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CHAP. 40.—BULBS: THIRTY REMEDIES.

Bulbs,1 steeped in vinegar and sulphur, are good for the cure of wounds in the face;2 beaten up and used alone, they are beneficial for contractions of the sinews, mixed with wine, for porrigo, and used with honey, for the bites of dogs; in this last case, however, Erasistratus says that they ought to be mixed with pitch. The same author states that, applied topically with honey, they stanch the flowing of blood; other writers say, however, that in cases of bleeding at the nose, coriander and meal should be employed in combination with them. Theodorus prescribes bulbs in vinegar for the cure of lichens, and for eruptions in the head he recommends bulbs mixed with astringent wine, or an egg beaten up; he treats defluxions of the eyes also with bulbs, applied topically, and uses a similar method for the cure of ophthalmia. The red bulbs more particularly, will cause spots in the face to disappear, if rubbed upon them with honey and nitre in the sun: and applied with wine or boiled cucumber they will remove freckles. Used either by themselves, or as Damion recommends, in combination with honied wine, they are remarkably efficacious for the cure of wounds, care being taken, however, not to remove the application till the end of four days. The same author prescribes them, too, for the cure of fractured ears, and collections of crude humours in the testes.3

For pains in the joints, bulbs are used with meal; boiled in wine, and applied to the abdomen, they reduce hard swellings of the viscera. In dysentery, they are given in wine mixed with rain water; and for convulsions of the intestines they are employed, in combination with silphium, in pills the size of a bean: bruised, they are employed externally, for the purpose of checking perspiration. Bulbs are good, too, for the sinews, for which reason it is that they are given to paralytic patients. The red bulb, mixed with honey and salt, heals sprains of the feet with great rapidity. The bulbs of Megara4 act as a strong aphrodisiac, and garden bulbs, taken with boiled must or raisin wine, aid delivery.

Wild bulbs, made up into pills with silphium, effect the cure of wounds and other affections of the intestines. The seed, too, of the cultivated kinds is taken in wine as a cure for the bite of the phalangium,5 and the bulbs themselves are applied in vinegar for the cure of the stings of serpents. The ancients used to give bulb-seed to persons afflicted with madness, in drink. The blossom, beaten up, removes spots upon the legs, as well as scorches produced by fire. Diodes is of opinion that the sight is impaired by the use of bulbs; he adds, too, that when boiled they are not so wholesome as roasted, and that, of whatever nature they may be, they are difficult of digestion.

1 As to the identification of the "bulbs," see B. xix. c. 30. The wild bulbs, Fée is of opinion, are probably the Nigrum allium or Moly of modern Botany; and the Allium schœnoprasum belongs, in his opinion, to the cultivated bulbs.

2 Supposing, Fée says, that the Bulbi of the ancients belonged to the genus Allium or garlic of modern Botany, we may conclude that in a medicinal point of view, they were of an exciting nature, powerful vermifuges, and slightly blistering when applied topically. The other statements here made, as to their medicinal qualities, are not consistent with modern experience.

3 Testium pituitas.

4 See B. xix. c. 30. Athenæus, B. ii. c. 26, attributes a similar property to the bulbs of Megara.

5 See B. xi. cc. 24, 28.

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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