Chap. 94.] 
THE PERTCLTMETOS. 
261 
are dried in the sun and used for ulcerations of the head, and 
other affections which require detergents. It is sometimes 
given for cough, a pinch in three fingers in wine, and, in the 
form of an electuary, for pains in the side or peripneumonj' . 
It is administered, also, in wine, for sciatica, griping pains 
in the bowels, and retardations of the catamenia. 
CHAP. 93. — THE PEPLIS, STCE, MECOI^ION, OK MECON APHKODES! 
THREE REMEDIES. 
The peplis,^^ known by the various names of syce,"^^ 
meconion,'' and mecon aphrodes," is a shrub- like plant, 
springing from a single, diminutive, root. The leaves of it 
resemble those of rue, but are a little larger ; the seed, which 
lies beneath the leaves, is round, and smaller than that of the 
white poppy. It is ordinarily gathered in vineyards, at 
harvest- time, and is dried with the seed on, receivers being 
placed beneath to catch it as it falls. This seed, taken in drink, 
purges the bowels, and carries off bile and pi tui tons secretions: 
one acetabulum, taken in three heminae of hydromel, is a 
middling dose. It is sprinkled also upon meat and other articles 
of food, as a laxative medicine. 
CHAP. 94. THE PERICLTMENOS ! FIVE REMEDIES. 
The periclymenos^^ is also a shrub-like plant, with two 
whitish, soft, leaves, arranged at intervals. At the extremity, 
among the leaves, is the seed, hard, and very difficult to 
pluck. It grows in ploughed fields and hedges, entwining 
around every object from which it can gain support. The seed 
is dried in the shade, pounded, and divided into lozenges. 
These lozenges are left to dissolve, in three cyathi of white 
wine, for a period of thirty days, and are given for diseases of 
the spleen ; the volume of which is gradually diminished either 
by discharges of bloody urine, or else by alvine evacuation, 
the effects of the medicament being perceptible at the end of 
ten days. The leaves, boiled, act as a diuretic, and are useful 
for hardness of breathing. Taken in drink, in manner above- 
60 Probably the Euphorbia peplis of Linnaeus; see B. xx. c. 81. It is a 
strong purgative, 
61 «' Fig-plant,'' "poppy-juice/' and " poppy-froth. In reference, 
no doubt, to its milky juice. 
^2 See the Clymenus, B. xxv. c. 33. 
