BOOK XXIII. IX. 13-X11. 16 



stomach. Ground into meal they are sprinkled like 

 pearl barley into drink " and taken for dysentery, 

 coeHac affections and a disordered stomach. It is 

 also beneficial to foment with a decoction of them 

 itch scab and pruritus. 



X. Grape skins by themselves are less injurious to orapeskins. 

 the head or bladder tlian are the stones. Pounded 



and applied with salt they are good for inflammation 

 of the breasts. A decoction of them, whether taken 

 as drink or used as a fomentation, reheves chronic 

 dysentery and coehac affections. 



XI. The theriac grape, about which I have spoken ** 

 in its proper place, is eaten to counteract the poison 

 from the bites of serpents. The young shoots, too, 

 of this vine are recommended to be eaten and to be 

 apphed ; w ine and vinegar made from these grapes 

 are useful for the same purpose. 



XII. The raisin, or astaphis as it is called, woukl naisins 

 injure stomach, belly and intestines, were it not that 



the stones in the fruit itself acts as a corrective. 

 When these are removed raisins are held to be useful 

 for the bladder and for coughs, those from white 

 grapes being the more so, useful also for the trachea 

 and kidneys, just as the wine made from stoned 

 raisins is specific for the poison of the serpent called 

 haemorrhois.<^ For inflamed testicles raisins are 

 applied with the meal of cummin or of coriander, 

 while for carbuncles and diseases of the joints they 

 are pounded without the stones with the addition of 

 rue. Sores should be fomented beforehand with wine. 

 Used with their stones they heal epinyctis,'' honey- 

 conib ulcers and dysentery. Boiled in oil they are 

 appUed to gangrenes with radish skins and honey ; 

 for gouty pains and loose nails with heal-aU. They 



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