10 
PLINT's NATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book XXIV. 
venom of tlie sea-hare,^^ and for the cure of the various affections 
above-mentioned, as also of gatherings and inflammations. 
CHAP. 13. — galbantjm: twenty-theee kemedies. 
We have already given some description of galbanum : to 
be good, it should be neither too moist nor too dry, but just in 
the state which we have mentioned.^^ It is taken by itself 
for inveterate coughs, asthma, ruptures, and convulsions ; and 
it is employed externally for sciatica, pains in the sides, inflamed 
tumours,^^ boils, denudations of the bones, scrofulous sores, 
nodes upon the joints, and tooth-ache. It is applied with 
honey also, to ulcerations of the head. In combination with 
oil of roses or with nard, it is used as an injection for sup- 
purations of the ears ; and the odour of it is useful for epilepsy, 
hysterical sufl'ocations, and faintness at the stomach. Em- 
ployed as a pessary or as a fumigation, it brings away the 
foetus in cases of miscarriage ; branches too of hellebore 
covered with it and laid beneath the patient, have a similar 
effect. 
"We have already^^ stated that serpents are driven away by 
the fumes of burnt galbanum, and they will equally avoid 
persons whose body has been rubbed with it. It is curative 
also of the sting of the scorpion. In protracted deliveries, a 
piece of galbanum the size of a bean is given in one cyathus 
of wine : it has the effect also of reducing the uterus when 
displaced, and, taken with myrrh and wine, it brings away 
the dead foetus. In combination with myrrh and wine too, 
it neutralizes poisons — those which come under the de- 
nomination of toxica in particular. The very touch 
of it, mixed with oil and spondylium,^^ is sufficient to 
kill a serpent.^^ It is generally thought to be productive of 
strangury. 
^ See Note 56 above. 6i E. xii. c. 58. 
^2 Cartilaginous, clear, and free from ligneous substances. 
It is still employed, Fee says, to a small extent, as a topical application 
for ulcerated sores. Its properties are energetic, but nearly all the uses to 
which Pliny speaks of it as being applied are hypothetical. 
In B. xii, c. 56. 65 jSfarcotic poisons. 
66 See B. xii. c. 58. See also c. 16 of this Book. 
This statement is entirely fabulous. 
