In cases of hæmaturia, Chrysippus recommends a mixture of asparagus, parsley, and cummin seed, to be given to the patient every five days, in doses of three oboli, mixed with two cyathi of wine. He says, however, that though employed this way, it is a good diuretic, it is bad for dropsy, and acts as an antaphrodisiac; and that it is injurious to the bladder, unless it is boiled first.[1510] He states also, that if the water in which it is boiled is given to dogs, it will kill them;[1511] and that the juice of the root boiled in wine, kept in the mouth, is an effectual cure for tooth-ache. CHAP. 44. (11.)—PARSLEY; SEVENTEEN REMEDIES. Parsley[1512] is held in universal esteem; for we find sprigs of it swimming in the draughts of milk given us to drink in country-places; and we know that as a seasoning for sauces, it is looked upon with peculiar favour. Applied to the eyes with honey, which must also be fomented from time to time with a warm decoction of it, it has a most marvellous efficacy in cases of defluxion of those organs or of other parts of the body; as also when beaten up and applied by itself, or in combination with bread or with polenta. Fish, too, when found to be in an ailing state in the preserves, are greatly refreshed by giving them green parsley. As to the opinions entertained upon it among the learned, there is not a single production dug out of the earth in reference to which a greater diversity exists. Parsley is distinguished as male and female:[1513] according to Chrysippus, the female plant has a hard leaf and more curled than the other, a thick stem, and an acrid, hot taste. Dionysius says, that the female is darker than the other kind, has a shorter root, and engenders small worms.[1514] Both of these writers, however, agree in saying that neither kind of parsley should be admitted into the number of our aliments; indeed, they look upon it as nothing less than sacrilege to do so, seeing that parsley is consecrated to the funereal feasts in honour of the dead. They say, too, that it is injurious to the eyesight, that the stalk of the female plant engenders small worms, for which reason it is that those who eat of it become barren—males as well as females; and that children suckled by females who live on a parsley diet, are sure to be epileptic. They agree, however, in stating that the male plant is not so injurious in its effects as the female, and that it is for this reason that it is not absolutely condemned and classed among the forbidden plants. The leaves of it, employed as a cataplasm, are used for dispersing hard tumours[1515] in the mamillæ; and when boiled in water, it makes it more agreeable to drink. The juice of the root more particularly, mixed with wine, allays the pains of lumbago, and, injected into the ears, it diminishes hardness of hearing. The seed of it acts as a diuretic, promotes the menstrual discharge, and brings away the after-birth.