Chap. 39.] 
THE TITHTMAL08 CHARACIAS. 
This last feature is recognized in the spurious scammony 
also, a compound of meal of fitches and juice of marine tithy- 
malos,^^ which is mostly imported from Judea, and is very apt 
to choke those who use it. The difference may be easily 
detected, however, by the taste, as tithymalos imparts a burn- 
ing sensation to the tongue. To be fully efficacious, scammony 
should be two^^ years old ; before or after that age it is useless. 
It has been prescribed to be taken by itself also, in doses of 
four oboli, with hydromel and salt : but the most advantageous 
mode of using it is in combination with aloes, care being taken 
to drink honied wine the moment it begins to operate. The 
root, too, is boiled down in vinegar to the consistency of honey, 
and the decoction used as a liniment for leprosy. The head is 
also rubbed with this decoction, mixed with oil, for head- ache. 
CHAP. 39. THE TITHYMALOS €HARACIAS. 
The tithymalos is called by our people the ^^milk plant, "^^ 
and by some persons the goat lettuce."®^ They say, that if 
characters are traced upon the body with the milky juice of 
this plant, and powdered with ashes, when dry, the letters will 
be perfectly visible ; an expedient which has been adopted 
before now by intriguers, for the purpose of communicating 
with their mistresses, in preference to a correspondence by 
letter. There are numerous varieties of this plant.®* The 
first kind has the additional name of characias,"®^ and is 
generally looked upon as the male plant. Its branches are 
about a finger in thickness, red and full of juice, five or six in 
number, and a cubit in length. The leaves near the root are 
almost exactly those of the olive, and the extremity of the 
stem is surmounted with a tuft like that of the bulrush : it is 
found growing in rugged localities near the sea-shore. The 
seed is gathered in autumn, together with the tufts, and after 
being dried in the sun, is beaten out and put by for keeping. 
See the following Chapters. 
This assertion is erroneous ; it has all its properties in full vigour im- 
mediately after extraction, and retains them for an indefinite period. 
®2 "Herba lactaria." 
^•^ Because goats are fond of it. See B. xx. c. 24. 
Known to us by the general name of Euphorbia of Spurge. 
The Euphorbia characias of Linnaeus, Red spurge. An oil is still 
extracted from the seed of several species of Euphorbia, as a purgative ; 
but they are in general highly dangerous, taken internally 
VOL. V. IT 
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