Untitled

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16749, 2 January 1915, Page 3

A man named J. Headman, who lias only one arm, is employed as a gravedigger at tlic Walton-oii-Tliamcs cemetery. Mustard is one of tho most ancient of medicines. Pythagoras, who flourished between fivo and six hundred years before Christ, mentions it. Hippocrates, who was born in 460 8.C., employed it. Pliny the Elder, writing in 77 A.D., describes three different kinds of mustard and says the seeds were . imported to Italy from Egypt originally. Tho Romans used it as a.stimulant after a cold bath; they mixed mustard oil and olive oil in equal parts and used this as a liniment for stiffness of tho muscles. Thoy knew tho virtues of mustard poultices and of mustard as an einetio. As a remedy for the stings of scorpions and serpents, 1 they pounded it, mixed it with vinegar and applied it to tho wound. They also made a drink out of it, fermenting the seed in a fiery spirit. 'Hie liquor thus produced they called mustum ardens, which means burning wine. Hie word mustard is probably derived from this.