previous next

CHAP. 76.—REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.

It is upon the eyes in particular that jaundice is productive of so remarkable an effect; the bile penetrating between the membranes, so extremely delicate as they are and so closely united. Hippocrates1 tells us that the appearance of jaundice on or after the seventh day in fevers is a fatal symptom; but I am acquainted with some instances in which the patients survived after having been reduced to this apparently hopeless state. We may remark also, that jaundice sometimes comes on without fever supervening. It is combated by taking the greater centaury,2 as already mentioned, in drink; agaric, in doses of three oboli in old wine; or leaves of vervain, in doses of three oboli, taken for four consecutive days in one hemina of mulled wine. But the most speedy cure of all is effected by using juice of cinquefoil, in doses of three cyathi, with salt and honey. Root of cyclaminos3 is also taken in drink in doses of three drachmæ, the patient sitting in a warm room free from all cold and draughts, the infusion expelling the bile by its action as a sudorific.

Leaves of tussilago4 are also used in water for this purpose; the seed of either kind of linozostis,5 sprinkled in the drink, or made into a decoction with chick-pease or wormwood: hyssop berries taken in water; the plant lichen,6 all other vegetables being carefully abstained from while it is being used; polythrix,7 taken in wine; and struthion,8 in honied wine.

1 See B. iv. cc. 62, 64.

2 See B. xxv. c. 30.

3 See B. xxv. c. 67.

4 Or Bechion. See B. xxiv. c. 85.

5 See B. xxv. c. 19.

6 See c. 10 of this Book.

7 See B. xxv. c. 83.

8 See B. xix. c. 18.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide References (2 total)
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (2):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: