[16]Ad pondus argenti denarii pensum.
[17]Most probably the laser or extract, which was the most valuable; though Pliny’s word is laserpitium.
[18]The leaves of the plant, steeped in white wine, were, it seems, a most extraordinary specific[a]; and “the root is singular” (it is Pliny who speaks) “for to cleare the windpipes, and to take away all the asperitie and roughness in these parts; and being applied in the form of a liniment it helpeth imposthumat inflamations proceeding from the ranknesse and ebullition of blood. A liniment thereof made with wine and oile is a most familiar and agreeable medecine for the black and blue marks remaining after stripes; but if the same with some adition of wax be reduced into a cerot it helpeth the kings evill. As for the liquor laser (continues our naturalist) issuing from Silphium, in that manner as I have shewed, it is holden for one of the most singular gifts that nature hath bestowed upon the world, and entereth into many excellent confections and compositions. Of itselfe alone, it reduceth those to their natural health who are starven and benumbed with extreme cold. Taken in drinke it allaieth the accidents and grief of the nerves. A great restorative it is with meat, and quickly setteth them on foot who have lien long and been brought low by sicknesse: for laser, if it be applied in due time, is as good as a potentiall cauterie to raise a blister: outwardly applied no man maketh doubt but it is of singular operation and worketh many effects. Taken in drinke it doth extinguish the venome left in the bodie, either by poisoned dart or serpents’ sting: and if the wounds be annointed with the same dissolved in water it is the better; but particularly for the pricks of scorpions it would be applied with oile. Being laid too, with rue or honey, or by itselfe alone, (so that the place be annointed over it with some viscous gum to keepe it too, that it run not off,) it is excellent for the carbuncle and the biting of dogs. Being incorporate with sal-nitre and well wrought withall beforehand, and so applied, it taketh away the hard horns and dead corns arising in the feet, which commonly bee called in latin morticini. Tempered with wine, and saffron or pepper, if it be but with mice-dung and vinegre, it is a good incarnative in ulcers; and an excellent drawer to the outward parts for to fill up the skin and make a bodie fat. A good fomentation there is made of it and wine for to bath kibed heels; for which purpose it is boiled in oyle and so applyed.”
“In like manner it serveth to soften hard callosities in any place whatsoever: and for the foresaid corns of the feet especially, if they be scraped and scarrified before, it is of great efficacee. Singular it is against unwholesome waters, pestilent tracts, and contagious aires; as in times suspected of infection. Soveraigne it is for the cough, the fall of the uvula, and an old jaundice or overflowing of the gall; for the dropsie also, and horsenesse of the throat; for presently it scowreth the pipes, cleareth the voice againe, and maketh it audible. If it be infused and dissolved in water and vinegre, and so applyed with a spunge, it assuageth the gout. Taken in a broth, or thin supping, it is good for the pleurisie, especially if the patient propose to drinke wine after it. Being covered all over with wax to the quantitie of one[] cich pease it is given very well in case of contractions and shrinking of sinews, and namely to such as carrie their heads backward perforce, by occasion of some crick or cramp. For the squinance it is good to gargarize therewith. Semblably it is given with leeks and vinegre to those that wheaze in their chest and be short-winded, and have an old cough sticking long by them: likewise with vinegre alone to such as have supped off and drunke quailed milke which is cluttered within their stomacke. Taken in wine it is singular for the faintings about the heart; as also for colliquations and such as are falne away and far gone in a consumption, and for those that be taken with the falling sicknesse: but in honied water it hath a speciall operation respective to the palsie, or resolution of the tongue. With sodden honey and laser together, there is made a liniment very propor to anoint the region of the hucklebone where the sciatica is seated; and the small of the backe to allay the paine of the loins. I would not give counselle (continues our author) as many writers doe prescribe) for to put it in the concavatie or hole of a decayed tooth, and so to stop up the place close with wax, for feare of that which might ensue thereupon: for I have seene the fearfull sequele of that experiment, in a man, who upon the taking of that medecine, threw himself headlong from an high loft and broke his necke; such intolerable pains he sustained of the toothach: and no marvelle; for doe but annoint the mussle, or nose of a bull therewith it will set him on a fire and make him horne mad: and being mingled with wine, if serpents (as they are most greedie of wine) chance to lap or licke thereof, it will cause them to burst. And therefore I would not advise any to be annointed with it and honey of Athens incorporat together; howsoever there bee physicians who set downe such a receit.” (Nat. Hist. Book xxii. c. xxiii.)
[a]Nam folia ad expurgandas vulvas pellendosque emortuos partus decoquuntur in vino albo odorato, ut bibatur mensura acetabuli a balineis.—Adde—Laser, e silphio profluens fæminis datur in vivo. Et lanis mollibus admovetur vulvæ ad menses ciendos.—(Hist. Nat. Lib. xxii. c. xxiii.)
[]Ciceris magnitudine cera circunlitum.
[19]This plant, from its succulent nature, is very difficult to preserve; and we are sorry to say that the specimens which we had collected of it (together with many others of the Cyrenaic plants) got mouldy for want of more attention than we were able to bestow upon them. We understand, however, that Captain Smyth has succeeded in bringing over a specimen of the silphium in good condition, and that the plant is now growing in Devonshire and thriving remarkably well.
[20]It was not, however, unfrequent to bury persons of more than ordinary worth and consideration within the walls; and the most frequented and conspicuous places were in such cases selected for the tombs, or monuments, which the gratitude of citizens reared in the midst of their families. The Lacedæmonians, whose laws and customs were usually in direct opposition to the other states of Greece, allowed the dead to be buried indiscriminately within the walls of their cities, as we are told by Plutarch in his life of Lycurgus.
[21]The fountain of Cyrene was a consecrated stream, and the face of the rock from which it flows was originally adorned with a portico like that of a temple.