BOOK XXIII. XXVII. 55-58 



stinging animals and for the bite of the multipede. 

 Applied warm on a sponge, with either two ounces of 

 sulphur or a buneh of hyssop added to three sextarii 

 of vinegar, it is also a remedy for troubles of the anus. 

 For haemorrhage after excision of stone, or any other, 

 it is applied externally on a sponge, and doses of two 

 cyathi of the strongest vinegar are taken internally. 

 It certainly disperses clotted blood. In the treat- 

 ment of Uchens it is used both internally and 

 externally. Injected it checks looseness of the 

 bowels and catarrh of the intestines, and it is 

 similarly employed for prolapse of the anus and of 

 the uterus. It arrests chronic cough, catarrh of the 

 throat, orthopnoea, and looseness of the teeth. It 

 is injurious to the bladder and to weak sinews. Its 

 great efficacy as an antidote for asp bite was un- 

 known to physicians, but recently a man who was 

 bitten by an asp on which he trod while carrying a 

 skin of vinegar felt the wound every time he put the 

 skin down, but at other times it was as though he 

 had never been bitten. He inferred that vinegar was 

 an antidote and was relieved by taking a draught 

 of it. And it is similarly with vinegar that those 

 rinse out their mouth who suck poison from wounds. 

 Its all-embracing potency is not confined to foods, 

 but includes also very many things ; poured on rocks 

 it splits them when attempts to do so with fire have 

 failed. No other sauce serves so well to season food 

 or to heighten a flavour ; when used for which 

 purpose its effect is lessened by burnt bread or 

 cummin, or heightened by pepper and laserwort, 

 and without fail is kept in check by salt. On this 

 point I must not pass over a striking illustration of 

 the power of vinegar. In the last years of his life 



453 



