CHAP. 48.—OCIMUM; THIRTY-FIVE REMEDIES.
Chrysippus has exclaimed as strongly, too, against ocimum
1
as he has against parsley, declaring that it is prejudicial to the
stomach and the free discharge of the urine, and is injurious
to the sight; that it produces insanity, too, and lethargy, as
well as diseases of the liver; and that it is for this reason that
goats refuse to touch it. Hence he comes to the conclusion,
that the use of it ought to be avoided by man. Some persons
go so far as to say, that if beaten up, and then placed beneath
a stone, a scorpion will breed there;
2 and that if chewed, and
then placed in the sun, worms will breed in it. The people of
Africa maintain, too, that if a person is stung by a scorpion
the same day on which he has eaten ocimum, his life cannot
possibly be saved. Even more than this, there are some who
assert, that if a handful of ocimum is beaten up with ten sea
or river crabs, all the scorpions in the vicinity will be attracted
to it. Diodotus, too, in his Book of Recipes,
3 says, that
ocimum, used as an article of food, breeds lice.
Succeeding ages, again, have warmly defended this plant; it
has been maintained, for instance, that goats do eat it, that
the mind of no one who has eaten of it is at all affected, and,
that mixed with wine, with the addition of a little vinegar, it is
a cure for the stings of land scorpions, and the venom of those
found in the sea. Experience has proved, too, that the smell
of this plant in vinegar is good for fainting fits and lethargy,
as well as inflammations; that employed as a cooling liniment, with rose oil, myrtle oil, or vinegar, it is good for headache; and that applied topically with wine, it is beneficial for
defluxions of the eyes. It has been found also, that it is good
for the stomach; that taken with vinegar, it dispels flatulent
eructations; that applications of it arrest fluxes of the bowels;
that it acts as a diuretic, and that in this way it is good for
jaundice and dropsy, as well as cholera and looseness of the
bowels.
Hence it is that Philistio has prescribed it even for cœliac
affections, and boiled, for dysentery. Some persons, too,
though contrary to the opinion of Plistonicus, have given it
in wine for tenesmus and spitting of blood, as also for obstructions of the viscera. It is employed, too, as a liniment
for the mamillæ, and has the effect of arresting the secretion
of the milk. It is very good also for the ears of infants, when
applied with goose-grease more particularly. The seed of it,
beaten up, and inhaled into the nostrils, is provocative of
sneezing, and applied as a liniment to the head, of running
at the nostrils: taken in the food, too, with vinegar, it purges
the uterus. Mixed with copperas
4 it removes warts. It acts,
also, as an aphrodisiac, for which reason it is given to horses
and asses at the season for covering.
(13.) Wild ocimum has exactly the same properties in every
respect, though in a more active degree. It is particularly
good, too, for the various affections produced by excessive vo-
miting, and for abscesses of the womb. The root, mixed with
wine, is extremely efficacious for bites inflicted by wild
beasts.