10 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIV. 



venom of the sea-hare, 60 and for the cure of the various affections 

 above-mentioned, as also of gatherings and inflammations. 



CHAP. 13. GALBANUM: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES. 



We have already 61 given some description of galbanum : to 

 be good, it should be neither too moist nor too dry, but just in 

 the state which we have mentioned. 63 It is taken by itself 

 for inveterate coughs, asthma, ruptures, and convulsions ; and 

 it is employed externally for sciatica, pains in the sides, inflamed 

 tumours, 63 boils, denudations of the bones, scrofulous sores, 

 nodes upon the joints, and tooth-ache. It is applied with 

 honey also, to ulcerations of the head. In combination with 



011 of roses or with nard, it is used as an injection for sup- 

 purations of the ears ; and the odour of it is useful for epilepsy, 

 hysterical suffocations, and faintness at the stomach. Em- 

 ployed as a pessary or as a fumigation, it brings away the 

 foetus in cases of miscarriage; branches too of hellebore 

 covered with it and laid beneath the patient, have a similar 

 effect. 



We have already 64 stated that serpents are driven away by 

 the fumes of burnt galbanum, and they will equally avoid 

 persons whose body has been rubbed with it. It is curative 

 also of the sting of the scorpion. In protracted deliveries, a 

 piece of galbanum the size of a bean is given in one cyathus 

 of wine : it has the effect also of reducing the uterus when 

 displaced, and, taken with myrrh and wine, it brings away 

 the dead foetus. In combination with myrrh and wine too, 

 it neutralizes poisons those which come under the de- 

 nomination of "toxica" 65 in particular. The very touch 

 of it, mixed with oil and spondylium, 66 is sufficient to 

 kill a serpent. 67 It is generally thought to be productive of 

 strangury. 



60 See Note 56 above. 61 In B. xii. c. 56. 



62 Cartilaginous, clear, and free from ligneous substances. 



63 It is still employed, Fee says, to a small extent, as a topical application 

 for ulcerated sores. Its properties are energetic, but nearly all the uses to 

 which Pliny speaks of it as being applied are hypothetical. 



64 In B. xii. c. 56. 65 Narcotic poisons. 



66 See B. xii. c. 58. See also c. 16 of this Book. 



67 This statement is entirely fabulous. 



