Chapter 550

2785Our “starch” probably. See B. xviii. c.17.

2786A prejudice, Fée says, which is totally without foundation.

2787Bread, as made at the present day, is but little used in modern medicine, beyond being the basis of many kinds of poultices. A decoction of bread with laudanum, is known in medicine, Fée says, as the “white decoction.”

2788“Unseparated from the bran.”

2789Probably like the military bread, made of the coarsest meal, and unfermented.

2790See B. xviii. c.12.

2791“Saccos.” See B. xiv. c. 28.

2792See B. xviii. c.30. Bean meal is but little used in modern medicine, but most that Pliny here says is probably well founded; with the exception, however, of his statement as to its employment for diseases of the chest.

2793Most of the properties here ascribed to the lentil, Fée says, are quite illusory.

2794This, Fée remarks, is not the fact.

2795This statement, Fée thinks, is probably conformable with truth.

2796Fée remarks, that we must not confound the cholera of the ancients with the Indian cholera, our cholera morbus. Celsus describes the cholera with great exactness, B. iv. c. 11.

2797They would be of no benefit, Fée thinks, in such a case.

2798It bears no relation whatever to the lentil, not being a leguminous plant. Fée would include under this head the Lemna minor, the Lemna gibba, and the Lemna polyrrhiza of modern botany, all being found together in the same stagnant water.

2799Fée remarks, that Pliny is clearly speaking of two essentially different plants under this name; the first, he thinks, may very probably be the Ervum tetraspermum of Linnæus.

2800This, Fée thinks, is the Salvia officinalis of Linnæus, our common sage, which has no affinity whatever with the lentil.

2801Sprengel thinks that he is speaking here of the Salvia triloba of Linnæus.

2802The Trygon pastinaca of Linnæus.

2803“Sage,” the plant, no doubt, that he has been describing.

2804See B. xviii. c.32. Fée thinks that the wild cicer is identical with our cultivated one, the Cicer rietinum.

2805See B. xviii. cc.26and32.

2806Or “ram’s head” cicer; from its fancied resemblance to it: the name is still given to the cultivated plant.

2807Or “pigeon” cicer. See B. xviii. c.32. Fée thinks it probable that this plant may be a variety of the Ervum.

2808In B. xviii. c. 38. The Ervum ervilia of Linnæus; it is no longer employed in medicine.

2809Fée says that this is the case, and that the use of it is said to produce a marked debility.

2810See B. xviii. c.10.

2811Fée remarks that it is surprising to find the ancients setting so much value on the lupine, a plant that is bitter and almost nauseous, difficult to boil, and bad of digestion.

2812It must be the rue, Fée says, that acts as the vermifuge.

2813See c.24of this Book.

2814Lees of olive oil.

2815This is not the fact.

2816In B. xviii. c. 22. Racine, in his letters to Boileau, speaks of a chorister of Notre Dame, who recovered his voice by the aid of this plant.

2817It is still used, Fée says, for coughs.

2818In B. xviii. c. 22.

2819Dioscorides says, horehound. The Horminum, apparently, has not been identified.

2820See B. xviii. c.44. Darnel acts upon the brain to such an extent as to produce symptoms like those of drunkenness; to which property it is indebted for its French name ofivraie. It is no longer used in medicine.

2821Georg. i. 153; “Infelix lolium, et steriles dominantur avenæ.”

2822Fée identifies this plant with the Cuscuta Europæa of Linnæus. Sprengel takes it to be the Panicum verticillatum of Linnæus.

2823The Avena sativa of Linnæus; the cultivated oat, and not the Greek oat of B. xviii. c. 42.

2824The term “locusta” has been borrowed by botanists to characterize the fructification of gramineous plants.

2825In B. xviii. c. 44. The present, Fée thinks, is a different plant from the Cuscuta Europæa, and he identifies it with the Orobanche caryophyllacea of Smith, or else the Orobanche ramosa of Linnæus. The Orobanche is so called from its choking (ἄγχει) the orobus or ervum. It is also found to be injurious to beans, trefoil, and hemp. In Italy, the stalks are eaten as a substitute for asparagus.

2826See B. viii. c.43.

2827See B. x. c. 95, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28.

2828As to the beers of the ancients, see B. xiv. c. 29. Very few particulars are known of them; but we learn from the Talmud, where it is calledzeitham, that zythum was an Egyptian beverage made of barley, wild saffron, and salt, in equal parts. In the Mishna, the Jews are enjoined not to use it during the Passover.

2829“Spuma;” literally, “foam.”

2830A physician who lived, probably, at the end of the second or the beginning of the first centuryB.C., as he was one of the tutors of Heraclides of Erythræ. His definition of the pulse has been preserved by Galen, De Differ. Puls. B. iv. c. 10, and an anecdote of him is mentioned by Sextus Empiricus.

2831See end of B. ii.

2832A native of Mytilene, in the island of Lesbos, the earliest of the Æolian lyric poets. He flourished at the latter end of the seventh centuryB.C.Of his Odes only a few fragments, with some Epigrams, have come down to us.

2833In contradistinction to the fruits which hang from trees.

2834See B. xvii. c. 18.

2835In B. xii. cc. 60 and 61.

2836All this passage is found in Dioscorides, B. v. c. 1, who probably borrowed it from the same sources as our author.

2837Fée remarks, that all the statements here made as to the medicinal properties of the vine are entirely unfounded, except that with reference to the bark of the vine: as it contains a small quantity of tannin, it might possibly, in certain cases, arrest hæmorrhage.

2838This cannot be the bryony, Fée says, but simply a variety of the grape vine with white fruit. See further in c.5of this Book.

2839“Impetigines.”

2840Alkaline ashes, which would differ but very little, Fée says, from those of other vegetable productions.

2841This statement as to the caustic properties of the ashes is based upon truth.

2842In B. xii. c. 60.

2843Saracenus, upon Dioscorides, B. v. c. 6, thinks that Pliny, in copying from the Greek, has made a mistake here, and that he has takenοὖλον, the “gums,” forοὐλὴ, a “cicatrix;” the corresponding passage in Dioscorides beingοὖλα πλαδαρὰ, “flaccidity,” or “humidity of the gums.”

2844In B. xii. c. 61. See also B. xiii. c. 2, B. xiv. c. 18, and B. xv. c. 7. Œnanthe, or vine-blossom, possesses no active medicinal properties, and the statements made here by Pliny are in all probability unfounded.

2845Not the white vine, or Bryonia alba of modern botany, but probably some variety of the cultivated vine with white fruit. The flower of the bryony is inodorous, and would be of no utility in the composition of perfumes.

2846“Pterygia.”

2847See B. xii. c. 61. It was prepared from vine-blossoms gathered in Africa.

2848This remark is founded, in a great measure, upon fact. The skin of the black grape contains a colouring principle in considerable abundance, and a small proportion of tannin; that of the white grape possesses no colouring principle, but a considerable quantity of tannin. The white grape contains more saccharine matter than the black one, and they are both of them of a laxative nature.

2849Littré remarks, that under the name of “lethargus,” a febrile malady is probably meant, which belongs probably to the class of pseudo-continuous fevers.

2850Fée thinks that in reality there can be little or no difference in their effects, but that, being eaten in larger quantities at the vintage than afterwards, it stands to reason that the result will be different.

2851The fermentation, producing a certain amount of alcohol, would naturally produce this result.

2852“Sapa:” must boiled down to one-third.

2853This, as Fée remarks, is quite impossible; grapes put in rain-water would spoil immediately, and become totally unfit to eat.

2854By the transformation, namely, of the juices into alcohol.

2855See B. xiv. c. 3.

2856A notion quite unfounded, as Fée remarks. See B. xiv. c. 18.

2857A prejudice equally destitute of foundation.

2858Grape-stones have an astringent effect, and Fée states that in modern times an oil is extracted from them of an agreeable flavour, and applicable to many economical purposes. They are no longer used in medicine.

2859In B. xiv. c. 22.

2860Hence the name “theriaca,” fromθὴρ, a “wild animal,” andἀκέομαι, “to cure.”

2861By reason, probably, of their astringent properties.

2862Though no longer used medicinally, they are still considered to be good pectorals.

2863See B. xx. cc.23and81.

2864“Ceria;” known in modern medicine as “favus.”

2865The Pastinaca opopanax of Linnæus. See B. xii. c. 57.

2866Identified with the Delphinium staphis agria of Linnæus.

2867“Taminian grape.”

2868Or wild vine.

2869The fruit is formed of three oblong capsules, containing a triangular seed of black brown colour, about the size of a kidney bean.

2870This is not the white vine or bryony, mentioned in c. 16 of this Book, but the Tamus communis of Linnæus.

2871The seeds, which are remarkably pungent and powerful in their effects, are only used, at the present day, in medicinal preparations for cattle.

2872This is still done at the present day; to which it is indebted for its French namel’herbe pediculaire, or louse-plant.

2873Pliny seems again to have fallen into the error of mistakingοὖλον, the “gums” forοὐλὴ, a “cicatrix;” the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 156, being “defluxions of the gums.”

2874They would be of no use whatever, Fée says, for such a purpose.

2875As tending to carry off “pituita,” or phlegm.

2876In B. xii. c. 61.

2877“Ampelos agria.” Fée observes, that this Chapter is full of errors, Pliny beginning by speaking of the wild vine, the variety Labrusca of the Vitis vinifera of Linnæus, and then proceeding to describe what is really the Bryonia dioica of modern botany, and applying its characteristics to the wild vine, or labrusca.

2878This is not the case with the wild vine.

2879The root of the wild vine is not of a purgative nature.

2880As already stated, this is not identical with the wild vine, but is the Tamus communis of Linnæus.

2881The Solanum dulcamara of modern botany has been suggested; though there is but little resemblance between the leaves of that variety of nightshade and those of the wild vine.

2882The Bryonia alba of Linnæus; the bryony, white vine, or white jalap.

2883This description, Fée says, is pretty correct, and the account of its properties sufficiently exact. It is a violent poison, and is no longer used in medicine.

2884It is still called by the Frenchnavet du diable, or devil’s turnip.

2885“Exulcerant corpus.” Our author, Fée says, may here be taxed with some exaggeration.

2886The fruit is no longer used for this purpose.

2887It is a matter of extreme doubt if there is any foundation for this statement.

2888It would be productive of no good effect in such case, nor, indeed, in most of the cases here mentioned.

2889“Purgat” is the reading given by Sillig; but, judging from the corresponding passage in Dioscorides,ὑποταράττει, “turbat,” or “conturbat,” is the proper reading.

2890“Pterygiis.”

2891This is in reality not the modern bryony, or white vine, but the Tamus communis of Linnæus, the black vine, ortaminierof the French, the uva taminia, probably, of Chapter 13.

2892In the last Chapter.

2893The shoots of the Tamus communis are still eaten in Tuscany as a substitute for asparagus, to which, however, they are inferior in quality. It is there known by the name oftamaro.

2894An absurdity, as Fée remarks, not worthy of discussion. The same, too, as to the next assertion.

2895Of course there are as many varieties of must, or grape-juice, as there are of wines. Must is of a purgative and emollient nature, but is no longer employed in medicine.

2896See c.30of this Book. Of course there is little or no truth in this assertion.

2897In reality it has no such effect.

2898See B. x. c. 86.

2899See B. xxii. c.36, and B. xxx. c. 10.

2900In cases of poisoning by opium or hemlock, the use of it, Fée says, would be prejudicial.

2901See B. xxi. c.105.

2902“Toxica.”

2903In B. xiv. cc. 8, 9, 10. It is impossible, with any degree of accuracy, to discuss the properties of these various wines, as they no longer exist.

2904“Cognominatum” appears to be a better reading than “cognominatus,” which Sillig has adopted; as it is much more probable that the work received its name from the subject than that the writer did.

2905All these wines are described in B. xiv.

2906“Nervis.” As to the meaning of this word, see B. xi. c. 88.

2907These wines also are described in B. xiv.

2908“Feritas.”

2909The colour of our Port.

2910“Apothecis.”

2911“Cariem trahunt.”

2912While the ancients thought that the cariousness or results of old age were removed by the agency of smoke.

2913See B. xiv. c. 6.

2914“Saliva.”

2915In the time of the Emperor Tiberius. See B. xiv. c. 28.

2916Odyssey, B. iv. l. 219,et seq.

2917“Sapientiam vino obumbrari.”

2918Works and Days, l. 594.

2919“Merum.”

2920It is surprising, as Fée says, to find coriander enumerated among the poisons. Mistletoe, too, and mercury are neither of them poisons. As to hemlock, see B. xiv. c. 7.

2921See Lucan’s Pharsalia, B. ix. ll. 722, 791.

2922See B. xi. c. 71.

2923This method is still employed with race-horses. See B. xiv. c. 28.

2924It is still a very prevalent notion that the growth of dogs is stunted by giving them raw spirits.

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