506 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIII. 



parts a fine flavour 86 to meat, being steeped in vinegar for the 

 purpose, and then rubbed upon it. It is used also as an in- 

 gredient in blisters, and taken internally it relaxes the bowels. 

 Used with amylum, 87 it opens the passages of the uterus, and 

 combined with the yolk of an egg it acts as an emmenagogue. 

 Mixed with meal of fenugreek it is applied topically for 

 gout, and is used for the dispersion of leprous sores, itch-scabs, 

 lichens, and freckles : it is an antidote also to the stings 

 of venomous animals, and to the bites of dogs. Applied to 

 the teeth in wool, or introduced into the cavity of a carious 

 tooth, this juice cures tooth-ache. 88 The young shoots and 

 the leaves, mixed with meal of fitches, act as an antidote to 

 the poison of marine animals, wine being added to the prepa- 

 ration. In boiling beef a great saving of fire- wood may be 

 effected, by putting some of these shoots in the pot. 89 



The figs in a green state, applied topically, soften and disperse 

 scrofulous sores and all kinds of gatherings, and the leaves, to 

 a certain extent, have a similar effect. The softer leaves are 

 applied with vinegar for the cure of running ulcers, epinyctis, 

 and scaly eruptions. With the leaves, mixed with honey, honey- 

 comb ulcers 90 are treated, and wounds inflicted by dogs ; the 

 leaves are applied, too, fresh, with wine, to phagedaenic sores. 

 In combination with popp} T -leaves, they extract splintered 

 bones. Wild figs, in a green state, employed as a fumigation, 

 dispel flatulencj* ; and an infusion of them, used as a potion, 

 combats the deleterious effects of bullocks' blood, white-lead, 

 and coagulated milk, taken internal^. Boiled in water, and 

 employed as a cataplasm, they cure imposthumes of the parotid 

 glands. The shoots, or the green figs, gathered as young as 

 possible, are taken in wine for stings inflicted by scorpions. 

 The milky juice is also poured into the wound, and the leaves 

 are applied to it : the bite of the shrew-mouse is treated in a 

 similar manner. The ashes of the young branches are curative 

 of relaxations of the uvula ; and the ashes of the tree itself, 

 mixed with honey, have the effect of healing chaps. A de- 



86 " Suavitatem." Fee is justly at a loss to understand how this could 

 be. It is doubtful whether Pliny does not mean that by the use of this 

 substance meat was kept fresh. 



bl See B. xviii. c. 17. 



* 8 Fee thinks that, owing to its acridity, it may possibly have this effect. 



89 There is probably no foundation for this statement. 



90 Favus. 



