Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXVI. A CONTINUATION OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM PLANTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR DISEASES., CHAP. 48.

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CHAP. 48.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN.

Agaric, taken in doses of three oboli in one cyathus of old wine, is curative of diseases of the spleen. The same, too, with the root of every kind of panaces,¹ taken in honied wine: teucria,² also, is particularly useful for the same purpose, taken in a dry state, or boiled down in the proportion of one handful to three heminæ of vinegar. Teucria, too, is applied with vinegar to wounds of the spleen, or, if the patient cannot bear the application of vinegar, with figs or water. Polemo- nia³ is taken in wine, and betony, in doses of one drachma, in three cyathi of oxymel: aristolochia, too, is used in the same manner as for injuries inflicted by serpents.⁴ Argemonia,⁵ it is said, taken with the food for seven consecutive days, diminishes the volume of the spleen; and a similar effect is attributed to agaric, taken in doses of two oboli, in oxymel. Root, too, of nymphæa heraclia,⁶ taken in wine, or by itself, diminishes the spleen.

Cissanthemos,⁷ taken twice a day, in doses of one drachma in two cyathi of white wine, for forty consecutive days, gradually carries off the spleen, it is said, by urine. Hyssop, boiled with figs, is very useful for the same purpose: root of lonchitis,⁸ also, boiled before it has shed its seed. A decoction of root of peucedanum⁹ is good for the spleen and kidneys. Acoron,¹⁰ taken in drink, diminishes the spleen; and the roots of it are very beneficial for the viscera and iliac regions. For similar purposes, seed of clymenus¹¹ is taken, for thirty consecutive days, in doses of one denarius, in white wine. Powdered betony is also used, taken in a potion with honey and squill vinegar; root too of lonchitis is taken in water. Tourism¹² is used externally for diseases of the spleen; sodium,¹³ also, in combination with wax: and agaric, mixed with powdered fenugreek.

1 See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

2 See B. xxiv. c. 80.

3 See B. xxv. c. 28.

4 See B. xxv. c. 55.

5 See B. xxv. c. .56.

6 See B. xxv. c. 37.

7 See B. xxv. c. 68.

8 See B. xxv. c. 88. Fée says that it is the Aspidium lonchitis of Linnæus, that is meant.

9 See B. xxv. c. 70.

10 See B. xxv. c. 100.

11 See B. xxv. c. 33.

12 See B. xxv. c. 20.

13 Or Scordotis. See B. xxv. c. 27.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 48.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 48.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.