212 
PLINY* S NATURAL HISTOEJ. 
[Book XXVI. 
uterus; the juice, employed in a pessary, promotes menstruation 
and expels the dead foetus. The seed of this plant, used with 
live sulphur, arrests menstruation when in excess ; while ha- 
trachion,^^ on the other hand, acts as an emmenagogue. This 
last plant is either used as an article of food, or is taken in 
drink : in a raw state, as already stated,^^ it has a burning 
flavour ; but when cooked, the taste of it is greatly improved by 
the addition of salt, oil, and cummin. Daucus,^^ taken in drink, 
promotes the catamenia, and is an expellent of the after-birth 
in a very high degree. Ladanum,^^ used as a fumigation, acts 
as a corrective upon the uterus, and is employed topically for 
pains and ulcerations of that organ. 
Scammony, taken in drink or used as a pessary, is an ex- 
pellent of the dead foetus. Either kind of hypericon,^^ used 
as a pessary, promotes menstruation : but for this purpose it 
is crethmos,^^ according to Hippocrates, that is the most effica- 
cious, the seed or root of it being taken in wine.^^ # ^ « 
of the outer coat brings away the after-birth. This plant, 
taken in water, is good for hysterical suffocations ; root of 
geranion^^ also, which is peculiarly useful for the after-birth, 
and for inflation of the uterus. Hippuris,^^ taken in drink 
or applied as a pessary, acts as a detergent upon the uterus : 
polygonos,^^ taken in drink, promotes menstruation ; and the 
same with root of alcima.^' Leaves of plantago,^^ and agaric 
in hydromel, have a similar effect. Artemisia, bruised and 
applied as a pessary, with oil of iris,^ figs, or myrrh, is curative 
of diseases of the uterus ; the root, too, of this plant, taken 
in drink, is so strongly purgative as to expel the dead foetus 
even. A decoction of the branches, used as a sitting-bath, 
promotes menstruation and brings away the after-birth ; the 
^ See B. xsxv. c. 60. 87 See B. xxv. c. 109. 
^ In B. xxv. c. 109. 89 gee B. xxv. c. 64. 
90 See B. xii. c. 37, and c. 30 of this Book. 
91 See Chapters 53 and 54 of this Book. 
92 See B. xxv. c. 96. 
Probably the word " juice," or " decoction," is lost here. 
9* See c. 68 of this Book. 
95 See Chapters 20 and 83 of this Book. 96 See B. xxvii. c. 91. 
97 The same as '*Alcea** probably; see Chapters 79 and 81 of this 
Book. Also B. xxvii. c. 6. 
98 See B. xxv. c. 39. 99 See B. xxv. c. 36. 
i See B. xiii. c. 2, and B. xxi. cc. 19, 83. 
