CHAP. 23. (7.)—PITCH: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.
We have also stated on a previous occasion[114] from what tree pitch is extracted, and the methods employed for that purpose. Of this also there are two kinds; thick pitch and liquid pitch.[115] Of the several varieties of thick pitch the most useful for medicinal purposes is that of Bruttium;[116] for being both extremely unctuous and very resinous, it reunites the properties both of resin and of pitch, that of a yellow reddish colour being the most highly esteemed. As to the statement made in addition to this, that the produce of the male tree is the best, I do not believe that any such distinction is at all possible.
Pitch is of a warming, cicatrizing tendency: mixed with polenta it is particularly useful as a neutralizer of the venom of the cerastes,[117] and in combination with honey it is used for quinzy, catarrhs, and fits of sneezing caused by phlegm. With oil of roses it is used as an injection for the ears, and employed as a liniment with wax it heals lichens. It relaxes[118] the bowels, also, and used as an electuary, or applied with honey to the tonsillary glands, it facilitates expectoration. Applied topically, it acts as a detergent upon ulcers, and makes new flesh. Mixed with raisins and axle-grease, it forms a detergent plaster for carbuncles and putrid ulcers, and, with pine-bark or sulphur, for serpiginous sores. Pitch has been administered too by some, in doses of one cyathus, for phthisis and inveterate coughs. It heals chaps of the feet and rectum, inflamed tumours, and malformed nails; and used as a fumigation, it is curative of indurations and derangements of the uterus, and of lethargy. Boiled with barley-meal and the urine of a youth, who has not arrived at puberty, it causes scrofulous sores to suppurate. Dry pitch is used also for the cure of alopecy. For affections of the mamillæ, Bruttian pitch is warmed in wine with fine spelt meal, and applied as hot as can be borne.
CHAP. 24.—PISSELÆON AND PALIMPISSA: SIXTEEN REMEDIES.
We have already[119] described the way in which liquid pitch and the oil known as pisselæon are made. Some persons boil the pitch over again, and give it the name of “palimpissa.”[120] For quinzy[121] and affections of the uvula, liquid pitch is employed internally. It is used also for the cure of ear-ache, for the improvement of the sight, and as a salve for the lips; and is employed for hysterical suffocations, inveterate coughs, profuse expectorations, spasms, nervousness, opisthotony, paralysis, and pains in the sinews. It is a very excellent remedy too for itch in dogs and beasts of burden.
CHAP. 25.—PISSASPHALTOS: TWO REMEDIES.
There is pissasphaltos too, a natural production of the territory of the Apolloniates,[122] and consisting of pitch mixed with bitumen. Some persons, however, make this mixture artificially, and employ it for the cure of itch in cattle, and of injuries done by the young sucklings to the mamillæ. The most esteemed portion of it is that which floats on the surface when boiled.
CHAP. 26.—ZOPISSA: ONE REMEDY.
We have already[123] stated that zopissa is the pitch, macerated with salt-water and wax, that has been scraped from off the bottoms of ships. The best kind is that taken from ships which have been to sea for the first time. It is used as an ingredient in plasters of an emollient nature, employed to disperse gatherings.