Elecampane,[1391] too, chewed fasting, has the effect of strengthening the teeth, if, from the moment that it is plucked, it is not allowed to touch the ground: a confection of it is a cure for cough. The juice of the root boiled is an expellent of intestinal tapeworm; and dried in the shade and reduced to powder, the root[1392] is curative in cases of cough, convulsions, flatulency, and affections of the trachea. It is useful too, for the bites of venomous animals; and the leaves steeped in wine are applied topically for pains in the loins. CHAP. 20.—ONIONS: TWENTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. There are no such things in existence as wild onions. The cultivated onion is employed for the cure of dimness[1393] of sight, the patient being made to smell at it till tears come into the eyes: it is still better even if the eyes are rubbed with the juice. It is said, too, that onions are soporific,[1394] and that they are a cure for ulcerations of the mouth, if chewed with bread. Fresh onions in vinegar, applied topically, or dried onions with wine and honey, are good for the bites of dogs, care being taken not to remove the bandage till the end of a couple of days. Applied, too, in the same way, they are good for healing excoriations. Roasted in hot ashes, many persons have applied them topically, with barley meal, for defluxions of the eyes and ulcerations of the genitals. The juice, too, is employed as an ointment for sores of the eyes, albugo,[1395] and argema.[1396] Mixed with honey, it is used as a liniment for the stings[1397] of serpents and all kinds of ulcerous sores. In combination with woman’s milk, it is employed for affections of the ears; and in cases of singing in the ears and hardness of hearing, it is injected into those organs with goose-grease or honey. In cases where persons have been suddenly struck dumb, it has been administered to them to drink, mixed with water. In cases, too, of toothache, it is sometimes introduced into the mouth as a gargle for the teeth; it is an excellent remedy also for all kinds of wounds made by animals, scorpions more particularly. In cases of alopecy[1398] and itch-scab, bruised onions are rubbed on the parts affected: they are also given boiled to persons afflicted with dysentery or lumbago. Onion peelings, burnt to ashes and mixed with vinegar, are employed topically for stings of serpents and multipedes.[1399]