BOOK XX, XVIII. 36-xx. 39 



strongest smell of all. The root has a pleasant 

 smell, and the seed, it is said, even the vultures eat. 

 When drunk in white wine it is beneficial to man for 

 chronic cough, ruptures and convulsions ; hkewise 

 for opisthotonic tetanus, affections of the hver, cohc 

 and strangury, in doses of two or three spoonfuls. 

 The leaves also are useful because they aid parturi- 

 tion, even that of quadrupeds ; it is said that does, 

 when about to give birth, make this their special food. 

 The leaves are also apphed to erysipelas, and diges- 

 tion is much helped if the leaf or seed be eaten after 

 food. It arrests also looseness of bowels in quad- 

 rupeds, either pounded and mixed with their drink, 

 or chewed up when they eat their food. It acts as a 

 cure for diseases of oxen, if taken with salt or pounded 

 and injected." 



XIX. Elecampane too chewed by people fasting Eiecampam 

 strengthens the teeth. If it is taken from the ground 



so as not to touch it, a confection of it is heahng for 

 a cough ; the juice moreover of the boiled root 

 expels worms, and dried in the shade its powdered 

 form cures cough, convulsions, flatulence and affec- 

 tions of the trachea. It keeps offthe bite of poisonous 

 creatures. An apphcation of the leaves steeped in 

 wine is used for himbago. 



XX. There are no wild onions. Cultivated onions, oyiions 

 by the running caused by the mere smell, is a cure 



for feebleness of vision ; an even better cure is to 

 apply to the eye sonie of the juice. Onions are also 

 said to induce sleep, and chewed with bread to heal 

 sores in the mouth ; fresh onions apphed in vinegar, 

 or dry with honey and wine, dog-bites, provided that 

 the bandage is taken off tliree days after. Apphed 

 in the same way they also heal abrasions. An onion 



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