Book 2
8
But, if the stone stick, we are to use the same fomentations and cataplasms, and try to break the stones with medicines taken in the form of drink. The simples are the herbs waterparsnip and prionitis,I am at a loss to decide what herb this was. It is not noticed either by Theophrastus or Dioscorides. Indeed, I am not aware that it occurs elsewhere, except in the work of Trallian, viii.4. Petit, I know not on what authority, suggests that it is the asplenium ceterach. Liddel and Scott identify it with the κέστρον, but do not give their grounds for holding this opinion. boiled with oil or edible vinegar, and the juice of it taken for drink: the compound ones are, that named from Vestinus, that from vipers and the reptile the skink, and such as from experience appear to be best. Gestation and succussion are calculated to promote the movement and protrusion of the calculi; for the passage of calculi into the bladder is very painful. But if the stones drop out, the patients become free from pain, which they have not been accustomed to be, not even in their dreams; and, as if escaped from inevitable evils, they feel relieved both in mind and in body.
CHAPTER IX. CURE OF THE ACUTE AFFECTIONS ABOUT THE BLADDER.
