As we have already given those of Cato, it will be as well to set forth the opinions entertained by the Greek writers on this subject, only in relation, however, to those points upon which he has omitted to touch. They are of opinion that cabbage, not thoroughly boiled, carries off the bile, and has the effect of loosening the bowels; while, on the other hand, if it is boiled twice over, it will act as an astringent. They say, too, that as there is a natural[1474] enmity between it and the vine, it combats the effects of wine; that, if eaten before drinking, it is sure to prevent[1475] drunkenness, being equally a dispellent of crapulence[1476] if taken after drinking: that cabbage is a food very beneficial to the eyesight, and that the juice of it raw is even more so, if the corners of the eyes are only touched with a mixture of it with Attic honey. Cabbage, too, according to the same testimony, is extremely easy of digestion,[1477] and, as an aliment, greatly tends to clear the senses. The school of Erasistratus proclaims that there is nothing more beneficial to the stomach and the sinews than cabbage; for which reason, he says, it ought to be given to the paralytic and nervous, as well as to persons affected with spitting of blood. Hippocrates prescribes it, twice boiled, and eaten with salt, for dysentery and cœliac affections, as also for tenesmus and diseases of the kidneys; he is of opinion, too, that, as an aliment, it increases the quantity of the milk in women who are nursing, and that it promotes the menstrual discharge.[1478] The stalk, too, eaten raw, is efficacious in expelling the dead fœtus. Apollodorus prescribes the seed or else the juice of the cabbage to be taken in cases of poisoning by fungi; and Philistion recommends the juice for persons affected with opisthotony, in goats’-milk, with salt and honey. I find, too, that persons have been cured of the gout by eating cabbage and drinking a decoction of that plant. This decoction has been given, also, to persons afflicted with the cardiac disease and epilepsy, with the addition of salt; and it has been administered in white wine, for affections of the spleen, for a period of forty days.