520 PLINY'S NATTJEAL HISTOHY. [Book XXIII. 



The oil of this myrtle is of a more soothing nature than the 

 juice, and the wine 84 which is extracted from it, and Jwhich 

 possesses the property of never inebriating, is even more so. 

 This wine, used when old, acts astringently upon the stomach 

 and bowels, cures griping pains in those regions, and dispels 

 nausea. 



The dried leaves, powdered and sprinkled upon the body, 

 check profuse perspirations, in fever even ; they are good, too, 

 used as a fomentation, for coeliac affections, procidence of the 

 uterus, diseases of the fundament, running ulcers, erysipelas, 

 loss of the hair, scaly and other eruptions, and burns. This 

 powder is used as an ingredient, also, in the plasters known as 

 "liparse;" 85 and for the same reason the oil of the leaves is 

 used for a similar purpose, being extremely efficacious as an 

 application to the humid parts of the body, the mouth and the 

 uterus, for example. 



The leaves themselves, beaten up with wine, neutralize 86 the 

 bad effects of fungi ; and they are employed, in combination 

 with wax, for diseases of the joints, and gatherings. A decoc- 

 tion of them, in wine, is taken for dysentery and dropsy. 

 Dried and reduced to powder, they are sprinkled upon ulcers 

 and haemorrhages. They are useful, also, for the removal of 

 freckles, and for the cure of hang-nails, 87 whitlows, condylo- 

 mata, affections of the testes, and sordid ulcers. In combination 

 with cerate, they are used for burns. 



For purulent discharges from the ears, the ashes of the 

 leaves are employed, as well as the juice and the decoction : 

 the ashes are also used in the composition of antidotes. For a 

 similar purpose the blossoms are stripped from off the young- 

 branches, which are burnt in a furnace, and then pounded in 

 wine. The ashes of the leaves, too, are used for the cure of 

 burns. To prevent ulcerations from causing swellings in the 

 inguinal glands, it will suffice for the patient to carry 88 a sprig 

 of myrtle about him which has never touched the ground or 

 any implement of iron. 



8 * See B. xv. c. 37. 



85 Cerates, or adipose or oleaginous plasters. 



86 In reality they have no such effect. 



87 "Pterygia." 



88 Fee says here " Pliny terminates, by a credulity quite unworthy of 

 him, a Chapter, full of false or exaggerated assertions, relative to the pro- 

 perties of the myrtle." 



