34 carbuncles. 



Boiled in wine, and applied with wax, they restore the hair, 

 when it has been lost by alopecy. A conserve of raw quinces 

 in honey relaxes the bowels ; and they add very materially to 

 the sweetness of the honey, and render it more wholesome to 

 the stomach. Boiled quinces preserved in honey are beaten 

 up with a decoction of rose-leaves, and are taken as food by some 



91 In consequence of the malic and tartaric acid which they contain. 

 3a Quinces are of an astringent nature ; and an astringent sirop, Fee 

 gays, is still prepared from them. 



38 They are no longer used for this purpose. 

 ** Fee observes that it has no such effect. 



