Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXIII. THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CULTIVATED TREES., CHAP. 38. (4.)—THE LEAVES OF THE WILD OLIVE: SIXTEEN REMEDIES.

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CHAP. 38. (4.)—THE LEAVES OF THE WILD OLIVE: SIXTEEN REMEDIES.

The leaves of the wild olive are possessed of similar properties. The spodium¹ that is made by burning the young branches is of remarkable efficacy for arresting fluxes; it allays inflammations of the eyes also, acts as a detergent upon ulcerous sores, makes the flesh grow on wounds from which it has been removed, and acts gently as a caustic upon fleshy excrescences, drying them up and making them cicatrize. The rest of its properties are similar to those of the cultivated olive. There is, however, one peculiarity in it; the leaves, boiled with honey, are given in doses of a spoonful for spitting of blood.² The oil, too, of the wild olive is more acrid, and possesses greater energy than that of the cultivated olive; hence it is that it is usual to rinse the mouth with it for the purpose of strengthening the teeth.³

The leaves, too, are applied topically, with wine, to whitlows, carbuncles, and all kinds of gatherings; and, with honey, to sores which require a detergent. Both a decoction of the leaves and the natural juices of the wild olive form ingredients in medicaments for the eyes; and the latter are found useful as an injection for the ears, in the case of puru- lent discharges even. From the blossom of the wild olive a liniment is prepared for condylomata and epinyctis: it is applied also to the abdomen, with barley-meal, for fluxes, and to the head, with oil, for head-ache. In cases where the scalp becomes detached from the cranium, the young branches, boiled and applied with honey, have a healing effect. These branches, too, when arrived at maturity, taken with the food, arrest diarrhœa: parched and beaten up with honey, they act as a detergent upon corroding sores, and bring carbuncles to a head and dispers them.

1 See c. 35. There is no analogy, Fée says, between mare of olives and the leaves of the wild olive.

2 This is hardly a peculiarity, for he has said already that the cultivated olive is employed with honey to arrest the flow of blood.

3 The tannin which it contains in great abundance may possibly have this effect.

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. 38. (4.)—THE LEAVES OF THE WILD OLIVE: SIXTEEN 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. 38. (4.)—THE LEAVES OF THE WILD OLIVE: SIXTEEN REMEDIES.

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