CHAP. 36.—THE JUNIPER: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES.
The juniper is of a warming and resolvent nature beyond all other plants: in other respects, it resembles the cedar.155 There are two species of this tree, also, one of which is larger156 than the other:157 the odour of either, burnt, repels the approach of serpents.158 The seed159 is good for pains in the stomach, chest, and sides; it dispels flatulency and sudden chills, soothes cough, and brings indurations to a head. Applied topically, it checks the growth of tumours; and the berries, taken in red wine, act astringently upon the bowels: they are applied also to tumours of the abdomen. The seed is used as an ingredient in antidotes of an aperient nature, and is diuretic160 in its effects. It is used as a liniment for defluxions of the eyes, and is prescribed for convulsions, ruptures griping pains in the bowels, affections of the uterus, and sciatica, either in a dose of four berries in white wine, or in the form of a decoction of twenty berries in wine.
There are persons who rub the body with juniper berries as a preventive of the attacks of serpents.