BOOK XXIII. Lxxx. 157-LXXX1. 160 



at night, remove pimples and itching. The other 

 varieties of bay have very nearly the same properties. 

 That of Alexandria, or Mt. Ida, taken in doses of 

 three denarii of the root to three cyathi of sweet wine, 

 hastens delivery ; it also brings away the afterbirth 

 and acts as an emmenagogue. Taken in drink in 

 the same way, the wild bay, called daphnoides, or by 

 the names already " given to it, is beneficial ; three 

 drachmae of the leaves, fresh or dried, taken with 

 salt in hydromel, relax the bowels. Chewed, this 

 bay brings up phlegm and the leaves bring up vomit, 

 being injurious to the stomach. In this way, too, 

 the berries, fifteen at a time, are taken as a purge. 



LXXXI. The white cultivated myrtle is less useful ^^Mte 

 in medicine than the dark. Its berries * cure ^ 

 haemoptysis, and are taken in wine to counteract 

 poisonous tree-fungi. Even when chewed the day 

 previously they make the mouth smell sweet, and so 

 in Menander the women in Syyiaristosae <^ eat them. 

 A denarius of the same by weight is given in wine 

 for dysentery. Made lukewarm they heal with 

 wine obstinate sores on the extremities of the body. 

 With pearl barley they are applied to the eyes for 

 ophthalmia and to the left breast for cardiac ^ 

 disease. In neat wine they are applied to wounds 

 inflicted by scorpions, and for affections of the 

 bladder, headache, lacrimal fistulas before suppura- 

 tion, and tumours ; for pituitous eruptions the kernels 

 are first taken out and then the berries are crushed 

 in okl wine. The juice of the berries settles the 

 bowels and is diuretic. For eruptions of pimples 

 and for those of phlegm an ointment is made of the 



p. 442 note d and Spencer on Celsus III. 19, § 1 ; vol. I. p. 

 302 (note). 



523 



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