8 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIV. 



taken in drink for the same complaint. In combination with 

 meal, they are applied topically to imposthumes of the parotid 

 glands, and to scrofulous sores. From these excrescences, 

 pounded along with the seed, a juice is extracted, which, mixed 

 with oil, disperses films of the eyes. Taken in doses of one 

 victoriatus, 47 in wine, and applied at the same time in a pulpy, 

 dried fig, the seeds of which have been removed, this juice 

 cures maladies of the testes and disperses tumours: mixed 

 with leaven, it heals scrofulous sores. 



The root of the cypress, bruised with the leaves and taken 

 in drink, is curative of diseases of the bladder, strangury, and 

 the sting of the phalangium. 48 The shavings of the wood, 

 taken in drink, act as an emmenagogue, and neutralize the 

 venom of the scorpion. 



CHAP. 1 1 . THE CEDAR : THIRTEEN REMEDIES. 



The larger cedar, known as the "cedrelates," 49 produces a 

 pitch called " cedria," which is very useful for tooth-ache, it 

 having the effect of breaking 50 the teeth and extracting them, 

 and so allaying the pain. 1 We have already 51 stated how the 

 juices of cedar are extracted, so remarkably useful for 

 seasoning books, 52 were it not for the head-ache they produce. 

 This extract from the cedar preserves 53 the bodies of the 

 dead uncorrupted for ages, but exercises a noxious effect upon 

 the bodies of the living singular that there should be such a 

 diversity in its properties, taking away life from animated 



47 See Introduction to Vol. III. 



48 See B. x. c. 28, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28. 49 See B. xiii. c. 11. 



50 Fee remarks, that many of the moderns attribute to frankincense the 

 properties here ascribed to cedria ; a most unfounded notion, he thinks. 



51 In B. xiv. c, 25, and B. xvi. cc. 21, 22. 



52 Sillig reads " volumina ;" in which case it is not improbable that the 

 allusion is to the practice of seasoning the paper of manuscripts with a 

 preparation of cedar, as a preservative against mildew and worms. An- 

 other reading is " lumina," and it is not impossible that it is the right one, 

 meaning that pitch of cedar is useful for making lamps or candles. Fee 

 reminds us that we are not to confound the " cedria " with the " eedrium " 

 of B. xvi. c. 21, though Pliny seems here to confound the two. See Note 

 38 to that Chapter. 



53 As in B. xvi. c. 21, he has said the same of "eedrium," a red tar 

 charged with empyreumatic oil, it is clear that he erroneously identifies it 

 with " cedria," or pitch of cedar. It is with this last, in reality, that the 

 Egyptians embalmed the dead, or rather preserved them, by dipping them 

 in the boiling liquid. 



