BOOK XXII. Lxxiii. 151-LXXIV. 155 



body. It does not allow sores to spread, being very 

 efficacious when they are on the breasts. Applied 

 in wine it makes carbuncles burst. Strangury, 

 flatulence, affections of the liver, tenesmus, and 

 atrophy, when food cannot be assimilated, are 

 reheved by swallowing the roasted grain, held to- 

 gether by honey of the size of a hazel-nut, and so are 

 skin eruptions by a decoction in vinegar, allowed to 

 remain on the affected part till the foui-th day. An 

 appiication in honey prevents superficial abscesses 

 from suppurating. Fomentation with the water of a 

 decoction cures chilblains and pruritus. Moreover 

 it is thought that the whole body assumes a more 

 healthy coniplexion if this decoction be taken daily 

 on an empty stomach. At the same time this vetch 

 makes unwholesome human food, causing vomiting, 

 disturbing the bowels, and causing heaviness in the 

 head and stomach, besides enfeebling the knees. 

 Soaked, however, for several days it mellows, and is 

 very good for cattle and beasts of burden. The 

 pods of it, pounded green before they harden, with 

 their own stalk and leaves, dye the liair black. 



LXXIV. There are also wild lupins, with weaker wudiupins. 

 properties than the cultivated in every respect 

 except their bitterness. Of all the things that are 

 eaten, none is less heavy or more useful than hipins 

 when dried. They mellow when cooked in hot ash or 

 in hot water. Taken frequently as food they freshen 

 the human complexion ; bitter lupins are an antidote 

 for the wound of the asp. Dried hipins, peeled and 

 pounded, make new flesh on black ulcers if apphed in 

 a Hnen cloth. Boiled in vinegar they disperse scrofu- 

 lous swellings and parotid abscesses. A decoction 

 with rue and pepper is given to persons under thirty, 



403 



