BOOK XXII. Lvni. 122-124 



LVIII. Barley meal, both raw and boiled, dis- Bariey meai 

 perses abscesses and inHamed gatherings ; "■ it softens 

 them and brings them to a head. At other times a 

 decoction of it is made in hydi'omel or with dried 

 figs, but for pains in the liver, when pus needs 

 to be matured, it should be decocted in wine ; when 

 there is difficulty in deciding whether maturing or 

 dispersal is necessary, then it is better for the 

 decoction to be in vinegar, in lees of vinegar, or in 

 boiled down quinces or pears. It is used with honey 

 for multipede stings, in vinegar for snake bites and 

 to stop suppuration, but for bringing away suppura- 

 ting matter with dihited vinegar to wliich GalUc 

 resin has been added. For maturing of abscesses,* 

 however, and for chronic sores it must be used with 

 resin, for indurations with pigeons' dung or dried 

 fig or ashes, for inflammations of the sinews or of the 

 intestines or pains in the sides with poppies or mehlot, 

 and also when the flesh falls away from the bones, for 

 scrofulous swelhngs with pitch and the urine of a boy 

 below the age of puberty added to oil. With 

 fenugreek it is prescribed for swelhngs of the hypo- 

 chondria, and for fevers with honey or stale fat. 

 For suppurations wheat flour is much more soothing." 

 To sinews it is applied with juice of henbane, for 

 freckles, in vinegar and honey . Meal of emmer-wheat, 

 out of which as I have said aUca is made, seems to 

 be more efficacious even than barley meal, the three- 

 month <^ variety being the more soothing. It is 

 used warm, in red wine, for the stings of scorpions, 

 spitting of blood, and for tracheal afFections. For a 



" The grammar would also allow (farina ablative): " For 

 siippurations it is much more soothing than wheat meal." 

 ■^ I.e., that ripens in three months. 



3^3 



