BOOK XXVI. Lxv. I02-LXVI. 105 



called mollugo ; like it, but with rougher leaves, is 

 asperugo. The juice of the former " is taken daily, 

 the dose being one denarius by weight in two cyathi 

 of wine. 



LXVI. The sovereign remedy, however, for this 

 complaint is phycos thalassion, or seaweed, which is 

 Hke lettuce, and is used as a ground-colour for the 

 purple of the murex ; it is sovereign, not for gout only, 

 but for all diseases of the joints, if appHed before it 

 becomes dry.* There are moreover three kinds of it : 

 one is broad,'^ the second is rather long and inclining 

 to red, and the third, which has curly leaves, is used in 

 Crete to dye cloth. They have all the same medi- 

 cinal uses. Nicander '^ gave these too in wine for 

 snake bite. A further remedy is the seed, soaked 

 in water, of the plant I have called ^ psylHon : one 

 hemina of such seed is compounded with two spoon- 

 fuls of Colophonian resin and one spoonful of frankin- 

 cense. Another highly valued remedy is made from 

 leaves of mandrake pounded with pearl barley. 

 When however ankles swell, water-mud kneaded with 

 oil makes a wonderfully good plaster ; for the joints 

 the juice of the smaller centaury is very beneficial, as 

 it is also for the sinews ; beneficial too is centauris. 

 For the sinews running across the shoulder blades, 

 for the shoulders, for the backbone and the loins, a 

 good remedy is betony, taken as pi*escribed for the 

 liver/; for the joints an appHcation of cinquefoil, 

 leaves of mandrake with pearl barley, or its root 

 pounded fresh with wild cucumber or boiled down in 

 water ; for chaps on the toes the root of polypodium ; 

 for the joints juice of henbane with axle-grease, 



Theriaca 845. « Book XXV § 140. 



f See XXVI § 35. 



343 



