Latin Texts & Translations

We cannot sufficiently admire the care and diligence displayed by the ancients, who, in their enquiries into every subject, have left nothing untried. Within the cytinus, before the pomegranate itself makes its appearance, there are dimi- nutive flowers, the name given to which, as already ^[Note] stated,

is "balaustium." ^[Note] These blossoms, even, have not escaped their enquiries; it having been ascertained by them that they are an excellent remedy for stings inflicted by the scorpion. Taken in drink, they arrest the catamenia, and are curative of ulcers of the mouth, tonsillary glands, and uvula, as also of spitting of blood, derangement of the stomach and bowels, diseases of the generative organs, and running sores in all parts of the body.

The ancients also dried these blossoms, to try their efficacy in that state, and made the discovery that, pulverized, they cure patients suffering from dysentery when at the very point of death even, and that they arrest looseness of the bowels. They have not disdained, too, to make trial of the pips of the pomegranate: parched and then pounded, these pips are good for the stomach, sprinkled in the food or drink. To arrest looseness of the bowels, they are taken in rain-water. A decoction of the juices of the root, in doses of one victoriatus, ^[Note] exterminates tape-worm; ^[Note] and the root itself, boiled down in water to a thick consistency, is employed for the same purposes as lycium. ^[Note]