THE BLOOD-RED SHRUB: ONE REMEDY

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Nec virga sanguinea felicior habetur. cortex eius interior cicatrices, quae praesanuere, aperit.

Sileris folia inlita fronti capitis dolores sedant. eiusdem semen contritum in oleo phthiriasis coercet. serpentes et hunc fruticem fugiunt, baculumque rustici ob id ex eo gerunt.

Ligustrum si eadem arbor est, quae in oriented cypros, suos in Europa usus habet. sucus discutit nervos, articulos, algores; folia ubique veteri ulceri, cum salis mica et oris exulcerationi prosunt, acini contra phthiriasim, item contra intertrigines vel folia. sanant et gallinaceorum pituitas acini.

Folia alni ex ferventi aqua remedio sunt tumoris.

Hederae genera viginti demonstravimus. natura omnium in medicina anceps. mentem turbat et caput purgat largius pota; nervis intus nocet, iisdem nervis adhibita foris prodest. eadem natura, quae aceto est, omnia genera eius refrigerant. urinam cient potu, capitis dolorem sedant, praecipue cerebro continentique cerebrum membranae utiliter mollibus inpositis foliis cum aceto et rosaceo tritis et decoctis,, addito postea rosaceo oleo; inlinuntur autem fronti. et decocto eorum fovetur os caputque perunguitur. lieni et pota et inlita prosunt. decocuntur et contra horrores febrium eruptionesque pituitae aut in vino teruntur. corymbi quoque poti vel inliti lienem sanant, iocinera autem inliti. trahunt et menses adpositi. sucus hederae taedia narium graveolentiamque emendat, praecipue albae sativae. idem infusus naribus caput purgat, efficacius addito nitro. infunditur etiam purulentis auribus aut dolentibus cum oleo. cicatricibus quoque decorem facit. ad lienes efficacior albae ferro calefactus. satis est acinos VI in vini cyathis II sumi. acini ex eadem alba terni in aceto mulso poti taenias pellunt, in qua curatione ventri quoque inposuisse eos utile est. hedera, quam chrysocarpon appellavimus, bacis aurei coloris xx in vini sextario tritis, ita ut terni cyathi potentur, aquam, quae cutem subierit, urina educit; Erasistratus eiusdem acinos v tritos in rosaceo oleo calefactosque in cortice punici instillavit dentium dolori a contraria aure. acini, qui croci sucum habent, praesumpti potu a crapula tutos praestant; item sanguinem excreantes aut torminibus laborantes hederae nigrae. candidioris corymbi poti steriles etiam viros faciunt. inlinitur decocta quaecumque in vino omni ulcerum generi, etiamsi caco ëthe sint. lacrima hederae psilotrum est phthiriasimque tollit. flos cuiuscumque generis III digitorum captu dysintericos et alvum citam emendat in vino austero bis die potus. et ambustis inlinitur utiliter cum cera. denigrant capillum corymbi. radicis sucus in aceto potus contra phalangia prodest. huius quoque ligni vaso splenicos bibentes sanari invenio. et acinos terunt, mox comburunt et ita inlinunt ambusta prius perfusa aqua calida. sunt qui et incidant suci gratia eoque utantur ad dentes erosos, frangique tradunt, proximis cera munitis, ne laedantur. cummim etiam in hedera quaerunt, quam ex aceto utilissimam dentibus promittunt.

Graeci vicino vocabulo cisthon appellant fruticem maiorem thymo, foliis ocimi. duo eius genera: flos masculo rosaceus, feminae albus. ambo prosunt dysintericis et solutionibus ventris in vino austere ternis digitis flore capto et similiter bis die poto, ulceribus veteribus et ambustis cum cera et per se oris ulceribus.—Sub his maxime nascitur hypocisthis, quam inter herbas dicemus.

Cissos erythranos ab iisdem appellatur similis hederae, coxendicibus utilis e vino potus, item lumbis, tanta vi acini, ut sanguinem urina detrahat.—Item chamaecis son appellant hederam non attollentem se a terra. et haec contunsa in vino acetabuli mensura lieni medetur, folia ambustis cum axungia.—Milax quoque, quae anthophoros cognominatur, similitudinem hederae habet, tenuioribus foliis. coronam ex ea factam inpari foliorum numero aiunt capitis doloribus mederi. quidam duo genera milacis dixere: alteram inmortalitati proximam in convallibus opacis, scandentem arborum, comantibus acinorum corymbis, contra venenata omnia efficacissime iuvantem acinorum suco: infantibus saepe instillato nulla postea venena nocitura. alterum genus culta amare et in his gigni, nullius effectus. llam esse milacem priorem, cuius lignum ad aures sonare diximus. —Similem huic aliqui clematida appellaverunt, repentem per arbores, geniculatam et ipsam. folia eius lepras purgant; semen alvum solvit acetabuli mensura in aquae hemina aut aqua mulsa. datur ex eadem causa et decoctum eius.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

Nor is the blood-red shrub looked upon as a less ill-omened plant than the last. The inner bark of it is used to re-open ulcers which have healed too rapidly.

The leaves, of the siler, applied to the forehead, allay head-ache; and the seed of it, beaten up with oil, is curative of phthiriasis. Serpents also are greatly in dread of this tree, and it is for this reason that the country-people are in the habit of carrying a walking-stick made of it.

The ligustrum, or privet, if it is the same tree as the cyprus of the East, has also its own medicinal uses in Europe. The juice of it is used for affections of the sinews and joints, and for sudden chills; and the leaves are universally employed, with a sprinkling of salt, for the cure of inveterate sores and of ulcerations of the mouth. The berries are curative of phthiriasis and chafings between the thighs, for which last purpose the leaves also are employed. The berries are made use of for the cure of pip in poultry.

The leaves of the alder, steeped in boiling water, are an undoubted remedy for tumours.

We have already enumerated some twenty varieties of the ivy. The medicinal properties of them all are of a doubtful nature; taken in considerable quantities they disturb the mental faculties and purge the brain. Taken internally they are injurious to the sinews, but applied topically they are beneficial to those parts of the body. Ivy possesses properties similar to those of vinegar. All the varieties of the ivy are of a refrigerative nature, and taken in drink they are diuretic. The softer leaves, applied to the head, allay head-ache, acting more particularly upon the brain and the membrane which envelopes that organ. For this purpose the leaves are bruised with vinegar and oil of roses and then boiled, after which some more rose-oil is added. The leaves too are applied to the forehead and the mouth is fomented with a decoction of them, with which the head is rubbed as well. They are useful also for the spleen, the leaves being applied topically, or an infusion of them taken in drink. A decoction of them is used for cold shiverings in fevers, and for pituitous eruptions; or else they are beaten up in wine for the purpose. The umbels too taken in drink or applied externally, are good for affections of the spleen, and an application of them is useful for the liver; employed as a pessary, they act as an emmenagogue.

The juice of the ivy, the white cultivated kind more particularly, cures diseases of the nostrils and removes habitually offensive smells. Injected into the nostrils it purges the head, and with the addition of nitre it is still more efficacious for that purpose. In combination with oil, the juice is injected for suppurations or pains in the ears. It is a corrective also of the deformities of scars. The juice of white ivy, heated with the aid of iron, is still more efficacious for affections of the spleen; it will be found sufficient, however, to take six of the berries in two cyathi of wine. Three berries of the white ivy, taken in oxymel, expel tape-worm, and in the treatment of such cases it is a good plan to apply them to the abdomen as well. Erasistratus prescribes twenty of the golden-coloured berries of the ivy which we have mentioned as the “chrysocarpos,” to be beaten up in one sextarius of wine, and he says that if three cyathi of this preparation are taken for dropsy, it will carry off by urine the water that has been secreted beneath the skin. For cases of tooth-ache he recommends five berries of the chrysocarpos to be beaten up in oil of roses, and warmed in a pomegranate-rind, and then injected into the ear opposite the side affected. The berries which yield a juice of a saffron, colour, taken beforehand in drink, are a preservative against crapulence; they are curative also of spitting of blood and of griping pains in the bowels. The whiter umbels of the black ivy, taken in drink, are productive of sterility, in males even. A decoction in wine of any kind of ivy is useful as a liniment for all sorts of ulcers, those even of the malignant kind known as “cacoethes.” The tears which distil from the ivy are used as a depilatory, and for the cure of phthiriasis. The blossoms too, of all the varieties, taken twice a day in astringent wine, a pinch in three fingers at a time, are curative of dysentery and looseness of the bowels: they are very useful also, applied to burns with wax. The umbels stain the hair black. The juice extracted from the root is taken in vinegar for the cure of wounds inflicted by the phalangium. I find it stated too, that patients suffering from affections of the spleen are cured by drinking from vessels made of the wood of the ivy. The berries are bruised also, and then burnt, and a liniment is prepared from them for burns, the parts being fomented with warm water first.

Incisions are sometimes made in the ivy to obtain the juice, which is used for carious teeth, it having the effect of breaking them, it is said; the adjoining teeth being fortified with wax against the powerful action of the juice. A kind of gum even is said to be found in the ivy, which, it is asserted, is extremely useful, mixed with vinegar, for the teeth.

The Greeks give the name of “cisthos”—a word very similar to “cissos,” the Greek name of the ivy—to a plant which is somewhat larger than thyme, and has a leaf like that of ocimum. There are two varieties of this plant; the male, which has a rose-coloured blossom, and the female, with a white one. The blossom of either kind, taken in astringent wine, a pinch in three fingers at a time, is good for dysentery and looseness of the bowels. Taken in a similar manner twice a day, it is curative of inveterate ulcers: used with wax, it heals burns, and employed by itself it cures ulcerations of the mouth. It is beneath these plants more particularly that the hypocisthis grows, of which we shall have occasion to speak when treating of the herbs.

The plant called “cissos erythranos” by the Greeks, is similar to the ivy: taken in wine, it is good for sciatica and lumbago. The berries, it is said, are of so powerful a nature as to produce bloody urine. “Chamæcissos” also is a name given by them to a creeping ivy which never rises from the surface of the ground: bruised in wine, in doses of one acetabulum, it is curative of affections of the spleen, the leaves of it being applied topically with axle-grease to burns.

The smilax also, otherwise known as the “anthophoros,” has a strong resemblance to ivy, but the leaves of it are smaller. A chaplet, they say, made of an uneven number of the leaves, is an effectual cure for head-ache. Some writers mention two kinds of smilax, one of which is all but perennial, and is found climbing the trees in umbrageous valleys, the berries hanging in clusters. These berries, they say, are remarkably efficacious for all kinds of poisons; so much so indeed, that infants to whom the juice of them has been habitually administered, are rendered proof against all poisons for the rest of their life. The other kind, it is said, manifests a predilection for cultivated localities, and is often found growing there; but as for medicinal properties, it has none. The former kind, they say, is the smilax, the wood of which we have mentioned as emitting a sound, if held close to the ear.

Another plant, similar to this, they call by the name of “clematis:” it is found adhering to trees, and has a jointed stem. The leaves of it cleanse leprous sores, and the seed acts as an aperient, taken in doses of one acetabulum, in one hemina of water, or in hydromel. A decoction of it is prescribed also for a similar purpose.