BOOK XXII. Lxiv. r33-Lxvi. 136 



it also one and a half oboli of white hellebore, admini- 

 stering it principally as a purgative for melancholic 

 madness, epilepsy and gouty pains. Taken by itself 

 too in doses of one drachma it empties the bowels. 



LXV. The best barley is the whitest. The juice nariey. 

 from a rainwater decoction is worked up into lozenges 

 to be used as suppositories for ulcei-ations of the 

 intestines and of the uterus. Barley ash is applied 

 to burns, to flesh that comes away from the 

 bones, for eruptions of phlegm and for bites of the 

 shrew-mouse. The same added to honey and a 

 sprinkUng of salt makes the tecth white and the 

 breath smell sweet. It is said that those wlio use 

 barley bread never suffer from gout in the feet. 

 Tliey also say that, if a man, taking nine grains of 

 barley, trace three times with each of them a circle 

 round a boil, using the left hand, and then throw 

 all the grains into the fire, the boil heals at once. 

 There is also a plant, called phoenicea by the Greeks 

 and mouse barley by our countrymen. This pounded 

 and taken in wine is an excellent emmenagogue. 



LXVI. To ptisan, which is prepared from barley, piisan. 

 Hippocrates devoted a whole volume," lavishing on 

 it praises which today are all given instead to aHca, 

 a far more wholesome preparation. Hippocrates 

 however praises ptisan for its merits as a broth, 

 because (as he says) being kibricant it is easily 

 swallowed, quenches thirst, does not swell in the 

 belly, is easily evacuated, and is the only food that 

 can be given twice a day to those fever patients 

 who are in the habit of taking two meals, so different 

 is Hippocrates from those who treat their patients 

 with a starvation diet. However he forbids the 

 broth to be swallowed whole, or any part of it other 



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