Nep[1577] has also some affinity in its effects with pennyroyal. Boiled down in water to one third, these plants dispel sudden chills: they promote the menstrual discharge also in females, and allay excessive heats in summer. Nep possesses certain virtues against the stings of serpents; at the very smoke and smell of it they will instantly take to flight, and persons who have to sleep in places where they are apprehensive of them, will do well to place it beneath them. Bruised, it is employed topically for lacrymal fistulas[1578] of the eye: fresh gathered and mixed in vinegar with one third part of bread, it is applied as a liniment for head-ache. The juice of it, injected into the nostrils, with the head thrown back, arrests bleeding at the nose, and the root has a similar effect. This last is employed also, with myrtle-seed, in warm raisin wine, as a gargle for the cure of quinsy.
CHAP. 57.—CUMMIN: FORTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. WILD CUMMIN: TWENTY-SIX REMEDIES.
Wild cummin is a remarkably slender plant, consisting of four or five leaves indented like a saw; like the cultivated[1579] kind, it is much employed in medicine, among the stomachic remedies more particularly. Bruised and taken with bread, or else drunk in wine and water, it dispels phlegm and flatulency, as well as gripings of the bowels and pains in the intestines. Both varieties have the effect, however, of producing paleness[1580] in those who drink these mixtures; at all events, it is generally stated that the disciples of Porcius Latro,[1581] so celebrated among the professors of eloquence, used to employ this drink for the purpose of imitating the paleness which had been contracted by their master, through the intensity of his studies: and that Julius Vindex,[1582] in more recent times, that assertor of our liberties against Nero, adopted this method of playing upon[1583] those who were looking out for a place in his will. Applied in the form of lozenges, or fresh with vinegar, cummin has the effect of arresting bleeding at the nose, and used by itself, it is good for defluxions of the eyes. Combined with honey, it is used also for swellings of the eyes. With children of tender age, it is sufficient to apply it to the abdomen. In cases of jaundice, it is administered in white wine, immediately after taking the bath.