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CHAP. 87.—HYSSOP: TEN REMEDIES.

Hyssop,1 beaten up in oil, is curative of phthiriasis and prurigo of the head. The best hyssop is that of Mount Taurus in Cilicia, next to which in quality is the produce of Pamphylia and Smyrna. This plant is injurious to the stomach: taken with figs, it produces alvine evacuations, and used in combination with honey, it acts as an emetic. It is generally thought that, beaten up with honey, salt, and cum- min, it is curative of the stings of serpents.

1 There has been much discussion on the identification of the Hyssopum of the ancients, their descriptions varying very considerably. It has been suggested that that of the Egyptians was the Origanum Ægyptianum; that of the Hebrews, the Origanun Syriacum; that of Dioscorides, the Origanum Smyræum; and that of the other Greek writers, the Teucrium pseudohyssopus, or else the Thymbra verticillata and spicata. Fée is inclined to identify that here mentioned by Pliny with the Thymbra spicata of Lin- næus, and the Garden hyssop of Dioscorides, with the Hyssopus officinalis of Linnæus. Littré states, however, that this last is a stranger to Greece, and that M. Fraas (Synopsis, p. 182) identifies the hyssop of Dioscorides with the Origanum Smyrnæum or Syriacum.

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