8 
plint's natural histoey. 
[Book XXIY. 
taken in drink for the same complaint. In combination "with 
meal, they are applied topically to imposthumes of the parotid 
glands, and to scrofulous sores. From these excrescences, 
pounded along with the seed, a juice is extracted, which, mixed 
with oil, disperses films of the eyes. Taken in doses of one 
victoriatus,^^ in wine, and applied at the same time in a pulpy, 
dried fig, the seeds of which have been removed, this juice 
cures maladies of the testes and disperses tumours : mixed 
with leaven, it heals scrofulous sores. 
The root of the cypress, bruised with the leaves and taken 
in drink, is curative of diseases of the bladder, strangury, and 
the sting of the phalangium.^^ The shavings of the wood, 
taken in drink, act as an emmenagogue, and neutralize the 
venom of the scorpion. 
CHAP. 1 1 . THE CEDAE : THIRTEEN REMEDIES. 
The larger cedar, known as the "cedrelates,''^^ produces a 
pitch called cedria,'' which is very useful for tooth- ache, it 
having the effect of breaking*^ the teeth and extracting them, 
and so allaying the pain. "We have already^^ stated how the 
juices of cedar are extracted, so remarkably useful for 
seasoning books, were it not for the head-ache they produce. 
This extract from the cedar preserves^^ the bodies of the 
dead uncorrupted for ages, but exercises a noxious effect upon 
the bodies of the living — singular that there should be such a 
diversity in its properties, taking away life from animated 
See Introduction to Vol. III. 
48 See B. X. c. 28, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28. 49 gee B. xiii. c. 11. 
5^ Fee remarks, that many of the moderns attribute to frankincense the 
properties here ascribed to cedria ; a most unfounded notion, he thinks. 
51 In B. xiv. c, 25, and B. xvi. cc. 21, 22. 
^'^ Sillig reads volumina in which case it is not improbable that the 
allusion is to the practice of seasoning the paper of manuscripts with a 
preparation of cedar, as a preservative against mildew and worms. An- 
other reading is " lumina," and it is not impossible that it is the right one, 
meaning that pitch of cedar is useful for making lamps or candles. Fee 
reminds us that we are not to confound the *' cedria " with the " cedrium '* 
of B. xvi. c. 21, though Pliny seems here to confound the two. See Note 
38 to that Chapter. 
53 As in B. xAd. c. 21, he has said the same of "cedrium," a red tar 
charged with empyreumatic oil, it is clear that he erroneously identifies it 
with ''cedria,'* or pitch of cedar. It is with this last, in reality, that the 
Egyptians embalmed the dead, or rather preserved them, by dipping theai 
in the boiling liquid. 
