BOOK XXVI. Lxxii. 118-LXXI11. 120 



by cabbage and frankincense with frequent draughts 

 of hot water ; or the ash from a burning coal " ex- 

 tinguished in the patient's presence may be picked 

 up with a finger and applied. Other remedies are 

 pounded plantain and tithymallus characites. 



LXXIII. Remedies for dropsy are : panaces ; Dmpsy. 

 plantain as food, after dry bread without any drink ; 

 two-drachma doses of betony in two cyathi of wine 

 or honey wine ; agaric, or lonchitis seed, two spoon- 

 fuls for a dose taken in water ; psyllion in wine ; 

 juice of either anagalHs ; root of cotyledon in honey 

 wine ; root of fresh ebukmi, shaken only and not 

 washed, a two-finger pinch for a dose, taken in a 

 hemina of old wine and hot water ; root of trefoil in 

 wine, two drachmae for a dose ; the tithymallus 

 called platyphyllon ; seed of the hypei-icum known 

 as caros ; acte, which some identify with ebulum, the 

 root, if there is no fever, being crushed in three 

 cyathi of wine, or the seed ^ being taken in dai*k 

 wine ; vervain also, a good handful being boiled 

 down in water to one half. The most efiicacious 

 reniedy however is believed to be the juice of 

 chamaeacte. An outbreak '^ of phlegm is reUeved by 

 plantain, by cyclamen root in honey, and by pounded 

 leaves of ebulum in old wine. An apphcation of the 

 last cures boa** also, an eruption of red pimples, and 

 the juice of strychnos apphed as Hniment cures itch. 



' See list of diseases. Here perhaps nasal catarrh, but else- 

 where (XXV § 61) pituitous eruptions on the body. 



■^ The Latin Thesaurus gives a full list of references to boa, 

 which was the name of more than one complaint. In Pliny it 

 means some kind of eczema. The name was supposed to be 

 connected with bos, because ox dung was used as a remedy. 

 See XXVIII § 244. 



355 



