CHAP. 49.—LASER: THIRTY-NINE REMEDIES.
Laser, a juice which distils from silphium, as we have already
1 stated, and reckoned among the most precious gifts
presented to us by Nature, is made use of in numerous medicinal preparations. Employed by itself, it warms and revives
persons benumbed with cold, and, taken in drink, it alleviates
affections of the sinews. It is given to females in wine, and
is used with soft wool as a pessary to promote the menstrual
discharge. Mixed with wax, it extracts corns on the feet,
after they have been first loosened with the knife: a piece of
it, the size of a chick-pea, melted in water, acts as a diuretic.
Andreas assures us that, taken in considerable doses even, it is
never productive of flatulency, and that it greatly promotes
the digestion, both in aged people and females; he says, too,
that it is better used in winter than in summer, and that even
then, it is best suited for those whose beverage is water: but
due care must be taken that there is no internal ulceration.
Taken with the food, it is very refreshing for patients just recovering from an illness; indeed, if it is used at the proper
time, it has all the virtues of a desiccatory,
2 though it is more
wholesome for persons who are in the habit of using it than
for those who do not ordinarily employ it.
As to external maladies, the undoubted virtues of this medicament are universally acknowledged: taken in drink, it has
the effect, also, of neutralizing the venom of serpents and of
poisoned weapons, and, applied with water, it is in general use
for the cure of wounds. In combination with oil, it is only
used as a liniment for the stings of scorpions, and with barley-
meal or dried figs, for the cure of ulcers that have not come to
a head. It is applied topically, also, to carbuncles, with rue
or honey, or else by itself, with some viscous substance to
make it adhere; for the bites of dogs, also, it is similarly em-
ployed. A decoction of it in vinegar, with pomegranate rind,
is used for excrescences
3 of the fundament, and, mixed with
nitre, for the corns commonly known as "morticini."
4 In
cases of alopecy which have been first treated with nitre, it
makes the hair grow again, applied with wine and saffron, or
else pepper or mouse-dung and vinegar. For chilblains, fo-
mentations are made of it with wine, or liniments with oil;
as also for callosities and indurations. For corns on the feet,
if pared first, it is particularly useful, as also as a preservative
against the effects of bad water, and of unhealthy climates or
weather. It is prescribed for cough, too, affections of the
uvula, jaundice of long standing, dropsy, and hoarseness, having
the effect of instantly clearing the throat and restoring the
voice. Diluted in oxycrate, and applied with a sponge, it
assuages the pains in gout.
It is given also in broth
5 to patients suffering from pleurisy,
when about to take wine; and it is prescribed for convulsions
and opisthotony, in pills about as large as a chick-pea coated
with wax. For quinsy, it is used as a gargle, and to patients
troubled with asthma or inveterate cough, it is given with
leeks in vinegar; it is prescribed, also, with vinegar, after
drinking butter-milk.
6 It is recommended with wine for con-
sumptive affections of the viscera and epilepsy, and with hy-
dromel for paralysis of the tongue; with a decoction of honey,
it forms a liniment for sciatica and lumbago.
For my own part, I should not recommend,
7 what some
authors advise, to insert a pill of laser, covered with wax, in
a hollow tooth, for tooth-ache; being warned to the contrary
by a remarkable case of a man, who, after doing so, threw
himself headlong from the top of a house. Besides, it is a
well-known fact, that if it is rubbed on the muzzle of a bull, it
irritates him to an extraordinary degree; and that if it is mixed
with wine, it will cause serpents to burst—those reptiles being
extremely fond of wine. In addition to this, I should not
advise any one to rub the gums with Attic honey, although
that practice is recommended by some.
It would be an endless task to enumerate all the uses to
which laser is put, in combination with other substances; and
the more so, as it is only our object to treat of simple remedies, it being these in which Nature displays her resources.
In the compound remedies, too, we often find our judgment
deceived, and quite at fault, from our comparative inattention
to the sympathy or antipathy which naturally exists between
the ingredients employed—on this subject, however, we shall
have to enlarge on a future occasion.
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