Natural History, Vol. 3

the herb itself in food for women on the second day of their purgation, and on the fourth day from the bath, that they should have intercourse. Hippocrates proclaimed these with wondrous praises for use by women, to a degree that no doctor today knows. He applied them to the womb with honey, or rose oil, or iris oil, or lily oil: likewise for stimulating the menses and the afterbirth. He said that this same [herb] accomplished this by both intake and fomentation. He instilled it into deaf ears, and anointed them with old wine. He applied the leaves to the abdomen, for watery eyes, strangury, and the bladder. He gave a decoction of it with myrrh and frankincense. For the purpose of purging the bowels, or in fever: a quantity that the hand can hold is boiled in two sextarii of water down to half, and is drunk with salt and honey mixed in; indeed, it is more wholesome when boiled with a pig’s trotter or chicken. For the sake of purgation, some have thought both types should be given, or boiled with mallow. They purge the chest and draw out bile, but they hurt the stomach. We will mention the remaining uses in their proper places. Achilles, the student of Chiron, also discovered that by which wounds might be healed, which for that reason is called achilleos. He is said to have healed Telephus with this. Others say he was the first to discover verdigris, most useful for plasters, and for this reason he is depicted shaking it from the tip of his sword into the wound of Telephus. Others wish for both to be used as medicine. Some also call this panaces heracleon, others syderitis, and among us it is called millefolium, with a cubit-long stalk, branching, covered from the bottom with leaves finer than fennel. Others concede indeed that it is useful for wounds, but that the true achilleon has a stalk a foot long, with an acute tip, without branches, and is elegantly covered on every side with individual round leaves. Others [describe it as having] a square stem, with heads like horehound [and] the leaf of an oak. They also make this cause severed nerves to knit together. Others [describe] syderitis as growing in stone walls, when it is bruised