BOOK XXVI. xLvi. 73-xLvii. 74 



say tliat the upper part of it brings away the biles by 

 vomiting, the lower part by stool." 



XLVII. Cohc is cured by any kind of panaces, by Digestive 

 betony, except when the cause is indigestion, by the ['^i^ued. '""*' 

 juice of peucedanum, which also, being carminative, 

 dispels flatulence, by the root of acoron, or by 

 daucum, if it is taken as a salad hke lettuce. Cyprian 

 ladanum, taken in drink, is good for intestinal com- 

 plaints, as also is powdered gentian, of the size of a 

 bean, taken in warm water, or plantain taken in the 

 morning, the dose being two spoonfuls with one of 

 poppy in four cyathi of wine which is not old. It is 

 also given before going to sleep with the addition of 

 soda or pearl barley, provided that it is long after the 

 last meal. For cohtis a hemina of the juice is 

 injected, even when fever is present. 



speak of the upper part of the root and its lower part as 

 acting differently ; but it is natural enough for the upper part 

 of the plant to act in one way and its lower part in another. 

 Cf., however, § 79. May it be that a KaTu) has been lost before 

 Trpo? owing to the vicinity of KaTw before KaOaipei. ? nepog, 

 too, may have been originally before Xr]iJ.(f>dev. This trans- 

 position of ^epo? and omission of «•dTw, if pre-Phny, might 

 well have caused him to misunderstand the passage. What 

 I have said is mere speculation, and I have not thought it 

 wise to alter the Latin text in any way. On the other hand, 

 it is perhaps useful to point out, from an excellent example, 

 the intricate nature of the problems that everywhere meet 

 the translator of PHny, who is often bewildered and reduced 

 to guesses in which he can have little confidence. 



(2) Dioscorides has <I>Xol6v exovaa (pt^a) e^a)9ev ^eXava, 

 ev8o9ev 8e XevKTj : Pliny : (radix) intus Jiabet mammavi (May- 

 hoff suggests medullam) candidam, extra cortices nigros. A little 

 later the Greek has xoXijv /cai <j>Xeyfxa, the Latin bile^s (i.e. black 

 and yellow). Pliny in fact seems to have had a Greek text 

 very similar to that of Dioscorides but not verbally identical 

 with it. So perhaps the difficulties dealt with above are even 

 more complicated than they seem at first sight to be. 



