There is a thorn also known as the appendix;[278] that name being given to the red berries which hang from its branches. These berries eaten by themselves, raw, or else dried and boiled in wine, arrest looseness of the bowels and dispel griping pains in the stomach. The berries of the pyracantha[279] are taken in drink for wounds inflicted by serpents.
CHAP. 71.—THE PALIURUS: TEN REMEDIES.
The paliurus,[280] too, is a kind of thorn. The seed of it, known by the people of Africa as “zura,” is extremely efficacious for the sting of the scorpion, as also for urinary calculi and cough. The leaves are of an astringent nature, and the root disperses inflamed tumours, gatherings, and abscesses; taken in drink it is diuretic in its effects. A decoction of it in wine arrests diarrhœa, and neutralizes the venom of serpents: the root more particularly is administered in wine.
CHAP. 72.—THE AGRIFOLIA. THE AQUIFOLIA: ONE REMEDY. THE YEW: ONE PROPERTY BELONGING TO IT.
The agrifolia,[281] pounded, with the addition of salt, is good for diseases of the joints, and the berries are used in cases of excessive menstruation, cœliac affections, dysentery, and cholera; taken in wine, they act astringently upon the bowels. A decoction of the root, applied externally, extracts foreign bodies from the flesh, and is remarkably useful for sprains and tumours.
The tree called “aquifolia,” planted[282] in a town or country-house is a preservative against sorceries and spells. The blossom of it, according to Pythagoras, congeals[283] water, and a staff[284] made of the wood, if, when thrown at any animal, from want of strength in the party throwing it, it falls short of the mark will roll back again[285] towards the thrower, of its own accord—so remarkable are the properties of this tree. The smoke of the yew kills[286] rats and mice.
CHAP. 73. THE BRAMBLE: FIFTY-ONE REMEDIES.
Nor yet has Nature destined the bramble[287] to be only an annoyance to mankind, for she has bestowed upon it mulberries of its own,[288] or, in other words, a nutritive aliment even for mankind. These berries are of a desiccative, astringent, nature,[289] and are extremely useful for maladies of the gums, tonsillary glands, and generative organs. They neutralize also the venom of those most deadly of serpents, the hæmorrhoïs[290] and the prester;[291] and the flowers or fruit will heal wounds inflicted by scorpions, without any danger of abscesses forming. The shoots of the bramble have a diuretic effect: and the more tender ones are pounded; and the juice extracted and then dried in the sun till it has attained the consistency of honey, being considered a most excellent remedy, taken in drink or applied externally, for maladies of the mouth and eyes, discharges of blood from the mouth, quinzy, affections of the uterus, diseases of the rectum, and cœliac affections. The leaves, chewed, are good for diseases of the mouth, and a topical application is made of them for running ulcers and other maladies of the head. In the cardiac disease they are similarly applied to the left breast by themselves. They are applied topically also for pains in the stomach and for procidence of the eyes. The juice of them is used as an injection for the ears, and, in combination with cerate of roses, it heals condylomata.
A decoction of the young shoots in wine is an instantaneous remedy for diseases of the uvula; and eaten by themselves like cymæ,[292] or boiled in astringent wine, they strengthen loose teeth. They arrest fluxes of the bowels also, and discharges of blood, and are very useful for dysentery. Dried in the shade and then burnt, the ashes of them are curative of procidence of the uvula. The leaves too, dried and pounded, are very useful, it is said, for ulcers upon beasts of burden. The berries produced by this plant would seem to furnish a stomatice[293] superior even to that prepared from the cultivated mulberry. Under this form, or else only with hypocisthis[294] and honey, the berries are administered for cholera, the cardiac disease, and wounds inflicted by spiders.[295]
Among the medicaments known as “styptics,”[296] there is none that is more efficacious than a decoction of the root of the bramble in wine, boiled down to one third. Ulcerations of the mouth and rectum are bathed with it, and fomentations of it are used for a similar purpose; indeed, it is so remarkably powerful in its effects, that the very sponges which are used become as hard as a stone.[297]