Thyme[2334] should be gathered while it is in flower, and dried in the shade. There are two kinds of thyme: the white thyme with a ligneous root, which grows upon declivities, and is the most esteemed of the two, and another variety, which is of a darker colour, and bears a swarthy flower. They are, both of them, considered to be extremely beneficial to the sight, whether used as an article of food or as a medicament, and to be good for inveterate coughs. Used as an electuary, with vinegar and salt, they facilitate expectoration, and taken with honey, they prevent the blood from coagulating. Applied externally with mustard, they dispel chronic fluxes of the fauces, as well as various affections of the stomach and bowels. Still, however, these plants must be used in moderation, as they are of a heating nature, for which reason it is that they act so astringently upon the bowels. In cases of ulceration of the intestines, the dose should be one denarius of thyme to one sextarius of oxymel; the same proportions, too, should be taken for pains in the sides, between the shoulder-blades, or in the thoracic organs. Taken with oxymel, these plants are used for the cure of intestinal diseases, and a similar draught is administered in cases of alienation of the senses and melancholy.
Thyme is given also for epilepsy, when the fits come on, the smell of it reviving the patient; it is said, too, that epileptic persons should sleep upon soft thyme. It is good, also, for hardness of breathing, and for asthma and obstructions of the catamenia. A decoction of thyme in water, boiled down to one-third, brings away the dead fœtus, and it is given to males with oxymel, as a remedy for flatulency, and in cases of swelling of the abdomen or testes and of pains in the bladder. Applied with wine, it removes tumours and fluxes, and, in combination with vinegar, callosities and warts. Mixed with wine, it is used as an external application for sciatica; and, beaten up with oil and sprinkled upon wool, it is employed for diseases of the joints, and for sprains. It is applied, also, to burns, mixed with hogs’ lard. For maladies of the joints of recent date, thyme is administered in drink, in doses of three oboli to three cyathi of oxymel. For loss of appetite, it is given, beaten up with salt.
CHAP. 90.—FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HEMEROCALLES.
The hemerocalles[2335] has a soft, pale green leaf, with an odoriferous, bulbous root. This root, applied with honey to the abdomen, draws off the aqueous humours and all corrupt blood. The leaves of it are applied for defluxions of the eyes, and for pains in the mamillæ, after childbirth.
CHAP. 91.—FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HELENIUM.
The helenium, which springs, as we have already[2336] stated, from the tears of Helena, is generally thought to have been produced for improving the appearance, and to maintain unimpaired the freshness of the skin in females, both of the face and of other parts of the body. Besides this, it is generally supposed that the use of it confers additional graces on the person, and ensures universal attraction. They say, too, that, taken with wine, it promotes gaiety of spirit, having, in fact, a similar effect to the nepenthes, which has been so much vaunted by Homer,[2337] as producing forgetfulness of all sorrow. The juice of this plant is remarkably sweet, and the root of it, taken fasting in water, is good for hardness of breathing; it is white within, and sweet. An infusion of it is taken in wine for the stings of serpents; and the plant, bruised, it is said, will kill mice.
CHAP. 92.—TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE ABROTONUM.
We find two varieties of abrotonum[2338] mentioned, the field, and the mountain kind; this last, it is generally understood, is the female plant, the other the male. They are both of them bitter, like wormwood. That of Sicily is the most esteemed, and next to it, that of Galatia. The leaves of it are sometimes employed, but it is the seed that possesses the most warming properties; hence it is, that it is so beneficial for maladies of the sinews,[2339] for cough, hardness of breathing, convulsions, ruptures, lumbago, and strangury. Several handfuls of this plant are boiled down to one-third, and the decoction of it, in doses of four cyathi, is administered in drink. The seed is given, pounded, in water, in doses of one drachma; it is very good for affections of the uterus.
Mixed with barley-meal, this plant brings tumours to a head, and boiled with quinces, it is employed as a liniment for inflammations of the eyes. It keeps away serpents, and for their stings it is either taken in wine, or else employed in combination with it as a liniment. It is extremely efficacious, also, for the stings of those noxious insects by which shivering fits and chills are produced, such as the scorpion and the spider called “phalangium,”[2340] for example; taken in a potion, it is good for other kinds of poison, as also for shivering fits, however produced, and for the extraction of foreign substances adhering to the flesh; it has the effect, also, of expelling intestinal worms. It is stated that a sprig of this plant, if put beneath the pillow, will act as an aphrodisiac, and that it is of the very greatest efficacy against all those charms and spells by which impotence is produced.