Latin Texts & Translations

The juniper is of a warming and resolvent nature beyond all other plants: in other respects, it resembles the cedar. ^[Note] There are two species of this tree, also, one of which is larger ^[Note] than the other: ^[Note] the odour of either, burnt, repels the ap-

proach of serpents. ^[Note] The seed ^[Note] is good for pains in the stomach, chest, and sides; it dispels flatulency and sudden chills, soothes cough, and brings indurations to a head. Applied topically, it checks the growth of tumours; and the berries, taken in red wine, act astringently upon the bowels: they are applied also to tumours of the abdomen. The seed is used as an ingredient in antidotes of an aperient nature, and is diuretic ^[Note] in its effects. It is used as a liniment for defluxions of the eyes, and is prescribed for convulsions, ruptures, griping pains in the bowels, affections of the uterus, and sciatica, either in a dose of four berries in white wine, or in the form of a decoction of twenty berries in wine.

There are persons who rub the body with juniper berries as a preventive of the attacks of serpents.