BOOK XXVI. Lxxvii. 125-LXXIX. 128 



pycnocomon with pearl barley are a remedy if the 

 boil has not yet come to a head. Boils are also 

 dispersed by apphcations of leaves of ephedron. 



LXXVIII. Fistulas also form " in any part of the Fistuias. 

 body through the careless use of the surgeon's knife. 

 The lesser centaury, if suppositories ^ made from it 

 are inserted ^vith boiled honey,'^ is a help ; so is 

 plantain juice poured into them, cinquefoil with salt 

 and honey, ladanum with beaver-oil, and cotyledon 

 with deers marrow warmed and appHed ; the pith of 

 verbascum root, cut as slender as a suppository, is 

 inserted into the fistula, or there may be used root of 

 aristolochia or juice of tithymalkis. 



LXXIX. Gatherings and inflammations are cured Suppura- 

 by an appHcation of argemonia leaves, all indurations '^ ^g^^H ^"^. 

 and gatherings by vervain, or by cinquefoil boiled ptaints. 

 down in vinegar, by leaves or root of verbascum, by an 

 appUcation of hyssop in wine, by fomenting with a 

 decoction of acoron root, and by aizoiim ; for bruises, 

 indurations, and for pitted sores <^ in the flesh the 

 remedy is illecebra. All foreign bodies buried in the 

 flesh may be extracted by leaves of tussilago, by 

 daucum, or by seed of leontopodium beaten up in 

 water with pearl barley. To suppurations are appUed 

 leaves, or seed, of pycnocomon beaten up with pearl 

 barley, Ukewise orchis. For affections of the bones a 

 very efficacious cure is said to be an appUcation of 



■* Perhaps in this context " hard abscesses." Cf. Celsus V 

 25, 11 : l^abscessus) rubet cum calore et paulo post etiam cum 

 duritia. 



' In sinu, "in the case of a (sore) hollow," is the harder, 

 and therefore perhaps the more hkely reading. See (§ 141) 

 siniis ulcerum and (XXVII § 63) explent sinus ulcerum. Sinus 

 is the hollow or cavity formed by a deep ulcer. Perhaps ' sores 

 in a fold (sinus) of the body.' 



361 



