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CHAP. 34.—PINIONS OF THE GREEKS RELATIVE THERETO.

As we have already given those of Cato, it will be as well to set forth the opinions entertained by the Greek writers on this subject, only in relation, however, to those points upon which he has omitted to touch. They are of opinion that cabbage, not thoroughly boiled, carries off the bile, and has the effect of loosening the bowels; while, on the other hand, if it is boiled twice over, it will act as an astringent. They say, too, that as there is a natural1 enmity between it and the vine, it combats the effects of wine; that, if eaten before drinking, it is sure to prevent2 drunkenness, being equally a dispellent of crapulence3 if taken after drinking: that cabbage is a food very beneficial to the eyesight, and that the juice of it raw is even more so, if the corners of the eyes are only touched with a mixture of it with Attic honey. Cabbage, too, according to the same testimony, is extremely easy of digestion,4 and, as an aliment, greatly tends to clear the senses.

The school of Erasistratus proclaims that there is nothing more beneficial to the stomach and the sinews than cabbage; for which reason, he says, it ought to be given to the paralytic and nervous, as well as to persons affected with spitting of blood. Hippocrates prescribes it, twice boiled, and eaten with salt, for dysentery and cœliac affections, as also for tenesmus and diseases of the kidneys; he is of opinion, too, that, as an aliment, it increases the quantity of the milk in women who are nursing, and that it promotes the menstrual discharge.5 The stalk, too, eaten raw, is efficacious in expelling the dead fœtus. Apollodorus prescribes the seed or else the juice of the cabbage to be taken in cases of poisoning by fungi; and Philistion recommends the juice for persons affected with opisthotony, in goats'-milk, with salt and honey.

I find, too, that persons have been cured of the gout by eating cabbage and drinking a decoction of that plant. This decoction has been given, also, to persons afflicted with the cardiac disease and epilepsy, with the addition of salt; and it has been ad- ministered in white wine, for affections of the spleen, for a period of forty days.

According to Philistion, the juice of the raw root should be given as a gargle to persons afflicted with icterus6 or phrenitis, and for hiccup he prescribes a mixture of it, in vinegar, with coriander, anise, honey, and pepper. Used as a liniment, cabbage, he says, is beneficial for inflations of the stomach; and the very water, even, in which it has been boiled, mixed with barley-meal, is a remedy for the stings of serpents7 and foul ulcers of long standing; a result which is equally effected by a mixture of cabbage-juice with vinegar or fenugreek. It is in this manner, too, that some persons employ it topically, for affections of the joints and for gout. Applied topically, cabbage is a cure for epinyetis, and all kinds of spreading eruptions on the body, as also for sudden8 attacks of dimness; indeed, if eaten with vinegar, it has the effect of curing the last. Applied by itself, it heals contusions and other livid spots; and mixed with a hall of alum in vinegar, it is good as a liniment for leprosy and itch-scabs: used in this way, too, it prevents the hair from falling off.

Epicharmus assures us that, applied topically, cabbage is extremely beneficial for diseases of the testes and genitals, and even better still when employed with bruised beans; he says, too, that it is a cure for convulsions; that, in combination with rue, it is good for the burning heats of fever and maladies of the stomach; and that, with rue-seed, it brings away the after-birth. It is of use, also, for the bite of the shrew-mouse. Dried cabbage-leaves, reduced to a powder, are a cathartic both by vomit and by stool.

1 This absurd notion of antipathy is carried so far by the author of the Geoponica, B. v. c. 11, that he states that if wine is thrown on cabbage while on the fire, it will never be thoroughly boiled.

2 Fée remarks, that this fact would surely have engaged the attention of the moderns, if there had been any truth in the statement.

3 "Crapulam discuti." "Crapula" was that state, after drinking, colloquially known at the present day as "seediness."

4 The contrary is in reality the case, it being a diet only suitable to strong stomachs.

5 De Morb. Mulier. B. i. cc. 73 and 74. De Nat. Mulier. 29 and 31.

6 The jaundice.

7 Fée is inclined to account for the numerous antidotes and remedies mentioned for the stings of serpents, by supposing that the stings them- selves of many of them were not really venomous, but only supposed to be so.

8 "Repentinas caligines."

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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