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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)

Chapter 484: CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.
By the Elder Pliny
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The text compiles practical and encyclopedic guidance on crop cultivation and plant uses, beginning with cereals and farm management — types of grain, sowing and harvesting schedules, ploughing, seed selection, storage, and maladies — plus weather and stellar prognostics for agricultural timing. It proceeds to flax and garden plants, detailing varieties, planting and processing methods, garden layout, and pest and disease remedies. The final section assembles medicinal preparations and numerous remedies derived from vegetables and herbs, listing applications and recipes for treating ailments using garden-grown plants.

CHAP. 34. (3.)—THE LEAVES OF THE OLIVE: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES.

The next rank, after the vine, clearly belongs to the olive. The leaves of the olive-tree are astringent,2978 detergent, and binding in the highest degree. Chewed and applied to sores, they are of a healing nature; and applied topically with oil, they are good for head-ache. A decoction of them with honey makes a good liniment for such parts of the body as have been subjected to cauterization, as also for inflammations of the gums, whitlows, and foul and putrid ulcers: combined with honey, they arrest discharges of blood from the nervous2979 parts of the a body. The juice of olive leaves is efficacious for carbuncular ulcers and pustules about the eyes, and for procidence of the pupil; hence it is much employed in the composition of eye-salves, having the additional property of healing inveterate runnings of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids.

This juice is extracted by pouring wine and rain-water upon the leaves, and then pounding them; after which the pulp is dried and divided into lozenges. Used with wool, as a pessary, this preparation arrests menstruation when in excess, and is very useful for the treatment of purulent sores, condylomata, erysipelas, spreading ulcers, and epinyctis.