BOOK XX. Li. 136-140 



of drinking a decoction of the leaves is taken before 

 indulgence in wine. It is beneficial as a food, raw, 

 boiled or preserved, likewise for colic if boi led in li yssop 

 and taken witli wine. In this form it chccks internal 

 haemorrhage, and, if injected into them, bleeding 

 nostrils ; this form is also good for rinsing the teeth. 

 The juice is also poured into the ears for ear-ache, 

 care being taken, as we have said, to inject only a 

 moderate quantity if the wild variety is used ; but 

 for hardness of hearing and for singing in the ears 

 there is added rose oil or bay oil, or else wine and 

 honey. For phrenitis" too the juice of pounded rue 

 is poured in vinegar over the temples and cranium. 

 Some have also added wikl thyme and bay, rubbing 

 with this mixture the head and the neck. Rue has 

 been given in vinegar for sufferers from lethargus * 

 to smell, and a decoction of the juice for epileptics 

 to drink in doses of four cyathi ; it has been given 

 before attacks of fever with unbearable chiil, and also 

 raw, as food, to sufFerers from shivering fits. It is 

 diuretic also, even when there is haematiu-ia ; it pro- 

 motes too menstruation, and brings away the after- 

 birth and the foetus that has died before delivery, as 

 Hipiiiocrates holds, if it be taken in sweet, dark 

 wine, or so applied locally. He also prescribes fumi- 

 gation with rue to stimulate the womb. Diocles 

 also applies it in vinegar and honey with barley meal 

 for heart-burn : for severe colic, the meal should be 

 boiled in oil and spread over pieces of fleece. Many 

 moreover also think that two drachmae of dried 

 rue and one and a half drachmae of sulphur can be 

 taken for purulent spittings, and for spitting of blood 

 three sprays boiled in wine. Pounded and taken 

 in wine with cheese it is also given to patients with 



