Chap. 48.] 
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
181 
reason some have called it the wild radish." The interior 
of this root is composed of a mammose substance, containing 
a white juice : the outer coat is black. It grows in rugged, 
mountainous spots, and sometimes in pasture lands. It is 
taken up in spring, and pounded and put into an earthen vessel, 
that portion of it being removed which floats upon the surface. 
The part which remains acts purgatively, taken in doses of 
an obolus and a half in hydromel, both as an emetic and by 
stool. This juice is administered also, in doses of one ace- 
tabulum, for dropsy. 
The root of this plant is dried and powdered, and taken in 
drink : the upper part of it, they say, carries off bile by acting 
as an emetic, the lower part, by promoting alvine evacuation. 
CHAP. 47. EEMEDIES FOE GRIPING PAINS IN THE BOWELS. 
Every kind of panaces^ is curative of gripings in the bowels ; 
as also betony, except in those cases where they arise from, 
indigestion. Juice of peucedanum* is good for flatulency, acting 
powerfully as a carminative : the same is the case, also, with 
root of acoron ^ and with daucus,^ eaten like lettuce as a salad. 
Ladanum"^ of Cyprus, taken in drink, is curative of intestinal 
affections ; and a similar effect is produced by powdered gentian, 
taken in warm water, in quantities about as large as a bean. 
For the same purpose, plantago^ is taken in the morning, in 
doses of two spoonfuls, with one spoonful of poppy in four 
cyathi of wine, due care being taken that it is not old wine. It 
is given, too, at the last moment before going to sleep, and with 
the addition of nitre or polenta,^ if a considerable time has 
elapsed since the last meal. For colic, an injection of the juice 
is used, one hemina at a time, even in cases where fever has 
supervened. 
CHAP. 48. EEMEDIES FOE DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
Agaric, taken in doses of three oboli in one cyathus of old 
wine, is curative of diseases of the spleen. The same, too, 
with the root of every kind of panaces,^^ taken in honied wine : 
teucria,^^ also, is particularly useful for the same purpose, 
2 See B. XXV. c. 11, et seq. * See.B. xxv. c. 70. 
5 See B. xxv. c. 100. 6 gee B. xxv. c. 64. 
See B. xii. c. 37, and c. 30 of this Book. 
8 See B. xxv. c. 39. 9 See B. xviii. c. 14. 
^0 See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq. See B. xxiv. c. 80. 
