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CHAP. 19.—THE PITCH-TREE AND THE LARCH: EIGHT REMEDIES.

The leaves of the pitch-tree1 and the larch,2 beaten up and boiled in vinegar, are good for tooth-ache. The ashes of the bark are used for excoriations and burns. Taken in drink this substance arrests diarrhœa, and acts as a diuretic; and used as a fumigation, it reduces the uterus when displaced. The leaves of the pitch-tree are particularly good for the liver, taken in doses of one drachma in hydromel.

It is a well-known fact that forests planted solely with trees from which pitch and resin are extracted, are remarkably beneficial for patients suffering from phthisis,3 or who are un- able to recover their strength after a long illness: indeed it is said, that in such cases to breathe the air of localities thus planted, is more beneficial even than to take a voyage to Egypt.4 or to go on a summer's journey to the mountains to drink the milk there, impregnated with the perfumes of plants.

1 See B. xvi. c. 18.

2 See B. xvi. c. 19. The leaves of these trees are of an astringent and acid nature, Fée says, but they are no longer employed in medicine. All that Pliny here states relative to them is very problematical.

3 Fée says that it is still the practice of the Turkish physicians to recommend to their patients the air of the cypress groves of (Candia. lie states also, that it is a very general supposition that resins, balms, and bal- sams are good for pulmonary phthisis, but is of opinion that the notion is founded upon no solid basis.

4 See B. xxxi. c. 33, also Celsus, B. iii c. 22. Similar to a voyage to Madeira, recommended to our consumptive patients at the present day.

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