Chapter XXIII: Book XXVIII: Remedies Derived From Living Creatures (4)

Cœliac affections and dysentery are cured by taking cow’s liver; ashes of deer’s horns, a pinch in three fingers swallowed in water; hare’s rennet, kneaded up in bread, or, if there is any discharge of blood, taken with polenta;[2348] or else boar’s dung, swine’s dung, or hare’s dung, reduced to ashes and mixed with mulled wine. Among the remedies, also, for the cœliac flux and dysentery, veal broth is reckoned, a remedy very commonly used. If the patient takes asses’ milk for these complaints, it will be all the better if honey is added; and no less efficacious for either complaint are the ashes of asses’ dung taken in wine; or else polea, the substance above[2349]-mentioned. In such cases, even when attended with a discharge of blood, we find a horse’s rennet recommended, by some persons known as “hippace;” ashes of burnt horse-dung; horses’ teeth pounded; and boiled cows’ milk. In cases of dysentery, it is recommended to add a little honey; and, for the cure of griping pains, ashes of deer’s horns, bull’s gall mixed with cummin, or the flesh of a gourd, should be applied to the navel. For both complaints new cheese made of cows’ milk is used, as an injection; butter also, in the proportion of four semi-sextarii to two ounces of turpentine, or else employed with a decoction of mallows or with oil of roses. Veal-suet or beef-suet is also given, and the marrow of those animals is boiled with meal, a little wax, and some oil, so as to form a sort of pottage. This marrow, too, is kneaded up with bread for a similar purpose; or else goats’ milk is used, boiled down to one half. In cases, too, where there are gripings in the bowels, wine of the first running[2350] is administered. For the last-named pains, some persons are of opinion that it is a sufficient remedy to take a single dose of hare’s rennet in mulled wine; though others again, who are more distrustful, are in the habit of applying a liniment to the abdomen, made of goats’ blood, barley-meal, and resin.

For all defluxions of the bowels it is recommended to apply soft cheese, and for cœliac affections and dysentery old cheese, powdered, one cyathus of cheese being taken in three cyathi of ordinary wine. Goats’ blood is boiled down with the marrow of those animals for the cure of dysentery; and the cœliac flux is effectually treated with the roasted liver of a she-goat, or, what is still better, the liver of a he-goat boiled in astringent wine, and administered in the drink, or else applied to the navel with oil of myrtle. Some persons boil down the liver in three sextarii of water to half a sextarius, and then add rue to it. The milt of a he or she-goat is sometimes roasted for this purpose, or the suet of a he-goat is incorporated in bread baked upon the ashes; the fat, too, of a she-goat, taken from the kidneys more particularly, is used. This last, however, must be taken by itself and swallowed immediately, being generally recommended to be taken in water moderately cool. Some persons, too, boil goats’ suet in water, with a mixture of polenta, cummin, anise, and vinegar; and for the cure of cœliac affections, they rub the abdomen with a decoction of goats’ dung and honey.

For both the cœliac flux and dysentery, kid’s rennet is employed, taken in myrtle wine in pieces the size of a bean, or else kid’s blood, prepared in the form of a dish known by the name of “sanguiculus.”[2351] For dysentery an injection is employed, made of bull glue dissolved in warm water. Flatulency is dispelled by a decoction of calf’s dung in wine. For intestinal affections deer’s rennet is highly recommended boiled with beef and lentils, and taken with the food; hare’s fur, also reduced to ashes and boiled with honey; or boiled goat’s milk, taken with a small quantity of mallows and some salt; if rennet is added, the remedy will be all the more effectual. Goat suet, taken in any kind of broth, is possessed of similar virtues, care being taken to swallow cold water immediately after. The ashes of a kid’s thighs are said to be marvellously efficacious for intestinal hernia; as also hare’s dung, boiled with honey, and taken daily in pieces the size of a bean; indeed, these remedies are said to have proved effectual in cases where a cure has been quite despaired of. The broth too, made from a goat’s head, boiled with the hair on, is highly recommended.

CHAP. 59.—REMEDIES FOR TENESMUS, TAPEWORM, AND AFFECTIONS OF THE COLON.

The disease called “tenesmus,” or in other words, a frequent and ineffectual desire to go to stool, is removed by drinking asses’ milk or cows’ milk. The various kinds of tapeworm[2352] are expelled by taking the ashes of deer’s horns in drink. The bones which we have spoken[2353] of as being found in the excrements of the wolf, worn attached to the arm, are curative of diseases of the colon, provided they have not been allowed to touch the ground. Polea, too, a substance already mentioned,[2354] is remarkably useful for this purpose, boiled in grape juice:[2355] the same too with swine’s dung, powdered and mixed with cummin, in a decoction of rue. The antler of a young stag, reduced to ashes and taken in wine, mixed with African snails, crushed with the shells on, is considered a very useful remedy.

CHAP. 60. (15.)—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER, AND FOR URINARY CALCULI.

Diseases of the bladder, and the torments attendant upon calculi, are treated with the urine of a wild boar, or the bladder of that animal taken as food; both of them being still more efficacious if they have been thoroughly soaked first. The bladder, when eaten, should be boiled first, and if the patient is a female, it should be a sow’s bladder. There are found in the liver of the wild boar certain small stones,[2356] or what in hardness resemble small stones, of a white hue, and resembling those found in the liver of the common swine: if these stones are pounded and taken in wine, they will expel calculi, it is said. So oppressed is the wild boar by the burden of his urine,[2357] that if he has not first voided it, he is unable to take to flight, and suffers himself to be taken as though he were enchained to the spot. This urine, they say, has a consuming effect upon urinary calculi. The kidneys of a hare, dried and taken in wine, act as an expellent upon calculi. We have already[2358] mentioned that in the gammon of the hog there are certain joint-bones; a decoction made from them is remarkably useful for urinary affections. The kidneys of an ass, dried and pounded, and administered in undiluted wine, are a cure for diseases of the bladder. The excrescences that grow on horses’ legs, taken for forty days in ordinary wine or honied wine, expel urinary calculi. The ashes, too, of a horse’s hoof, taken in wine or water, are considered highly useful for this purpose; and the same with the dung of a she-goat—if a wild goat, all the better—taken in honied wine: goats’ hair, too, is used, reduced to ashes.

For carbuncles upon the generative organs, the brains and blood of a wild boar or swine are highly recommended: and for serpiginous affections of those parts, the liver of those animals is used, burnt upon juniper wood more particularly, and mixed with papyrus and arsenic;[2359] the ashes, also, of their dung; ox-gall, kneaded to the consistency of honey, with Egyptian alum and myrrh, beet-root boiled in wine being laid upon it; or else beef. Running ulcers of those parts are treated with veal-suet and marrow, boiled in wine, or with the gall of a she-goat, mixed with honey and the extracted juice of the bramble.[2360] In cases where these ulcers are serpiginous, it is recommended to use goats’ dung with honey or vinegar, or else butter by itself. Swellings of the testes are reduced by using veal-suet with nitre, or the dung of the animal boiled in vinegar. The bladder of a wild boar, eaten roasted, acts as a check upon incontinence of urine; a similar effect being produced by the ashes of the feet of a wild boar or swine sprinkled in the drink; the ashes of a sow’s bladder taken in drink; the bladder or lights of a kid; a hare’s brains taken in wine; the testes of a male hare grilled; the rennet of that animal taken with goose-grease and polenta;[2361] or the kidneys of an ass, beaten up and taken in undiluted wine.

The magicians tell us, that after taking the ashes of a boar’s genitals in sweet wine, the patient must make water in a dog kennel, and repeat the following formula—“This I do that I may not wet my bed as a dog does.” On the other hand, a swine’s bladder, attached to the groin, facilitates the discharge of the urine, provided it has not already touched the ground.

CHAP. 61.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS AND OF THE FUNDAMENT.

For diseases of the fundament, a sovereign remedy is bear’s gall, mixed with the grease; to which some persons are in the habit of adding litharge and frankincense. Butter, too, is very good, employed with goose-grease and oil of roses. The proportions in which they are mixed will be regulated by the circumstances of the case, care being taken to see that they are of a consistency which admits of their being easily applied. Bull’s gall upon lint is a remarkably useful remedy, and has the effect of making chaps of the fundament cicatrize with great rapidity. Swellings of those parts are treated with veal suet—that from the loins in particular—mixed with rue. For other affections, goats’ blood is used, with polenta. Goats’ gall too, is employed by itself, for the cure of condylomata, and sometimes, wolf’s gall, mixed with wine.

Bears’ blood is curative of inflamed tumours and apostemes upon these parts in general; as also bulls’ blood, dried and powdered. The best remedy, however, is considered to be the stone which the wild ass[2362] voids with his urine, it is said, at the moment he is killed. This stone, which is in a somewhat liquefied state at first, becomes solid when it reaches the ground: attached to the thigh, it disperses all collections of humours and all kinds of suppurations: it is but rarely found, however, and it is not every wild ass that produces it, but as a remedy it is held in high esteem. Asses’ urine too, used in combination with gith, is highly recommended; the ashes of a horse’s hoof, applied with oil and water; a horse’s blood, that of a stone-horse in particular; the blood, also, of an ox or cow, or the gall of those animals. Their flesh too, applied warm, is productive of similar results; the hoofs reduced to ashes, and taken in water or honey; the urine of a she-goat; the flesh of a he-goat, boiled in water; the dung of these animals, boiled with honey; or else a boar’s gall, or swine’s urine, applied in wool.

Riding on horseback, we well-know, galls and chafes the inside of the thighs: the best remedy for accidents of this nature is to rub the parts with the foam which collects at a horse’s mouth. Where there are swellings in the groin, arising[2363] from ulcers, a cure is effected by inserting in the sores three horse-hairs, tied with as many knots.

CHAP. 62. (16.)—REMEDIES FOR GOUT AND FOR DISEASES OF THE FEET.

For the cure of gout, bears’ grease is employed, mixed in equal proportions with bull-suet and wax; some persons add to the composition, hypocisthis[2364] and nut-galls. Others, again, prefer he-goat suet, mixed with the dung of a she-goat and saffron, or else with mustard, or sprigs of ivy pounded and used with perdicium,[2365] or with flowers of wild cucumber. Cow-dung is also used, with lees of vinegar. Some persons speak highly in praise of the dung of a calf which has not begun to graze, or else a bull’s blood, without any other addition; a fox, also, boiled alive till only the bones are left; a wolf boiled alive in oil to the consistency of a cerate; he-goat suet, with an equal proportion of helxine,[2366] and one-third part of mustard; or ashes of goats’ dung, mixed with axle-grease. They say, too, that for sciatica, it is an excellent plan to apply this dung boiling[2367] hot beneath the great toes; and that, for diseases of the joints, it is highly efficacious to attach bears’ gall or hares’ feet to the part affected. Gout, they say, may be allayed by the patient always carrying about with him a hare’s foot, cut off from the animal alive.

Bears’ grease is a cure for chilblains and all kinds of chaps upon the feet; with the addition of alum, it is still more efficacious. The same results are produced by using goat-suet; a horse’s teeth powdered; the gall of a wild boar or hog; or else the lights of those animals, applied with their grease; and this, too, where the soles are blistered, or the feet have been crushed by a substance striking against them. In cases where the feet have been frozen, ashes of burnt hare’s fur are used; and for contusions of the feet, the lights of that animal are applied, sliced or reduced to ashes. Blisters occasioned by the sun are most effectually treated by using asses’ fat, or else beef-suet, with oil of roses. Corns, chaps, and callosities of the feet are cured by the application of wild boars’ dung or swine’s dung, used fresh, and removed at the end of a couple of days. The pastern-bones of these animals are also used, reduced to ashes; or else the lights of a wild boar, swine, or deer. When the feet have been galled by the shoes, they are rubbed with the urine of an ass, applied with the mud formed by it upon the ground. Corns are treated with beef-suet and powdered frankincense; chilblains with burnt leather, that of an old shoe, in particular; and injuries produced by tight shoes with ashes of goat-skin, tempered with oil.

The pains attendant upon varicose veins are mitigated by using ashes of burnt calves’ dung, boiled with lily roots and a little honey: a composition which is equally good for all kinds of inflammations and sores that tend to suppurate. It is very useful, also, for gout and diseases of the joints, when it is the dung of a bull-calf that is used more particularly. For excoriations of the joints, the gall of a wild boar or swine is applied, in a warm linen cloth: the dung, also, of a calf that has not begun to graze; or else goat-dung, boiled in vinegar with honey. Veal-suet rectifies malformed nails, as also goat-suet, mixed with sandarach. Warts are removed by applying ashes of burnt calves’ dung in vinegar, or else the mud formed upon the ground by the urine of an ass.

CHAP. 63.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.

In cases of epilepsy, it is a good plan to eat a bear’s testes, or those of a wild boar, with mares’ milk or water; or else to drink a wild boar’s urine with honey and vinegar, that being the best which has been left to dry in the bladder. The testes, also, of swine are prescribed, dried and beaten up in sows’ milk, the patient abstaining from wine some days before and after taking the mixture. The lights of a hare, too, are recommended, salted, and taken with one third of frankincense, for thirty consecutive days, in white wine: hare’s rennet also; and asses’ brains, smoked with burning leaves, and administered in hydromel, in doses of half an ounce per day. An ass’s hoofs are reduced to ashes, and taken for a month together, in doses of two spoonfuls; the testes, also, of an ass, salted and mixed with the drink, asses’ milk or water in particular. The secundines, also, of a she-ass are recommended, more particularly when it is a male that has been foaled: placed beneath the nostrils of the patient, when the fits are likely to come on, this substance will effectually repel them.

There are some persons who recommend the patient to eat the heart of a black he-ass in the open air with bread, upon the first or second day of the moon: others, again, prescribe the flesh of that animal, and others the blood, diluted with vinegar, and taken for forty days together. Some mix horse-stale for this purpose, with smithy water fresh from the forge, employing the same mixture for the cure of delirium. Epilepsy is also treated with mares’ milk, or the excrescences from a horse’s legs, taken in honey and vinegar. The magicians highly recommend goats’ flesh, grilled upon a funeral pile; as also the suet of that animal, boiled with an equal quantity of bull’s gall, and kept in the gall-bladder; care being taken not to let it touch the ground, and the patient swallowing it in water, standing aloft.[2368] The smell arising from a goat’s horns or deer’s antlers, burnt, efficiently detects the presence of epilepsy.

In cases where persons are suddenly paralyzed, the urine of an ass’s foal, applied to the body with nard, is very useful, it is said.

CHAP. 64.—REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.

For the cure of jaundice, the ashes of a stag’s antlers are employed; or the blood of an ass’s foal, taken in wine. The first dung,[2369] too, that has been voided by the foal after its birth, taken in wine, in pieces the size of a bean, will effect a cure by the end of three days. The dung of a new-born colt is possessed of a similar efficacy.

CHAP. 65.—REMEDIES FOR BROKEN BONES.

For broken hones, a sovereign remedy is the ashes of the jaw-bone of a wild boar or swine: boiled bacon, too, tied round the broken bone, unites it with marvellous rapidity. For fractures of the ribs, goats’ dung, applied in old wine, is extolled as the grand remedy, being possessed in a high degree of aperient, extractive, and healing properties.

CHAP. 66.—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.

Deer’s flesh, as already[2370] stated, is a febrifuge. Periodical and recurrent fevers are cured, if we are to believe what the magicians tell us, by wearing the right eye of a wolf, salted, and attached as an amulet. There is one kind of fever generally known as “amphemerine;”[2371] it is to be cured, they say, by the patient taking three drops of blood from an ass’s ear, and swallowing them in two semi-sextarii of water. For quartan fever, the magicians recommend cats’ dung to be attached to the body, with the toe of a horned owl, and, that the fever may not be recurrent, not to be removed until the seventh paroxysm is past. Who,[2372] pray, could have ever made such a discovery as this? And what, too, can be the meaning of this combination? Why, of all things in the world, was the toe of a horned owl made choice of?

Other adepts in this art, who are more moderate in their suggestions, recommend for quartan fever, the salted liver of a cat that has been killed while the moon was on the wane, to be taken in wine just before the paroxysms come on. The magicians recommend, too, that the toes of the patient should be rubbed with the ashes of burnt cow-dung, diluted with a boy’s urine, and that a hare’s heart should be attached to the hands; they prescribe, also, hare’s rennet, to be taken in drink just before the paroxysms come on. New goats’ milk cheese is also given with honey, the whey being carefully extracted first.

CHAP. 67. (17.)—REMEDIES FOR MELANCHOLY, LETHARGY, AND PHTHISIS.

For patients affected with melancholy,[2373] calves’ dung, boiled in wine, is a very useful remedy. Persons are aroused from lethargy by applying to the nostrils the callosities from an ass’s legs steeped in vinegar, or the fumes of burnt goats’ horns or hair, or by the application of a wild boar’s liver: a remedy which is also used for confirmed[2374] drowsiness.

The cure of phthisis is effected by taking a wolf’s liver boiled in thin wine; the bacon of a sow that has been fed upon herbs; or the flesh of a she-ass, eaten with the broth: this last mode in particular, being the one that is employed by the people of Achaia. They say too, that the smoke of dried cow-dung—that of the animal when grazing, I mean—is remarkably good for phthisis, inhaled through a reed;[2375] and find it stated that the tips of cows’ horns are burnt, and administered with honey, in doses of two spoonfuls, in the form of pills. Goat suet, many persons say, taken in a pottage of alica,[2376] or melted fresh with honied wine, in the proportion of one ounce of suet to one cyathus of wine, is good for cough and phthisis, care being taken to stir the mixture with a sprig of rue. One author of credit assures us that before now, a patient whose recovery has been despaired of, has been restored to health by taking one cyathus of wild goat[2377] suet and an equal quantity of milk. Some writers, too, have stated that ashes of burnt swine’s dung are very useful, mixed with raisin wine; as also the lights of a deer, a spitter[2378] deer in particular, smoke-dried and beaten up in wine.

CHAP. 68.—REMEDIES FOR DROPSY.

For dropsy, a wild boar’s urine is good, taken in small doses in the patient’s drink; it is of much greater efficacy, however, when it has been left to dry in the bladder of the animal. The ashes, too, of burnt cow-dung, and of bulls’ dung in particular—animals that are reared in herds, I mean—are highly esteemed. This dung, the name given to which is “bolbiton,”[2379] is reduced to ashes, and taken in doses of three spoonfuls to one semisextarius of honied wine; that of the female animal being used where the patient is a woman, and that of the other sex in the case of males; a distinction about which the magicians have made a sort of grand mystery. The dung of a bull-calf is also applied topically for this disease, and ashes of burnt calves’ dung are taken with seed of staphylinos,[2380] in equal proportions, in wine. Goats’ blood also is used, with the marrow; but it is generally thought that the blood of the he-goat is the most efficacious, when the animal has fed upon lentisk, more particularly.

CHAP. 69.—REMEDIES FOR ERYSIPELAS, AND FOR PURULENT ERUPTIONS.

For erysipelas a liniment of bears’ grease is used, that from the kidneys in particular; fresh calves’ dung also, or cow-dung; dried goats’ milk cheese, with leeks; or else the fine scrapings of deer’s skin, brought off with pumice-stone and beaten up in vinegar. Where there is redness of the skin attended with itching, the foam from a horse’s mouth is used, or the hoof, reduced to ashes.

For the cure of purulent[2381] eruptions ashes of burnt asses’ dung are applied, with butter; and for the removal of swarthy pimples, dried goats’ milk cheese, steeped in honey and vinegar, is applied in the bath, no oil being used. Pustules are treated with ashes of swine’s dung, applied with water, or else ashes of deer’s antlers.

CHAP. 70.—REMEDIES FOR SPRAINS, INDURATIONS, AND BOILS.

For the cure of sprains the following applications are used; wild boars’ dung or swine’s dung; calves’ dung; wild boars’ foam, used fresh with vinegar; goats’ dung, applied with honey; and raw beef, used as a plaster. For swellings, swine’s dung is used, warmed in an earthen pot, and beaten up with oil. The best emollient for all kinds of indurations upon the body is wolf’s fat, applied topically. In the case of sores which are wanted to break, the most effectual plan is to apply cow-dung warmed in hot ashes, or else goats’ dung boiled in vinegar or wine. For the cure of boils, beef-suet is applied with salt; but if they are attended with pain, it is melted with oil, and no salt is used. Goat-suet is employed in a similar manner.

CHAP. 71.—REMEDIES FOR BURNS. THE METHOD OF TESTING BULL-GLUE; SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.

For the treatment of burns, bears’ grease is used, with lily roots; dried wild boars’ dung also, or swine’s dung; the ashes of burnt bristles, extracted from plasterers’ brushes, beaten up with grease; the pastern-bone of an ox, reduced to ashes, and mixed with wax and bull’s marrow or deer’s marrow; or the dung of a hare. The dung, too, of a she-goat, they say, will effect a cure without leaving any scars.

The best glue is that prepared from the ears and genitals of the bull, and there is no better cure in existence for burns. There is nothing, however, that is more extensively adulterated; which is done by boiling up all kinds of old skins, and shoes even, for the purpose. The Rhodian glue is the purest of all, and it is this that painters and physicians mostly use. The whiter it is, the more highly glue is esteemed: that, on the other hand, which is black and brittle like wood, is looked upon as good for nothing.

CHAP. 72.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SINEWS AND FOR CONTUSIONS.

For pains in the sinews, goats’ dung, boiled in vinegar with honey, is considered one of the most useful remedies, and this even where the sinew[2382] is threatened with putrefaction. Strains and contusions are healed with wild boars’ dung, that has been gathered in spring and dried. A similar method is employed where persons have been dragged by a chariot or lacerated by the wheels, or have received contusions in any other way, the application being quite as effectual, should the dung happen to be fresh. Some think it a better plan, however, to boil it in vinegar; and if only powdered and taken in vinegar, they vouch for its good effects where persons are ruptured, wounded internally, or suffering from the effects of a fall.

Others again, who are of a more scrupulous tendency,[2383] take the ashes of it in water; and the Emperor Nero, it is said, was in the habit of refreshing himself with this drink, when he attempted to gain the public applause at the three-horse chariot races.[2384] Swine’s dung, it is generally thought, is the next best to that of the goat.

CHAP. 73. (18.)—REMEDIES FOR HÆMORRHAGE.

Hæmorrhage is arrested by applying deer’s rennet with vinegar, hare’s rennet, hare’s fur reduced to ashes, or ashes of burnt asses’ dung. The dung, however, of male animals is the most efficacious for this purpose, being mixed with vinegar, and applied with wool, in all cases of hæmorrhage. In the same way, too, the ashes of a horse’s head or thigh, or of burnt calves’ dung, are used with vinegar; the ashes also of a goat’s horns or dung, with vinegar. But it is the thick blood that issues from the liver of a he-goat when cut asunder, that is looked upon as the most efficacious; or else the ashes of the burnt liver of a goat of either sex, taken in wine or applied to the nostrils with vinegar. The ashes, too, of a leather wine-bottle—but only when made of he-goat skin—are used very efficiently with an equal quantity of resin, for the purpose of stanching blood, and knitting together the lips of the wound. A kid’s rennet in vinegar, or the thighs of that animal, reduced to ashes, are said to be productive of a similar result.

CHAP. 74.—REMEDIES FOR ULCERS AND CARCINOMATOUS SORES.

Ulcers upon the legs and thighs are cured by an application of bears’ grease, mixed with red earth: and those of a serpiginous nature by using wild boar’s gall, with resin and white lead; the jaw-bone of a wild boar or swine, reduced to ashes; swine’s dung in a dry state; or goats’ dung, made luke-warm in vinegar. For other kinds of ulcers butter is used, as a detergent, and as tending to make new flesh; ashes of deer’s antlers, or deer’s marrow; or else bull’s gall, mixed with oil of cyprus[2385] or oil of iris. Wounds inflicted with edged weapons are rubbed with fresh swine’s dung, or with dried swine’s dung, powdered. When ulcers are phagedænic or fistulous, bull’s gall is injected, with leek-juice or woman’s milk; or else bull’s blood, dried and powdered, with the plant cotyledon.[2386]

Carcinomatous sores are treated with hare’s rennet, sprinkled upon them with an equal proportion of capers in wine; gangrenes, with bears’ grease, applied with a feather; and ulcers of a serpiginous nature with the ashes of an ass’s hoofs, powdered upon them. The blood of the horse corrodes the flesh by virtue of certain septic powers which it possesses; dried horse-dung, too, reduced to ashes, has a similar effect. Those kinds of ulcers which are commonly known as “phagedænic,” are treated with the ashes of a cow’s hide, mixed with honey. Calves’ flesh, as also cow-dung mixed with honey, prevents recent wounds from swelling. The ashes of a leg of veal, applied with woman’s milk, are a cure for sordid ulcers, and the malignant sore known as “cacoëthes:”[2387] bull-glue, melted, is applied to recent wounds inflicted with edged weapons, the application being removed before the end of three days. Dried goats’ milk cheese, applied with vinegar and honey, acts as a detergent upon ulcers; and goat suet, used in combination with wax, arrests the spread of serpiginous sores: if employed with pitch and sulphur, it will effect a thorough cure. The ashes of a kid’s leg, applied with woman’s milk, have a similar effect upon malignant ulcers; for the cure, too, of carbuncles, a sow’s brains are roasted and applied.

CHAP. 75.—REMEDIES FOR THE ITCH.

The itch in man is cured very effectually by using the marrow of an ass, or the urine of that animal, applied with the mud it has formed upon the ground. Butter, too, is very good; as also in the case of beasts of burden, if applied with warmed resin: bull glue is also used, melted in vinegar, and incorporated with lime; or goat’s gall, mixed with calcined alum. The eruption called “boa,”[2388] is treated with cow-dung, a fact to which it is indebted for its name. The itch in dogs is cured by an application of fresh cows’ blood, which, when quite dry, is renewed a second time, and is rubbed off the next day with strong lie-ashes.

CHAP. 76.—METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN SUBSTANCES WHICH ADHERE TO THE BODY, AND OF RESTORING SCARS TO THEIR NATURAL COLOUR.

Thorns and similar foreign substances are extracted from the body by using cats’ dung, or that of she-goats, with wine; the rennet also of any kind of animal, that of the hare more particularly, with powdered frankincense and oil, or an equal quantity of mistletoe, or else with bee-glue.[2389]

Ass suet restores scars of a swarthy hue to their natural colour; and they are equally effaced by using calf’s gall made warm. Medical men add myrrh, honey, and saffron, and keep the mixture in a copper box; some, too, incorporate with it flower of copper.

CHAP. 77. (19.)—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES.

Menstruation is promoted by using bull’s gall, in unwashed wool, as a pessary: Olympias of Thebes adds hyssop and nitre. Ashes, too, of deer’s horns are taken in drink for the same purpose, and for derangements of the uterus they are applied topically, as also bull’s gall, used as a pessary with opium, in the proportion of two oboli. It is a good plan, too, to use fumigations for the uterus, made with deer’s hair, burnt. Hinds, they say, when they find themselves pregnant, are in the habit of swallowing a small stone. This stone, when found in their excrements, or in the uterus—for it is to be found there as well—attached to the body as an amulet, is a preventive of abortion. There are also certain small stones, found in the heart and uterus of these animals, which are very useful for women during pregnancy and in travail. As to the kind of pumice-stone which is similarly found in the uterus of the cow, we have already[2390] mentioned it when treating of the formation of that animal.

A wolf’s fat, applied externally, acts emolliently upon the uterus, and the liver of a wolf is very soothing for pains in that organ. It is found advantageous for women, when near delivery, to eat wolf’s flesh, or, if they are in travail, to have a person near them who has eaten it; so much so, indeed, that it will act as a countercharm even to any noxious spells which may have been laid upon them. In case, however, a person who has eaten wolf’s flesh should happen to enter the room at the moment of parturition, dangerous effects will be sure to follow. The hare, too, is remarkably useful for the complaints of females: the lights of that animal, dried and taken in drink, are beneficial to the uterus; the liver, taken in water with Samian earth, acts as an emmenagogue; and the rennet brings away the after-birth, due care being taken by the patient not to bathe the day before. Applied in wool as a pessary, with saffron and leek-juice, this last acts as an expellent upon the dead fœtus. It is a general opinion that the uterus of a hare, taken with the food, promotes the conception of male offspring, and that a similar effect is produced by using the testes and rennet of that animal. It is thought, too, that a leveret, taken from the uterus of its dam, is a restorative of fruitfulness to women who are otherwise past child-bearing. But it is the blood of a hare’s fœtus that the magicians recommend males to drink: while for young girls they prescribe nine pellets of hare’s dung, to ensure a durable firmness to the breasts. For a similar purpose, also, they apply hare’s rennet with honey; and to prevent hairs from growing again when once removed, they use a liniment of hare’s blood.

For inflations of the uterus, it is found a good plan to apply wild boars’ dung or swine’s dung topically with oil: but a still more effectual remedy is to dry the dung, and sprinkle it, powdered, in the patient’s drink, even though she should be in a state of pregnancy or suffering the pains of child-birth. By administering sow’s milk with honied wine, parturition is facilitated; and if taken by itself it will promote the secretion of the milk when deficient in nursing women. By rubbing the breasts of females with sow’s blood they are prevented from becoming too large. If pains are felt in the breasts, they will be alleviated by drinking asses’ milk; and the same milk, taken with honey, has considerable efficacy as an emmenagogue. Stale fat, too, from the same animal, heals ulcerations of the uterus: applied as a pessary, in wool, it acts emolliently upon indurations of that organ; and, applied fresh by itself, or in water when stale, it has all the virtues of a depilatory.

An ass’s milt, dried and applied in water to the breasts, promotes the secretion of the milk; and used in the form of a fumigation, it acts as a corrective upon the uterus. A fumigation made with a burnt ass’s hoof, placed beneath a woman, accelerates parturition, so much so, indeed, as to expel the dead fœtus even: hence it is that it should only be employed in cases of miscarriage, it having a fatal effect upon the living fœtus. Asses’ dung, applied fresh, has a wonderful effect, they say, in arresting discharges of blood in females: the same, too, with the ashes of this dung, which, used as a pessary, are very good for the uterus. If the skin is rubbed with the foam from a horse’s mouth for forty days together, before the first hair has made its appearance, it will effectually prevent the growth thereof: a decoction, too, made from deer’s antlers is productive of a similar effect, being all the better if they are used quite fresh. Mares’ milk, used as an injection, is highly beneficial to the uterus.

Where the fœtus is felt to be dead in the uterus, the lichens or excrescences from a horse’s legs, taken in fresh, water, will act as an expellent: an effect produced also by a fumigation made with the hoofs or dry dung of that animal. Procidence of the uterus is arrested by using butter, in the form of an injection; and indurations of that organ are removed by similarly employing ox-gall, with oil of roses, turpentine being applied externally in wool. They say, too, that a fumigation, made from ox-dung, acts as a corrective upon procidence of the uterus, and facilitates parturition; and that conception is promoted by the use of cows’ milk. It is a well-known fact that sterility is often entailed by suffering in child-birth; an evil which may be averted, Olympias of Thebes assures us, by rubbing the parts, before sexual intercourse, with bull’s gall, serpents’ fat, verdigrease, and honey. In cases, too, where menstruation is too abundant, the external parts should be sprinkled with a solution of calf’s gall, the moment before the sexual congress; a method which acts emolliently also upon indurations of the abdomen. Applied to the navel as a liniment, it arrests excessive discharges, and is generally beneficial to the uterus. The proportions generally adopted are—one denarius of gall, one-third of a denarius of opium, and as much oil of almonds as may appear to be requisite; the whole being applied in sheep’s wool. The gall, too, of a bull-calf is beaten up with half the quantity of honey, and kept in readiness for the treatment of uterine diseases. If a woman about the time of conception eats roasted veal with the plant aristolochia,[2391] she will bring forth a male child, we are assured. Calf’s marrow, boiled in wine and water with the suet, and applied as a pessary, is good for ulcerations of the uterus; the same, too, with foxes’ fat and cats’ dung, the last being applied with resin and oil of roses.

It is considered a remarkably good plan to subject the uterus to fumigations made with burnt goats’ horns. The blood of the wild goat, mixed with sea-palm,[2392] acts as a depilatory. The gall of the other kinds of goat, used as an injection, acts emolliently upon callosities of the uterus, and ensures conception immediately after menstruation: it possesses also the virtues of a depilatory, the application being left for three days upon the flesh after the hair has been removed. The midwives assure us that she-goats’ urine, taken in drink, and the dung, applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however much in excess. The membrane in which the kid is enclosed in the uterus, dried and taken in wine, acts as an expellent upon the after-birth. For affections of the uterus, it is thought a desirable plan to fumigate it with burnt kids’ hair; and for discharges of blood, kids’ rennet is administered in drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According to Osthanes, if a woman’s loins are rubbed with blood taken from the ticks upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to sexual intercourse: she will forget, too, her former love, by taking a he-goat’s urine in drink, some nard being mixed with it to disguise the loathsome taste.

CHAP. 78.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.

For infants there is nothing more useful than butter,[2393] either by itself or in combination with honey; for dentition more particularly, for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of the mouth. A wolf’s tooth, attached to the body, prevents infants from being startled, and acts as a preservative against the maladies attendant upon dentition; an effect equally produced by making use of a wolf’s skin. The larger teeth, also, of a wolf, attached to a horse’s neck, will render him proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare’s rennet, applied to the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhœa in the infant suckled by her. An ass’s liver, mixed with a little panax, and dropped into the mouth of an infant, will preserve it from epilepsy and other diseases to which infants are liable; this, however, must be done for forty days, they say. An ass’s skin, too, thrown over infants, renders them insensible to fear. The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as an amulet to infants, facilitate dentition, and are better still, when not allowed to touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox’s milt is administered in honey, and applied topically; and for running ulcers it is used as an application, with honey. A calf’s milt, boiled in wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers of the mouth.

The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the infant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy and other infantile diseases. Goats’ dung, attached to infants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being restless, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of infants with goats’ milk or hare’s brains, dentition is greatly facilitated.

CHAP. 79.—PROVOCATIVES OF SLEEP.

Cato was of opinion that hare’s flesh,[2394] taken as a diet, is provocative of sleep. It is a vulgar notion, too, that this diet confers beauty for nine days on those who use it; a silly play[2395] upon words, no doubt, but a notion which has gained far too extensively not to have had some real foundation. According to the magicians, the gall of a she-goat, but only of one that has been sacrificed, applied to the eyes or placed beneath the pillow, has a narcotic effect. Too profuse perspiration is checked by rubbing the body with ashes of burnt goats’ horns mixed with oil of myrtle.

CHAP. 80.—STIMULANTS FOR THE SEXUAL PASSIONS.

Among the aphrodisiacs, we find mentioned, a wild boar’s gall, applied externally; swine’s marrow, taken inwardly; asses’ fat, mixed with the grease of a gander and applied as a liniment; the virulent substance described by Virgil[2396] as distilling from mares when covered; and the dried testes of a horse, pulverized and mixed with the drink. The right testicle, also, of an ass, is taken in a proportionate quantity of wine, or worn attached to the arm in a bracelet; or else the froth discharged by that animal after covering, collected in a piece of red cloth and enclosed in silver, as Osthanes informs us. Salpe recommends the genitals of this animal to be plunged seven times in boiling oil, and the corresponding parts to be well rubbed therewith. Bialcon[2397] says that these genitals should be reduced to ashes and taken in drink; or else the urine that has been voided by a bull immediately after covering: he recommends, also, that the groin should be well rubbed with earth moistened with this urine.

Mouse-dung, on the other hand, applied in the form of a liniment, acts as an antaphrodisiac. The lights of a wild boar or swine, roasted, are an effectual preservative against drunkenness; they must, however, be eaten fasting, and upon the same day. The lights of a kid, too, are productive of the same effect.

CHAP. 81. (20.)—REMARKABLE FACTS RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.

In addition to those already mentioned, there are various other marvellous facts related, with reference to these animals. When a horse-shoe becomes detached from the hoof, as often is the case, if a person takes it up and puts it by, it will act as a remedy for hiccup the moment he calls to mind the spot where he has placed it. A wolf’s liver, they say, is similar to a horse’s hoof in appearance; and a horse, they tell us, if it follows in the track of a wolf, will burst[2398] asunder beneath its rider. The pastern-bones of swine have a certain tendency to promote discord, it is said. In cases of fire, if some of the dung can be brought away from the stalls, both sheep and oxen may be got out all the more easily, and will make no attempt to return. The flesh of a he-goat will lose its rank smell, if the animal has eaten barley-bread, or drunk an infusion of laser[2399] the day on which it was killed. Meat that has been salted while the moon was on the wane, will never be attacked by worms. In fact, so great has been the care taken to omit no possible researches, that a deaf hare, we find, will grow fat[2400] sooner than one that can hear!

As to the remedies for the diseases of animals—If a beast of burden voids blood, an injection must be used of swine’s dung mixed with wine. For the maladies of oxen, a mixture of suet is used with quicksilver, and wild garlic boiled; the whole beaten up and administered in wine. The fat, too, of a fox is employed. The liquor of boiled horse-flesh, administered in their drink, is recommended for the cure of diseased swine: and, indeed, the maladies of all four-footed beasts may be effectually treated by boiling a she-goat whole, in her skin, along with a bramble-frog. Poultry, they say, will never be touched by a fox, if they have eaten the dried liver of that animal, or if the cock, when treading the hen, has had a piece of fox’s skin about his neck. The same property, too, is attributed to a weazel’s gall. The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said, by swallowing[2401] human excrements: the feet, too, of oxen will never be worn to the quick, if their hoofs are well rubbed with tar before they begin work. Wolves will never approach a field, if, after one has been caught and its legs broken and throat cut, the blood is dropped little by little along the boundaries of the field, and the body buried on the spot from which it was first dragged. The share, too, with which the first furrow in the field has been traced in the current year, should be taken from the plough, and placed upon the hearth of the Lares, where the family is in the habit of meeting, and left there till it is consumed: so long as this is in doing, no wolf will attack any animal in the field.

We will now turn to an examination of those animals which, being neither tame nor wild, are of a nature peculiar to themselves.

SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,[2402] L. Piso,[2403] Fabianus,[2404] Valerius Antias,[2405] Verrius Flaccus,[2406] Cato the Censor,[2407] Servius Sulpicius,[2408] Licinius Macer,[2409] Celsus,[2410] Massurius,[2411] Sextius Niger[2412] who wrote in Greek, Bithus[2413] of Dyrrhachium, Opilius[2414] the physician, Granius[2415] the physician.

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Democritus,[2416] Apollonius[2417] who wrote the “Myrosis,” Miletus,[2418] Artemon,[2419] Sextilius,[2420] Antæus,[2421] Homer, Theophrastus,[2422] Lysimachus,[2423] Attalus,[2424] Xenocrates,[2425] Orpheus[2426] who wrote the “Idiophya,” Archelaüs[2427] who wrote a similar work, Demetrius,[2428] Sotira,[2429] Laïs,[2430] Elephantis,[2431] Salpe,[2432] Olympias[2433] of Thebes, Diotimus[2434] of Thebes, Iollas,[2435] Andreas,[2436] Marcion[2437] of Smyrna, Æschines[2438] the physician, Hippocrates,[2439] Aristotle,[2440] Metrodorus[2441] of Scepsos, Icetidas[2442] the physician, Apelles[2443] the physician, Hesiod,[2444] Dalion,[2445] Cæcilius,[2446] Bion[2447] who wrote “On Powers,”[2448] Anaxilaüs,[2449] King Juba.[2450]