BOOK XX. XIII. 24-26 



ttomach ; its seed too when roasted and chewed by 

 itself. To use a radish as an amulet and to drink 

 either a decoction of its leaves in water or its juice 

 neat in doses of two cyathi is good for phthiriasis. 

 Good for inflammation is a Hniment of radishes crushed 

 by themselves, and for a fresh bruise a liniment made 

 from the skin with lioney. Lethargic persons are 

 benefited by eating them at their hottest, asth- 

 matics by the seed, first roasted and then beaten 

 iip with honey. Radishes are also useful for poisons, 

 counteracting the sting of the cerastes * and of the 

 scorpion. With hands rubbed with radish or its 

 seed you may handle these creatures without fear, 

 and a radish placed on scorpions kills them. Radishes 

 too counteract the poisons of fungi and of henbane, 

 and moreover, as Nicander ** tells us, the effects of 

 drinking bulFs blood. Both the physicians with the 

 name of Apollodorus prescrlbc radishes to be given 

 for mistletoe poisoning ; but Apollodorus of Citium 

 recommends the pounded seed in water, he of 

 Tarentum the juice. Radishes also reduce the size 

 of the spleen, and are good for the liver and pains 

 in the loins ; taken also with vinegar or mustard 

 they are beneficial in cases of dropsy, lethargus, 

 epilepsy and melanchoha." Praxagoras would ad- 

 minister it to patients with ihac,'' and Phstonicus 

 to those with coehac disease.'' If eaten with honey 

 they also cure ulcers of the intestines and sup- 

 purations of the chest./ Some for these purposes 

 prefer to cook them in mud : " if so taken they pro- 

 mote, according to them, the menstrual discharge. 

 Taken with vinegar or honey they bring away 



" With iMa3'hoff's reading: " to smear them over with 

 mud before cooking." 



17 



