Boiled in wine, and applied with wax, they restore the hair, when it has been lost by alopecy. A conserve of raw quinces in honey relaxes the bowels: and they add very materially to the sweetness of the honey, and render it more wholesome to the stomach. Boiled quinces preserved in honey are beaten up with a decoction of rose-leaves, and are taken as food by some for the cure of affections of the stomach. The juice of raw quinces is very good, also, for the spleen, hardness of breathing, dropsy, affections of the mamillæ, condylomata, and varicose veins. The blossoms, either fresh or dried, are useful for inflammations of the eyes, spitting of blood, and irregularities of the catamenia. By beating them up with sweet wine, a soothing sirop is prepared, which is very beneficial for cœliac affections and diseases of the liver: with a decoction of them a fomentation is made for procidence of the uterus and intestines.
From quinces an oil is also extracted, which we have spoken of under the name of “melinum:”[3065] in order to make it, the fruit must not have been grown in a damp soil; hence it is that the quinces which come from Sicily are so highly esteemed for the purpose; while, on the other hand, the strutheum,[3066] though of a kindred kind, is not so good.
A circle[3067] is traced round the root of this tree, and the root itself is then pulled up with the left hand, care being taken by the person who does so to state at the same moment the object for which it is so pulled up, and for whom. Worn as an amulet, this root is a cure for scrofula.
CHAP. 55.—THE SWEET APPLES CALLED MELIMELA: SIX OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. SOUR APPLES: FOUR OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM.
The apples known as “melimela,”[3068] and the other sweet apples, relax the stomach and bowels, but are productive of heat and thirst,[3069] though they do not act injuriously upon the nervous system. The orbiculata[3070] arrest diarrhœa and vomiting, and act as a diuretic. Wild apples resemble the sour apples of spring, and act astringently upon the bowels: indeed, for this purpose they should always be used before they are ripe.