BOOK XXII. Lxvi. 136-LXV111. 139 



than the juice; he says also that it must never be 

 given so long as the feet are cold ; indeed that then no 

 drink of any kind should be given. Ptisan can also be 

 made from wheat, when it is more viscous and more 

 beneficial to an ulcerated trachea. 



LXVII. Starch dulls the eyes, and is injurious to siarch. 

 the tln-oat, though that is not the general beUef. It 

 also checks loose bowels, arrests fluxes from the eyes, 

 heaHng ulcerations of them as well as pustules and 

 flows of blood. It softens " hard eyelids. With eg^g 

 it is given to those who have spit blood ; in pain of 

 the bladder moreover lialf an ounce of starch with 

 tgg and three egg-shells of raisin wine are given 

 lukewarm after the bath. Moreover, oatmeal boiled 

 in vinegar removes moles. 



LX\'III. The very bread which forms our staple Medidnw 

 diet has almost innumerable medicinal properlies. 'Hll^^ 

 Apphed in water and oil or in rose oil it softens 

 abscesses ; in hydromel it is very soothing to indura- 

 tions. In wine it is given to disperse or to compress 

 as need may be, and, if greater strength be called 

 for, in vinegar for those violent fluxes of phlcgm which 

 the Greeks call rheumatismi, as well as for bruises 

 and sprains. For all purposes, however, leavened 

 bread, of the kind called autopyrus,'' is the more 

 beneficial. In vinegar it is also applied to whitlows 

 and to callosities on the feet. Stale bread or sailors' 

 bread, pounded and then baked again, checks loose- 

 ness of the bowels. For those anxious to improve 

 the voice and for catarrhs it is very beneficial to eat 

 dry bread at breakfast. Sitanius,<^ that is bread 

 made of three-month wheat, appUed with honey is 

 a very good cure for bruises on the face or scaly 

 eruptions. White bread soaked in warm or cold 



393 



