THE ACANOS; ONE REMEDY

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Sunt qui et acanum eryngio adscribant, spinosam brevemque et latam herbam spinisque latioribus. hanc inpositam sanguinem mire sistere.

Alii eryngen falso eandem putavere esse et glycyrr hizam, quare subiungi eam protinus refert. et ipsa sine dubio inter aculeatas est, foliis echinatis, pinguibus tactuque cumminosis, fruticosa, binum cubitorum altitudine, flore hyacinthi, fructu pilularum platani magnitudinis. praestantissima in Cilicia, secunda Ponto, radice dulci et hac tantum in usu. capitur ea vergiliarum occasu, longa, sucosa ceu lycium, coloris buxei, melior quae nigra, quaeque lenta quam quae fragilis. usus in subditis decoctae ad tertias, cetero ad mellis crassitudinem, aliquando et tusae, quo genere et vulneribus inponitur et faucium vitiis omnibus, item voci utilissima suco sic, ut spissatus est, linguae subdito, item thoraci, iocineri. hac diximus sitim famemque sedari; ob id quidam adipson appellavere eam et hydropicis dedere, ne sitirent. ideo et conmanducata stomatice est ulceribus oris; inspersa saepe et pterygiis. sanat et vesicae scabiem, renium dolores, condylomata, ulcera genitalium. dedere eam quidam potui in quartanis drachmarum duarum pondere et piper ex hemina aquae. conmanducata sanguinem ex vulnere sistit. sunt qui et calculos ea pelli tradiderunt.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

There are some authors, too, who make the acanos to be a species of eryngium. It is a thorny plant, stunted, and spreading, with prickles of a considerable size. Applied topically, they say, it arrests hæmorrhage in a most remarkable degree.

Other authors, again, have erroneously taken the glycyrrhiza to be a kind of eryngium: it will, therefore, be as well to take this opportunity of making some further mention of it. There can be no doubt, however, that this is one of the thorny plants, the leaves of it being covered with prickles, substantial, and viscous and gummy to the touch: it has much the appearance of a shrub, is a couple of cubits in height, and bears a flower like that of the hyacinth, and a fruit the size of the little round balls of the plane. The best kind is that grown in Cilicia, and the next best that of Pontus; the root of it is sweet, and this is the only part that is used. It is gathered at the setting of the Vergiliæ, the root of it being long, like that of the vine. That which is yellow, the colour of boxwood in fact, is superior to the darker kind, and the flexible is better than the brittle. Boiled down to one-third, it is employed for pessaries; but, for general purposes, a decoction is made of it of the consistency of honey. Sometimes, also, it is used pounded, and it is in this form that it is applied as a liniment for wounds and all affections of the throat. The juice of it is also very good for the voice, for which purpose it is thickened and then placed beneath the tongue: it is good, too, for the chest and liver.

We have already stated that this plant has the effect of allaying hunger and thirst: hence it is that some authors have given it the name of “adipsos,” and have prescribed it for dropsical patients, to allay thirst. It is for this reason, too, that it is chewed as a stomatic, and that the powder of it is often sprinkled on ulcerous sores of the mouth and films on the eyes: it heals, too, excrescences of the bladder, pains in the kidneys, condylomata, and ulcerous sores of the genitals. Some persons have given it in potions for quartan fevers, the doses being two drachmæ, mixed with pepper in one hemina of water. Chewed, and applied to wounds, it arrests hæmorrhage: some authors have asserted, also, that it expels calculi of the bladder.