Chap. 15.] STORAX. H 



CHAP. 14. (6.) HAMMONIACTJM I TWENTY-FOTTR EEMED1ES. 



Of a similar nature to galbanum is hammoniacum, a tear- 

 like gum, the qualities of which are tested in manner already 68 

 stated. It is of an emollient, warming, resolvent, and dis- 

 pellent nature. Employed as an ingredient in eye- salves, it 

 improves the sight. It disperses prurigo, effaces the marks of 

 sores, removes spots in the eyes, and allays tooth- ache, more 

 particularly when burnt. It is very useful too, taken in 

 drink, for hardness of breathing, pleurisy, affections of the 

 lungs, diseases of the bladder, bloody urine, maladies of the 

 spleen, and sciatica : employed in a similar manner, it acts as 

 a purgative upon the bowels. Boiled with an equal proportion 

 of pitch or wax, and with oil of roses, it is good for diseases of 

 the joints, and for gout. Employed with honey it ripens hard 

 tumours, extracts corns, and has an emollient effect upon in- 

 durations. In combination with vinegar and Cyprian wax, 

 or oil of roses, it is extremely efficacious as a liniment for 

 affections of the spleen. In cases of extreme lassitude, it is 

 an excellent plan to use it as a friction, with vinegar and oil, 

 and a little nitre. 



CHAP. 15. STOBAX: TEN BEMEDIES. 



In speaking too of the exotic trees, we have made mention 69 of 

 the properties of storax. In addition to those which we have 

 already mentioned, it ought to be very unctuous, without alloy, 

 and to break to pieces in whitish fragments. This substance is 

 curative of cough, affections of the fauces, diseases of the chest, 

 and obstructions or indurations of the uterus. Taken in drink, 

 or employed as a pessary, it acts as an emmenagogue ; it has a 

 laxative effect also upon the bowels. I find it stated that, taken 

 in moderate doses, storax dispels melancholy; but that when em- 

 ployed in large quantities, it promotes it. Used as an injection 

 it is good for singings in the ears, and employed as a friction, 

 for scrofulous swellings and nodes of the sinews. It neutra- 

 lizes poisons of a cold nature, and consequently, hemlock. 70 



68 In B. xii. c. 49. Gum ammoniac is still used to some small extent 

 in modern medicine, for asthma, boils, tumours, and diseases of the bladder. 



69 In B. xii. c. 55. Fee says that it is of the Araygdalite storax that 

 Pliny is here speaking. It is little employed at the present day for in- 

 ternal maladies. 



This is not the fact. 



