We next come to the medicinal properties of the various kinds of apples. The spring fruits of this nature are sour and unwholesome[1] to the stomach, disturb the bowels, contract the bladder, and act injuriously upon the nerves; when cooked, however, they are of a more harmless nature. Quinces are more pleasant eating when cooked; still however, eaten raw, provided they are ripe, they are very useful[2] for spitting of blood, dysentery, cholera, and cœliac affections; indeed, they are not of the same efficacy when cooked, as they then lose the astringent properties which belong to their juice. They are applied also to the breast in the burning attacks of fever, and, in spite of what has been stated above, they are occasionally boiled in rain-water for the various purposes before-mentioned. For pains in the stomach they are applied[3] like a cerate, either raw or boiled. The down upon them heals[4] carbuncles.
Boiled in wine, and applied with wax, they restore the hair,
when it has been lost by alopecy. A conserve of raw quinces
in honey relaxes the bowels; and they add very materially to
the sweetness of the honey, and render it more wholesome to
the stomach. Boiled quinces preserved in honey are beaten
up with a decoction of rose-leaves, and are taken as food by some
From quinces an oil is also extracted, which we have spoken of under the name of "melinum:"[5] in order to make it, the fruit must not have been grown in a damp soil; hence it is that the quinces which come from Sicily are so highly esteemed for the purpose; while, on the other hand, the strutheum,[6] though of a kindred kind, is not so good.
A circle[7] is traced round the root of this tree, and the root itself is then pulled up with the left hand, care being taken by the person who does so to state at the same moment the object for which it is so pulled up, and for whom. Worn as an amulet, this root is a cure for scrofula.
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