BOOK XXII. Lxiii. 131-LXIV. 133 



LXIII. Italian millet was called by the physician iiaHan 

 Diocles the honey " of cereals. It produces the same "" *'' 

 results as common millet. Taken in wine it is good 

 for dysentery. In like form it is applied hot where 

 warm fomentations are called for. Looseness of the 

 bowels is checked if a decoction in goats' milk is 

 taken twice a day. In this form it is also good for 

 gripings. 



LXIV. Sesame ground and taken in wine checks aingelly. 

 vomiting. It is applied to inflammation of the ears 

 and to burns. It has the same effect ^ even while it 

 is in the blade. For this reason it is more copiously 

 applied, decocted in wine, to the eyes. As a food 

 it is injurious to the stomach and causes the breath 

 to smell offensive.'' It neutralizes the bites of the 

 gecko, and is beneficial to the sores known as malig- 

 nant ;'^ the oil made from it, as I have said,'' is good for 

 the ears. Sesamoides/ has received its name from its 

 likeness to sesame ; it has a smaller leaf, and the 

 grain is bitter. It grows on gravelly soils. Taken 

 in water, it carries away bile. The seed is used as 

 an application for erysipelas, and it disperses super- 

 ficial abscesses. 



There is also another sesamoides,!' which grows at 

 Anticyra, and is therefore called by some Anti- 

 cyricon. It has the seed of sesame, but in other 

 respects is like the plant erigeron, about which I shall 

 speak in the proper place.'' A three-finger pinch is 

 given in sweet wine as a purge. There they mix with 



pinch purges upwards if taken with three half-oboli of whito 

 hellebore added to honey and water. He says nothing about 

 sweet wine, but does say that crqaapioeihis is bitter. There is 

 no reference to roehancholia. This is a passage that throws 

 some light on the relation between Dioscorides and Pliny. 

 * See XXV. § 167. 



