Cedrides, or in other words, the fruit of the cedar,[61] is curative of coughs, acts as a diuretic, and arrests looseness of the bowels. It is good also for ruptures, convulsions, spasms, and strangury, and is employed, as a pessary, for affections of the uterus. It is used also to neutralize the venom of the sea-hare,[62] and for the cure of the various affections above-mentioned, as also of gatherings and inflammations.
CHAP. 13.—GALBANUM: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.
We have already[63] given some description of galbanum: to be good, it should be neither too moist nor too dry, but just in the state which we have mentioned.[64] It is taken by itself for inveterate coughs, asthma, ruptures, and convulsions; and it is employed externally for sciatica, pains in the sides, inflamed tumours,[65] boils, denudations of the bones, scrofulous sores, nodes upon the joints, and tooth-ache. It is applied with honey also, to ulcerations of the head. In combination with oil of roses or with nard, it is used as an injection for suppurations of the ears; and the odour of it is useful for epilepsy, hysterical suffocations, and faintness at the stomach. Employed as a pessary or as a fumigation, it brings away the fœtus in cases of miscarriage; branches too of hellebore covered with it and laid beneath the patient, have a similar effect.
We have already[66] stated that serpents are driven away by the fumes of burnt galbanum, and they will equally avoid persons whose body has been rubbed with it. It is curative also of the sting of the scorpion. In protracted deliveries, a piece of galbanum the size of a bean is given in one cyathus of wine: it has the effect also of reducing the uterus when displaced, and, taken with myrrh and wine, it brings away the dead fœtus. In combination with myrrh and wine too, it neutralizes poisons—those which come under the denomination of “toxica”[67] in particular. The very touch of it, mixed with oil and spondylium,[68] is sufficient to kill a serpent.[69] It is generally thought to be productive of strangury.
CHAP. 14 (6.)—HAMMONIACUM: TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES.
Of a similar nature to galbanum is hammoniacum, a tearlike gum, the qualities of which are tested in manner already[70] stated. It is of an emollient, warming, resolvent, and dispellent nature. Employed as an ingredient in eye-salves, it improves the sight. It disperses prurigo, effaces the marks of sores, removes spots in the eyes, and allays tooth-ache, more particularly when burnt. It is very useful too, taken in drink, for hardness of breathing, pleurisy, affections of the lungs, diseases of the bladder, bloody urine, maladies of the spleen, and sciatica: employed in a similar manner, it acts as a purgative upon the bowels. Boiled with an equal proportion of pitch or wax, and with oil of roses, it is good for diseases of the joints, and for gout. Employed with honey it ripens hard tumours, extracts corns, and has an emollient effect upon indurations. In combination with vinegar and Cyprian wax, or oil of roses, it is extremely efficacious as a liniment for affections of the spleen. In cases of extreme lassitude, it is an excellent plan to use it as a friction, with vinegar and oil, and a little nitre.
CHAP. 15.—STORAX: TEN REMEDIES.
In speaking too of the exotic trees, we have made mention[71] of the properties of storax. In addition to those which we have already mentioned, it ought to be very unctuous, without alloy, and to break to pieces in whitish fragments. This substance is curative of cough, affections of the fauces, diseases of the chest, and obstructions or indurations of the uterus. Taken in drink, or employed as a pessary, it acts as an emmenagogue; it has a laxative effect also upon the bowels. I find it stated that, taken in moderate doses, storax dispels melancholy; but that when employed in large quantities, it promotes it. Used as an injection it is good for singings in the ears, and employed as a friction, for scrofulous swellings and nodes of the sinews. It neutralizes poisons of a cold nature, and consequently, hemlock.[72]