Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXVI. A CONTINUATION OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM PLANTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR DISEASES., CHAP. 10.

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CHAP. 10.—LICHEN: FIVE REMEDIES.

As to the treatment of lichen, so noisome a disease as it is, we shall here give a number of additional remedies for it, gathered from all quarters, although those already described are by no means few in number. For the cure of lichen plantago is used, pounded, cinquefoil also, root of albucus¹ in combination with vinegar, the young shoots of the fig-tree boiled in vinegar, or roots of marsh-mallow boiled down to one-fourth with glue and vinegar. The sores are rubbed also with pumice, and then fomented with root of rumex² bruised in vinegar, or with scum of viscus³ kneaded up with lime. A decoction, too, of tithymalos⁴ with resin is highly esteemed for the same purpose.

But to all these remedies the plant known as "lichen," from its efficacy as a cure, is held in preference. It is found growing among rocks, and has a single broad leaf⁵ near the root. and a single long stem, with small leaves hanging from it. This plant has the property also of effacing brand marks, being beaten up with honey for that purpose. There is another kind⁶ of lichen also, which adheres entirely to rocks, like moss, and which is equally used as a topical application. The juice of it, dropt into wounds, or applied to abscesses, has the property of arresting hæmorrhage: mixed with honey, it is curative of jaundice, the face and tongue being rubbed with it. Under this mode of treatment, the patient is recommended to wash in salt water, to anoint himself with oil of almonds, and to abstain from garden vegetables. For the cure of lichen, root of thapsia⁷ is also used, bruised in honey.

1 See B. xxi. c. 68.

2 See B. xx. c. 85.

3 "Flos visci."

4 See c. 39 of this Book.

5 Identified by Fée with the Marchantia polymorpha of Linnæus, Common Marchantia, or Fountain liverwort, the male plant.

6 Identified by Fée with the Marchantia stellata, Star-headed Marchantia, or Female fountain liverwort. Desfontaines takes it to be either the Marchantia conica, or the Peltidea canina. It must be remembered that the Marchantia is not a Lichen in the modern acceptation of the word, and that our Lichens are destitute of stem. Littré identifies it with the Lecanora parella.

7 See B. xiii. c. 43.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 10.—LICHEN: FIVE REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 10.—LICHEN: FIVE REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.