CHAP. 63.—FIGS: ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN OBSERVATIONS
UPON THEM.
The milky juice of the fig-tree possesses kindred properties
with vinegar;
1 hence it is, that, like rennet, it curdles milk.
This juice is collected before the fruit ripens, and dried in the
shade; being used with yolk of egg as a liniment, or else in
drink, with amylum,
2 to bring ulcers to a head and break
them, and for the purposes of an emmenagogue. With meal
of fenugreek and vinegar, it is applied topically for gout; it
acts also as a depilatory,
3 heals eruptions of the eyelids,
lichens and itch-scabs, and relaxes the bowels. The milk of
the fig-tree is naturally curative of the stings of hornets,
wasps, and similar insects, and is remarkably useful for wounds
inflicted by scorpions. Mixed with axle-grease it removes
warts. With the leaves and figs still green an application is
made for scrofulous
4 and other sores of a nature which requires
emollients or resolvents. The leaves, too, used by themselves,
are productive of a similar effect. In addition to this, they
are employed for other purposes, as a friction for lichens, for
example, for alopecy, and other diseases which require caustic
applications. The young shoots of the branches are used as
an application to the skin in cases of bites inflicted by dogs.
With honey they are applied to the ulcers known as honeycomb ulcers;
5 mixed with the leaves of wild poppies they extract
6 splinters of bones; and the leaves beaten up in vinegar
are a cure for bites inflicted by dogs. The young white shoots
of the black
7 fig are applied topically, with wax, to boils, and
bites inflicted by the shrew-mouse: and the ashes of their
leaves are used for the cure of gangrenes and the reduction of
fleshy excrescences.
Ripe figs are diuretic and laxative; they promote the perspiration, and bring out pimples; hence it is that they are unwholesome in autumn, the perspirations which they excite
being always attended with shivering. They are injurious
also to the stomach, though for a short time only; and it is
generally thought that they spoil the voice. The figs which
are the last to ripen are more wholesome than the first, but
those which are drugged
8 for the purpose of ripening them
are never wholesome. This fruit invigorates the young, and
improves the health of the aged and retards the formation of
wrinkles; it allays thirst, and is of a cooling nature, for
which reason it should never be declined in those fevers of an
astringent tendency which are known as "stegnæ."
Dried figs are injurious to the stomach,
9 but are beneficial
in a marvellous degree to the throat and fauces. They are of
a warming nature, are productive of thirst, and relax the bowels,
but are unwholesome in stomachic complaints and fluxes of the
bowels. In all cases they are beneficial for the bladder, hard-
ness of breathing, and asthma, as also for diseases of the liver,
kidneys, and spleen. They are nourishing and invigorating,
for which reason, the athletes in former times used them as
food: Pythagoras, the gymnast, being the first who intro-
duced among them a flesh diet.
10 Figs are extremely useful
for patients recovering from a long illness, and for persons
suffering from epilepsy or dropsy. They are applied topically
also in all cases where sores require to be brought to a head,
or dispersed; and they are still more efficacious when mixed
with lime or nitre. Boiled with hyssop they act as a purgative on the pectoral organs, carry off the phlegm, and cure
inveterate coughs: boiled with wine they heal maladies of
the fundament, and tumours of the jaws. A decoction of them
is applied also to boils, inflamed tumours, and imposthumes
of the parotid glands. This decoction, too, is found very
useful as a fomentation for disorders incident to females.
Boiled with fenugreek,
11 figs are very useful in cases of
pleurisy and peripneumony. A decoction of them with
rue is good for griping pains in the bowels; in combination
with verdigris,
12 they are used for ulcers of the legs and imposthumes of the parotid glands; with pomegranates, for hang-
nails;
13 and with wax, for burns and chilblains. Boiled in
wine, with wormwood and barley-meal, they are employed
for dropsy. Eaten with nitre, they relax the bowels; and
beaten up with salt they are applied to stings inflicted by
scorpions. Boiled in wine, and applied topically, they bring
carbuncles to a head. In cases of carcinoma, unattended with
ulceration, it is a singularly good plan to apply to the part the
pulpiest fig that can be procured; the same, too, with phagedænic sores.
As to the ashes of the fig, those of no tree known are of a
more acrid character,
14 being of a detergent and astringent
nature, and tending to make new flesh and to promote the
cicatrization of wounds. They are also taken in drink, for
the purpose of dissolving coagulated blood, as also for bruises,
falls with violence, ruptures, convulsions * * * * in
one cyathus respectively of water and oil. They are administered also for tetanus and spasms, and are used either in a
potion, or as an injection for cœliac affections and dysentery.
Employed as a liniment with oil, they have a warming effect;
and kneaded into a paste with wax and rose-oil, they heal
burns, leaving the slightest scar only. Applied in oil, as a
liniment, they are a cure for weakness of sight, and are used
as a dentifrice in diseases of the teeth.
It is said, too, that if a patient draws downward a branch
of a fig-tree, and turns up his head and bites off some knot
or other of it, without being seen by any one, and then wears
it in a leather bag suspended by a string from his neck, it is a
certain cure for scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid
glands. The bark of this tree, beaten up with oil, cures
ulcerations of the abdomen. Green figs, applied raw, with
the addition of nitre and meal, remove warts and wens.
15
The ashes of the suckers which spring from the roots are used
as a substitute for spodium.
16 Burnt over a second time and
incorporated with white lead, they are divided into cakes
which are used for the cure of ulcerations of the eyes and
eruptions.