BOOK XXII. Lxi. 128-LX11. 130 



of recent date, or the Greeks would not have sung 

 the praises of barley water in preference." It was in 

 my opinion not yet used in the age of Pompey * 

 the Great, and for that reason scarcely anything 

 about it has been written by the school of Ascle- 

 piades. Its extreme usefulness nobody doubts, 

 whether it is given in hydromel after straining " or 

 boiled down to gruel or to thick pottage. For 

 arresting looseness of the bowels aHca is rojisted, and 

 then honeycomb wax is cooked with it, as I liave said 

 above.'' It is however specially useful for those who 

 by long illness have been reduced to a consumptive 

 condition ; the dose is three cyathi put into a 

 sextarius of vvater and gradually boiled down until 

 all the water has evaporated, when a sextarius of 

 sheep's or goats' milk is added, and the mixture 

 taken daily ; ^ after a while honey also is added. 

 By a course of this gruel dechne is arrested. 



LXII. Common millet checks looseness of the Common 

 bowels and removes gripings, for which purposes it is "" 

 first i'oasted. For pains of the sinews, and for other 

 pains it is appHed hot in a bag.^ No other appHca- 

 tion is more useful, for it is very Hght, very soothing 

 and very retentive of heat. Accordingly it is much 

 used in all cases where the appHcation of heat is 

 Hkely to prove beneficial. Millet meal and Hquid 

 pitch are appHed to the wounds inflicted by snakes 

 and multipedes. 



as the subject of coquitur. It is the eustom of PHny to add 

 cum, in or ex to the ablative to mean " boil in." 



* If a numeral [e.g. III) has faUen out : " for (three) days 

 running." 



f Dioscorides II. 97 (Wellmann) : <f>ojxS€iaa 8e Kai fiXTjOdaa 

 €is aoLKKOVS ■nvpictinevr] aTp6<f>o}v Kai tu)v aXXoiv aXynj^aTcov eoTi 

 PorjOTjfia. 



