meal added remove warts and warty excrescences.^a The ash of the bushy shoots from the root is a substitute for zinc oxide.^b After two washings, with white lead added it is worked into lozenges for the treatment of ulcers and scabs on the eyes.

LXIV. The wild fig is even much more efficaciousWild figs. than the fig; a sprig of it also curdles milk into cheese.^c It has less milk in it than the cultivated fig. This milk is collected and hardened by pressure, when it is rubbed on meat to keep it sweet. Diluted with vinegar it forms an ingredient of blistering preparations. It relaxes the bowels; with starch it opens the uterus; with the yolk of egg it promotes menstruation. With fenugreek meal it is applied to gouty limbs. It clears up leprous sores, itch, lichen and freckles, and similarly cures wounds made by venomous creatures and dog bites. Applied on wool this juice is also good for toothache, or hollow teeth may be plugged. The tender stalks and leaves mixed with vetches are a remedy for the poison of marine animals; wine also is added. Beef can be boiled soft with a great saving of fuel if the stalks be added to the water. An application of the unripe figs soften and disperse scrofulous sores and every kind of gathering; to a certain degree the leaves too do the same. The softest leaves with vinegar heal running sores, epinyctis^d and scurfy eruptions. With honey the leaves cure honey-comb sores^e and