CHAP. 81. (20.)—PORCILLACA OR PURSLAIN, OTHERWISE CALLED PEPLIS: TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES.
There is a wild purslain,
1 too, called "peplis," not much
superior in its virtues to the cultivated
2 kind, of which such
remarkable properties are mentioned. It neutralizes the effects,
it is said, of poisoned arrows, and the venom of the serpents
known as hæmorrhois and prester;
3 taken with the food and
applied to the wound, it extracts the poison. The juice, too,
they say, taken in raisin wine, is an antidote for henbane.
When the plant itself cannot be procured, the seed of it is
found to be equally efficacious. It is a corrective, also, of
impurities in water; and beaten up in wine and applied topically,
it is a cure for head-ache and ulcers of the head. Chewed in
combination with honey, it is curative of other kinds of sores.
It is similarly applied to the region of the brain in infants, and
in cases of umbilical hernia; as also for defluxions of the eyes,
in persons of all ages, being applied to the forehead and temples
with polenta. If employed as a liniment for the eyes,
milk and honey are added, and when used for proptosis
4 of
the eyes, the leaves are beaten up with bean-shells. In combination
with polenta, salt, and vinegar, it is employed as a
fomentation for blisters.
Chewed raw, purslain reduces ulcerations of the mouth and
gum-boils, and cures tooth-ache; a decoction of it is good, too,
for ulcers of the tonsils. Some persons have added a little
myrrh to it, when so employed. Chewed, it strengthens such
teeth as may happen to be loose, dispels crudities, imparts
additional strength to the voice, and allays thirst. Used with
nutgalls, linseed, and honey, in equal proportions, it assuages pains
in the neck; and, combined with honey or Cimolian chalk, it is
good for diseases of the mamillæ.
5 The seed of it, taken with
honey, is beneficial for asthma. Eaten in salads,
6 this plant
is very strengthening to the stomach. In burning fevers, applications
of it are made with polenta; in addition to which,
if chewed, it will cool and refresh the intestines. It arrests
vomiting, also, and for dysentery and abscesses, it is eaten with
vinegar, or else taken with cummin in drink: boiled, it is good
for tenesmus. Taken either in the food or drink, it is good for
epilepsy; and, taken in doses of one acetabulum in boiled
wine,
7 it promotes the menstrual discharge. Employed, also,
as a liniment with salt, it is used as a remedy for fits of hot
gout and erysipelas.
The juice of this plant, taken in drink, strengthens the kidneys
and bladder, and expels intestinal worms. In conjunction with oil, it
is applied, with polenta, to assuage the pain
of wounds, and it softens indurations of the sinews. Metrodorus, who
wrote an Abridgment of Botany,
8 says that it should
be given after delivery, to accelerate the lochial discharge. It
is also an antaphrodisiac, and prevents the recurrence of lascivious
dreams. One of the principal personages of Spain,
whose son has been Prætor, is in the habit of carrying the root
of it, to my knowledge, suspended by a string from his neck,
except when he is taking the bath, for an incurable affection
of the uvula; a precaution by which he has been spared all
inconvenience.
I have found it stated, too, in some authors, that if the head
is rubbed with a liniment of this plant, there will be no de.
fluxions perceptible the whole year through. It is generally
thought, however, that purslain weakens the sight.