Latin Texts & Translations

We have already stated ^[Note] that there is a wild cucumber, considerably smaller than the cultivated one. From this cucumber the medicament known as "elaterium" is prepared, being the juice extracted from the seed. ^[Note] To obtain this juice the fruit is cut before it is ripe—indeed, if this precaution is not taken at an early period, the seed is apt to spirt ^[Note] out and be productive of danger to the eyes. After it is gathered, the fruit is kept whole for a night, and on the following day an incision is made in it with a reed. The seed, too, is generally sprinkled with ashes, with the view of retaining in it as large a quantity of the juice as possible. When the juice is extracted, it is received in rain water, where it falls to the bottom; after which it is thickened in the sun, and then divided into lozenges,

which are of singular utility to mankind for healing dimness ^[Note] of sight, diseases of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids. It is said that if the roots of a vine are touched with this juice, the grapes of it will be sure never to be attacked by birds.

The root, ^[Note] too, of the wild cucumber, boiled in vinegar, is employed in fomentations for the gout, and the juice of it is used as a remedy for tooth-ache. Dried and mixed with resin, the root is a cure for impetigo ^[Note] and the skin diseases known as "psora" ^[Note] and "lichen:" ^[Note] it is good, too, for imposthumes of the parotid glands and inflammatory tumours, ^[Note] and restores the natural colour to the skin when a cicatrix has formed.— The juice of the leaves, mixed with vinegar, is used as an injection for the ears, in cases of deafness.