Chap. 23.] 
PITCH. 
17 
lentisk:^^ it possesses astringent properties, and is the most 
powerful diuretic of them all. The other resins are laxative 
to the howels, promote the digestion of crudities, allay the 
violence of inveterate coughs, and, employed as a fumigation, 
disengage the uterus of foreign^^ bodies with which it is sur- 
charged : they are particularly useful too as neutralizing the 
effects of mistletoe ; and, mixed with bull suet and honey, 
they are curative of inflamed tumours and affections of a similar 
nature. The resin of the lentisk is very convenient as a ban- 
doline for keeping stubborn eyelashes in their place : it is 
useful also in cases of fractures, suppurations of the ears, and 
prurigo of the generative organs. The resin of the pine is the 
best of them all for the cure of wounds in the head. 
CHAP. 23. (7.) — PITCH : TWEJ^TY-THEEE REMEDIES. 
We have also stated on a previous occasion^^ from w^hat 
tree pitch is extracted, and the methods employed for that 
purpose. Of this also there are two kinds ; thick pitch and 
liquid pitch. Of the several varieties of thick pitch the 
most useful for medicinal purposes is that of Bruttium for 
being both extremely unctuous and very resinous, it reunites 
the properties both of resin and of pitch, that of a yellow 
reddish colour being the most highly ' esteemed. As to the 
statement made in addition to this, that the produce of the 
male tree is the best, I do not believe that any such distinc- 
tion is at all possible. 
Pitch is of a warming, cicatrizing tendency : mixed with 
polenta it is particularly useful as a neutralizer of the venom 
of the cerastes, and in combination with honey it is used 
for quinzy, catarrhs, and fits of sneezing caused by phlegm. 
With oil of roses it is used as an injection for the ears, and 
employed as a liniment with wax it heals lichens. It relaxes^^ 
the bowels, also, and used as an electuary, or applied with 
Mastich. The medicinal properties here attributed to it, Fee says, 
do not exist. 
11 Onera,'' 12 B.'xiv. c. 25, and B. xvi. cc. 21, 22. 
12 Tar. See B. xvi. c. 21. 
1* The pitch of Calabria, Fee says, is known at the present day as 
pitch-resin. All that Pliny states as to the medicinal properties of pitch, 
is destitute, Fee thinks, of the slightest probability. 
1^ Or horned serpent. Taken internally, of course. 
VOL. V, C 
