BOOK XXIII. Lxxx. 152-154 



application of the leaves, moreover, counteracts the 

 poison of wasps, hornets and bees, as well as that of 

 snakes, in particiilar of the seps," the dipsas ^' and the 

 viper. Boiled with oil the leaves are also good for 

 menstruation ; tender leaves pounded and mixed with 

 pearl barley are good for inflammations of the eyes, 

 with rue for those of the testicles, and with rose oil or 

 iris oil for headache. Moreover three leaves, chewed 

 and swallowed for three days in succession, free from 

 cough; the same pounded and with honey free from 

 asthma. The skin of the root is to be avoided by 

 wonien with child. The root itself breaks up stone 

 in the bladder, and three oboh taken in a draught of 

 fragrant <^ wine ai'e good for the hver. The leaves 

 taken in drink act as an emetic. The berries pounded 

 and applied in a pessary or taken in drink act as an 

 emmenagogue. Doses of two berries Avith the skin 

 removed taken in wine cure chronic cough and 

 difRculty of breathing. If fever also be present, the 

 iierries are given in water, or in a raisin-wine 

 electuary, or boiled down in hydromel. Prepared 

 in the same way they are good for phthisis and 

 for all fluxes of the chest, for they both produce 

 coction <^ of the phlegm and bring it up. For 

 scorpion stings doses of four berries are taken in 

 wine. AppUed in oil the berries clear up epin- 

 yctis,^ freckles, running sores, sores in the mouth, 

 and scaly eruptions; the juice of the berries clear 

 scurf from the skin and phthiriasis ; for pain or 

 dullness of the ears it is injected with old wine and 



process by which any peccant humour became " mature " 

 and harmless as a disease progressed to its close. A typical 

 example is the dryiiig up of catarrh in the common cold, See 

 the Loeb Hippocrates I. li. aad lii. 

 ' Cf. p. 499, note d. 



