Chapter M: C. H. Gaidoz takes exception to this interpretation. In his opinion, (7)

“The inhabitants of the coast of Coromandel carried those of their sick who were on the point of death, as a last resource, to the back of a fat cow, whose tail they twisted to make her urinate; if the cow’s urine spread over the whole face of the patient, it was a very good sign to the dirty rascals.”—(Paullini, pp. 80, 81.)

With equal solicitude does the Hottentot medicine-man follow the remains of his kinsmen to the grave, aspersing with the same sacred liquid the corpse of the dead and the persons of the mourners who bewail his fate.[69]

At Hottentot funerals, “two old men, the friends or relations of the deceased, enter each circle and sparingly dispense their streams upon each person, so that all may have some; all the company receive their water with eagerness and veneration. This being done, each steps into the hut, and taking up a handful of ashes from the hearth, comes out by the passage made by the corpse, and strews the ashes by little and little upon the whole company. This, they say, is done to humble their pride.”—(Kolbein, p. 401.)

“It is a pity that men in a savage state should take delight in doing that which is nasty, but such is the fact. It is a very common custom for the tribe, or that portion of it who are related to the one who has died, to rub themselves with the moisture that comes from the dead friend. They rub themselves with it until the whole of them have the same smell as the corpse.”—(“Aborigines of Victoria,” Smyth, vol. i. p. 131.) But in a footnote he adds that some of the Australians will not touch a dead body with the naked hand.

In the mortuary ceremonies of the Encounter Bay tribe (South Australians), “the old women put human excrement on their heads,—the sign of deepest mourning.”—(Idem, vol. i. p. 113.)

The corpse of an Australian chief was surrounded “with wailing women, smeared with filth and ashes.”—(“Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, p. 75, received through the kindness of the Royal Society, New South Wales, Sydney, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)

“In the burial ceremonies, the women of many tribes besmear or plaster their heads with excrement and pipe-clay.”—(Personal letter from John F. Mann, Esq., dated Neutral Bay, Sydney, New South Wales.)

“When a child dies, women who carried it in their hands must throw their jackets away if the child has urinated on them. This is part of the custom that everything that has come in contact with a dead person must be destroyed.”—(“The Central Eskimo,” Boas, p. 612.)

The Kootenays of Canada have a ceremonial aspersion after funerals. “When those who have buried the body return, they take a thorn bush, dip it into a kettle of water, and sprinkle the doors of all lodges.”—(“Report on the Northwest Tribes of Canada,” Dr. Franz Boas, to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889, p. 46.)

Describing Italian funerals, Blunt says: “When the procession has reached the church, the bier is set down in the nave, and the officiating priest, in the course of the appointed service, sprinkles the body with holy water three times,—a rite in all probability ensuing from that practised by the Romans, of thrice sprinkling the bystanders with the same element.”—(“Vestiges,” p. 183.)

In the Tonga Islands, there are two principal personages,—Tooitonga and Veachi,—who are believed to be the living representatives of powerful gods. Upon the death of Tooitonga, certain ceremonies are practised, among which: “The men now approach the mount, i. e., the funeral mound, it being dark, and, if the phrase be allowable, perform the devotions to Cloacina, after which they retire. As soon as it is daylight the following morning, the women of the first rank, wives and daughters of the greatest chiefs, assemble with their female attendants, bringing baskets, one holding one side and one the other, advancing two and two, with large shells to clear up the depositions of the preceding night, and in this ceremonious act of humiliation, no female of the highest consequence refuses to take her part. Some of the mourners in the ‘fytoca’ generally come out to assist; so that, in a very little while, the place is made perfectly clean. This is repeated the fourteen following nights, and as punctually cleaned away by sunrise every morning. No persons but the agents are allowed to be witnesses of these extraordinary ceremonies; at least, it would be considered highly indecorous and irreligious to be so. On the sixteenth day, early in the morning, the same females again assemble; but now they are dressed up in the finest ‘gnatoo,’ and most beautiful Hamao mats, decorated with ribbons, and with wreaths of flowers round their necks; they also bring new baskets ornamented with flowers, and little brooms, very tastefully made. Thus equipped they approach, and act as if they had the same task to do as before, pretending to clear away the dirt, though no dirt is now there, and take it away in their blankets.... The natives themselves used to regret that the filthy part of these ceremonies was necessary to be performed, ... and that it was the duty of the most exalted nobles, even of the most delicate females of rank, to perform the meanest and most disgusting offices, rather than that the sacred grounds in which he was buried should remain polluted.” (Dillon’s “Expedition in Search of La Perouse,” London, 1829, vol. ii. pp. 57-59.) Dillon says that this “must be considered a religious rite, standing upon the foundation of very ancient customs.”—(Idem, p. 57.)

XXXIX.

MYTHS.

“All peoples have invented myths to explain why they observed certain customs.”—(“The Golden Bough,” vol. ii. p. 128.)

“Myth changes while custom remains constant; men continue to do what their fathers did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have long been forgotten. The history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason; to find a sound theory for an absurd practice.”—(Idem, p. 62.)

The Australians have a myth of the Creation of Man; it is given in Latin: “Ningorope lætitiæ plena in latrina lutum amœne erubescens cernebat; hoc in hominis figuram formabat, quæ tactu divæ motum vitalem sumebat et donc ridebat.”—(“Aborig. of Victoria,” Smyth, vol. i. p. 425.)

This myth is given in English from another authority, on next page of this volume.

The Creation Myth of the Australians relates that the god “Bund-jil oceanum creavit minctione per plures dies in terrarum orbem. Bullarto Bulgo magnam lotii copiam indicat.” (Idem, vol. i. p. 429.) (Bund-jil created the ocean by urinating for many days upon the orb of the earth.) The natives say that the god being angry “Bullarto Bulgo” upon the earth. Bullarto Bulgo indicates a great flow of urine.

The same myth has already been given from Andrew Lang, under “Ordeals and Punishments.”

In the cosmogonical myths of the islanders of Kadiack, it is related that the first woman, “by making water, produced seas.”—(Lisiansky, “Voy. round the World,” London, 1814, p. 197.)

“In the fourth story” (i. e., stories told by the Kalmucks and Mongols) “it is under the excrement of a cow that the enchanted gem, lost by the daughter of the king, is found.”—(“Zoöl. Mythol.,” De Gubernatis, p. 129.)

In the mythic lore of the Hindus, the god Utanka sets out on a journey, protected by Indra. “On his way, he meets a gigantic bull, and a horseman who bids him, if he would succeed, eat the excrement of the bull; he does so, rinsing his mouth afterwards.”—(Idem, p. 80.)

Further on we learn that Utanka was told “the excrement of the bull was the ambrosia which made him immortal in the kingdom of the serpents.” (Idem, pp. 81, 95.) Here we have the analogue of the use of excrement and urine in Europe to baffle witches, and of the drinking of the Siberian girl’s urine, which in all probability was proffered to the guest as an assurance that no witchcraft was in contemplation, or else to baffle the witches, much as, in England, bridal couples urinated through the wedding ring.

The Chinese have a mythical animal which has been identified with the Tapir; it is called the Mih; to it they ascribe the power to eat iron and copper. “For this reason the urine of this animal is prescribed when a person has swallowed iron or copper; it will, in a short time, change them into water.”—(“Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1839, vol. vii. pp. 46, 47.)

“The story of Joa lo Praube is repeated almost word for word in the adventures of the Kamtchatkan god ‘Kutka;’ or, to be more exact, there is a myth in which it is narrated that that god had a great many tricks played upon him, in one of which he runs sticks into his gluteal region.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)

This god Kutka was a great sodomite, and in some points, resembled the anti-natural god of the Sioux.

Speaking of the god “Aidowedo,” the serpent in the Rainbow as believed by the Negroes of Guinea, Father Baudin says: “He who finds the excrement of this serpent is rich forever, for with this talisman he can change grains of corn into shells which pass for money.” (“Fetichism,” Rev. F. Baudin, New York, 1885, p. 47.) He goes on to narrate a very amusing tale to the effect that the negroes got the idea that a prism in his possession gave him the power to bring the Rainbow down into his room at will, and that he could obtain unlimited quantities of the precious excrement.

Another myth of the foolish god “Kutka” represents him as falling in love with his own excrement and wooing it as his bride; he takes it home in his sleigh, puts it in his bed, and is only restored to a sense of his absurd position by the vile smell.—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)

Possibly all this may be a myth to explain or to represent the state of mind into which those who indulged in the “muck-a-moor” were thrown, but even this interpretation seems far-fetched.

Sir John Moore, it is stated, fell in love with his own urine, and we have read from Montaigne the story of the French gentleman who preserved his egestæ to show to his visitors.

The tribes of the Narinyeri, Encounter Bay, South Australia, have a legend that difference in language was caused when certain of their ancestors “ate the contents of the intestines of the goddess ‘Wurruri.’”—(“Nat. tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, p. 60, received through the kindness of the Roy. Soc., Sydney, N. S. Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)

In the same chapter we are told of the omission of one or two ceremonies “which were too indecent for general readers” (p. 61).

In the “Bachiller de Salamanca,” Le Sage has a hero whose misfortunes would lead us to suspect that Le Sage had been reading of some of the doings of the Kamtchatkan god “Kutka,” who, among the numerous pranks played upon him by his enemies, the mice, suffered the ignominy of having “a bag made of fish-skin attached to his orificium ani while he lay sound asleep. On his way home Kutka desired to relieve nature, but was much surprised, on leaving, at the insignificant deposit notwithstanding he had freed himself of so great a burden.

“Surprised at his cleanliness, he narrated the circumstances to Clachy (his wife), who soon discovered the true state of affairs, and pulling off Kutka’s pantaloons, detached the heavily laden bag with great laughters.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)

In the 14th century farce of “Le Muynier,” the Miller has absorbed some of the popular ideas of his day, professed by certain philosophers of the time. He believes that, at the moment of death, the soul of a man escapes by the anus, and warns the priest to absolve him from his sins, saying: “Mon ventre trop se détermine. Helas! Je ne scay que je face; ostez-vous.”

The priest answers: “Ha! sauf vostre grace!”

Then the miller remarks: “Ostez-vous, car je me conchye.”

The wife and the priest pull the sick man to the edge of the bed and place him in such a position that if the doctrine of soul-departure by the anus be true, they may witness the miller’s final performance. The phenomenon of rectal flatulence is now observed, when suddenly, to the consternation of the wife and priest, a demon appears and placing a sack over the dying miller’s anus, catches the rectal gas and flies off in sulphurous vapor.—(“Med. in the Middle Ages,” Minor, p. 84, translated from “Le Moyen Age Médical,” by Dupouy.)

It was generally believed in Europe that the eggs of the Basilisk or Cockatrice could only be hatched by a toad or by the heat of a manure-pile.—(See “Mélusine,” Paris, January-February, 1890, p. 20.)

Ireland has been called the “Urinal of the Planets” from the constant and copious rains which visit it.—(See Grose, “Dict. of Buckish Slang,” London, 1811.)

The Apaches have a myth, or story, the analogue of the “Fee-fo-Fum” of our own childhood; but the giant, instead of smelling the blood of an Englishman, in the words given in Spanish, “huele la cagada.”

The Chinese myth concerning the wonderful digestive powers of the “Mih” has its counterpart in the ancient belief that the same power was possessed by the Ostrich.

“The Wangwana and Wanyumbo informed me ... that if the elephant observes the excrement of the rhinoceros unscattered, he waxes furious, and proceeds instantly in search of the criminal, when woe befall him if he is sulky, and disposed to battle for the proud privilege of leaving his droppings as they fall. The elephant, in that case, breaks off a heavy branch of a tree, or uproots a stout sapling like a boat’s mast, and belabors the unfortunate beast until he is glad to save himself by hurried flight. For this reason, the natives say, the rhinoceros always turns round and thoroughly scatters what he has dropped.”—(“Through the Dark Continent,” Henry M. Stanley, New York, 1878, vol. i. p. 477.)

“In other myths, in the Brahmanas, Prajapati creates man from his body, or rather the fluid of his body becomes a tortoise, the tortoise becomes a man, etc.”—(“Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” Andrew Lang, London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 248. See also under chapter on the Mistletoe, p. 99 of this volume.)

“Moffatt is astonished at the South African notion that the sea was accidentally created by a girl.” (“Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” Lang, vol. i. p. 91.) Perhaps this tale belongs to our series of myths.

“The Encounter Bay people have another myth, which might have been attributed by Dean Swift to the Yahoos, so foul an origin does it attribute to mankind.”—(Idem, Lang, vol. i. p. 170.)

“As the mythology and traditions of other heathen nations are more or less immoral and obscene, so it is with these people.” (“Nat. Trib. of S. Australia,” p. 200.) “Mingarope having retired upon a natural occasion was highly pleased with the red color of her excrement, which she began to mould into the form of a man, and tickling it, it showed signs of life and began to laugh.”—(Idem, p. 201.)

The myth relating that differences in language sprung up after certain of the tribes had eaten the excrement of the goddess “Wurruri” is given on p. 268; it has been recited in this volume on a previous page. There was another god, named Nurunduri, of whom the story is told that he once made water in a certain spot, “from which circumstance the place is called Kainjamin (to make water.)”—(Idem, p. 205.)

Among the Bilgula of British Columbia, there is a myth which relates that a certain stump of a tree was a cannibal and had captured a girl. Once, when he had gone out to fish for halibut, “he ordered his urinary vessel to call him if the girl should make an attempt to escape. When she did so, the vessel cried, ‘Rota-gota, Rota-gota, gota.’”—(Personal letter from Dr. Franz Boas, Clark University, Worcester, Mass.)

There is a riddle among the Kamtchatkans in regard to human feces: “My father has numerous forms and dresses; my mother is warm and thin and bears every day. Before I am born, I like cold and warmth, but after I am born, only cold. In the cold I am strong, and in the warmth, weak; if cold, I am seen far; if warm, I am smelled far.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)

Among some of the Eskimo tribes the Raven is represented as talking to its own excrement and consulting it; excrement occurs frequently in their legends.—(Personal letter from Dr. Boas, as above.)

From the preceding paragraph we see that the Eskimo must have formerly, even if they do not now, consulted excrement in their Divination; the extract from Gilder, given under “Mortuary Ceremonies” confirms this hypothesis.

The people of Kamtchatka believed that rain was the urine of Billutschi, one of their gods, and of his genii; but, after this god has urinated enough, he puts on a new dress made in the form of a sack, and provided with fringes of red seal hair, and variously colored strips of leather. These represent the origin of the Rainbow.

The Kamtchatkan god Kutka was once pursued by enemies, but saved himself “by ejecting from his bowels all kinds of berries, which detained his pursuers.”

The myths of the Kamtchatkans offer a parallel to the stories that the presents of the devil always turned into dross. There is the story of the god Kutka, upon whom, as we have seen, many tricks were played. In one the food with which he supplied himself “turned into peat, rotten wood, and piss.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.)

“The Central Eskimo believe that rain is the urine of a deity.”—(See “The Central Eskimo,” Boas, p. 600.)

“Amber (as some thinke) is made of whale’s dung.”—(John Leo, “Observ. of Africa,” in Purchas, vol. ii. p. 772.)

Ambergris was anciently supposed to be the dung of the whale or other monster of the sea.—(Mr. W. W. Rockhill.)

This view about the origin of amber was not credited by Avicenna. “Ambram non esse stercus animalis maris.”—(Vol. i. p. 273, b10.)

In the liturgy of the hill tribes of the Nilgherris, it is related—

“Mada a uriné dans le feu.”
“Mada a fienté à la face du soleil.”

—(Quoted in “Les Primitifs,” p. 245.)

Réclus, in the same work, gives a fragment of an Orphic song: “Glorieux Jupiter, le plus grand des Olympiens, toi qui te plais dans les crottins des brebis, qui aimes à t’enfoncer dans les fientes des chevaux et des mulets.”—(p. 246, quoting from “Fragmenta Orphei,” edited by Hermann.)

“The blessed Apostle Paul, being rapt in contemplation of divine blissfulness, compares all the chief felicities of the earth, esteeming them (to use his own words) as ‘stercora,’ most filthy dung in regard of the joys he hoped for.”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 26.)

“He is truly wise that accounteth all earthly things as dung that he may win Christ.”—(Matt. xvii. 23, quoted in Thomas à Kempis, cap. iv., “Of the Doctrine of Truth.”)

“It was current among the small boys at school some thirty-five years since, that were a man to make water whilst in connection with a woman she would die.”—(Personal letter from Prof. Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, London, England.)

The name of the city of Chicago has been traced by some philologist to the Indian word for skunk; and it is said to be “equal to bestiola fœda mingens.” The urine of this little animal was believed by some of the Indian tribes to be capable of blinding the man in whose eyes it entered; the animal itself was deified by the Aztecs under the name of Tezcatlipoca.

For the interpretation given for the word “Chicago,” see the work “Indian Names of Places near the Great Lakes,” by Captain Dwight Kelton, U. S. Army, Chicago, Illinois, 1888.

XL.

URINOSCOPY, OR DIAGNOSIS BY URINE.

The examination of the urine and feces of the sick seems to have obtained in all parts of the world, and among all sorts of people; but in the earlier stages of human progress it was complicated with ideas of divination and forecast, which would make it a religious observance.

The health of a patient was shown by the condition of his urine.—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 6.)

The Arabians used to bring to their doctors “the water of their sick in phials.”—(Burton, “Arabian Nights,” vol. iv. p. 11.)

In the index to the Works of Avicenna there are two hundred and seventy-five references to the appearance, etc., of the urine of the sick.—(Translation of Avicenna made by Gerard of Cremona, edition of Venice, 1595.)

“Apothecaries used to carry the water of their patients to the physician.”—(Fosbroke, “Encyclopædia of Antiquities,” vol. i. p. 526, article “Urine.”)

To determine whether a man had an affection of the lungs or liver, some of his urine was cast upon wheat bran, which was then put aside in a cool place; if worms appeared, he was afflicted, etc.—(Beckherius, “Med. Microcosmus,” p. 62.)

From an examination of the feces and urine of the patient to determine his present state of health, and if possible to make a prognosis of his future condition, was, in the minds of ignorant or half-educated men merely the first step in the direction of determining the future of the commonwealth by an inspection of the viscera and the excrement of the victims whose blood smoked upon its altars. The Romans were addicted to this mode of divination, which Schurig incorrectly styles “Anthropomancy.” He relates that Heliogabalus was especially fond of this, and, indeed, he credits that voluptuary with its introduction, and expresses his gratification that he met his deserts in being killed in a privy and left to die in ordure. The Saxons also were given to this method of consulting the future.—(See “Chylologia,” pp. 749, 750.)

“Uromantie. ff. (Med. et Divin.), mot formé de “ouron,” urine, et “manteia,” divination, qui signifie l’art de diviner par le moyen des urines l’état présent d’une maladie, et d’en prédire les évènements futurs.”—(“Encyc. ou Dict. Rais. des Sciences,” etc., fol. Neufchatel, 1745, vol. xvii. p. 499, given in personal letter to Captain Bourke from Professor Frank Rede Fowke, South Kensington Museum, London, England.)

“_Falstaff._ Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my
water?

“_Page._ He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy
water; but for the party that owed it, he might have more
diseases than he knew for.”—(Shakspeare, “2 King Henry IV.,” i.
2.)

Sir Thomas More was possessed of great wit and a fine flow of spirits, which even the approach of death could not dispel. Upon receiving notification that he had been condemned to death by his master, King Henry VIII., “he called for his urinal, and having made water in it, he cast it and viewed it (as physicians do) a pretty while; at last he sware soberly that he saw nothing in that man’s water but that he might live if it pleased the king.”—(“Ajax,” p. 61.)

Thibetan doctors examine the urine of the patient; then churn it and listen to the noise made by the bubbles.—(Mr. W. W. Rockhill.)

“How to vex her,
And make her cry so much that the physician,
If she fall sick upon it, shall want urine
To find the same by, and she, remediless,
Die in her heresy.”

(“Scornful Lady,” v. 1, Beaumont and Fletcher.)

The people of Europe did not restrict their examinations to the egestæ of human beings; they were equally careful to scrutinize every day the droppings of the hounds, hawks, and other animals used in the chase.—(See “Ajax.”)

In the farce of “Master Pathelin” (A.D. 1480), the hero, “in his ravings abuses the doctors ... for not understanding his urine.... Charlatans especially exploited in this field of medicine, practising it illegally in the country under the name of ‘water-jugglers’ and ‘water-judges.’ Such men still practise in Normandy and in certain northern provinces of France.”—(“Med. in the Middle Ages,” Minor, p. 82.)

“It is a common practice in these days, by a colourable deriuation of supposed cunning from the vrine, to foretell casualties, and the ordinary euents of life, conceptions of a woman with child, and definite distinctions of the male and female in the womb.” (Cotta, “Short Discovery,” London, 1612, p. 104. He goes on to say that even as a mode of strict medical diagnosis, urinoscopy is not a certain test, the body, in every disease, being more or less disordered, and this disorder acting upon the urine.)

Montaigne tells the story of a gentleman who always kept for seven or eight days his excrements, in different basins, in order to talk about and show them. (Buckle, “Commonplace Book,” vol. ii. p. 357, quoting from Montaigne’s “Essais,” lib. iii. cap. 9, p. 600.)

Speaking of melancholy people, Burton says, “Their urine is most part pale and low-colored, ‘urina pauca, acris, biliosa’ (Arctæus), and not much in quantity.... Their melancholy excrements, in some very much, in others little.”—(“Anatomy of Melancholy,” vol. i. p. 268.)

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE EMOTIONS UPON THE EGESTÆ.

Reciprocally, the influence exerted by the emotions over functional disturbances has been made the subject of investigation by learned commentators.

“Aristote, dans les Problèmes Physiques, s’occupe des rapports qui lient les impressions de l’âme aux fonctions intestinales. Il recherche pourquoi une frayeur subite et violente cause presque toujours et incontinent la diarrhée.” (Aule-Gelée, lib. xix. c. 4, “Bib. Scatalog.” p. 66.)

Schurig gives numbers of instances of the power of the mind over the act of alvine dejection; evacuation may be caused by perturbation of mind, by fear, by insomnia, by thunder, by anger, etc. See “Chylologia,” p. 701. In a preceding chapter Schurig narrates several examples of people, principally women, who were never able to excite nature to the act of evacuation except by artificial aids addressed to some faculty of the mind,—imagination, laughing, etc.

Harington, in “Ajax,” mentions the case of the Pope’s Legate, “who brought the last jubilee into France; who, fearing the pages who by custom bustle about him to divide his canopie, and suspecting treason among them, suddenly laid you wot of in his breeches” (p. 16).

Dr. Fletcher, United States Army, has devoted considerable attention to this subject. He has kindly placed the results of his wide range of reading at the disposal of the author of this volume.

“The more you cry, the less you piss,”—a vulgar saying of considerable antiquity. This saying is founded upon a correct physiological observation; an excess of one secretion results in a proportionate diminution of others.

The great Greek scholar, Porson, indulged his wit by transliterating into Hellenic characters the above homely saw, and thereby mystified the learned pundits who were called upon to read it.[70]

“If love demands weeping, oh, why should I spare
Those floods which, of course, must be lavished elsewhere?”

“And midst their bawling and their hissing,
They cried, to keep themselves from p⸺g.
Finding their water would come out,
They thought it best, without dispute,
Rather than wet both breeks and thighs,
To let it bubble through their eyes.”

(Homer Burlesqued, book xii.)

“I must call, from between thy thighs,
The urine back into thine eyes,
And make thee, when my tale thou hearest,
Channel thy cheeks with launt reversed.”

(Musarum Deliciæ, i. p. 110.)

“Launt” is an obsolete word, meaning urine. See Cotgrave’s Dictionary.

“What if she whine, shed tears, and frown?
Laugh at her folly, she’ll have done;
Never dry up her tears with kisses,
The more she cries, the less she p⸺s.”

(Reflections, Moral, Critical, and Cosmical, part iii.
p. 23, A.D. 1707.)

This expression is to be found also in old French,—perhaps is derived from it: “Pleurez donc, et chiez bien des yeux, vous en pissez moins.”—(“Moyen de Parvenir,” A.D. 1610.)

“Juletta, how loath she was to talk, too, how she feared me!
I could now piss mine eyes out for mere anger.”

(“The Pilgrim,” iii. 4, Beaumont and Fletcher.)

The converse of the adage is illustrated in the following epigram on a lady who shed her water at seeing the tragedy of “Cato:”

“Whilst maudlin chiefs deplore their Cato’s fate,
Still, with dry eyes, the Tory Celia sate;
But, though her pride forbade her eyes to flow,
The gushing waters found a vent below.
Tho ’n secret, yet with copious streams she mourns,
Like twenty river-gods, with all their urns.
Let others screw on hypocritic face,
She shows her grief in a sincerer place;
Here Nature reigns, and passion, void of art,
For this road leads directly to the heart.”

(Nick Rowe.)

“But Sandwich, though with vast surprise,
He saw the monarch’s weeping eyes,
Told him it would not be amiss,—
The more he cryed, the less he pissed.”

(From “The New Foundling Hospital of Wit,” vol. lv. p. 204.)

“‘Boh,’ said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his opponent, Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself.”—(Grose, Dict. of Buckish Slang, art. “Boh.” See, also, in same volume, the account of the Puritan preacher who met with the same accident in his pulpit upon hearing that the royal troops were approaching,—art. “Sh—t Sack.”)

XLI.

ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE.

The administration of urine as a curative opens the door to a flood of thought. Medicine, both in theory and practice, even among nations of the highest development and refinement, has not, until within the present century, cleared its skirts of the superstitious hand-prints of the dark ages. With tribes of a lower degree of culture it is still subordinate to the incantations and exorcisms of the “medicine man.” It might not be going a step too far to assert that the science of therapeutics, pure and simple, has not yet taken form among savages; but to shorten discussion and avoid controversy, it will be assumed here that such a science does exist, but in an extremely rude and embryotic state; and to this can be referred all examples of the introduction of urine or ordure in the _materia medica_, where the aid of the “medicine man” does not seem to have been invoked, as in the method employed for the eradication of dandruff by Mexicans, Eskimo, and others, the Celtiberian dentifrice, etc.[71]

When the compilation and correlation of data bearing upon this subject was first begun, the exceeding importance of the pharmaceutical division was manifest. In the opinion of the author, this part of the investigation should have been assumed by a student possessed of a preliminary training in medicine, and it was not until urged on by friendly correspondents that he concluded, upon resuming his labors, to augment these references by citations from the more prominent writers of ancient and modern times, who have demonstrated the importance of the subject by devoting to its consideration not passing sentences and scant allusions, but pregnant chapters and bulky volumes.

By great good fortune he was enabled to make the fullest use of the library of the Army Medical Museum, which, under the supervision of Surgeon John S. Billings, United States Army, has become the finest special bibliothèque in the world.

From Surgeon Billings, and his able assistants, Doctors Fletcher and Wise, were received, besides the courteous attentions which every student has the right to expect, an intelligent and sympathetic co-operation which cannot be too gratefully acknowledged.

In such an embarrassment of riches as now confronted him, he exercised the right of drawing only upon the authorities which would appeal to all critics as most entitled to prominence; to have followed any other course, and to have attempted to engraft all available material, would have swollen this chapter to hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages.

“Sprengel pense que Asclépiade, surnommé Pharmacion, est le premier qui ait conseillé les excréments humains; mais il est probable qu’il ne fit qu’ériger en préceptes écrits un usage déjà consacré en Orient, particulièrement en Egypte.”—(“Bib. Scat.,” pp. 29, 30.)

The earliest writer whose works have been consulted was Hippocrates, termed the “Father of Medicine,” born 460 B.C. “He was a member of the family of the Asclepiadæ, ... and a descendant of both Esculapius and Hercules. He was born of a family of priest-physicians, and was the first to throw superstition aside, and to base the practice of medicine on the principles of inductive philosophy.”—(“Encyclopædia Britannica.”)

Galen wrote a series of commentaries upon his writings. Medical commentators are not in accord as to how many of the works attributed to him are genuine; but the editions of the accepted and the suspected to be spurious are almost innumerable, and printed in every language of Europe.

In the edition by Francis Adams (Sydenham Society, London, 1849), there is no mention of the use of human or animal excreta in pharmacy. But in another edition can be read that ass’s dung was given to restrain excessive catamenial flow.—(Kuhn’s edition, Leipsig, 1829, vol. i. p. 481.)

Etmuller says that Hippocrates prescribed hawk-dung to aid in the expulsion of the fœtus and as a remedy for sterility (vol. ii. p. 285). The general use of excrementitious material in the medical practice of Hippocrates’ own day must be accepted from evidence deduced from outside sources. For example, Aristophanes, who was his contemporary (born 446 B.C., Encyc. Britan.), stigmatized all the medical fraternity as “excrement-eaters;” and Xenocrates, another practitioner of the same date, of whose writings, however, nothing has come down to us beyond the meagre outline to be found in the commentaries of Galen, made constant employment not only of human and animal excreta, but of all the secretions and excretions as well. According to Appleton’s Encyclopædia, Xenocrates was born 396 B.C.

Schurig relates of Aristophanes that he called doctors “fecivores ... quod quidem adulatores fuerint quin excrementa Magnorum degustare voluerint.” He also says: “Quare de illo non inepte dixit quidam, eum dignum fuisse Xenocrates Medico, qui excrementis variis animalium omnes morbos curare solitus erat.”—(“Chylologia,” p. 82.)

“Xenocrates, who flourished sixty years before Galen, had also a good list of nasty prescriptions, for which the veil of a dead language is required.” (“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. p. xviii.) These included the urine of women and their catamenia.

Aristophanes called the physicians of his time σκατοφάγους, or excrement-eaters. “Ce qui était plus malin que vrai, car les compères en faisaient manger à leurs clients plus qu’ils n’en mangeaient eux-mêmes.”—(“Bibliotheca Scatalogica.”)

Human excrements, under the name of “botryon,” were used by Æschines of Athens, for the cure of quinsy. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 10.) Æschines lived between 389-317 B.C.

“Serapion of Alexandria flourished B.C. 278, forty years after the date of Alexander the Great, and was one of the chiefs of the empiric school.... He in epilepsy prescribed ... dung of crocodiles.”—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” vol. i. p. xiv.)

The next in chronological order would be Pliny, from whom can be extracted a veritable mine of information on this point; then Dioscorides, who lived in the latter years of the first and the opening ones of the second centuries of the Christian era; and then Galen, born at Pergamos, in Mysia, 130 A.D., “the most celebrated of ancient medical writers,” and “appointed by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the position of medical guardian of his son, the young prince, and later on Emperor, Commodus.”—(Encyc. Brit.)

The classical authorities will conclude with Sextus Placitus, from whose works much of importance has been extracted.

Each author will be allowed to speak in his own words, and the necessary deductions will be made afterwards; only the remarks bearing upon love-philters and child-birth have been assigned to the chapters devoted to the treatment of those subjects, and this merely to reduce the chances of repetition.

The following remedies are taken from Pliny, from the books and chapters given opposite each case:—

“A plant that has been grown upon a dung-heap in a field is a very efficacious remedy, taken in water, for quinsy.”—(Lib. xxiv. c. 110.)

“A plant upon which a dog has watered, torn up by the roots, and not touched with iron, is a very speedy cure for sprains.”—(Idem, c. 111.)

“Camel’s dung, reduced into ashes, and incorporat with oile, doth curle and frizzle the hair of the head, and taken in drinke, as much as a man may comprehend with three fingers, cureth the dysenterie; so doth it also the falling sickness. Camel’s piss, they say, is passing good for Fullers to scour their cloth withall; and the same healeth any running sores which be bathed therein. It is well known that the barbarous nations keep this stale of theirs until it be five years old, and then a draught thereof to the quantity of one hermine is a good laxative potion.”—(Lib. xxviii. c. 8.)

Goat’s dung good for sore eyes.—(Idem, c. 11.)

For “Skals in the Head” the Romans used “Bul’s Urine.” Stale chamber-lye was also considered good. “The gall of buck goats, tempered with Bul’s stale, killeth lice.” Dog-dung and goat-dung also were prescribed.—(Idem, c. 11.)

Wolf’s dung is mentioned as good for cataract.—(Idem, c. 11.)

Hen’s dung, the white part, prescribed for the cure of poisonous mushrooms; also to cure flatulence (but in any living creature it causes flatulence, says Pliny). Ashes of horse-dung fresh made and burned, the urine of a wild boar, the green dung of an ass, are among the medicaments mentioned for ear-ache (idem, c. 11); also “Urine of a Bul or a Goat, or stale chamber lye made hotte;” also “Calfe’s Pisse, Calfe’s dung.” Goat and horse dung were employed to drive away snakes.—(Idem, c. 110.)

Human urine used in curing the bites of mad dogs.—(Idem, c. 18.)

Pliny notices that the Greeks used the scrapings of the bodies of athletes for emmenagogues, for uterine troubles, for sprains, muscular rheumatism, etc. “We find authors of the very highest repute proclaiming aloud that the seminal fluid is a sovereign remedy for the sting of the scorpion. In the case, too, of a woman afflicted with sterility they recommend the application of a pessary made of the fresh excrement voided by an infant at the moment of its birth.... They have even gone so far, too, as to scrape the very filth from off the walls of the gymnasia, and to assert that this is possessed of certain calorific properties.... The urine has been the subject not only of numerous theories with authors, but of various religious observances as well, its properties being classified under several distinctive heads; thus, for instance, the urine of eunuchs, they say, is highly beneficial as a promoter of fruitfulness in females.” He mentions the urine of children as a sovereign remedy for the poisonous secretion of the asp, which “spits its venom into the eyes of human beings.” Human urine was used in eye troubles, “albugo, films, and marks upon the eyes, white specks upon the pupils, and maladies of the eyelids.” It was also used in the cure of burns, suppuration of the ears, as an emmenagogue, for sun-burn, and for taking out ink-spots. “Male urine cured Gout.” Urine cured “eruptions on the bodies of infants, corrosive sores, running ulcers, chaps upon the body, stings inflicted by serpents, ulcers of the head, and cancerous sores of the generative organs.... Every person’s urine is the best for his own case.”—(Lib. xxviii. c. 18.)

The ashes of camel’s dung were administered internally in epilepsy, and also for dysentery.—(Idem, c. 27.)

Camel’s urine applied to running sores; barbarous nations kept it for five years, and then used it as a purgative.—(Idem.)

The dung of the hippopotamus was used in fumigations, “for the cure of a cold ague.”—(Idem, c. 31.)

The urine of the once (ounce) “helpeth the strangury;” it was also taken internally for sore throat.—(Idem.)

Hyena-urine “is said to be useful in diseases of long standing” (idem, c. 27); also given in drink for dysentery; also applied in liniments.—(Idem.)

Crocodile-dung used for eye troubles and for epilepsy; used in form of a pessary, as an emmenagogue.—(Lib. xxviii. c. 29.)

Lynx-urine for strangury and pains in the chest.—(Idem, c. 32.)

Goat-urine an antidote for bites of serpents.—(Idem, c. 42.)

Goat-dung an antidote for bites of serpents.—(Idem.)

Horse-dung, taken from a horse on pasture, an antidote for the bites of serpents.—(Idem.)

Goat-dung for scorpion bites.—(Idem.)

Calves’ dung for scorpion bites.—(Idem.)

She-goat’s dung, bite of mad dog.—(Idem.)

Badger-dung, cuckoo-dung, swallow-dung, taken internally, bite of mad dog.—(Idem.)

Bull-dung, dandruff, applied locally.—(Idem, c. 46.)

Goat’s dung, dandruff.—(Idem.)

Wolf-dung for cataract.—(Idem, c. 47.)

She-goat’s dung for ophthalmia and eye-troubles generally; internally.—(Idem.)

Wild-boar urine, ear-troubles.—(Idem, c. 48.)

Ass-dung, deafness.—(Idem.)

Horse-dung, deafness; also used in liniments.—(Idem.)

Bull’s urine, deafness.—(Idem.)

She-goat’s urine, deafness.—(Idem.)

Calf-dung, deafness.—(Idem.)

Calf-urine, deafness.—(Idem.)

Asses’ urine, internally, in elephantiasis.—(Lib. xxviii. c. 30.)

Cat-dung, rubbed on the neck, to remove bones from the throat.—(Idem, c. 51.)

Warm urine, cow-dung, and goat-dung applied to scrofulous sores.—(Idem.)

Goat urine and dung for cricks in neck.—(Idem, c. 52.)

Hare-dung, internally, for cough.—(Idem, c. 53.)

Boar’s dung, swine’s dung, internally, pains in loins.—(Idem, c. 56.)

Cow-dung, externally, sciatica.—(Idem, c. 56.)

Asses’ dung, internally, affections of spleen.—(Idem, c. 57.)

Horse-dung, internally, bowel complaints.—(Idem, c. 58.)

Boar’s or swine’s dung, internally, dysentery.—(Idem, c. 59.)

Hare, ass, horse, or goat dung, internally, dysentery.—(Idem.)

Calf-dung, internally, flatulence.—(Idem.)

Hare-dung, internally, hernia.—(Idem.)

Ass-dung, internally, diseases of colon.—(Idem.)

Swine-dung, internally, diseases of colon.—(Idem.)

Wild-boar’s urine, internally, diseases of bladder; also used internally in treatment of urinary calculi.—(Idem, c. 60.)

Goat-dung, internally, urinary calculi.—(Idem.)

Goat-dung, externally, ulcers upon the generative organs.—(Idem.)

Wild-asses’ urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally.—(Idem, c. 61.)

Goat-urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally.—(Idem.)

Goat-dung, diseases of the genitalia, externally; also, internally, for gout.—(Idem.)

Cow-dung, internally, gout.—(Idem.)

Calf-dung, internally, gout.—(Idem.)

Goat-dung, sciatica, externally.—(Idem.)

Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, chaps, corns, callosities.—(Idem, c. 62.)

Asses’ urine, applied to feet galled by travel.—(Idem.)

Calf-dung, burnt, applied to varicose veins.—(Idem.)

Wild-boar’s urine, drunk, for epilepsy.—(Idem, c. 63.)

Horse’s urine, drunk, for epilepsy; also for delirium.—(Idem.)

Asses’ urine, externally, in paralysis.—(Idem.)

Dung of a new-born ass, internally, yellow jaundice.—(Idem, c. 64.)

Dung of a colt, internally, yellow jaundice.—(Idem.)

Goat-dung, externally, for broken bones.—(Idem, c. 65.)

Cow-dung, burnt, diluted with boys’ urine, was rubbed on the toes of the patient in quartan fevers.—(Idem, c. 66.)

Calf-dung, internally, in melancholia.—(Idem, c. 67.)

Swine’s dung, internally, consumption.—(Idem.)

Wild-boar’s urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem, c. 68.)

Cow-urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem.)

Calf-urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem.)

Bull-urine, internally, dropsy.[72]—(Idem.)

Calf-dung, cow-dung, swine’s dung, asses’ dung, all applied externally for the cure of erysipelas and purulent eruptions.—(Idem, c. 69.)

Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, calf-dung, goat-dung, cow-dung, externally, for sprains, indurations, and boils.—(Idem, c. 70.)

Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, hare-dung, goat-dung, externally, burns of all kinds.—(Idem, c. 71.)

Goat-dung, wild-boar’s dung, externally, contusions, bruises, etc.—(Idem, c. 72.)

The Emperor Nero, being of scrofulous tendency, drank the ashes of wild-boar dung in water, to refresh himself.—(Idem.)

Asses’ dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages.—(Idem, c. 73.)

Calf’s dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages.—(Idem.)

Swine’s dung, externally, to ulcers.—(Idem, c. 74.)

Goat-dung, externally, to ulcers.—(Idem.)

Swine’s dung, fresh, externally, to wounds.—(Idem.)

Horse’s dung, cow-dung, fresh, externally, to wounds.—(Idem.)

Asses’ dung, externally, itch.—(Idem, c. 75.)

Cow-dung, externally, itch.—(Idem.)

Cow-dung, she-goat’s dung, applied externally to extract thorns.—(Idem, c. 76.)

Wild-boar’s dung, or swine’s dung, internally, in inflammation of the uterus.—(Idem, c. 77.)

Asses’ dung, in plaster or powder, or as a fumigation, for all uterine troubles.—(Idem.)

Ox-dung as a fumigation, for falling of the womb.—(Idem, lib. xxviii. c. 77.)

Cat’s dung, as a pessary, for uterine ulcerations.—(Idem.)

“She-goat’s urine, taken internally, and the dung applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however much in excess.”—(Idem.)

Swine’s dung, as an injection, used to cure beasts of burden of voiding blood.—(Idem, c. 81.)

“The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said, by swallowing human excrement.”—(Idem.)

Dung of mice and the ashes of sheep-dung prescribed for dandruff. The dung of a peacock stated to be of great value in medicine, but for what not stated.—(Idem, c. 6.)

Sheep-dung, externally, in serpent bites.—(Idem, c. 15.)

“A most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted by the asp,” was for “the person stung to drink his own urine.”—(Idem, c. 18.)

“For the bite of all spiders ... sheep’s-dung, applied in vinegar.”—(Idem, c. 27.)

Poultry-dung, good as an application for the sting of the scorpion.—(Idem, c. 29.)

“The dung of poultry, provided it is of a red color, is very useful, applied with vinegar.” Also for bite of a mad dog.—(Idem, c. 32.)

The urine of a mad dog was believed to be injurious to those people who trod upon it, especially those persons with scrofulous sores.—(Idem.)

“The proper remedy in such cases is to apply horse-dung.”—(Idem.)

“Whoever makes water where a dog has previously watered, will be susceptible of numbness in the loins.”—(Idem, c. 32.)

“Poultry-dung, but the white part only, ... is an excellent antidote to the poison of fungi and mushrooms; it is a cure also for flatulence and suffocations,—a thing the more to be wondered at, seeing that if any living creature only tastes this dung, it is immediately attacked with griping pains and flatulency.”—(Idem, c. 33.)

“The dung of wood pigeons ... an antidote to quicksilver.”—(Idem.)

Sheep-dung, mouse-dung, poultry-dung, applied externally in the treatment of baldness or “alopœcia,” so called from “alopex,” a fox, “an animal very subject to the loss of its hair.”—(Idem, c. 34.)

Mouse-dung, externally, “affections of the eyelids.”—(Idem, c. 37.)

Poultry-dung as a liniment for short-sighted persons.—(Idem, c. 38.)

“Peacocks swallow their dung, it is said, as though they envied man the various uses of it.”—(Idem.)

Pigeon’s dung, externally, fistula.—(Idem.)

Hawk-dung, turtle-dove dung, externally, “albugo.”—(Idem.)

Pigeon’s dung, externally, imposthumes of the parotid gland.—(Lib. 29, 39.)

Mouse-dung, raven’s dung, sparrow-dung. The ashes of these were plugged into carious teeth, and used externally for all tooth troubles.—(Lib. 30, c. 8.)

Mouse-dung, good to impart sweetness to sour breath (idem, c. 9); also prescribed for the stone.—(Idem, c. 8.)

“The dung of lambs before they have begun to graze ... alleviated ... affections of the uvula and pains in the fauces. It should be dried in the shade.”—(Idem, c. 11.)

Pigeon’s dung used as a gargle for sore throat (idem); used internally for quinsy (idem, c. 12); internally for dysentery (idem, c. 19); and externally for the cure of “iliac passion.”—(Idem, c. 20.)

Mouse-dung, rubbed on the abdomen, was considered to be a cure for urinary calculi.—(Idem, c. 21.)

The flesh of a hedge-hog, killed before it had time to discharge its urine upon its body, was a cure for strangury; but, it would cause strangury if able to urinate upon itself before death.—(Idem, c. 21.)

Dove-dung, internally, for urinary calculi.—(Idem.)

Swallow-dung, as a suppository and purgative.—(Idem.)

Dog-dung, externally, fissure in ano.—(Idem, c. 22.)

Mouse-dung.—(Idem.)

Pigeon’s dung, externally, in fissure in ano.—(Idem.)

Mouse-dung and pigeon’s-dung, externally, for tumors.—(Idem.)

Sheep and poultry dung, externally, in gout.—(Idem.)

Ring-dove-dung, liniment for pains in the joints.—(Idem, c. 23.)

The ashes of pigeon’s or of poultry dung, externally, for excoriations of the feet.—(Idem, c. 25.)

Mule-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for corns on feet.—(Idem.)

Dog-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for warts of all kinds.—(Idem.)

Swallow-dung, internally, cure of fevers.—(Idem, c. 30.)

Pigeon’s, poultry, and sheep dung, externally, boils and carbuncles.—(Idem, caps. 33, 34.)

Sheep-dung, externally, burns.—(Idem, c. 35.)

Pigeon’s dung, snuff made of for brain hemorrhage.—(Idem, c. 38.)

Horse-dung, externally, hemorrhages from wounds.—(Idem.)

Sheep-dung, ashes of, externally, carcinoma.—(Idem, c. 39.)

Sheep-dung, externally, wounds and fistulas.—(Idem.)

Mouse-dung, cautery.—(Idem.)

Weasel’s dung, ashes of, cautery.—(Idem.)

Pigeon’s-dung, ashes of, cautery.—(Idem.)

Poultry-dung and pigeon’s dung, externally, old cicatrices.—(Idem, c. 40.)

Sheep’s dung, externally, female complaints.—(Idem, c. 43.)

Mouse-dung, externally, swelled breasts.—(Idem.)

EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DIOSCORIDES.

Dioscorides devotes a chapter to the medicinal values of different ordures; a condensation only of the translation need be given, since the original is inserted.

The fresh dung of domestic cattle was considered good for inflamed wounds; for pains at extremity of spine; and, when made into a plaster with oil, it dissolved glandular and scrofulous swellings and tumors. The dung of bulls was a remedy for falling of the womb; when drunk with wine, was frequently given as a remedy in epilepsy; used also in the cure of suppressed menstruation and to expel the fœtus in retarded delivery; administered in menstrual hemorrhages; for the alleviation of gout in the feet, serpent bites, erysipelas, etc. Goat and sheep dung was used for the same purposes.

Dried goat-dung, drunk in wine, checked hemorrhages, as did that of asses and horses. The dung of grass-fed kine taken in wine for scorpion bites.

Dove and poultry dung given to break up the old sores and scrofulous swellings.

Hen-dung believed to be almost a specific against the effects of poisonous mushrooms; it was to be drunk in wine.

Stork-dung was another remedy for epilepsy; it was also to be drunk in wine.

Vulture-dung expelled the fœtus; mouse-dung expelled calculi.

Hen-dung, especially that laid during the dog-days, was good for dysentery.

Fresh human ordure was applied to inflamed wounds, and as a plaster in angina; dog-dung was also used in such cases.

Crocodile-excrement was in high repute as a cosmetic. (See “Cosmetics.”) Purchasers were warned that it was frequently adulterated with the excrement of starlings fed on rice.

The urine of the patient himself should be drunk in cases of serpent bites, poisons from drugs, bites of scorpions, mad dogs, etc. For old ulcers, cicatrices, “lepras,” an excellent application; also for ulcerations in the genitalia, sores in the ears, etc.

The urine of an undefiled boy was highly commended for various purposes, especially when triturated with honey in a brass mortar.

The “sediment of urine” (see “Mangeurs de Blanc”) was regarded as of great value in erysipelas. Bull’s urine was given for the cure of ulcerated ears.

Goat urine expelled stone from the bladder; likewise, beneficial in dropsy, if drunk daily.

Asses’ urine cured mania.

“Dioscoride, lib. ii. cap. 73, et ses commentateurs, P. Andr. Mathicle, fol. 238, et J. Cornarius, comment. cap. 69, fol. m. 134, permettent l’usage des stercoraria pour les paysans, et quand on n’a rien de mieux sous la main, mais ils l’interdisent pour les habitants des villes et les personnages honorati alicujus estimationis. Outre son grand ouvrage, de maître médical on attribue généralement à Dioscoride un traité désigné sous le titre de Euporista, ou des remèdes faciles à procurer.” (This was published at Strasbourg and again at Frankfort in 1565 and 1598, respectively, from the original Greek.) “Dans l’Euporista, Dioscoride cherche à établir que les remèdes indigènes valent souvent mieux que ceux qu’on fait venir à grands frais des pays éloignés, et, à ce titre, il mentionne le stercus comme offrant de curieuses ressources.”—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 74.)

“Stercus bovis armentalis recens impositum, inflammationem ex vulneribus lenit; foliis autem involutum in cineris calentis calefit, atque ita imponuntur. Simili modo fotu applicitum coxendicis cruciatus mitigat. Ex aceto vero cataplasmatis vice impositum duritias, strumas et glandarum tumores discutit. Speciatim vero bovis masculi fimus prolapsum uterum suffitu restituit, accensi quoque nidore culices abiguntur. Cuprarum præsertim in montibus degentium, stercus ex vino bibitum regium morbum emendat, cum aromatibus vero potum menses ciet et fœtus ejiciet.

“Siccum, tritumque et cum turre in velleræ appositum, fluxum muliebrem cohibet aliasque sanguinis eruptiones ex aceto compescit. Ustum ac cum aceto aut oxymelite illitum calvitiei medetur. Cum axungia vero cataplasmata adhibitum podagracis opitulatur. Decoctum in aceto, aut vino imponitur ad serpentiæ morsum, herpetas, erysipelata, parotides. Quin et ischiadicis ustis eorum ope administratur utiliter hunc in modum; in eo cavo, quod est inter pollicem et indicem qua parte pollex committitur, lana oleo imbuta prius substernitur, ac dein singulatim imponuntur fimi caprini ferventes pilulæ, donec sensus per brachium ad coxendicem perveniat doloremque mitiget atque adustis talis arabica appellatur.

“At vero stercus ovillum ex aceto impositum sanat epinyctidas, clavos, verrucas, quæ thymi vocantur, et quæ pensiles sunt.... Aprinum autem aridum in aqua aut vino potum, sanguinis rejectionem sistit ac diuturnum sedat lateris dolorem. Sed ad rapta convulsaque, ex aceto bibitur; luxatis vero exceptum curato rosaceo medetur. Porro tam asinorum quam equorum fimum, sive crudum sive crematum, addito aceto, sanguinis eruptiones cohibet. Armentinorum vero, qui herba pascuntur, siccum stercus vino imbutum et bibitum a scorpione ictis magnopere auxiliatur.

“Columbinum quoniam vehementer calefacit ac urit, farinæ crudæ admiscetur, et ex aceto quidem strumas discutit. Carbunculos vero emarginat cum melle, lini seminæ, et oleo tritum, nec non ambustis quoque medetur. Gallinaceum eadem, sed malignis, præstat. Speciatim tamen contra letales fongos et colicos dolores confert, si ex aceto aut vino bibatur. Ciconæ vero fimium ex aqua potum comitialibus prodesse creditur. Vulturis suffumigatum fœtum excutere traditur. Murium cum aceto tritum illitumque calvitiei medetur, cum turre vero et mulso potum calculos expellit. Sed et subditæ infantibus muscerdæ alvum ad dejectionem lacessunt. Caninum stercus, quod per caniculæ ardores exceptum fuerit, aridum cum vino aut aqua potum, alvum cohibet. Ad humanum recens cataplasmatis vice impositum vulnera ab inflammatione vindicat, simul vero glutinat. Siccum autem cum melle perunctum anginosos auxiliari traditur.

“Stercus crocodilis terrestris mulieribus confert ad colorem facei nitoremque producendum.

“Optimum vero quod candidissimum et friabile amyli modo leve in humore statim eliquiescit, atque dum teritur, subacidum est et fermentum redolet. Sunt qui id vendant adulterant fimo non dissimili sturnorum quos oryza paverunt. Alii amylum aut cimoliam subigunt, et adescito, colore, per rarum cribrum, paullatim percolant et siccant, ut vermiculorum specie loco genuini vendant. Ceterum humanum stercus siccum melle subactum, et gutturi impositum sicut et caninum, anginosis opitulari in arcanis, aut turpibus etiam inveniunt.”—(Dioscorides, “Materia Medica,” Latin-Greek edit. of Kuhn, Leipsig, 1829, vol. i., pp. 222 _et seq._)