The holochrysos,[2326] taken in wine, is a cure for strangury, and it is employed in liniments for defluxions of the eyes. Mixed with burnt lees of wine and polenta, it is curative of lichens.
The root of the chrysocome[2327] is warming and astringent; it is taken in drink for affections of the liver and lungs, and a decoction of it in hydromel is good for pains of the uterus. It acts as an emmenagogue also, and, administered raw, draws off the water in dropsy.
CHAP. 86.—TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MELISSOPHYLLUM.
If the bee-hives are rubbed all over with melissophyllum[2328] or melittæna, the bees will never desert them; for there is no flower in which they take greater delight. If branches[2329] of this plant are used, the bees may be kept within bounds without any difficulty. It is an excellent remedy, also, for the stings of bees, wasps, and similar insects, as also for wounds made by spiders and scorpions; it is used, too, for hysterical suffocations, in combination with nitre, and for gripings of the bowels, with wine. The leaves of it are employed topically for scrofulous sores, and, in combination with salt, for maladies of the fundament. A decoction of the juice promotes the menstrual discharge, dispels inflammations, and heals ulcerous sores: it is good, too, for diseases of the joints and the bites of dogs, and is beneficial in cases of inveterate dysentery, and for cœliac affections, hardness of breathing, diseases of the spleen, and ulcerations of the thoracic organs. For films on the eyes, it is considered a most excellent plan to anoint them with the juice of this plant mixed with honey.
CHAP. 87.—THIRTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED PROM THE MELILOTE.
The melilote,[2330] again, applied with the yolk of an egg, or else linseed, effects the cure of diseases of the eyes. It assuages pains, too, in the jaws and head, applied with rose oil; and, employed with raisin wine, it is good for pains in the ears, and all kinds of swellings or eruptions on the hands. A decoction of it in wine, or else the plant itself beaten up raw, is good for pains in the stomach. It is equally beneficial, too, for maladies of the uterus; and for diseases of the testes, prolapsus of the fundament, and all other diseases of those parts, a decoction is made of it, fresh-gathered, in water or in raisin wine. With the addition of rose oil, it is used as a liniment for carcinoma. Boiled in sweet wine, it is particularly useful for the treatment of the ulcers known as “melicerides.”[2331]
CHAP. 88. (21.)—FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED PROM TREFOIL.
The trefoil,[2332] I know, is generally looked upon as being particularly good for the stings of serpents and scorpions, the seed being taken in doses of twenty grains, with either wine or oxycrate; or else the leaves and the plant itself are boiled together, and a decoction made of them; indeed, it is stated, that a serpent is never to be seen among trefoil. Celebrated authors, too, I find, have asserted that twenty-five grains of the seed of the kind of trefoil which we have[2333] spoken of as the “minyanthes,” are a sufficient antidote for all kinds of poisons: in addition to which, there are numerous other remedial virtues ascribed to it.
But these notions, in my opinion, are counterbalanced by the authority of a writer of the very highest repute: for we find the poet Sophocles asserting that the trefoil is a venomous plant. Simus, too, the physician, maintains that a decoction of it, or the juice, poured upon the human body, is productive of burning sensations similar to those experienced by persons when they have been stung by a serpent and have trefoil applied to the wound. It is my opinion, then, that trefoil should never be used in any other capacity than as a counter-poison; for it is not improbable that the venom of this plant has a natural antipathy to all other kinds of poisons, a phænomenon which has been observed in many other cases as well. I find it stated, also, that the seed of the trefoil with an extremely diminutive leaf, applied in washes to the face, is extremely beneficial for preserving the freshness of the skin in females.