Many authors are of opinion that the wild cucumber is identical with the plant known among us as the “anguine,” and by some persons as the “erratic”[1311] cucumber. Objects sprinkled with a decoction of this plant will never be touched by mice. The same authors[1312] say, too, that a decoction of it in vinegar, externally applied, gives instantaneous relief in cases of gout and diseases of the joints. As a remedy, too, for lumbago, the seed of it is dried in the sun and pounded, being given in doses of twenty denarii to half a sextarius of water. Mixed with woman’s milk and applied as a liniment, it is a cure for tumours which have suddenly formed. Elaterium promotes the menstrual discharge; but if taken by females when pregnant, it is productive of abortion. It is good, also, for asthma, and, injected into the nostrils, for the jaundice.[1313] Rubbed upon the face in the sun, it removes freckles[1314] and spots upon the skin. CHAP. 5.—THE CULTIVATED CUCUMBER: NINE REMEDIES. Many persons attribute all these properties to the cultivated cucumber[1315] as well, a plant which even without them would be of very considerable importance, in a medicinal point of view. A pinch of the seed, for instance, in three fingers, beaten up with cummin and taken in wine, is extremely beneficial for a cough: for phrenitis, also, doses of it are administered in woman’s milk, and doses of one acetabulum for dysentery. As a remedy for purulent expectorations, it is taken with an equal quantity of cummin;[1316] and it is used with hydromel for diseases of the liver. Taken in sweet wine, it is a diuretic; and, in combination with cummin,[1316] it is used as an injection for affections of the kidneys. CHAP. 6.—PEPONES: ELEVEN REMEDIES. The fruit known as pepones[1317] are a cool and refreshing diet, and are slightly relaxing to the stomach. Applications are used of the pulpy flesh in defluxions or pains of the eyes. The root, too, of this plant cures the hard ulcers known to us as “ceria,” from their resemblance to a honeycomb, and it acts as an emetic.[1318] Dried and reduced to a powder, it is given in doses of four oboli in hydromel, the patient, immediately after taking it, being made to walk half a mile. This powder is employed also in cosmetics[1319] for smoothing the skin. The rind, too, has the effect[1320] of promoting vomiting, and, when applied to the face, of clearing the skin; a result which is equally produced by an external application of the leaves of all the cultivated cucumbers. These leaves, mixed with honey, are employed for the cure of the pustules known as “epinyctis;”[1321] steeped in wine, they are good, too, for the bites of dogs and of multipedes,[1322] insects known to the Greeks by the name of “seps,”[1323] of an elongated form, with hairy legs, and noxious to cattle more particularly; the sting being followed by swelling, and the wound rapidly putrifying.