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CHAP. 13.—THE CULTIVATED RADISH: FORTY-THREE REMEDIES.

The cultivated radish, too, in addition to what we have already said1 of it, purges the stomach, attenuates the phlegm, acts as a diuretic, and detaches the bilious secretions. A decoction of the rind of radishes in wine, taken in the morning in doses of three cyathi, has the effect of breaking and expelling calculi of the bladder. A decoction, too, of this rind in vinegar and water, is employed as a liniment for the stings of serpents. Taken fasting in the morning with honey, radishes are good2 for a cough. Parched radish-seed, as well as radishes themselves, chewed, is useful for pains in the sides.3 A decoction of the leaves, taken in drink, or else the juice of the plant taken in doses of two cyathi, is an excellent remedy for phthiriasis. Pounded radishes, too, are employed as a liniment for inflammations4 under the skin, and the rind, mixed with honey, for bruises of recent date. Lethargic persons5 are recommended to eat them as hot as possible, and the seed, parched and then pounded with honey, will give relief to asthmatic patients.

Radishes, too, are useful as a remedy for poisons, and are employed to counteract the effects of the sting of the cerastes6 and the scorpion: indeed, after having rubbed the hands with radishes or radish-seed, we may handle7 those reptiles with impunity. If a radish is placed upon a scorpion, it will cause its death. Radishes are useful, too, in cases of poisoning by fungi8 or henbane; and according to Nicander,9 they are salutary against the effects of bullock's blood,10 when drunk. The two physicians of the name of Apollodorus, prescribe radishes to be given in cases of poisoning by mistletoe; but whereas Apollodorus of Citium recommends radish-seed pounded in water, Apollodorus of Tarentum speaks of the juice. Radishes diminish the volume of the spleen, and are beneficial for maladies of the liver and pains in the loins: taken, too, with vinegar or mustard, they are good for dropsy and lethargy, as well as epilepsy11 and melancholy.12 Praxagoras recom- mends that radishes should be given for the iliac passion, and Plistonicus for the cœliac13 disease.

Radishes are good, too, for curing ulcerations of the intestines and suppurations of the thoracic organs,14 if eaten with honey. Some persons say, however, that for this purpose they should be boiled in earth and water; a decoction which, according to them, promotes the menstrual discharge. Taken with vinegar or honey, radishes expel worms from the intestines; and a decoction of them boiled down to one-third, taken in wine, is good for intestinal hernia.15 Employed in this way, too, they have the effect of drawing off the superfluous blood. Medius recommends them to be given boiled to persons troubled with spitting of blood, and to women who are suckling, for the purpose of increasing the milk. Hippocrates16 recommends females whose hair falls off, to rub the head with radishes, and he says that for pains of the uterus, they should be applied to the navel.

Radishes have the effect, too, of restoring the skin, when scarred, to its proper colour; and the seed, steeped in water, and applied topically, arrests the progress of ulcers known as phagedænic.17 Democritus regards them, taken with the food, as an aphrodisiac; and it is for this reason, perhaps, that some persons have spoken of them as being injurious to the voice. The leaves, but only those of the long radish, are said to have the effect of improving the eye-sight.

When radishes, employed as a remedy, act too powerfully, it is recommended that hyssop should be given immediately; there being an antipathy18 between these two plants. For dulness of hearing, too, radish-juice is injected into the ear. To promote vomiting, it is extremely beneficial to eat radishes fasting.

1 In B. xix. c. 26.

2 Fée says that the medicinal properties recognized by the moderns in the several varieties of the Raphanus sativus are, that their action is slightly stimulating when eaten raw, and that boiled and eaten with sugar they are soothing, and act as a pectoral.

3 "Lagonoponon." Nearly all these asserted virtues of the radish, Fée says, are illusory.

4 "Phlegmoni." Stagnation of the blood, with heat, redness, swelling, and pain.

5 "Veternosi." Fée says that, rigorously speaking, "veternus" was that state of somnolency which is the prelude to apoplexy.

6 The Coluber cerastes of Linnæus. See B. viii. c. 35.

7 Poinsinet warns us not to place too implicit faith in this assertion.

8 Dioscorides says the same, but the assertion is quite destitute of truth.

9 Nicander, in his "Alexipharmaca," ll. 430 and 527, says that the cabbage, not the radish, is good for poisoning by fungi and henbane; and in l. 300 he states that the cabbage is similarly beneficial against the effects of bullock's blood. Pliny has probably fallen into the error by confounding 'ραφάνος, the "cabbage," with 'ραφάνις, the "radish."

10 Themistocles is said to have killed himself by taking hot bullock's blood. It is, however, very doubtful.

11 "Morbus comitialis"—literally the "comitial disease." Epilepsy it is said, was so called because, if any person was seized with it at the "Comitia," or public assemblies of the Roman people, it was the custom to adjourn the meeting to another day.

12 From μέλας, "black," and χολή, "bile." Melancholy, or bad spirits, was so called from a notion that it was owing to a predominance of an imaginary secretion called by the ancients "black bile."

13 The cœliac flux, Fée says, is symptomatic of chronic enteritis; and is a species of diarrhœa, in which the chyme is voided without undergoing any change in passing through the intestines.

14 "Præcordiorum."

15 "Enterocele."

16 De Morb. Mulier. B. ii. c. 67.

17 Eating or corroding ulcers.

18 Hippocrates, De Diætâ, B. ii. cc. 25, 26, says that radishes are of a cold, and hyssop of a warm, nature.

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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