•Cbap.46.] 
TARIOUS KINDS OF NITRUM. 
517 
tian nitrum is eaten^^ with radishes/^ it having the eifect of 
making them more tender ; though as to other edibles it turns 
them white and spoils them. To vegetables it imparts an ad- 
ditional greenness.^^ 
Viewed medicinally, nitrum is calorific, attenuant, mordent, 
astringent, desiccative, and ulcerating : it is good, too, in all 
cases where certain humours require to be drawn out or dis- 
persed, or where gentle mordents or attenuants are required, 
as in the case of pustules and pimples, for example. Some 
persons ignite it for this purpose, and, after quenching it in 
astringent wine, bruise and use it, without oil, at the bath. 
Applied with dried iris powdered, and green olive oil, it checks 
immoderate perspiration. Applied topically with a fig, or boiled 
down to one half in raisin wine, it removes marks upon the 
eyes and granulations of the eyelids. It is used, also, for the 
removal of argema, boiled in a pomegranate rind with raisin 
wine. Used as an ointment, in combination with honey, it 
improves the eye- sight. It is very useful, also, for tooth- ache, 
taken as a collutory with wine and pepper, or boiled with a 
leek. Burnt, and employed as a dentifrice, it restores teeth^'^ 
to their original colour that have turned black ; and an appli- 
cation of it, with Samian earth and oil, kills nits and other 
vermin of the head. Dissolved in wine, it is used as an in- 
jection for suppurations of the ears, and, applied with vinegar, 
it consumes filth that has accumulated there. Introduced 
dry into the ears, it disperses singings and tinglings in those 
organs. 
Applied topically, in the sun, with an equal quantity of 
Cimolian^^ chalk dissolved in vinegar, it removes white mor- 
phew ; and a mixture of it with resin, or with white raisins — 
the stones being beaten up as well — is an excellent cure for 
was included, at least, under the name of nitrum." Carbonate of soda is 
extensively used for this purpose at the present day. 
^0 And to correct the acridity of the radishes, possibly. A somewhat 
analogous fact is mentioned by Drury, in his ''Journal in Madagascar." 
He says that the sourest tamarinds, " mixed with wood ashes, become 
sweet and eatable." See p. 316. — We are not unaware that many look 
upon this work and its statements as a work of fiction. 
9^ See B. xix. c. 26. 
92 Carbonate of soda is added to pickles and boiling vegetables for this 
purpose. 
Vegetable ashes, and tobacco-ashes in particular, have the same effect. 
See ii. XXXV. c. 57. 
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