A decoction of the root of the bitter almond[3151] clears the complexion, and gives the face a brighter colour.[3152] Bitter almonds are provocative of sleep,[3153] and sharpen the appetite; they act, also, as a diuretic and as an emmenagogue. They are used topically for head-ache, when there is fever more particularly. Should the head-ache proceed from inebriation,[3154] they are applied with vinegar, rose-oil, and one sextarius of water. Used in combination with amylum[3155] and mint, they arrest hæmorrhage. They are useful, also, for lethargy and epilepsy, and the head is anointed with them for the cure of epinyctis. In combination with wine, they heal putrid ulcers of an inveterate nature, and, with honey, bites inflicted by dogs.[3156] They are employed, also, for the cure of scaly eruptions of the face, the parts affected being fomented first.
Taken in water, or, as is often done, in an electuary, with resin of terebinth,[3157] they remove pains in the liver and kidneys; used with raisin wine, they are good for calculus and strangury. Bruised in hydromel, they are useful for cleansing the skin; and taken in an electuary with the addition of a small proportion of elelisphacus,[3158] they are good for diseases of the liver, cough, and colic, a piece about the size of a hazel-nut being taken in honey. It is said that if five bitter almonds are taken by a person before sitting down to drink, he will be proof against inebriation;[3159] and that foxes, if they eat bitter almonds,[3160] will be sure to die immediately, if they cannot find water to lap.
As to sweet almonds, their remedial properties are not[3161] so extensive; still, however, they are of a purgative nature, and are diuretic. Eaten fresh, they are difficult[3162] of digestion.
CHAP. 76.—GREEK NUTS: ONE REMEDY.
Greek nuts,[3163] taken in vinegar with wormwood seed, are said to be a cure for jaundice. Used alone, they are employed topically for the treatment of diseases of the fundament, and condylomata in particular, as also cough and spitting of blood.
CHAP. 77.—WALNUTS: TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. THE MITHRIDATIC ANTIDOTE.
Walnuts[3164] have received their name in Greek from being oppressive[3165] to the head; for, in fact, the emanations[3166] from the tree itself and the leaves penetrate to the brain. The kernels, also, have a similar effect when eaten, though not in so marked a degree. When fresh gathered, they are most agreeable eating; for when dry, they are more oleaginous, unwholesome to the stomach, difficult of digestion, productive of head-ache, and bad for cough,[3167] or for a person when about to take an emetic fasting: they are good in cases of tenesmus only, as they carry off the pituitous humours of the body. Eaten beforehand, they deaden the effects of poison, and, employed with rue and oil, they are a cure for quinsy. They act as a corrective, also, to onions, and modify their flavour. They are applied to inflammations of the ears, with a little honey, and with rue they are used for affections of the mamillæ, and for sprains. With onions, salt, and honey, they are applied to bites inflicted by dogs or human beings. Walnut-shells are used for cauterizing[3168] carious teeth; and with these shells, burnt and then beaten up in oil or wine, the heads of infants are anointed, they having a tendency to make the hair grow; hence they are used in a similar manner for alopecy also. These nuts, eaten in considerable numbers, act as an expellent upon tapeworm.[3169] Walnuts, when very old, are[3170] curative of gangrenous sores and carbuncles, of bruises also. Green walnut-shells[3171] are employed for the cure of lichens and dysentery, and the leaves are beaten up with vinegar as an application for ear-ache.[3172]
After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Cneius Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own hand-writing; it was to the following effect:[3173]—Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.[3174] Walnut kernels, chewed by a man fasting, and applied to the wound, effect an instantaneous cure, it is said, of bites inflicted by a mad dog.
CHAP. 78.—HAZEL-NUTS: THREE OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. PISTACHIO-NUTS: EIGHT OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. CHESNUTS: FIVE OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM.
Hazel-nuts[3175] are productive of head-ache, and flatulency of the stomach; they contribute, however, to the increase of flesh more than would be imagined. Parched, they are remedial for catarrhs, and beaten up and taken with hydromel,[3176] they are good for an inveterate cough. Some persons add grains of pepper,[3177] and others take them in raisin wine.