BOOK XX. Lxxxi. 213-LXXX11. 216 



pearl bai-ley to reduce hig-h temperature, and besides 

 this when chewed it also cools the intestines. It arrests 

 vomiting. For dysentery and abscesses it is eaten in 

 vinegar or taken in drink with cummin, and for 

 tenesmus it is boiled. Whether eaten or drunk it is 

 good for epilepsy, for menstruation if one acetabuhim 

 be taken in concentrated must, for hot gout and ery- 

 sipelas if appUed with salt. A draught of its juice 

 helps the kidneys and the bladder, expelHng also 

 intestinal parasites. For the pain of wounds it is 

 applied in oil with pearl barley. It softens indurations 

 of the sinews. Metrodorus, author of Compendivm of 

 Prescriptions from Roots, was of opinion that it should 

 be given after deUvery to aid the after-birth. It 

 checks lust and amorous dreams. A Spanish prince, 

 father of a man of praetorian rank, because of 

 unbearable disease of the uvula, to my knowledge 

 carries except in the bath a root of pepHs hung 

 round his neck by a thread, being in this way reheved 

 of all inconvenience. Moreover, I have found in my 

 authorities that the head rubbed with peplis 

 ointment is free from catarrh the whole year. It is 

 supposed however to weaken the eyesignt. 



LXXXII. Coriander is not found among wild coriander. 

 plants. The best, as is generally agreed, is the 

 Egyptian. It is an antidote for the poison of one 

 kind of serpent, the amphisbaena, both taken in 

 drink and applied. It heals other wounds also, 

 when pounded, besides night rashes and blisters ; 

 in this form too, with honey or raisins, all tumours 

 and gatherings, though to treat the panus " the 

 pounded plant must be applied in vinegar. Some 

 prescribe three grains of seed to be swallowed before 

 the fit comes on by patients with tertian ague, or 



125 



