Healthcare
Pliny recommends eating plain food, not drinking too much wine and taking gentle exercise. Gout, a previously unknown disease in ancient Rome, became more common in Pliny’s lifetime because of excessive drinking and eating too much rich food. Pliny has a poor opinion of professional doctors, especially Greeks. They prescribed costly ingredients from faraway places such as the Red Sea, when effective remedies could be made from wild herbs in the countryside.
In his desire to include all branches of knowledge Pliny gives a wide range of cures that sound like old wives’ tales: an iron nail will cure an epileptic fit; a horse shoe is good for hiccups; and a hyena’s tooth tied to the body will prevent nightmares; a crocodile’s tooth attached to the right arm as an amulet acts as an aphrodisiac.
Confusion between Kissos and Kisthos
'As dictionary indicates, on one level, Pliny's confusion of Ivy and rock rose rest on a simple confusion between the similar sounding Greek names, kissos, ivy, and kisthos, rock rose. This mistake could have happened in a number of ways. As Jacques André suggested, Pliny or is copyist may have misheard the slave as he read a copy of Theophrastus aloud, or perhaps the mistake had already been made in the copy of Theophrastus that Pliny owned. Ironically, Pliny was well aware of the potential for confusion between the names kissos and kisthos and draws the readers attention to their similarities in Book 24, where he correctly distinguishes between the two plants. When he's not making a mistake, Hedera is the name Pliny uses to refer to ivy, cisthus is the name used to refer to rockrose, a basic transliteration of the Greek name. Despite his effort to distinguish between ivy and rockrose, kissos and kisthos ,this mistake point to weaknesses in Pliny's research methodology, weaknesses that can be attributed either to faulty philology or to lack of practice expertise. On the one hand, if Pliny had paid more attention to the Greek or consulted a larger range of manuscripts of Theophrastus, he might have correctly distinguished whether kissos or kisthos was meant. On the other hand, if he knew from empirical observation that ivy does not produce aromatic gum, he would not have confused the name or reproduce the error, if it he was already present in his text of Theophrastus. Pliny's error is the result of a mistaken understanding of a name in a text, which produces a flaw that Natural History, which had consequences for readers who wished to put the information into practice. It is because of the potential consequences for medical practice that the discovery of this error in the 15th Century had far reaching effects please mistake about ivy and rockrose is a particular important one in the history of scholarship. But despite mistakes in the Natural History, Pliny did believe in the importance of seeing plants for himself and was well aware of the problems involved in identifying plants solely on the basis of written description.'
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from Pliny the Elder: Themes and Contexts, edited by Roy Gibson, Ruth Morello, Brill.
The Rodarum or Meadowsweet revenge
Sometimes Pliny has the last laugh, as for instance when he recommends a plant called ‘rodarum’ for tumours and inflammations. On applying the extract as an ointment, the patient must spit on three times on the right side. The remedy is said to be even more effective if three people from three different nations rub the right side of the patient’s body with it! This may appear farcical until you appreciate that rodarum has been tentatively identified as Spiraea ulmaria, the old botanical name for meadowsweet, which has been used to create non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. As Pliny wrote: ‘there is nothing which cannot be affected by the agency of plants but the properties of by far the greater part of them remain unknown.’ (Book 25.5) One wonders what he would make of the felling of the Amazonian rainforest.
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Extract from Pliny the Elder and Civilisations, Ancientworldsmanchester blog.
Healthcare Objects
1. One of Pliny’s more effective remedies is using the seed of the white poppy to induce sleep.
2. Pliny tells us the mallow root is a remedy for dandruff and looseness of the teeth. He may be referring to marshmallow (Althaea officinalis) but we cannot be sure because the Natural History does not show illustrations of the plants to which Pliny refers.
3. Pliny writes in the Natural History that drops of Iris root can be used to treat children’s tape worm and also as perfume.
4. Pliny quotes the Roman writer Cato on the benefits of cabbage for wounds, even cancer. It should be applied mashed up to the affected parts twice a-day. Little children washed with the urine of someone on a cabbage diet will never be weak or puny.
5. Pliny recommends taking honey with rose oil for chest illnesses.
6. Pliny is not always reliable. He confuses the Greek names for the ivy (kissos) and rockrose (kisthos) plants. A patient using them as a remedy might make his or her condition worse by taking the wrong thing. Pliny probably confused the names when he was listening to a slave reading the notes that were used to compile the Natural History.
7. The Herball or General History of Plants (1597) by John Gerard is a pirated translation of a book by Belgian herbalist Rembert Dodoens. The illustrations were taken from a German book. Dodoens drew upon Pliny’s Natural History for information about herbs used in medicine. Here Gerard refers to the medical uses of mint.
8. Pliny tells us that mint is good for the spleen. We cannot be sure which he might be referring to: spearmint, pennyroyal or peppermint.
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9. Pliny recommends a plant called ‘rodarum’ for tumours and inflammations. The patient must spit three times on the right hand side when applying it as an ointment. The remedy is said to be even better if three people each from a different nation rub the right hand side of the patient’s body with it. Rodarum may be Spiraea ulmaria, the old botanical name for meadowsweet, which has been used to create non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
10. Pliny tells us that a plant called eryngium is said to guarantee a man of a woman’s love.
11. Pliny tells us that walnuts can be used for ear ache. Applied with onions, salt, and honey, they can be used to treat bites inflicted by dogs or human beings. They are supposed to be good for rotten teeth. The burnt shells beaten up in oil or wine, and applied to the heads of infants will make the hair grow. Eaten in large quantities they will get rid of tapeworm.
12. Swallow’s nest.
Small stones called chelidoniae found in the digestive systems of young swallows can be used in magical remedies for diseases of the eyes.
13.
Pliny knows that citron repels insects. It is still used for this purpose today. This sample is from Manchester Botanic garden.