Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXIII. THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CULTIVATED TREES., CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

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CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

The next rank, after the vine, clearly belongs to the olive. The leaves of the olive-tree are astringent,¹ detergent, and binding in the highest degree. Chewed and applied to sores, they are of a healing nature; and applied topically with oil, they are good for head-ache. A decoction of them with honey makes a good liniment for such parts of the body as have been subjected to cauterization, as also for inflammations of the gums, whitlows, and foul and putrid ulcers: combined with honey, they arrest discharges of blood from the nervous² parts of the body. The juice of olive leaves is efficacious for carbuncular ulcers and pustules about the eyes, and for procidence of the pupil; hence it is much employed in the composition of eye- salves, having the additional property of healing inveterate runnings of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids.

This juice is extracted by pouring wine and rain-water upon the leaves, and then pounding them; after which the pulp is dried and divided into lozenges. Used with wool, as a pessary, this preparation arrests menstruation when in excess, and is very useful for the treatment of purulent sores, condylomata, erysipelas, spreading ulcers, and epinyctis.

1 They are rich in tannin and gallic acid, and Fée states that they have been proposed as a substitute for quinine. The statements here made by Pliny, he says, in reference to their properties, are hypothetical.

2 "Nervosis."

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.