Molemonium[1118] is used as an emetic, being taken in doses of one denarius; the same, too, with sillybum.[1119] Both of these plants have a milky juice, which thickens like gum, and is taken with honey in the proportions above-mentioned, being particularly good for carrying off bile. On the other hand, vomiting is arrested by the use of wild cummin or powdered betony, taken in water. Crudities and distaste for food are dispelled, and the digestion promoted by employing daucus,[1120] powdered betony[1121] taken in hydromel, or else plantago boiled like greens. Hiccup is arrested by taking hemionium[1122] or aristolochia,[1123] and asthma by the use of clymenus.[1124] For pleurisy and peripneumony, the greater centaury is used, or else hyssop, taken in drink. Juice of peucedanum[1125] is also good for pleurisy. CHAP. 26.—HALUS OR COTONEA: FIVE REMEDIES. The plant halus,[1126] by the people of Gaul called “sil,” and by the Veneti “cotonea,” is curative of pains in the side, affections of the kidneys, ruptures, and convulsions. It resembles cunila bubula[1127] in appearance, and the tops of it are like those of thyme. It is of a sweet flavour, and allays thirst; the roots of it are sometimes white, sometimes black. CHAP. 27.—THE CHAMÆROPS: ONE REMEDY. THE STŒCHAS: ONE REMEDY. The chamærops,[1128] also, is similarly efficacious for pains in the side. It is a plant with leaves like those of myrtle, arranged in pairs around the stem, the heads of it resembling those of the Greek rose: it is taken in wine. Agaric, administered in drink, in the same manner[1129] as for cough, assuages sciatica and pains in the vertebræ: the same, too, with powdered stœchas[1130] or betony, taken in hydromel. CHAP. 28. (8.)—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE BELLY. But it is the belly, for the gratification of which the greater part of mankind exist, that causes the most suffering to man. Thus, for instance, at one time it will not allow the aliments to pass, while at another it is unable to retain them. Sometimes, again, it either cannot receive the food, or, if it can, cannot digest it; indeed, such are the excesses practised at the present day, that it is through his aliment, more than anything else, that man hastens his end. This receptacle,[1131] more troublesome to us than any other part of the body, is ever craving, like some importunate creditor, and makes its calls repeatedly in the day. It is for its sake, more particularly, that avarice is so insatiate, for its sake that luxury is so refined,[1132] for its sake that men voyage to the shores even of the Phasis, for its sake that the very depths of the ocean are ransacked. And yet, with all this, no one ever gives a thought how abject is the condition of this part of our body, how disgusting the results of its action upon what it has received! No wonder then, that the belly should have to be indebted to the aid of medicine in the very highest degree!