514 PLINY'S NATUBAL HTSTOET. [BookXXUl. 



to be a cure for jaundice. Used alone, they are employed 

 topically for the treatment of diseases of the fundament, and 

 condylomata in particular, as also cough and spitting of blood. 



CHAP. 77. WALNUTS : TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. THE MITHRI- 



DATIC ANTIDOTE. 



Walnuts 34 have received their name in Greek from being 

 oppressive 35 to the head; for, in fact, the emanations 36 from the 

 tree itself and the leaves penetrate to the brain. The kernels, 

 also, have a similar effect when eaten, though not in so marked 

 a degree. When fresh gathered, they are most agreeable 

 eating ; for when dry, they are more oleaginous, unwholesome 

 to the stomach, difficult of digestion, productive of head-ache, 

 and bad for cough, 37 or for a person when about to take an emetic 

 fasting : they are good in cases of tenesmus only, as they carry 

 off the pituitous humours of the body. Eaten beforehand, they 

 deaden the effects of poison, and, employed with rue and oil, 

 they are a cure for quinsy. They act as a corrective, also, to 

 onions, and modify their flavour. They are applied to inflam- 

 mations of the ears, with a little honey, and with rue they are 

 used for affections of the mamillae, and for sprains. With 

 onions, salt, and honey, they are applied to bites inflicted by 

 dogs or human beings. Walnut- shells are used for cauteri- 

 zing 38 carious teeth ; and with these shells, burnt and then 

 beaten up in oil or wine, the heads of infants are anointed, 

 they having a tendency to make the hair grow ; hence they 

 are used in a similar manner for alopecy also. These nuts, 

 eaten in considerable numbers, act as an expellent upon tape- 

 worm. 39 Walnuts, when very old, are 40 curative of gangrenous 

 sores and carbuncles, of bruises also. Green walnut-shells 4l 



34 See B. xv. c. 24. 



35 Kapua, from Kapof, "heaviness," or Kaprjy the "head." See Vol. 

 III. p. 316. 



J6 A mere prejudice, no doubt. 



37 The rancidity of the oil which they contain, renders them irritating 

 to the throat and stomach. 



38 Fee remarks, that it is difficult to see how this could he done. 



39 This statement, as Fee remarks, is quite unfounded. 



40 This assertion is also entirely imaginary. 



41 " Cortex juglandium." Fee says that by this term is meant, not the 

 green outer shell, husk, or pericarpus of the walnut, but the bark of the 

 tree. 



