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CHAP. 86.—CULTIVATED LAPATHUM: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES. BULAPATHUM: ONE REMEDY.

As to garden lapathum,1 it is good in liniments on the forehead for defluxions of the eyes. The root of it cures lichens and leprous sores, and a decoction of it in wine is remedial for scrofulous swellings, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and calculus of the bladder. Taken in wine it is a cure for affections of the spleen, and employed as a fomentation, it is equally good for cœliac affections, dysentery, and tenesmus. For all these purposes, the juice of lapathum is found to be even still more efficacious. It acts as a carminative and diuretic, and dispels films on the eyes: put into the bath, or else rubbed upon the body, without oil, before taking the bath, it effectually removes all itching sensations. The root of it, chewed, strengthens the teeth, and a decoction of it in wine arrests2 looseness of the stomach: the leaves, on the other hand, relax it.

Not to omit any particulars, Solo has added to the above varieties a bulapathon,3 which differs only from the others in the length of the root. This root, taken in wine, is very beneficial for dysentery.

1 Supposed by Fée to be the same as the wild lapathum of the last Chapter, the Rumex acetosella of Linnæus; small sorrel.

2 Fée remarks that no part of lapathum is naturally astringent.

3 Or "ox lapathum." Fée considers this to be identical with the "hippolapathon" of the last Chapter.

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