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CHAP. 10.—THE CYPRESS: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

The leaves of the cypress1 are pounded and applied to wounds inflicted by serpents, and with polenta, to the head, in cases of sunstroke. They are used also for hernia, and an infusion of them is taken in drink.2 They are applied with wax to swellings of the testes, and mixed with vinegar they stain the hair black.3 Beaten up with twice the quantity of light bread, and then kneaded with Aminean4 wine, they are found very soothing for pains in the Feet and sinews.

The excrescences of this tree are taken in drink for the stings of serpents and for discharges of blood from the mouth they are used also as a topical application for gatherings. Fresh-gathered and beaten up with axle-grease and bean-meal, they are good for hernia; and an infusion of them is taken in drink for the same complaint. In combination with meal, they are applied topically to imposthumes of the parotid glands, and to scrofulous sores. From these excrescences, pounded along with the seed, a juice is extracted, which, mixed with oil, disperses films of the eyes. Taken in doses of one victoriatus,5 in wine, and applied at the same time in a pulpy, dried fig, the seeds of which have been removed, this juice cures maladies of the testes and disperses tumours: mixed with leaven, it heals scrofulous sores.

The root of the cypress, bruised with the leaves and taken in drink, is curative of diseases of the bladder, strangury, and the sting of the phalangium.6 The shavings of the wood, taken in drink, act as an emmenagogue, and neutralize the venom of the scorpion.

1 See B. xvi. c. 60. The leaves of the cypress, Fée says, contain tannin and an essential oil; all the medicinal properties therefore, here attributed to them, which are not based upon these principles, must be looked upon as hypothetical.

2 Down to the present century the leaves and fruit of the cypress were recommended in some medical works for the cure of hernia. The juice, however, of the leaves, taken internally, would be, as Fée says, highly dangerous.

3 Owing probably to the gallic acid they contain.

4 See B. xiv. c. 4.

5 See Introduction to Vol. III.

6 See B. x. c. 28, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28.

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