INGUINALIS OR ARGEMO

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

alii adiciunt et puleium, quod ieiunus quis legerit: si post se alliget, inguinis dolores prohibet aut sedat coeptos. inguinalis, quam quidam argemonion vocant, passim in vepribus nascens, ut prosit, in manu tantum habenda est.

Panos sanat panaces ex melle, plantago cum sale, quinquefolium, persollatae radix ut in strumis, item damasonium, verbascum cum sua radice tusum, vino aspersum folioque involutum et ita in cinere calefactum, ut inponatur calidum. experti adfirmavere plurimum referre, si virgo inponat nuda ieiuna ieiuno et manu supina tangens dicat: Negat Apollo pestem posse crescere cui nuda virgo restinguat atque ita retrorsa manu ter dicat totiensque despuant ambo. medetur et radix mandragorae ex aqua, radicis scamoniae decoctum cum melle, sideritis cum adipe vetere contusa, marruvium cum axungia vetere, vel Chrysippios cum ficis pinguibus. et haec ab inventore habet nomen.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

Some persons add pennyroyal to the number of these plants: gathered fasting, they say, and attached to the hinder part of the body, it will be an effectual preservative against all pains in the groin, and will allay them in cases where they already exist.

Inguinalis again, or, as some persons call it, “argemo,” a plant commonly found growing in bushes and thickets, needs only to be held in the hand to be productive of beneficial effects upon the groin.

Panaces, applied with honey, heals inflammatory tumours; an effect which is equally produced by plantago applied with salt, cinquefoil, root of persolata used in the same way as for scrofula; damasonium also, and verbascum pounded with the root, and then sprinkled with wine, and wrapped in a leaf warmed upon ashes, and applied hot. Persons of experience in these matters have asserted that it is of primary importance that the application should be made by a maiden, as also that she must be naked at the time, and fasting. The patient must be fasting too, and the damsel must say, touching him with the back of her hand, “Apollo forbids that a disease shall increase which a naked virgin restrains.” So saying, she must withdraw her hand, and repeat to the above effect three times, both of them spitting upon the ground each time.

Root, too, of mandragora is used for this purpose, with water; a decoction of root of scammony with honey; sideritis beaten up with stale grease; horehound with stale axle-grease; or chrysippios, a plant which owes its name to its discoverer—with pulpy figs.