BOOK XXVII. XXVII. 44-xxviii. 46 



relieved by this plant ground up with the leaves and 

 appHed with its own juice. 



XX\^III. There are several kinds of wormwood. Absmthium. 

 The Santonic comes from the state of the Santoni in 

 Gaul, the Pontic from Pontus, where cattle fatten on 

 it, and so are found to be without gall ; there is no 

 finer wormwood than this, the ItaHan being far more 

 bitter, but the pith of Pontic wormwood is sweet. 

 About its use there is general agi-eement, for it is a 

 plant very easily found, and one of the most useful, 

 being moreover especiaHy honoured at the reHgious 

 rites of the Roman people, seeing that at the Latin 

 festival there is a race for four-horse chariots on the 

 CapitoHne Hill, the winner of which takes a draught 

 of wormwood, our ancestors thinking, I beHeve, that 

 health was a very grand prize to give. It strengthens 

 the stomach and for this reason it is used, as I have 

 said," to give a flavour to wines. A decoction in 

 water, which is afterwards cooled in the open for a 

 day and a night, is also taken ; six drachmae of the 

 leaves with their branches are boiled down in three 

 sextarii of rain water; salt too should be added. When 

 very old it can still be used.'' There is also adminis- 

 tered an infusion of wormwood in water ; for this 

 preparation should be styled " infusion," and an 

 essential of the infusion is that, whatever quantity'^ of 

 water is used, for three days the preparation should 

 be wholly enclosed. Pounded wormwood is rarely 



without the addition of salt. When old the decoction cannot 

 be used." Perhaps the nec looks to the occasions (§ 48) when 

 we are told that salt is added. Mayhoffs emendations 

 give us : " six drachmae . . . should be boiled down, and to 

 add salt is a very old usage." 

 ' Perhaps " kind." 



417 



