CHAP. 42. (10.)—GARDEN ASPARAGUS; WITH THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES.

Asparagus[1] is said to be extremely wholesome as an aliment to the stomach. With the addition of cummin, it dispels flatulency of the stomach and colon; it sharpens the eyesight also, acts as a mild aperient upon the stomach, and, boiled with wine, is good for pains in the chest and spine, and diseases of the intestines. For pains in the loins and kidneys asparagus- seed[2] is administered in doses of three oboli, taken with an equal proportion of cummin-seed. It acts as an aphrodisiac, and is an extremely useful diuretic, except that it has a tendency to ulcerate the bladder.[3]

The root, also, pounded and taken in white wine, is highly extolled by some writers, as having the effect of disengaging calculi, and of soothing pains in the loins and kidneys; there are some persons, too, who administer this root with sweet wine for pains in the uterus. Boiled in vinegar the root is very beneficial in cases of elephantiasis. It is said that if a person is rubbed with asparagus beaten up in oil, he will never be stung by bees.

1. Asparagus is recognized in modern times, as exercising a strong action on the kidneys. Fée says, that according to Dr. Broussais, it is a sedative to palpitations of the heart, an assertion, the truth of which, he says, his own experience has confirmed. The root is also looked upon as diuretic.

2. Asparagus seed is not used in modern pharmacy, and it is very doubtful if it possesses any virtues at all.

3. Fée says that there is no truth in this assertion.