BOOK XXII. Lxviii. i3g-Lxx. 142 



water affords a very light food for invalids. In wine 

 it is applied to swollen eyes, and in this form or with 

 the addition of dried myrtle to pustules on the head. 

 Persons with palsy are recommended to eat bread 

 soaked in water, f;isting, and immediately after the 

 bath. Moreover, bread burnt in bedrooms removes 

 the close smell, and put in the strainers any un- 

 pleasant odour in wine. 



LXIX. The bean too supplies helpful remedies. o/beans. 

 For roasted whole and thrown hot into strong vinegar 

 it heals colic. Crushed in a sieve and boiled with 

 garlic it is taken witli the daily food for incurable 

 coughs and suppurations of the chest ; chewed in the 

 inouth of one fasting it is also applied to ripen or 

 disperse boils, and boiled down in wine for swelUngs of 

 the testicles and for troubles of the genitals. In the 

 form of meal too, boiled down in vinegar it ripens 

 tumours and breaks them, besides healing con- 

 tusions and burns. That it is good for the voice we 

 are assured by M. Varro. The ashes too of bean- 

 stalks and of the pods are good for sciatica, and with 

 old pigs' lard for chronic pains of the sinews. The 

 husks by themselves boiled down to one third check 

 looseness of the bowels. 



LXX. Those lentils are best which are most easily o/imtus. 

 boiled, and in particular those which absorb most 

 water. Although tliey dull the sight and cause 

 flatulence, yet taken with the food they check loose- 

 ness of the bowels, especially when thoroughly 

 boiled in rain water; lightly boiled however they 

 relax the bowels. They break the pustules of sores ; 

 sores in the mouth they cleanse and dry up. An 

 application of lentils soothes all abscesses, and 

 especially those that are ulcerated and cracked, but 



395 



