BOOK XXV. LV. lOO-LVI. I02 



taken with pepper and rue in six cyathi of ^Wne. 

 The smell too of lysimachia keeps snakes away. 

 Those who have been bitten are given chelidonia in 

 wine, and to the bites is appHed in particular betony, 

 the power of which is said to be so great that snakes 

 enclosed in a circle of it lash themselves to death. 

 For the bites is given its seed, the dose being a 

 denarius with three cyathi of wine, or else it is 

 ground and three drachmae of the powder are given 

 in a sextarius of water ; the powder is also appHed 

 locally. Cantabrica too is used, and dittany, and 

 aristolochia, a drachma of the root in a hemina of 

 wine, but the dose must be repeated several times. 

 Aristolochia in vinegar also makes a useful appHca- 

 tion, and so does pHstolochia, in fact the mere hanging 

 of this above the hearth makes all snakes hurry 

 from the house. LVI. Argemonia too is good, a 

 denarius of its root being taken in three cyathi of 

 wine. It is proper for more details to be given about 

 this plant, and about the others, when the first 

 mention is made of them, and the first mention of 

 each should be when I deal with that medical treat- 

 ment where its use will prove most effective. It has 

 leaves Hke those of the anemone, divided Hke those 

 of celery, a head Hke that of the wild poppy upon a 

 small stalk, the root also " being Hke that of this 

 poppy, and saffron-coloured juice that is pungent and 

 sharp. It grows in cultivated fields. We Romans 

 distinguish three kinds of it, and the one esteemed 

 is that the root of which smells Hke frankincense. 



" There is much to be said for Mayhoff's conjecture 

 ieretem; see Dioscorides II. 176 pi^ta AeTrra Kal ■nXiiio. But 

 item just makes sense, and there is no variation in the 



MSS. 



