Chap. 18.] 
MEIlCUlilALTS. 
93 
female plant the seed is very abundant, but in the male"^^ it is 
less so, lies closer to the joints, and is short and wreathed. In. 
the female plant the seed hangs more loosely, and is of a white 
colour. The leaves of the male plant are swarthy, while 
those of the female are whiter : the root, which is made no 
use of, is very diminutive. 
Both of these plants grow in cultivated champaign local- 
ities. A marvellous property is mentioned as belonging to 
them : the male plant, they say,^^ ensures the conception of 
male children, the female plant of females ; a result which is 
ensured by drinking the juice in raisin wine, the moment after 
conception, or by eating the leaves, boiled with oil and salt, 
or raw with vinegar. Some persons, again, boil the plant 
in a new earthen vessel with heliotropium and two or three 
ears of corn, till it is thoroughly done ; and say that the decoc- 
tion should be taken in drink by the female, and the plant 
eaten for three days successively, the regimen being com- 
menced the second day of menstruation. This done, on the 
fourth day she m.ust take a bath, immediately after which the 
sexual congress must take place. 
Hippocrates^^ has lavished marvellous encomiums upon these 
plants for the maladies of females, while at the present day 
no physician recognizes their utility for such purpose. It was 
his practice to employ them for affections of the uterus, in the 
form of a pessary, in combination with honey, rose- oil, oil of 
iris, or oil of lilies. He employed them also as an emmena- 
gogue, and for the purpose of bringing away the after-birth ; 
effects which are equally produced, according to him, by taking 
them in drink, or using them in the form of a fomentation. It 
was his practice also,, to inject the juice of these plants in cases 
of fetid odours of the ears, and then to wash the ear with old 
wine. The leaves also were used by him as a cataplasm for 
the abdomen, defluxions of the eyes, strangury, and affections 
of the bladder ; a decoction too, of the plants is prescribed by 
him, with frankincense and myrrh. 
For the purpose of relaxing^^ the bowels, or in cases of fever, 
"^^ The male, as Fee suggests, bears no seed at all. 
®" A mere absurdity, ot course. 
De Nat. Mul. and De Morb. Mul. B. i. and B. ii. 
®2 The medicinal properties of the Mercurialis are not by any means 
energetic, but it is still used, Fee says, as a gentle aperient. 
