BOOK XX. Li. 140-143 



dysentery. Crumbed into a draught it has also 

 been given with bitumen for shortness of breath ; 

 for heavy falls three ounces of seed with one pound 

 of oil and a sextarius of wine. The leaves boiled 

 with oil are appHed to parts that have been bitten 

 by frost. If it is diuretic, as Hippocrates holds, 

 it is strange that some prescribe it as an antidiuretic 

 drink for incontinence of urine. An application of 

 rue, with honey and alum, heals itch and leprous 

 sores ; vitiligo also and warts, scrofula and similar 

 complaints, with nightshade, lard and beef suet ; in 

 vinegar and oil, or white lead, erysipelas ; in vinegar, 

 carbuncles. Some prescribe the addition of silphiimi 

 to the ointment. vvithout using it, however, for the 

 trealment of niglit pustules." A decoction of it is 

 applied to swollen lireasts, and with the addilion of 

 wax for outbursts of phlegm ; for Huxes of the 

 testicles, however, tender sprigs of huirel are added, 

 and so extraordinary is the effect of these on the 

 abdomen that, it is said, by an ointment of the wild 

 variety with old axle-grease hernia is healed, as are 

 also broken limbs by an application of the pounded 

 seed and wax. The root of rue applied to the part 

 affected restores to normal blood-shot eyes, and scars 

 or sputs on any part of the body. Of the other 

 traditions about rue a remarkable one is that, 

 rilthough it is agreed that rue is by nature hot, yet a 

 buncli of rue boiled in rose oil with one ounce of 

 aloes checks the perspiration of those who have 

 rubhed themselves with it, and that its use as food 

 hinders the generative powers. Accordingly it is 

 piescribed for spermatorrhoea and for frequent 

 aniorous dreams. Pregnant women must take care 

 to exclude rue from their diet, for I find that the 



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