Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXVI. A CONTINUATION OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM PLANTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR DISEASES., CHAP. 69.

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CHAP. 69.—THE ONOTHERAS OR ONEAR: THREE REMEDIES.

Among the various evils by which the whole of the body in common is afflicted, that of wakefulness is the most common. Among the remedies for it we find panaces¹ mentioned, clymenus,² and aristolochia,³ the odour of the plant being inhaled and the head rubbed with it. Aizoü, or houseleek, is beneficial, wrapped in black cloth and placed beneath the pillow, without the patient being aware of it. The onotheras⁴ too, or onear, taken in wine, has certain exhilarating pro- properties; it has leaves like those of the almond tree, a rose-coloured flower, numerous branches, and a long root, with a xinous smell when dried: n infusion of this root has a soothing effect upon wild beasts even.

For fits of indigestion⁵ attended with nausea, betony is taken in drink: used similarly after the evening meal, it faci- litates the digestion. Taken in the proportion of one drachma to three cyathi of oxymel, it dispels crapulence. The same is the case, too, with agaric, taken in warm water after eating. Betony is curative of paralysis, it is said; the same, too, with brais, as already stated.⁶ This last is good, too, for numbness of the limbs : the same being the case with argemonia,⁷ a plant which disperses those affections which might otherwise necessitate the application of the knife.

1 See B. xxv. cc. 11 and 12.

2 See B. xxv. c. 33.

3 See B xxv. c. 54.

4 identified with the Epilobium roseum of Linnæus. Rose-coloured willow-herb.

5 See c. 25 of this Book.

6 In B. xxv. c. 49.

7 See B. xxv. c. 56.

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. 69.—THE ONOTHERAS OR ONEAR: THREE REMEDIES.

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

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Table of Contents:

CHAP. 69.—THE ONOTHERAS OR ONEAR: THREE REMEDIES.

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