The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
Garlic[1417] has very powerful[1418] properties, and is of great
utility to persons on changes of water or locality. The very smell of
it drives away serpents and scorpions, and, according to what some
persons say, it is a cure for wounds made by every kind of wild beast,
whether taken with the drink or food, or applied topically. Taken
in wine, it is a remedy for the sting of the hæmorrhoïs[1419] more
particularly, acting as an emetic. We shall not be surprised too, that
it acts as a powerful remedy for the bite of the shrew-mouse, when we
find that it has the property of neutralizing aconite, otherwise known
as “pardalianches.”[1420] It neutralizes henbane, also, and cures the
bites of dogs, when applied with honey to the wound. It is taken in
drink also for the stings of serpents; and of its leaves, mixed with
oil, a most valuable liniment is made for bruises on the body, even
when they have swelled and formed blisters.
Hippocrates[1421] is of opinion also, that fumigations made with garlic
have the effect of bringing away the after-birth; and he used to employ
the ashes of garlic, mixed with oil, for the cure of running ulcers
of the head. Some persons have prescribed boiled garlic for asthmatic
patients; while others, again, have given it raw. Diocles prescribes
it, in combination with centaury, for dropsy, and to be taken in a
split fig, to promote the alvine evacuations: taken fresh, however, in
unmixed wine, with coriander, it is still more efficacious for that
purpose. Some persons have given it, beaten up in milk, for asthma.
Praxagoras used to prescribe garlic, mixed with wine, for jaundice, and
with oil and pottage for the iliac passion: he employed it also in a
similar form, as a liniment for scrofulous swellings of the neck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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