Chapter M: C. H. Gaidoz takes exception to this interpretation. In his opinion, (8)

“Humanam urinam suum cuique bibere prodest contra viperæ morsus et letalia pharmaca, hydropemque incipientem; prodest etiam ea fovere echinorum marinorum scorpionis itidem marini draconisque ictus. Canina rabidi canis morsibus perfundendis idonea est; lepras quoque et pruritus, nitro addito, exterit. Vetus etiam achoras, furfures, scabiem, fervidasque eruptiones potentius extergit, quin et ulcera depascentia, etiam genitalium coarcet. Purulentis quoque auribus infusa pus condensat, et in malicordio cocta animalcula (quæ forte in aures irrepsirent) ejicit. Pueri innocentis absorta urina anhelantibus confert, cocta vero in æreo vaso cum melle cicatrices albugines et caligines emendat.

“Quin etiam ex ea et ære cyprio idoneum auro ferruminando glutea paratur. Sedimentum urinæ erysipelata illita mitigat. Fervefactum cum cyprino appositumque uteri dolorem demulcet ex utero, strangulata levat, palpebras deterget et oculorum cicatrices expurgat. Taurinum lotium cum myrrha tritum et instillatum dolores aurium lenit.

“Aprinum iisdem viribus præditum est sed peculiariter vesicæ calculos potu comminuit et expellit. Caprinum traditur ad hydropem inter cutem cum spica nardi binisque aquæ cyathis quotidie bibiti urinas ducere et alvum instillatum, vero aurium doloribus mederi. Asinino denique ferunt nephreticos sanari.”—(Dioscorides, idem, vol. i. pp. 227 _et seq._)

On p. 228 Dioscorides speaks of the use of a medicine known as “lynx urine,” but which he says was a variety of amber.

THE VIEWS OF GALEN.

Galen disapproved of the pharmaceutical use of human ordure on account of its abominable smell, but he assented to the employment of that of domestic cattle, goats, crocodiles, and dogs; he makes known, moreover, that human ordure was taken internally, as a medicine, by very many persons.

“De Copro, Stercore, Copros, sive Copron, sive Apoptema, apellari velis perinde est. Scito autem hanc substantiam vim habere vel maxime digerentem. Verum stercus humanum ob fœtorem abominandum est, at bubulum, caprinum, crocodilorum terrestrium, et canum, ubi in ossibus duntaxat vescuntur neque graviter olet, et multa experientia non tantum nobis, sed et aliis medicis me natu majoribus comprobatum est. Siquidem Asclepiades cui cognomentum erat Pharmaceon, et alia omnia medicamenta collegit, ut multos impleret libros, et stercore ad multos sæpe affectus utitur non modo medicamentis, quæ focis imponuntur commiscens, sed iis quoque quæ intro in os sumuntur.”—(Galeni Claudii, “Opera Omnia,” edit. of Dr. Carl Gottleib Kuhn, Leipsig, 1826, vol. xii., pp. 290, 291.)

Dog-dung, especially of an animal “sola ossa cani edenda exhibens duobus continuo diebus, ex quibus durum, candidum, ac minime fœtorum stercus proveniebat.” Such dog-dung was administered in angina, dysentery, inveterate ulcers, etc., in milk or other convenient menstruum.—(Idem, vol. xii. p. 291.)

The urine of boys was drunk by patients suffering from the plague in Syria, but the year is not given.—(See idem, vol. xii. p. 285.)

Galen did not believe that calculi had the slightest value for effecting a reduction of calculi.—(Idem, lib. xii. p. 290.)

Galen could not bring himself to agree with Xenocrates, who recommended the internal and external employment of sweat, urine, catamenial fluid, and ear-wax in medicine. (Idem, lib. xii. p. 249.) “At potis sudoris aut urinæ aut mensium mulieris abominanda detestandaque est, atque horum in primis stercus, quod tamen scribit Xenocrates, si oris ac gutturis partibus inungatur et in ventrem devoretur, quid præstare valeat.—Scripsit etiam de aurium sordis devorandis. At ego ne has quidem morbo deinceps liber degerem. Atque his etiam magis abominandum puto stercus. Estque probrum gravius homini modesto audire stercorivorum quam fellatorum aut cinædum.”

He shows that it was used by some physicians in “psoras,” and in “lepras,” in the washing of ulcers, affections of the ears and genitalia, as an embrocation and a liniment for scald and scabby head, and by rustics in the alleviation of the pains of sore feet. (Galen, lib. xii. p. 285 _et seq._)

Galen instances the ordure of a boy, dried, mixed with Attic honey, given as a cure for consumption. “Stercus pueri siccum cum melle Attico ad lævorem tritum.” (Idem, lib. xii. p. 294.) The boy was to be fed on vegetables and well-cooked bread, leavened, made with a little salt, in a small oven (Clibanus, Dutch oven?). The boy was also to be temperate in drink, using only a small quantity of good wine.—(Idem, lib. xii. p. 294.)

Wolf-dung was given in drink, in the intervals between the paroxysms of colic; the white excrement ejected after eating bones was regarded as the stronger, and especially that which had not touched the ground,—a thing not difficult to find, because he says the wolf has the same disposition as the dog; that is, to eject its urine and ordure upon rocks, stones, thorns, and bushes, whenever possible, etc.—(Galen, “Opera Omnia,” Kuhn’s edition, lib. xii. pp. 295-297.)

Goat-dung was useful in the reduction of inveterate hard tumors and boils. Galen used it with great success when made into a cataplasm with barley meal. “We also use it,” he adds, “in dropsy” (“aquam inter cutem”). It was also employed in “lepras,” “psoras,” and other skin affections. It was applied as a plaster in tumors and other swellings and in abscesses of the ear; also in bites of vipers and other wild beasts (“aliarum bestiarum”). It was drunk in wine as a cure for the yellow jaundice, and applied as a suppository, mixed with incense, in uterine hemorrhages. But Galen thought that the internal employment at least of such disgusting curatives is of questionable expediency, especially when more agreeable remedies may be available. This objection would, of course, apply with special force in cities, although he admits that travellers, country people, and those suffering from poison, must use the first thing within reach (vol. xii. p. 299). Bull-dung was regarded by Galen as of value in the cure of the stings of bees and wasps (see notes on the same subject taken in the State of New Jersey). In Mysia, a country near the Hellespont, physicians ordered it to be smeared on the skins of dropsical patients in the sun. The same treatment was supposed to help consumptive patients, if the dung was that of grass-fed stock; but he repeats that such remedies are better adapted for rustics than for the inhabitants of cities (lib. xii. p. 301).

Sheep-dung was used for all kinds of warty and excrescential growths externally, either raw or burnt, and in the latter case was often mixed with, or superseded by, goat-dung (lib. xii. p. 302).

The dung of wild doves was preferred to the excrement of the domestic pigeon; administered internally, generally mixed with the seed of the nasturtium, in all inveterate pains affecting sides, shoulders, skull, loins, kidneys, in vertigo, head-aches, etc. It was used just as frequently in cities as in rural communities (lib. xii. p. 302).

Mouse-dung seems to have been extensively used in medical practice, although Galen ridicules the fact, and does not mention the purposes of its employment (lib. xii. p. 307).

The dung of barn-yard fowl was used for the same purposes as dove-dung. Some people thought that the dung was more efficacious if dropped by a fowl that had been stuffed with mushrooms. Galen here takes occasion to remark that all animals must differ in the character of their excreta as they do in their food; the same animal, by a change of habitat, and consequent change of food, must cause a perceptible variation in the qualities of its excrement (lib. xii. p. 304). Galen flatly expresses his disbelief in the medicinal value of the excrement of the goose, stork, eagle, or hawk, although he admits that they were used internally by many practitioners of good standing, in difficulties of the respiratory organs; but he says these same authorities are wont to extol the merits, in the treatment of the same diseases, of such absurd remedies as night-owl’s blood, human urine, etc.—(Galen, lib. 12, p. 305.)

Lucian, in his treatise upon remedies for the cure of gout (“tragopodagra”), makes mention in several places of excrementitious remedies,—as, for example, “dung of mountain-goat and man,”

“And Bones, and Skin, and Fat, and Blood, and Dung,
Marrow, Milk, Urine, to the fight are brought.”

—(Edition of William Tooke, F. R. S., London, 1820, vol. i. p. 741.)

SEXTUS PLACITUS.

This author is supposed to have lived in the beginning of the fourth century after Christ.

The edition of his work, “De Medicamentis ex Animalibus,” was printed in Lyons, in 1537. The pages are not numbered, and the citations are consequently by chapter.

Goat-urine was given as a drink to dropsical patients (“De Capro”). This urine was also drunk by women to relieve suppression of the menses.

For inflammation of the joints, goat-dung was dried and applied as a fine powder; for colic, a fomentation of hot goat-dung was applied to the abdomen; for serpent bites it was applied as a plaster, and also drunk in some convenient liquor. For tumors goat-dung was to be applied externally.

For ear troubles goat-urine was applied as a lotion. “Ad aures nimus bene audientium, Apri lotium in nitro repositum tepefactum, auribus instillatur audire facit” (“De Apro”).

For burns, whether by water or fire, burnt cow-dung was to be sprinkled on. “Ad combusturam sive ab aqua, sive ab igne factam, Taurinus fimus combustus et aspersus sanat” (“De Tauro”).

“Ad profluvium mulierum, Taurus ibicuncque pastus fuerit folia ulmi arboris de fimo ipsius facias siccari et terre in pollinem tenuissimum, mitte ipsum in carbones in quodam testo, et deponas in vaso et sedeat mulier quæ patitur encatesma diligenter co-operta (well covered up), et sanabitur ut mireris” (“De Tauro”).

_Testo_ means the “lid of a pot;” _encatesma_ means a “sitting-bath;” and the sense seems to be that the woman was to take the dung of a bull which had been eating the leaves of an elm-tree, dry, reduce to fine powder, throw on hot coals on the lid of a pot, and let the woman sit on this, well covered up, and have a steam-bath.

For all kinds of tumors, as well as for every kind of head-ache, the dung of elephants was applied externally. (“De Elephantis.”) He makes no mention of the use of asses’ dung, but strongly recommends the use of the excrement of the horse. “Ad sanguinem e naribus profluentem, equi stercus siccum et aspersum, sanguinem fluentem retinet, maxime naribus suffumigatum.” He also recommends the use of horse-dung externally in the treatment of ear-ache, and for retention of the menses internally. “Ad aurium dolorem, stercus equi siccum et rosaceo succo liquefactum et collatum, auribus instillatur aurium dolorem perfecte tollit.... Ad ventrem non fluentem, nimiumque tumescentem, Equi stercus aqua liquefactum, et percolatum, postea bibitum, mox faciet egressum.”—(“De Equo.”)

Cat-dung was used in the eradication of dandruff and of scald in the head; for excessive after-birth hemorrhages in the form of fumigation or bath. For the relief of a person who had swallowed a bone or thorn, his fauces were rubbed with cat-dung. For the relief of the quartan ague, hang cat-dung and cow horn or hoof to the patient’s arm; after the seventh attack the fever will leave him for good.—(Idem. See under “Witchcraft,” extract from Etmuller, p. 267.)

Vulture-dung, mixed with the white dung of dog, cured dropsy and palsy, especially if from a vulture which had lived on human flesh; to be taken internally.—(“De Vulture.”)

The urine of a virgin boy or girl was an invaluable application for affections of the eyes; also for stings of bees, wasps, and other insects. As a cure for elephantiasis, the urine of boys was to be drunk freely. “Ad elephantiam puerorum, pueri lotium si puer biberit liberaliter.”

The crust from human urine was useful in burns and in bites of mad dogs. (Idem. See notes on the Parisian “Mangeurs du blanc.”) For cancers man’s ordure was burnt and sprinkled over the sore places; for tertian fevers, it had to be that of the patient himself; and to be held in the left hand while burning, then placed in a rag, and tied to his left arm before the hour of the recurrence of the fever. “Ad tertianas, ipsius ægri stercus sinistra manu sublatum comburunt et in sinistro brachio ante horam accessionis suspendunt.”—(“De Puello et Puella Virgine.”)

Hawk-dung, boiled in oil, made an excellent application for sore eyes. (“De Accipitro.”) Crow-dung was given to children to cure coughs, and was placed in carious teeth to cure tooth-ache.—(“De Corvi.”)

Dove-dung was applied externally to tumors.—(“De Columba.”)

“SAXON LEECHDOMS.”

In “Saxon Leechdoms,” is arranged the medical lore of the early centuries of the Saxon occupancy and conquest of England.

“Alexander of Tralles (A.D. 550) ... guarantees, of his own experience and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung of a wolf with bits of bone in it” for colic.—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. c. 18.)

“Bull’s dung was good for dropsical men; cow’s dung for women” (vol. i. c. 12, quoting Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 68).

Swine-dung was applied to warts (vol. i. p. 101).

“For bite of any serpent, melt goat’s grease and her turd and wax, and mingle together; work it up, so that a man may swallow it whole” (vol. i. p. 355, quoting Sextus Flacitus).

For dropsy, “Let him drink buck’s mie ... best is the mie.... For sore of ears, apply goat’s mie to the ear.... Against churnels, mingle a goat’s turd with honey ... smear therewith.”

“For thigh pains,” “for sore joints,” “for cancer,” “against swellings,” “tugging of sinews,” “carbuncle,” “smear with goat’s dung” (vol. i. pp. 355, 357).

“For every sore ... let one drink bull’s urine in hot water; soon it healeth.... For a breach or fracture ... lay bull’s dung warm on the breach.... For waters burning or fires, burn bull’s dung and shed thereon.” (Idem, p. 369.) The word “shed” as here employed means to urinate, apparently.

“For swerecothe or quinsy,” the Saxons used an external application of the white “thost” or dung of a dog which had been gnawing a bone before defecation (vol. ii. p. 49).

“Against shoulder pains, mingle a tord of an old swine.”—(Idem, p. 63.)

“If a sinew shrank ... take a she-goat’s tord” (p. 69).

“Against swelling, take goat’s treadles sodden in sharp vinegar” (p. 73).

For a leper, boil in urine hornbeam, elder, and other barks and roots.—(Idem, p. 79.)

“A wound salve for lung diseases,”—of this the dung of goose was an important ingredient (p. 93).

“A salve for every wound.... Collect cow-dung, cow-stale, work up a large kettle full into a batter, as a man worketh soap, then take apple-tree rind” and other rinds mentioned, and make a lotion (p. 99).

For felons, leg diseases, and erysipelas, calf and bullock dungs were applied as a fomentation (p. 101).

“For a dew worm, some take warm, thin ordure of man, they bind it on for the space of a night” (vol. ii. p. 125).

“Against a burn, work a salve; take goate turd,” etc.—(Idem, p. 131.)

“For a horse’s leprosy ... take piss, heat it with stones, wash the horse with the piss so hot.”—(Idem, p. 157.)

“If there be mist before the eyes, take a child’s urine and virgin honey; mingle together.... Smear the eyes therewith on the inside” (vol. ii. p. 309).

“For joint pain ... take dove’s dung and a goat’s turd,” externally (vol. ii. p. 323).

“For warts ... take hound’s mie and a mouse’s blood,” externally.—(Idem, p. 323.)

“Against cancer ... take a man’s dung, dry it thoroughly, rub to dust, apply it. If with this thou were not able to cure him, thou mayst never do it by any means.”—(Idem, p. 329.)

“Si muliebra nimis fluunt ... take a fresh horse’s tord, lay it on hot glades, make it reek strongly between the thighs, up under the raiment, that the woman may sweat much.”—(Idem, pp. 332, 333.)

“A smearing for a penetrating worm” was made with “two buckets of bullock’s mie,” among many other ingredients.—(Idem, p. 333.)

“If a thorn or a reed prick a man in the foot, and will not be gone, let him take a fresh goose tord and green yarrow ... paste them on the wound.”—(Idem, p. 337.)

“Against a penetrating worm ... smear with thy spittle ... and bathe with hot cow-stale” (vol. iii. p. 11).

“Against a warty eruption.... Warm and apply the sharn or dung of a calf or of an old ox.”—(Idem, p. 45.)

“An asses tord was recommended to be applied to weak eyes.”—(Idem, p. 99.)

AVICENNA.

A careful examination of a Latin edition of “Averrhoes,” Lyons, 1537, discovered nothing in regard to the medicinal use of human or animal egestæ.

But, on the contrary, the works of Avicenna teem with such references; there is hardly a page of the index to his portly volumes that does not contain mention of stercoraceous remedies. Out of all this abundance these selections will show that the Arabian physicians made of such medicaments the same free use as their older brethren of the subverted Roman empire: “Matricem mundant,” “Urina” (vol. i. p. 330, a 38); “Sanguinem sistunt,” “Urina hominis cum cinere vitis” (vol. i. p. 466, a 26); “Scabei,” “Scabiei ulcerosa conferunt,” “Urina” (vol. i. p. 330, a 8); “Sciatica conferunt,” “Stercus vaccarum et Caprarum cum adipe porci” (vol. i. p. 390, a 5); for scrofula “Stercus Caprarum” (vol. i. p. 388, a 11); “Lentiginibus conferunt,” “stercus lupi” (vol. i. p. 387, b 66); “Erysipelati conferunt,” “fex urinæ hominis” (vol. i. p. 330, a 11); while for the same disease, as well as for “excoriationi conferunt” were prescribed “stercus cameli et pecudis” (vol. i. p. 388, a 11); “Urinæ fex,” (idem, vol. i. p. 408, a 39); “Lapidi conferunt,” “Stercus muris cum thure” (vol. i. p. 390, b 2); again (vol. i. p. 361, a 60); “urina porci” (vol. i. p. 408, a 66).

Lizard-dung an ingredient in a collyrium (vol. ii. p. 322, a 34).

“Matricis dolores conferunt,” “urina hominis decocta cum porris” (vol. i. p. 408, b 1). Goat-dung “Matrici fluxui conferunt,” “stercus caprarum siccum” (vol. i. p. 388, a 15, and vol. i. p. 390, a 50).

For epilepsy, one of the remedies was “stercus cameli” (vol. i. p. 338, a 6). Yellow jaundice, “Icteritias conferunt,” “urina mulieris cum aqua mellis” (vol. i. p. 330, a 31); for burns, “Stercus caprarum et ovium cum aceto” (vol. i. p. 389, b 62). Another remedy for burns was, “Stercus columbarum cum melle et semine lini” (vol. i. p. 389, b 65).

“Impetigine conferunt,” “urina” (vol. i. p. 330, a 10); for ulcers, “Stercus cameli et pecudis” (vol. i. p. 388, a 9); also for the same, “stercus canis ab ossibus cum mellis” (vol. i. p. 390, a 2); also “urina asini et hominis” (vol. i. p. 408, a 31); human urine again prescribed for ulcers, in vol. i. p. 231, 646.

“Stercoris muris decoctio” alleviated difficulty in urination (vol. i. p. 361, a 63). “Impetigine conferunt,” “stercus columbarum et turdorum” (vol. i. p. 390, a 1).

As a cure for the wounds of Armenian arrows (9, “De sagittis Armenis”) Avicenna says: “Jam parvenit ad me quod potus stercoris humani est theriaca ad illud” (vol. i. p. 305, a 5). (“Theriaca” means literary a remedy for the bites of serpents and wild beasts, but in the present case it is used to mean a panacea.)

For poisonous bites, “ad morsum viperarum et omnium venenosorum animalium” “et iterum quæ bonæ sunt” (“Medicinæ” understood) “est stercus caprinum commixtum in vino et detur in potu” (vol. ii. p. 227, b 36); “Urina hominis” also prescribed for the same in the same paragraph. The dung of goats, mixed with pepper and cinnamon, a provocative of the menses (vol. i. p. 390, a 49).

The dung of mice prescribed internally for the cure of running from the ears, to aid in the expulsion of the after-birth, calculus, poison of venomous reptiles, etc. (vol. i. pp. 361, a 58).

“Matrici fluxui conferunt,” “stercus caprarum siccum” (vol. i. p. 388, a 15, and vol. i. pp. 390, a 50).

“Spasma conferunt,” “Urina” (vol. i. p. 408, a 40); “Splenis duritiei conferunt,” “Stercus caprarum” (vol. i. p. 30, a 50).

“Ano conferunt,” “Urina infantium lactentium” (vol. i. p. 408, a 55).

“Stercus pecudis adustum cum aceto” was prescribed for the bite of a mad dog (vol. i. pp. 388, a 21); “Urina cum nitro” (idem, vol. i. p. 408, b 7); “Canis stercus pro anginæ curatione” (vol. i. p. 616, a 59).

MISCELLANEOUS.

Marco Polo mentions that in the province of Carazan (Khorassan?), the common sort of people carried poison about their persons, so that if taken prisoners by the Tartars, they might commit suicide; but the Tartars compelled them to swallow dog’s dung as an antidote.—(See Marco Polo, in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 143.)

“In cases of sickness, the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound are not allowed to clean their chambers before sunrise.”—(“The Central Eskimo,” Boas, p. 593.)

The writings of the best medical authorities for the first two centuries after the discovery of the art of printing teem with copious dissertations upon the value of these medicaments in all diseases, and as potent means of frustrating the maleficence of witches; the best of these writings will be selected and arranged in chronological order.

“A dram of a shepe’s tyrdle,
And good Saint Francis gyrdle,
With the hamlet of a hyrdle,
Are wholsom for the pyppe.”

(Brand, “Pop. Ant.” vol. iii. p. 311, art. “Rural Charms,”
quoting Bale, “Interlude concerning the Laws of Nature,
Moses, and Christ.” 4to. 1562.)

“An oyle drawne out of the excrements of Chyldren” and “An Oyle drawne out of Manne’s Ordure,” described as medicines in the “Newe Jewell of Health,” by George Baker, Chirurgeon, London, 1576 (Black Letter), pp. 171, 172, was prescribed for fistula and several other ailments.

“Water distilled from Manne’s Ordure” was given internally for the falling sickness, dropsy, etc.... There was also an “Oyle drawne out of the Excrements of Chyldren,” as well as one from “Manne’s Ordure” (see “Doctor Gesnerus, faithfully Englished,” p. 76). In the same work we read of “Water of Doue’s dung ... which helpeth the stone” when taken internally.—(Idem p. 77.)

Paracelsus seems to be entitled to more credit than is generally accorded him; he was a chemist, in the early stages of that science, groping in the dark, but he was not the mere quack so many are anxious to make him out to have been. He condemns the old practice of medicine:—“The olde Physitians made very many medicines of most filthy things, as of the filth of the eares, sweat of the body, of women’s menstrues (and that which it is horrible to be spoken), of the Dung of man and other beastes, spittle, urine, flies, mice, the ashes of an owle’s head, etc.... Truly, when I consider with myself the pride of these fooles which disdaine this metalline part of Physicke (which after their manner, contumeliously they call Chymerican, and therefore can neither helpe their owne nor many other diseases), I call to mind a storie ... of Herachio Ephesio, which being sick of a leprosie, despising the help of Physitians, anoynting himself over with cow-dung, set himselfe in the sun to drie, and falling asleepe was torn to pieces by dogges.”—(Paracelsus, “Experiments,” translation of 1596, p. 59.)

This last statement should be compared with the description of the suicides of the East Indian fanatics, given under “Ordeals and Punishments.”

Dr. Fletcher, United States Army, states that in old medical practice in England, from the time of Queen Elizabeth down to comparatively modern days, consumptive patients were directed to inhale the fumes of ordure. “Some physicians say that the smell of a jakes is good against the plague.”—(“Ajax,” p. 74.)

Urine was one of the ingredients from which Paracelsus prepared his “Crocus or Tincture of Metals.”—(See “Archidoxes,” English translation, London, 1661, p. 59.)

Further on he says, “The salt of man’s urine hath an excellent quality to cleanse; it is made thus,” etc. (p. 74). He also says: “Man’s dung, or excrement, hath very great virtues, because it contains in it all the noble essences, viz.: of the Food and Drink, concerning which wonderful things might be written.”—(“Archidoxes,” lib. v. p. 74.)

“To distill Oyle of a Man’s Excrements, ... Take the Doung of a young, sanguine child, or man, as much as you will.... This helpeth the Canker and mollifieth fistulas; comforteth those that are troubled with Alopecea.”—(“The Secrets of Physicke,” London, 1633, p. 98.)

“For any manner of Ache ... a plaister of Pigeon’s dung” (see “A Rich Storehouse or Treasurie for the Diseased,” Ralph Blower, London, 1616, black letter, p. 3); also, “Hen’s Dung” (idem, p. 4); to provoke urine, a plaster of Horse dung was applied to the patient (p. 25.)

“For spitting of blood ... the dung of mice was drunk in wine” (idem, p. 29); for sore breasts of women, a plaster of Goose dung (p. 33); “for Burns and Scalds ... a Plaster of Sheepe’s doung,” (p. 38); also, “the Doung of Geese” (p. 39).

“For deafe ears ... the pisse of a pale Goat” was poured into them (p. 67); horse-dung was used as a face-lotion (p. 106); for the bloody flux soak the feet in water in which “Doue’s Doung has been seethed” (p. 119). For the gout, “Stale pisse” was an ingredient in a composition for external application (p. 119). For stitch in the side and back “Pigeon’s Doung” was used externally (p. 172); for sciatica, “Oxe-Doung and Pigeon’s Doung” in equal parts, were applied as a plaster (p. 173). Cow-dung was used internally in hydrocele (“The Chyrurgeon’s Closet,” London, 1632, p. 38); the urine of boys was used as an application to ulcers in the legs (idem, p. 24); again, the urine of immaculate boys was employed for the cure of all inveterate ulcers (p. 27); goat-dung was applied externally for the cure of auricular abscesses and for ulcers (pp. 35 and 42); cow-dung and dove-dung were used in the same manner (idem p. 42); dove-dung was also used externally in the treatment of sciatica (p. 48), and for “Shingles” (idem p. 51). Goat-dung, externally, for tumors (p. 49); goose-dung, externally, for canker in the breasts of women (p. 50); swallow-dung, externally, for angina; chicken-dung for the same (p. 58); cow-dung, externally, for tumors in the feet (p. 56); cow and goat dung, externally, in dropsy (p. 222); and many others throughout the volume.

In a black letter copy of “The Englishman’s Treasure,” London, 1641, is given a cure for wounds, in which it is directed “To wash the wounde very cleane with urine.”—(In Toner Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.)

To restrain excessive menstrual flow, apply hot plasters of horse-dung, between the navel and the privy parts.—(See “The Englishman’s Treasure,” by Thomas Vicary, Surgeon to King Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth; London, 1641, p. 184; this little volume contains nothing else of value to this work.)

Horse-dung was used internally for pleurisy (“Secrets in Physicke,” by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, pp. 26, 27); goose-dung, internally, for yellow jaundice (idem, p. 37); “Hound’s Turd,” externally, “to cure the bleeding of a Wound” (idem, p. 46); peacock’s dung, internally, for the falling sickness or convulsions (idem, p. 56); “The patient’s own water,” externally, for pains in the breast (p. 64); pigeon’s dung, both internally and externally, in child-birth pains (p. 68); goose-dung, externally, for burns (p. 96); hen’s dung, externally, for burns (p. 152); and for sore eyes (p. 174); “stale urine,” externally, for sore feet (p. 163).

“The stale of a cow and the furring of a chamber-pot” to be given, applied locally and externally, for scald head (“Most excellent and most approved Remedies,” London, 1652, p. 80). “The Urine of him that is sick,” externally, for stitch in the side (p. 115); goose dung, externally, for canker in woman’s breast (p. 129); “Urin of a Man Child (he beeing not aboue 3 years of age)” was a component in a salve for the king’s evil (p. 132). For patients sick of the plague, “Let them drink twice a day a draught of their own urin” (p. 143).

“A certain countryman at Antwerp was an example of this, who, when he came into a shop of sweet smells, he began to faint, but one presently clapt some fresh smoking horse-dung under his nose and fetched him to again.”—(Levinus Lemnius, “The Secret Miracles of Nature,” Eng. translation, London, 1658, p. 107, speaking of the effects of sweet and nasty smells upon different persons.)

“The urine of a Lizard, ... the dung of an elephant,” were in medical use, according to Montaigne (“Essays,” Hazlitt’s translation, New York, 1859, vol. iii. p. 23; art. “On the Resemblance of Children to their Parents”). Also, “the excrement of rats beaten to powder” (idem). The above remedies were for the stone.

Doctor Garrett mentions “water of amber made by Paracelsus out of cow-dung,” and gives the recipe for its distillation, as well as for that of its near relative, “water of dung,” the formula for which begins with the words, “Take any kind of dung you please.”[73]

The work of Daniel Beckherius, “Medicus Microcosmus,” published in London, in 1660, is full of the value of excrementitious remedial agents.

Urine alone was applied to eradicate lice from the human head; but a secondary application of dove’s dung was then plastered on (p. 62). Urine was drunk as a remedy for epilepsy, used as an eye-wash, and various other ocular affections, and dropped into the ears for various abscesses and for deafness (pp. 63, 64).

A lotion of one’s own urine was good for the palsy; but where this had been occasioned by venery, excessive drinking, or mercury, the urine of a boy was preferable (p. 64). A drink of one’s own urine, taken while fasting, was commended in obstructions of the liver and spleen, and in dropsy and yellow jaundice (idem); but some preferred the urine of a young boy (p. 65). For jaundice the remedy should be drunk every morning, and the treatment continued for some time (idem).

For retention of urine the remedy was to drink the urine of a young girl (p. 66). Urine was drunk as a remedy for long-continued constipation (idem); for falling of the womb stale urine was applied as a fomentation (idem); for hysteria human ordure and stale urine were applied to the nostrils (idem); the urine of the patient was drunk as a cure for worms (idem); urine was used as a wash for chapped hands, also for all cutaneous disorders (idem); also for “ficus ani” (p. 67). For gout in the feet the patient should bathe them in his own urine, also for travel sores, as he would then be able to resume his journey next day (idem).

One’s own urine was drunk as a preservative from the plague. Beckherius says he knew of his own knowledge that it had been used with wonderful success between 1620 and 1630 for this purpose.

Urine was recommended as a drink in lues veneris; while a sufferer from cancer was bathed in his own urine and Roman vitriol; ulcers were likewise bathed with the patient’s own urine (p. 68). Urine was applied as a lotion to wounds, bruises, and contusions (p. 69). Beckherius recites the case of a laborer who was buried under a falling mass of earth, in 1522, but, being protected by some obstruction, nourished himself for seven days on his own urine. Besides being used alone in the above cases, urine entered as an ingredient into medicines for old sores (p. 72); against the growth of “wild hairs,” ocular affections, throat troubles as gargle (p. 73), affections of the spleen (p. 74). The urine of a boy was to be employed in paralysis and in erysipelas (idem); the urine of a boy was also prescribed in suppression of the menses, and the urine of a man in podagra (75). The urine of undefiled boys entered into the composition of _aqua ophthalmica_, and was used externally in rheumatism of the legs (p. 74).

The urine of boys was used as an ointment in some fevers; also as a fomentation in tympanitis, as a plaster in dropsy, for gangrene and podagra, in various clysters, in the cure of calculi and cachexy (pp. 78, 79); in some of the plasters cow and dove dung also entered. For the treatment of anasarca there was a “spagyric preparation of urine.” To make the spirit of urine by distillation, some took the urine of a healthy man, some that of a wine-drinking boy of twelve years (pp. 81, 82). This spirit was administered in lung troubles, in dropsy, suppression of the menses, all kinds of fevers, retention of urine, calculus, etc. (p. 85); also in eye troubles, strangury, diabetes, podagra, catarrh, melancholia, phrensy, cardialgia, syncope, dysentery, plague, malignant fevers (p. 86).

The “spirit of urine” was again distilled with vitriol to make an anti-podagric remedy (85).

Salt of urine was made by distilling the urine of a boy and collecting the saline residuum; it was administered in cardiac troubles and to aid in the expulsion of the dead fœtus; from it were made various empirical remedies,—moon salt, the salt of Jove, salt of Mercury, spirit of Orion, mercurius microcosmicus, which were used for all kinds of physical infirmities (p. 87). The quintessence of urine was distilled from the urine of a strong, healthy, chaste man of thirty years, who had drunk heavily of wine for the occasion; by another authority it is recommended that this happen while the sun and Jupiter may be in “Piscibus.” This was used in calculi of the kidneys and bladder and in all ulcerations of those parts; externally, as a lotion in gonorrhæa and external ulcers of the private parts, for wounds and lesions of all sorts, urinary troubles, worms, putrid fevers, and as a preservative against the plague, for hard tumors, etc. (p. 97).

An “anti-epileptic spirit” had the urine of boys as its main component (p. 95); there was an “anti-epileptic extract of the moon” (p. 96); an “anti-podagric medicament” of the same components almost. A “panacea solaris” had for its principal ingredient the urine of a boy who had been drinking freely of wine (p. 97).

HUMAN ORDURE.

Beckherius cites a case where its use for three days cured a man of yellow jaundice; dried, powdered, and drunk in wine, it cured febrile paroxysms (p. 112); it was recommended to be that of a boy fed for some time on bread and beans.

To smell human ordure in the morning, fasting, protected from plague (pp. 112, 113).

He also gives the mode of preparing “zibethum,” or “occidental sulphur” (p. 116).

As a cure for angina a mixture was prescribed containing the white dung of dogs; also human ordure, swallow-dung, licorice, and candy (p. 113). In cancer, human ordure was applied as a plaster, mixed with turpentine, tobacco, antimony, powdered litharge, powdered crabs, etc. (pp. 113, 114).

He also gives the formulas for preparing _aqua_ and _oleum ex stercore humano_ (p. 114). In other places the use of ordure and urine in medicine is mentioned as a matter of course.—(See p. 274; also under the headings of “Ass,” “Mouse,” “Horse,” etc.; again, pp. 114, 192 _et seq._)

Beckherius gives a list of a number of preparations which to our more enlightened view of such things must appear trivial, and need not be repeated here in detail,—such as one for “extracting the vitriol of metals,” etc. Into the preparation of all these human urine entered.

Potable gold was made with a menstruum of spirits of wine and human urine, half and half (pp. 100-102); there was an “oil of sulphur” prepared from human urine (103); there was a “precipitate of mercury and urine” (idem); there was finally a _ludum urinæ_, the residuum after the distillation of the _aqua_ or the _spiritus_ respectively, which was prescribed medicinally in the same way as these were (pp. 109, 110).

Von Helmont called the salt obtained by the distillation of human urine “duelech.” (See “Oritrike, or Physicke Refined,” John Baptist von Helmont, English translation, London, 1662, pp. 847-849.) This was the name generally given by Paracelsus to the stone in the bladder. Von Helmont instances a cure of tympanitis or dropsy by a belly-plaster of hot cow-dung, and adds, “Neither, therefore, doth Paracelsus vainly commend dungs, seeing that they are the salts of putrefied meats” (p. 520).

Petræus (Henricus) Nosolog. Harmon. lib. i. dissertat. 13, p. 252, et Joh. Schæderas, pharmacop. med. chym. lib. v. p. 829, “stercus siccatum tritum et cum melle illitum ad anguinam curandam magni usus esse dicunt.”—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 84.)

The ponderous tomes of Michael Etmuller contain all that was known or believed in on this subject at the time of their publication, A.D. 1690. He gives reasons for the employment of each excrement, solid or liquid, human or animal, which need not be detailed at this moment.

Human urine. “Urina calif. exsiccat, resolvit, abstergit, discutit, mundificat, putredini resistit, ideoque usus est præcipue intrinsecus in obstructione epatis, lienis, vesicæ, biliaræ, pestis preservatione, hydrope, ictero.... Exstrinsecus siccat scabiem, resolvit tumores, mundificat vulnera etiam venenata, arcet gangrænam, solvit alvum (in clysmata) abstergit furfures capitis.... compescit febriles insullus (pulsui applicata) exulceratas aures sanat (instillata pueri urina) oculorum tubedine subvenit (instillata) artuum tremorem tollit (lotione) uvulæ tumorem discutit (gargas), lienis dolores sedat (cum cinere cataplasmata).”

From the urine of a wine-drinking boy, “urina pueri (ann. 12) vinum bibentis,” distilled over human ordure, was made “spiritus urinæ” of great value in the expulsion of calculi, although it stunk abominably, “sed valde fœtet.” This was employed in the treatment of gout, asthma, calculi, and diseases of the bladder. (Etmuller, “Schroderi Diluc.,” vol. ii. p. 265.) There are several other methods given of obtaining this “spiritus urinæ per distillationem.”

Then there was a “spiritus urinæ per putrefactionem.” To make this, the urine of a boy twelve years old, who had been drinking wine, was placed in a receptacle, surrounded by horse-dung for forty days, allowed to putrefy, then decanted upon human ordure, and distilled in an alembic, etc. There were other methods for making this also, but this one will suffice. The resulting fluid was looked upon as a great “anodyne” for all sorts of pains, and given both internally and externally, as well as in scurvy, hypochondria, cachexy, yellow and black jaundice, calculi of the kidneys and bladder, epilepsy, and mania.

“Potable gold” was made from this spirit. “Idem spiritus optime purificatus (scil. aliquoties) in aqua pluvia solvendo et distillando cumque spiritus vini analytice unitus solvit aurum, unde aurum potabile” (vol ii. p. 266).

A urine bath was good for gout in the feet. A drink of one’s own urine was highly praised as a preservative from the plague. “Urinæ: Potus urinæ propriæ laudatur in preservanda et curanda peste.” Such a draught was also used by women in labor. “Urinæ hausta a mulieribus parturientibus partum facilitat.” Clysters of urine were administered in tympanites, or dropsy of the belly. Urine was applied in ulcerations of the ears.

Saltpetre was formerly made from earth, lime, etc., saturated with human urine, ordure, etc.

The “spiritus urinæ” obtained by the distillation of urine, removed obstructions from the bladder, meatus, etc., expelled calculi, and was a diaphoretic and an anti-scorbutic; it was likewise used in the cure of hypochondria, cachexy, chlorosis, etc., taken internally.

From the distillation of vitriol and urine an anti-epileptic medicine was obtained.—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 271.)

From the above-mentioned “spiritus urinæ per distillationem” was prepared “magisterium urinæ seu microcosmi,” useful in cases of atrophy; it also prevented the pains of the stone, if taken monthly before the new moon.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 266.)

Human ordure. “Stercus (carbon humanum Paracelsi, aliis sulph. occiden.) emollit, maturat, anodynum est. Ea propter magni usus ad mitigandum dolores incantatione introductos (impositum) ad anthraces pestilentiales maturandos, ad phlegmonem, v. g. gutturis seu anginam curandam (siccatum, tritum et cum melle illitum) ad inflammationem vulnerum arcendam. Quin et intrinsecus a nonnullis adhibetur in angina (crematum et potui datum), in febribus ad paroxysmos profligandos (eodem modo propinatum dos. 32), in epilepsia, quam stercus primum infantuli siccatum et pulverisatum, et ad complures dies exhibitum, radicitus evellere aiunt” (vol. ii. p. 266).

He alludes to the “aqua” and the “oleum” “ex stercore distillatum,” both used in ophthalmic diseases, as cosmetics to restore color to the face, to restore and produce hair, to cure tumors and fistulas, and remove cicatrices, and for the cure of epilepsy. “Interne prodesse aiunt comitialibus et hydropicis, lapidemque renum et vesicæ pellere, morsibusque canis rabidi, venenatorumque animalium subvenire.” The “oleum ex stercore” had to be prepared from the ordure of a young man, not a boy, “juvenis, non pueri” (vol. ii. p. 266).

Etmuller tells the same story we have already had from so many other sources, in regard to the medicinal properties ascribed to human ordure. It was looked upon as a valuable remedy, applied as a poultice for all inflammations and suppurations, carbuncles and pest buboes, administered for the cure of bites of serpents, and all venomous animals. It should be taken raw, dried, or in drink. It was the only specific against the bites of the serpents of India, especially the “napellus,” whose bite kills in four hours unless the patient adopts this method of cure. It was considered a specific against the plague, and of great use in effecting “magico-magnetic” or “sympathetic or transplantation” cures. It was also in high repute for baffling the efforts of witches.

“Water distilled from ordure was good for sore eyes, especially if the man whose ordure was used had been fed only on bread and wine. This was administered internally for dropsy, calculus, epilepsy, bites of mad dogs, carbuncles, etc.” (vol. ii. p. 272).

“Zibetta occidentalis nihil est aliud quam stercus mediante digestione ad suavolentiam redactum, qua Zibettam mentitur; vid. Agricola,” vol. ii. p. 266.

Of the value of this “zibethum” Etmuller quotes from an older authority: “Rosencranzerus in Astron. inferior (p. 232), dicit quod zibethum humanum ... si illinatur parti genitali mulieris fœmina attrahat fœtum et precaveatur abortus” (vol. ii. p. 272).

Human ordure, containing as it does “an anodyne sulphur, ... destructive of acids,” was supposed to be beneficial in burns, inflammations, and as a plaster for the dispersal of plague buboes.... “In insulis Botiis dictis, gens quoddam serpentis repiriri, cujus morsum mors sequatur, nisi stercus proprium demorsi mox assumatur. Tandem aqua stercoris humani cosmetica, ab aliis ophthalmatica censetur sic ut et ejusdem oleum contra cancrum mammarum specifice commendatur” (vol. ii. p. 171).

“In stercoribus animalium magna latet vis medica, ratione scilicet salis volatilis; in specie stercus porcinum omnes hæmorrhagias ad miraculum sistit, sive in forma pulveris ad ʒ i., sive in forma electuarii adhibens; annus est quo rustica quædam post abortum insigne patiebatur mensium profluvium cui cum meo suasu maritus inscie propinasset stercus suillum, fluxus cessavit et mulier pristinæ reddita sanitati. Stercus equinum summum est remedium in passione hysterica, et doloribus colicis, si succus expressus cum cerevisia vel vino propinetur; sic quoque conducit in variolis et morbilis infantum, propinatus cum cerevisia calida, qui optime per sudorem expellit ut taceam de effectu quem præstat in pleuritide laudando.

“Ut ita licet volatilia in uno puncto convenire videantur, diversis tamen, ratione diversæ et specificæ cujuslibet craseus medeantur morbos.” (vol. ii. sect. 3, “Pyrotechnia Rationalis,”—“de Animalibus,” Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” xx.)

“Animalium omnium participant de natura salis ammoniaci constant quippe (are certainly known) ex acido et alcali oleoso volatili indeque, auræ beneficio alterantur in nitro, præsertim avium excrementa quicquid igitur præstant, operantur ex vi salis ammoniacali” (vol. ii. p. 171).

The use of animal dungs was noted, but not unqualifiedly commended by Etmuller, in the following cases: dog-dung, mixed with honey, for inflammation of the throat; wolf-dung, in form of powder, as an anti-colic.

Dog-dung (album Græcum officinalis) was regarded as useful in dysentery, epilepsy, colic; was applied externally in angina, malignant ulcers, hard tumors, warty growths, etc. Especial value was attached to such dung gathered in the month of July, from a bone-fed dog, because it was whiter, purer, and less fetid. Dog-urine was employed as a lotion for warty growths, ulcers on the head, etc. (vol. ii. p. 253).

“Dicitur in officinis semper album Græcum, nunquam stercus.” The dog “debite nutriatur cum ossibus solis, cum nullo vel pauco potu” (vol. ii. p. 254).

Goat-dung was used in hard tumors of the spleen and other parts of the body; in buboes, ear-abscesses, inveterate ulcers, dropsy, scabby head, lichen, etc. (p. 254). In all these its use was external, but for other troubles of the spleen, yellow jaundice, retention of the menses, and similar ailments, it was given internally. Goat-urine was given internally in removal of calculi, urinary troubles, and (after distillation) for dropsy. The egestæ of the wild goat were used for almost identically the same disorders (vol. ii. p. 254).

The juice of horse-dung was used by the English in colic, pleurisy, and hysteria.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 254.)

Pig-dung, dried, snuffed up into the nostrils, cured nasal hemorrhages. Compare this with the use made of the dried excrement of the Grand Lama as a sternutatory and general curative.

Hyena-dung was used in medicine, but the diseases are not mentioned.

Sparrow-dung and mouse-dung, if made into pills, and taken to the number of nine, would bring on the menses of women.

Cow-dung was recommended as a fomentation in gout.

The use of cow-dung, internally, was highly commended for expelling calculi and for the cure of retention of urine, on account of the “volatile nitrous salts which ascended in the alembic, and which had a good effect upon the kidneys.”

The common people drank the juice expressed from this dung in all cases of colic and pleurisy, for which they found it a beneficial medicine. “Ulterius valde convenit ad pellendum calculum et ciendam urinam propter sal. vol. nitrosum qui ascendit per alembicam unde ad nephritidem et ciendam urinam valde commendatur a poterio.... Plebii in colico dolore succum ex stercore propinant, quod verum est, non solum in colico sed etiam in pleuritide præsentaneum remedium” (vol. ii. pp. 249, 250).

The juice of young geese, gathered in the month of March, was used in jaundice and cachexy.... Hen-dung was sometimes employed as a substitute for goose-dung. Peacock-dung was employed in all cases of vertigo.... Swallow-dung was used in cases of angina and inflammation of the tonsils (vol. ii. p. 171).

Hawk-dung was used for sore eyes. Duck-dung “fimus morsui venenatorum animalium imponitur” (vol. ii. p. 286).

Goat-dung, drunk in cases of hemorrhage.... Goat-urine considered a specific for the expulsion of calculi of the bladder. Asses’ urine drunk for diseases of the kidneys, atrophy, paralysis, consumption, etc. Asses’ dung taken internally in form of powder or potion, and applied also externally in all cases of hemorrhage, excessive uterine flow, and troubles of that nature (vol. ii. p. 247). It was thought by some to be best when gathered in the month of May; others thought that dog-dung should be substituted. Cow-urine was a beneficial application to sore eyes.

Cow-dung was used in all cases of burns, inflammations, rheumatism, etc., “apum ac vesparum morsibus.” (We have already seen that it has been used for bee stings in the State of New Jersey.) “Suffitu reprimit uterum prolapsum.” Finally, it was used as a plaster in dropsy.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 248.)

Dove-dung was applied generally in cataplasms and rubefacient plasters for the cure of rheumatism, headache, vertigo, colic pains, apoplexy; also in boils, scorbutic swellings, etc., and drunk as a cure for dropsy.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 287.)

Quail-dung, “fimum in vino potum, dysenteriam sanare tradit Kynarides” (vol. ii. p. 288).

Fresh calf-dung was rubbed on the skin for the cure of erysipelas.

Fox-dung was applied externally for the cure of all cutaneous disorders (vol. ii. pp. 283-285).

Kid-dung (Capreolus or Chevreuil) was drunk as a cure for yellow jaundice (vol. ii. p. 257).

Cat-dung was applied as a poultice to scab in the head and to gout in the feet (vol. ii. p. 259).

Horse-dung, fresh or burnt to ashes, was applied externally as a styptic, used as a fumigation to aid in the expulsion of the fœtus and after-birth; also drunk as a potion for colic pains, strangulation of the uterus, expulsion of the fœtus and after-birth, and for pleurisy. “Stercus equinum est medicina magni et multi usus.... Interne succus ex stercore recenti expressus.” For the certain cure of pleurisy, it should be the dung of a young stallion, especially if oat-fed. “In Angina certe stercus equinum non cedit stercori hirundinum ... et canis” (vol. ii. p. 263).

Lion-dung, taken internally, was an anti-epileptic.

Hare-dung was administered internally in calculus and dysentery, and externally for burns.

Hare-urine was applied in ear troubles.

Wolf-dung was found efficacious, taken internally, in colic.

Musk was frequently given, mixed with zibethum, as a carminative; also as a nervine and a cardiac.

Mouse-dung found its advocates as a remedy, given internally, in the constipation of children, calculi, used in enemata.

The internal administration of rat-dung removed catamenial obstructions.

Mouse-dung was styled “album nigrum;” dog-dung, “album Græcum.”

Sheep-dung was administered internally in yellow jaundice; “maximi usus in aurigine, sumptum cum petroselino” (rock-parsley),—while, externally, it was applied to hard tumors, swellings, boils, burns, etc.

The urine of red or black sheep was given internally in dropsy. “Urina (nigræ vel rubræ ovis) sumpta, aquam inter cutem abigit.” The dose was from five to six ounces.

Hog-dung, externally, in cutaneous disorders, bites of venomous animals, nasal hemorrhage,—for the cure of this last even the odor was sufficient; “sufficit etiam odor.”

Michaelus Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” “Schroderi dilucidati Zoölogia,” Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 263-279, inclusive.

Quail-dung was administered for epilepsy when the bird had been fed on hellebore.—(Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” “Schrod. Diluc. Zoöl.” vol. ii. p. 288.)

Cuckoo-dung, taken in drink, cured the bites of mad dogs.—(Idem.)

White hen-dung was preferred for medicinal purposes. It was employed for the same ailments as dove-dung, but was not believed to be so efficacious. It was especially valuable in colic and uterine pains, in yellow jaundice, calculus, abscesses in the side, suppression of urine, etc. (vol. ii. p. 289).

There was another cure for the bites of mad dogs,—the dung of the swallow taken internally. It was also considered to be a cure for colic pains and kidney troubles, and was made into a suppository in cases of irritation of the rectum (vol. ii. p. 290).

Kite-dung was sometimes applied externally in pains of the joints (vol. ii. p. 291).

As a purgative, starling dung is enumerated in this strange list of filthy medicaments (vol. ii. p. 292).

The egestæ of wild oxen was used for the same therapeutical purposes as the excrement of the domesticated bovines (vol. ii. p. 252).

Peacock-dung. “Stercus proprietate vertiginem et epilepsiam sanat (in dies multos exhibitum).” It should be administered in wine, and the treatment was to be persisted in from the new until the full moon, or longer. “Continuando a novilunio usque ad plenilunium, aut amplius.... In epilepsiam est specificum magno usu expertum.” It was likewise considered of great value in the cure of vertigo, but the dung of the cock should be given to men; that of the hen, to women. Etmuller, however, did not think this distinction to be necessary (vol. ii. pp. 292, 293).

The dung of geese, old or young, was employed in the treatment of yellow jaundice, for which it was believed to be a specific. The dose was one scruple. The geese should have been fed on “herba chelidonii.” Next to the yellow jaundice, it was of special value in scurvy, taken either in the form of a powder or a decoction. For the cure of dropsy it was the main ingredient in several of the remedies prescribed. It was also the principal component in the manufacture of “aqua ophthalmica Imperatoris Maximiliani,” to prepare which, the dung of young geese was gathered in the months of April and May (vol. ii. p. 287).

Stork-dung, stercus ciconiæ. Believed to be potential in epilepsy and diseases of the same type. “Stercus, si ex aqua hauritur, comitialibus aliisque morbis capitis prodesse credunt.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 287.)

The laxative properties of mouse-dung were extolled by Dr. Jacob Augustine Hunerwolf, in “Ephemeridum Physico-Medicarum,” Leipzig, 1694, vol. i. p. 189.

Rosinus Lentilius relates that there was a certain old hypochondriac, of fifty or more, who, in order to ease himself of an obstinate constipation, for more than a month drank copious draughts of his own urine, fresh and hot, but with the worst results, “Per mensem circiter urinam suam statim a mictu calentem ipsa matuta hauriret.”—(In “Ephem. Physico-Medicarum,” Leipzig, 1694, vol. ii. p. 169.)

On the page just cited and those immediately following, can be found some ten or twelve pages of fine print, quarto, elucidative of the uses of the human excreta, medicinally, and as a matter of morbid appetite.