BOOK XX. Lxxxiv. 223-227 



be brought back by vomiting. Other marvels are 

 reported of the mallows, the most wonderful being 

 lliat whoever swallows daily half a cyathus of the 

 juice of any one of them will be immune to all diseases. 

 Running sores on the head are cured by mallows that 

 have rotted in urine, hchen and sores in the mouth 

 by them and honey, dandruff and loose teeth by a 

 decoction of the root. With the root of the single- 

 stem plant they stab around an aching tooth until 

 the pain ceases ; the same plant " clears scrofula 

 and parotid abscesses, and with the addition of 

 human saHva superficial abscess '^ also, and that 

 without leaving a wound. The seed taken in dark 

 wine clears away phlegm and nausea. The root 

 attached as an amulet in dark wool stays troubles of 

 the breasts ; boiled in milk and taken Hke broth it re- 

 Heves a cough in five days. Sextius Niger says that 

 mallows are injurious to the stomach ; the Theban 

 lady Olympias that with goose-grease they cause 

 abortion, and others that a handful of their leaves 

 taken in oil and wine assist the menstruation of 

 women. It is agreed at any rate that women in 

 labour are more quickly deHvered if mallow leaves are 

 spread under them, but they must be withdrawn im- 

 mediately after deHvery for fear of prolapsus of the 

 womb. They give the juice to be drunk by women in 

 labour ; they must be fasting, and the dose is a hemina 

 boiled down in wine. Moreover, they attach the 

 seed to the arm of sufFerers from spermatorrhoea, 

 and mallows are so aphrodisiac that Xenocrates 

 maintains that the seeds of the single-stem mallow, 

 sprinkled for the treatment of women, stimulate 



" Possiblv " root," eadem referring to radice. 

 » See § 21 G. 



