BOOK XX. Liii. 147-150 



spirits and its flavour gives a zest to food ; for this 

 reason it is a familiar inoredient in our sauces. By 

 itself mint prevents milk from turning sour or curdled 

 and thick ; for which reason it is added to milk for 

 drinking, and administered in water or in honey 

 wine to such as are choked by a curdled draught. 

 Through the same property it is beUeved to be a 

 hindrance to generation by not allowing the genital 

 fluids to thicken.'' Bleeding it checks in both men 

 and women, and stays menstruation ; violent dis- 

 turbance of the bowels also, if taken in water with 

 starch. Ulceration and abscess of the womb are 

 healed by an external appHcation, hver complaints 

 bv doses of three oboH in honey wine, spitting of 

 blood by the same in broth. It is wonderfully good 

 for curing sores on children's heads ; it dries a wet 

 and braces a dry trachea, in honey wine and water 

 it clears away purulent phlegm, and benefits the 

 voice, if its juice be taken just before a strain is put 

 upon it, not otherwise ; a gargle also of the juice 

 added to rue and coriander in milk is good for a 

 swollen uvula. With alum it is good for the tonsils, 

 with honey for a rough tongue, and by itself for 

 internal spasms and for hmg complaints. With 

 pomegranate juice, as Democritus tells us, it stops 

 hiccough and vomitings. The juice of fresh mint, 

 inhaled, is good for affections of the nostrils. Pounded 

 by itself mint is good for cholera, taken in a draught 

 of vinegar, for internal fluxes of blood, made into a 

 plaster with pearl barley, for iUac trouble also and 

 tension of the breasts. It is also applied to the temples 

 for headache, and it is taken for the wounds caused 

 by the scolopendra, sea scorpion and serpent. It is 

 appUed to fluxes of the eyes, to all eruptions on tlie 



87 



