A juice is extracted from the leaves and flowers; for it is at the time of its blossoming that it is in its full vigour. The seed is crushed, and the juice extracted from it is left to thicken in the sun, and then divided into lozenges. This preparation proves fatal by coagulating the blood—another deadly property which belongs to it; and hence it is that the bodies of those who have been poisoned by it are covered with spots. It is sometimes used in combination with water as a medium for diluting certain medicaments. An emollient poultice is also prepared from this juice, for the purpose of cooling the stomach; but the principal use made of it is as a topical application, to check defluxions of the eyes in summer, and to allay pains in those organs. It is employed also as an ingredient in eyesalves, and is used for arresting fluxes in other parts of the body: the leaves, too, have a soothing effect upon all kinds of pains and tumours, and upon defluxions of the eyes.
Anaxilaüs makes a statement to the effect, that if the mamillæ[884] are rubbed with hemlock during virginity, they will always be hard and firm: but a better-ascertained fact is, that applied[885] to the mamillæ, it dries up the milk in women recently delivered; as also that, applied to the testes at the age of puberty, it acts most effectually as an antaphrodisiac.[886] As to those cases in which it is recommended to take it internally as a remedy, I shall, for my own part, decline to mention them. The most powerful hemlock is that grown at Susa, in Parthia, the next best being the produce of Laconia, Crete, and Asia.[887] In Greece, the hemlock of the finest quality is that of Megara, and next to it, that of Attica.
CHAP. 96.—CRETHMOS AGRIOS: ONE REMEDY.
Crethmos agrios,[888] applied to the eyes, removes rheum; and, with the addition of polenta, it causes tumours to disappear.
CHAP. 97.—MOLYBDÆNA: ONE REMEDY.
Molybdæna[889] also grows everywhere in the fields, a plant commonly known as “plumbago.”[889] It has leaves like those of lapathum,[890] and a thick, hairy root. Chewed and applied to the eye from time to time, it removes the disease called “plum-bum,”[891] which affects that organ.
CHAP. 98.—THE FIRST KIND OF CAPNOS, KNOWN ALSO AS CHICKEN’S FOOT: ONE REMEDY.
The first kind of capnos,[892] known also as “chicken’s foot,”[893] is found growing on walls and hedges: it has very thin, straggling branches, with a purple blossom. It is used in a green state, and the juice of it disperses films upon the eyes; hence it is that it is employed as an ingredient in medicinal compositions for the eyes.
CHAP. 99.—THE ARBORESCENT CAPNOS: THREE REMEDIES.
There is another kind[894] of capnos also, similar both in name and properties, but different in appearance. It is a branchy plant, is extremely delicate, has leaves like those of coriander, is of an ashy colour, and bears a purple flower: it grows in gardens, and amid crops of barley. Employed in the form of an ointment for the eyes, it improves the sight, producing tears in the same way that smoke does, to which, in fact, it owes its name. It has the effect also of preventing the eyelashes, when pulled out, from growing again.