CHAP. 73.—REMEDIES FOR DROPSY. ACTE OR EBULUM. CHAMÆACTE.
For the cure of dropsy, tithymalos characias1 is employed; panaces2 also; plantago,3 used as a diet, dry bread being eaten first, without any drink; betony, taken in doses of two drachme in two cyathi of ordinary wine or honied wine; agaric or seed of lonchitis,4 in doses of two spoonfuls, in water; psyllion,5 taken in wine; juice of either anagallis;6 root of cotyledon7 in honied wine; root of ebulum,8 fresh gathered, with the mould shaken off, but not washed in water, a pinch in two fingers being taken in one hemina of old wine mulled; root of trefoil, taken in doses of two drachmæ in wine; the tithymalos9 known as "platyphyllos;" seed of the hypericon,10 otherwise known as "caros;" the plant called "acte"—the same thing as ebulum11 according to some—the root of it being pounded in three cyathi of wine, if there are no symptoms of fever, or the seed of it being administered in red wine; a good handful of vervain also, boiled down in water to one half. But of all the remedies for this disease, juice of chamæacte12 is looked upon as by far the most efficacious.Morbid or pituitous eruptions are cured by the agency of plantago, or else root of cyclaminos13 with honey. Leaves of ebulum,14 bruised in old wine and applied topically, are curative of the disease called "boa," which makes its appearance in the form of red pimples. Juice of strychnos,15 applied as a liniment, is curative of prurigo.
