Chap. 28.] 
THE LENTISK. 
19 
with bitumen. Some persons, however, make this mixture 
artificially, and employ it for the cure of itch in cattle, and of 
injuries done by the young sucklings to the mamillse. The 
most esteemed portion of it is that which floats on the surface 
when boiled. 
CHAP. 26. ZOPISSA : C]SrE EEMEDY. 
We have already^^ stated that zopissa is the pitch, macerated 
with salt-water and wax, that has been scraped from off 
the bottoms of ships. The best kind is that taken from ships 
which have been to sea for the first time. It is used as an in- 
gredient in plasters of an emollient nature, employed to disperse 
gatherings. 
CHAP. 27. THE TOECH-TREE : ONE REMEDY. 
A decoction in vinegar of the wood of the torch-tree^^ 
makes a most efficacious gargle for tooth- ache. 
CHAP. 28. THE LENTISK I TWENTY-TWO REiXIEDIES. 
The seed, bark, and tear-like juices of the lentisk are 
diuretics, and act astringently upon the bowels a decoction 
of them, used as a fomentation, is curative of serpiginous sores, 
and is applied topically for humid ulcerations and erysipelas ; 
it is employed also as a collutory for the gums. The teeth are 
rubbed with the leaves in cases of tooth-ache, and they are 
rinsed with a decoction of the leaves when loose this decoc- 
tion has the efiect also of staining^^ the hair. The gum of 
this tree is useful for diseases of the rectum, and all cases in 
which desiccatives and calorifics are needed ; a decoction too 
of the gum is good for the stomach, acting as a carminative 
bitiiTnen. The names now given to it are mineral pitch, and malthe or 
pitch of Malta. 
21 In B. xvi. c. 23. Fee thinks that the use of it is more likely to 
have been injurious than beneficial. 
22 Or tffida. See B. xvi. c. 19. 
23 Pee says, that within the last centary, the wood of the lentisk or 
mastich, and the oil of its berries, figured in the Pharmacopoeias. Their 
medicinal properties are far from energetic, but the essential oil may pro- 
bably be of some utility as an excitant. 
This property is still attributed in the East to the leaves and resin of 
the lentisk. We learn from Martial, B. xiv. Epig. 22, that the wood of 
the lentisk, as well as quills, was used for tooth-picks. 
"5 This, Fee s:iys, is not the fact. 
