BOOK XXIV. V. 9-vi, 12 



for the eyes ; with vinegar it is used for eruptions and 

 superficial abscesses. The inner part of the nut 

 when chewed reheves toothache, and also chafing of 

 the skin and burns. Taken unripe in vinegar gall- 

 nuts reduce a swoUen spleen ; then again, burnt and 

 extinguished in salt and vinegar. they check excessive 

 menstruation and prolapse of the uterus if used as a 

 fomentation. All kinds of gall-nut blacken the hair. 



VI. I have ah-eady said " that the choicest mistle- iii>.ih'toe. 

 toe is thought to come from the hard-wood oak, and 

 I have given the way of preparing it. Some crush it 

 and boii in water until none of it floats on the surface ; 

 othei-s chew the berries and spit out the skins.'' The 

 best birdlime from mistletoe is without any skin, and 

 very smooth,*^ yellow on the outside and leek-green 

 within. Nothing is more sticky than this birdUme. Itis 

 emolUent, disperses tumours, and dries up scrofulous 

 sores ; with resin and wax it softens superficial ab- 

 scesses of every sort. Some add galbanum also, equal 

 in weight to each of the other ingredients, and this mix- 

 ture they use also for the treatment of wounds. The 

 hme smooths scabrous nails, but the appUcation must 

 be taken off «^ every seven days and the nails washed 

 with a solution of soda.*" Some superstitiously beheve 

 that the mistletoe proves more efficacious if it be 

 gathered from the hard-wood oak at the new moon 

 v.ithout the use of iron, and without its touching 



until nothing floats on the surface," crushing and washing 

 being thus combined. More probably Pliny is translating, not 

 the passage as it appears in Dioscorides, but one closely related 

 to it. 

 " Dioscorides has Aetor. 



^ With Mayhotfs conjecture, " apphed (again)." 

 * Niirum was sodium carbonate mixed with chlorides and 

 calcium carbonate. It was brought from pools N.-W. of Cairo. 



