CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.
The next rank, after the vine, clearly belongs to the olive. The leaves of the olive-tree are astringent,[2978] detergent, and binding in the highest degree. Chewed and applied to sores, they are of a healing nature; and applied topically with oil, they are good for head-ache. A decoction of them with honey makes a good liniment for such parts of the body as have been subjected to cauterization, as also for inflammations of the gums, whitlows, and foul and putrid ulcers: combined with honey, they arrest discharges of blood from the nervous[2979] parts of the a body. The juice of olive leaves is efficacious for carbuncular ulcers and pustules about the eyes, and for procidence of the pupil; hence it is much employed in the composition of eye-salves, having the additional property of healing inveterate runnings of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids.
This juice is extracted by pouring wine and rain-water upon the leaves, and then pounding them; after which the pulp is dried and divided into lozenges. Used with wool, as a pessary, this preparation arrests menstruation when in excess, and is very useful for the treatment of purulent sores, condylomata, erysipelas, spreading ulcers, and epinyctis.
CHAP. 35.—THE BLOSSOM OF THE OLIVE: FOUR REMEDIES.
The blossom,[2980] too, of the olive-tree possesses similar properties. The young branches are burnt when just beginning to blossom, and of the ashes a substitute for spodium[2981] is made, upon which wine is poured, and it is then burnt afresh. To suppurations and inflamed tumours these ashes are applied, or else the leaves, beaten up with honey; for the eyes, they are used with polenta. The juice which exudes[2982] from the wood, when burnt in a green state, heals lichens, scaly eruptions, and running ulcers.
As to the juice[2983] which exudes naturally from the olive-tree, and more particularly that of Æthiopia, we cannot be sufficiently surprised that authors should have been found to recommend it as an application for tooth-ache, and to tell us at the same time that it is a poison, and even that we must have recourse to the wild olive for it. The bark of the roots of the olive, as young and tender a tree as possible being selected, scraped and taken every now and then in honey, is good[2984] for patients suffering from spitting of blood and purulent expectorations. The ashes of the tree itself, mixed with axle-grease, are useful for the cure of tumours, and heal fistulas by the extraction of the vicious humours which they contain.
CHAP. 36.—WHITE OLIVES: FOUR REMEDIES. BLACK OLIVES: THREE REMEDIES.
White olives are wholesome for the upper regions of the stomach, but not so good for the bowels. Eaten by themselves, habitually as a diet, quite fresh and before they are preserved, they are remarkably serviceable, having the effect of curing gravel,[2985] and of strengthening the teeth when worn or loosened by the use of meat.
Black olives, on the other hand, are not so wholesome for the upper regions of the stomach, but are better for the bowels; they are not good, however, for the head or for the eyes. Both kinds, pounded and applied topically, are good for the cure of burns, but the black olive is sometimes chewed first, and instantly applied to the sore, for the purpose of preventing blisters from forming. Colymbades[2986] act as a detergent for foul ulcers, but they are bad for persons suffering from strangury.