PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



dolore veratro in oleo vel rosaceo decocto tritoque 

 ungui convenit, peucedano ex oleo vel rosaceo et 

 aceto. tepidum hoc prodest et doloribus qui plerum- 

 que ex dimidia parte capitis sentiuntur et vertigini. 

 perungunt et radice eius sudoris causa eliciendi, 

 quoniam caustica vis ei est. 



140 XC. Psyllion alii cjTioides, alii crystallion, alii 

 sicelicon, alii cynomyiam appellant, radice tenui 

 supervacua, sarmentosum, fabae granis in cacumin- 

 ibus, foliis canino capiti non dissimilibus, semine 

 autem pulici, unde et nomen. hoc in bacis, ipsa herba 

 in vineis invenitur. vis ad refrigerandum et dis- 

 cutiendum ingens. semen in usu. fronti inponitur 

 in dolore et temporibus ex aceto et rosaceo aut posca. 



141 ad cetera inlinitur. acetabuli mensura sextarium 

 aquae densat ac contrahit ; tunc terere oportet et 

 crassitudinem inlinere cuicumque dolori et collectioni 

 inflammationique. vulneribus capitis medetur aristo- 

 lochia, fracta extrahens ossa et in aha quidem parte 

 corporis sed maxime capite, simihter plistolochia. 

 thrysehnum est non dissimile apio. huius radix 

 commanducata purgat capitis pituitas. 



142 XCI. Oculorum aciem centaurio maiore putant 

 adiuvari si addita aqua foveantur, suco vero 

 minoris cum melle culices, nubeculas, obscuritates 



often cut himself on a snake's skeleton ? He might however 

 easily run a thorn into his foot during a cross- country walk. 

 The corresponding passage in Dioscorides (IV 20) has aK-tSaj 

 Koi OKoXoTTas imaTTdaOai. It is conjectural, but just possible, 

 that serpentis has replaced an original spina because the ossa 

 of the first clause of this sentence was repeated a httle later on 

 unconsciously by a careless scribe. Then the sense would be 

 " if a thom has been trodden on." 



All this is so conjectural that I do not feel justified in 

 changing the text. 



234 



