CHAP. 36.—THE WILD CABBAGE: THIRTY-SEVEN REMEDIES.
Cato
1 extols infinitely more highly the properties of wild or
erratic cabbage;
2 so much so, indeed, as to affirm that the
very powder of it, dried and collected in a scent-box, has the
property, on merely smelling at it, of removing maladies of the
nostrils and the bad smells resulting therefrom. Some persons call this wild cabbage "petræa:"
3 it has an extreme antipathy to wine, so much so, indeed, that the vine invariably
4
avoids it, and if it cannot make its escape, will be sure to die.
This vegetable has leaves of uniform shape, small, rounded, and
smooth: bearing a strong resemblance to the cultivated cabbage, it is whiter, and has a more downy
5 leaf.
According to Chrysippus, this plant is a remedy for flatu-
lency, melancholy, and recent wounds, if applied with honey,
and not taken off before the end of six days: beaten up in
water, it is good also for scrofula and fistula. Other writers,
again, say that it is an effectual cure for spreading sores on
the body, known as "nomæ;" that it has the property, also,
of removing excrescences, and of reducing the scars of wounds
and sores; that if chewed raw with honey, it is a cure for
ulcers of the mouth and tonsils; and that a decoction of it used
as a gargle with honey, is productive of the same effect. They
say, too, that, mixed in strong vinegar with alum, in the proportion of three parts to two of alum, and then applied as a
liniment, it is a cure for itch-scabs and leprous sores of long
standing. Epicharmus informs us, that for the bite of a mad
dog, it is quite sufficient to apply it topically to the part affected, but that if used with silphium and strong vinegar, it is
better still: he says, too, that it will kill a dog, if given to it
with flesh to eat.
The seed of this plant, parched, is remedial in cases of poison-
ing, by the stings of serpents, eating fungi, and drinking bulls'
blood. The leaves of it, either boiled and taken in the food
or else eaten raw, or applied with a liniment of sulphur and
nitre, are good for affections of the spleen, as well as hard tumours of the mamillæ. In swelling of the uvula, if the parts
affected are only touched with the ashes of the root, a cure will
be the result; and applied topically with honey, they are
equally beneficial for reducing swellings of the parotid glands,
and curing the stings of serpents. We will add only one more
proof of the virtues of the cabbage, and that a truly marvellous
one—in all vessels in which water is boiled, the incrustations
which adhere with such tenacity that it is otherwise impossible
to detach them, will fall off immediately if a cabbage is boiled
therein.