SECT. XXXVII.—ON THE CHAMÆLEON.
When one has taken the black chamæleon intense gnawing and pain supervene, and tremors with disturbance of the whole body; then convulsions attack, with pituitous and frothy vomiting, and in some cases hiccough with loss of speech, and distortion of the countenance. A fatty decoction of wheat taken hot will be applicable in such cases, and a sweet watery wine also hot, vomits, drinking of milk, emollient clysters, and fomentations by cataplasms. To that kind which occasions suffocation and lividity, a draught of wormwood or of natron with oxymel or of radishes will be proper, and also fomentations to the hypochondrium.
Commentary. Dioscorides and Aëtius give a similar account of the treatment and symptoms. On the chamæleon, see Apuleius (de Herb. 109.) The black chamæleon treated of in this section is the carthamus corymbosus. It is quite a different plant from the white chamæleon which is treated of in [the 46th section].