REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.
CHAP. 1. (1.)—THE ORIGIN OF THE MEDICAL ART.
The nature and multiplicity of the various remedies already described
or which still remain to be enlarged upon, compel me to enter upon
some further details with reference to the art of medicine itself:
aware as I am, that no one[2451] has hitherto treated of this subject
in the Latin tongue, and that if all new enterprises are difficult or
of doubtful success, it must be one in particular which is so barren
of all charms to recommend it, and accompanied with such difficulties
of illustration. It will not improbably suggest itself, however, to
those who are familiar with this subject, to make enquiry how it is
that in the practice of medicine the use of simples has been abandoned,
so convenient as they are and so ready prepared to our hand: and they
will be inclined to feel equal surprise and indignation when they are
informed that no known art, lucrative as this is beyond all the rest,
has been more fluctuating, or subjected to more frequent variations.
Commencing by ranking its inventors in the number of the gods,[2452]
and consecrating for them a place in heaven, the art of medicine,
at the present day even, teaches us in numerous instances to have
recourse to the oracles for aid. In more recent times again, the same
art has augmented its celebrity, at the cost perhaps of being charged
with criminality, by devising the fable that Æsculapius was struck by
lightning for presuming to raise Tyndareus[2453] to life. And this
example notwithstanding, it has not hesitated to relate how that
others, through its agency, have since been restored to life. Already
enjoying celebrity in the days of the Trojan War, its traditions from
that period have acquired an additional degree of certainty; although
in those times, we may remark, the healing art confined itself solely
to the treatment of wounds.
CHAP. 2.—PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO HIPPOCRATES. DATE OF THE ORIGINS OF
CLINICAL PRACTICE AND OF THAT OF IATRALIPTICS.
Its succeeding history, a fact that is truly marvellous, remains
enveloped in the densest night, down to the time of the Peloponnesian
War;[2454] at which period it was restored to light by the agency of
Hippocrates, a native of Cos, an island flourishing and powerful in the
highest degree, and consecrated to Æsculapius. It being the practice
for persons who had recovered from a disease to describe in the temple
of that god the remedies to which they had owed their restoration
to health, that others might derive benefit therefrom in a similar
emergency; Hippocrates, it is said, copied out these prescriptions,
and, as our fellow-countryman Varro will have it, after burning the
temple to the ground,[2455] instituted that branch of medical practice
which is known as “Clinics.”[2456] There was no limit after this to
the profits derived from the practice of medicine; for Prodicus,[2457]
a native of Selymbria, one of his disciples, founded the branch of it
known as “Iatraliptics,”[2458] and so discovered a means of enriching
the very anointers even and the commonest drudges[2459] employed by the
physicians.
CHAP. 3.—PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO CHRYSIPPUS AND ERASISTRATUS.
In the rules laid down by these professors, changes were effected by
Chrysippus with a vast parade of words, and, after Chrysippus, by
Erasistratus, son[2460] of the daughter of Aristotle. For the cure of
King Antiochus—to give our first illustration of the profits realized
by the medical art—Erasistratus received from his son, King Ptolemæus,
the sum of one hundred talents.
CHAP. 4.—THE EMPIRIC BRANCH OF MEDICINE.
Another sect again, known as that of the Empirics[2461]—because it
based its rules upon the results of experiment—took its rise in Sicily,
having for its founder Acron of Agrigentum, a man recommended by the
high authority of Empedocles[2462] the physician.
CHAP. 5.—PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO HEROPHILUS AND OTHER CELEBRATED
PHYSICIANS. THE VARIOUS CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE SYSTEM OF
MEDICINE.
These several schools of medicine, long at variance among themselves,
were all of them condemned by Herophilus,[2463] who regulated
the arterial pulsation according to the musical[2464] scale,
correspondingly with the age of the patient. In succeeding years again,
the theories of this sect were abandoned, it being found that to belong
to it necessitated an acquaintance with literature. Changes, too, were
effected in the school, of which, as already[2465] stated, Asclepiades
had become the founder. His disciple, Themison,[2466] who at first in
his writings implicitly followed him, soon afterwards, in compliance
with the growing degeneracy of the age, went so far as to modify
his own methods of treatment; which, in their turn, were entirely
displaced, with the authorization of the late Emperor Augustus, by
Antonius Musa,[2467] a physician who had rescued that prince from a
most dangerous malady, by following a mode of treatment diametrically
opposite.
I pass over in silence many physicians of the very highest celebrity,
the Cassii, for instance, the Calpetani, the Arruntii, and the Rubrii,
men who received fees yearly from the great, amounting to no less
than two hundred and fifty thousand sesterces. As for Q. Stertinius,
he thought that he conferred an obligation upon the emperors in being
content with five hundred thousand[2468] sesterces per annum; and
indeed he proved, by an enumeration of the several houses, that a
city practice would bring him in a yearly income of not less than six
hundred thousand sesterces.
Fully equal to this was the sum lavished upon his brother by Claudius
Cæsar; and the two brothers, although they had drawn largely upon their
fortunes in beautifying the public buildings at Neapolis, left to their
heirs no less than thirty millions of sesterces![2469] such an estate
as no physician but Arruntius had till then possessed.
Next in succession arose Vettius Valens, rendered so notorious by his
adulterous connection[2470] with Messalina, the wife of Claudius Cæsar,
and equally celebrated as a professor of eloquence. When established in
public favour, he became the founder of a new sect.
It was in the same age, too, during the reign of the Emperor Nero,
that the destinies of the medical art passed into the hands of
Thessalus,[2471] a man who swept away all the precepts of his
predecessors, and declaimed with a sort of frenzy against the
physicians of every age; but with what discretion and in what spirit,
we may abundantly conclude from a single trait presented by his
character—upon his tomb, which is still to be seen on the Appian Way,
he had his name inscribed as the “Iatronices”—the “Conqueror of the
Physicians.” No stage-player, no driver of a three-horse chariot, had
a greater throng attending him when he appeared in public: but he was
at last eclipsed in credit by Crinas, a native of Massilia, who, to
wear an appearance of greater discreetness and more devoutness, united
in himself the pursuit of two sciences, and prescribed diets to his
patients in accordance with the movements of the heavenly bodies, as
indicated by the almanacks of the mathematicians, taking observations
himself of the various times and seasons. It was but recently that he
died, leaving ten millions of sesterces, after having expended hardly a
less sum upon building the walls of his native place and of other towns.
It was while these men were ruling our destinies, that all at once,
Charmis, a native also of Massilia, took[2472] the City by surprise.
Not content with condemning the practice of preceding physicians, he
proscribed the use of warm baths as well, and persuaded people, in the
very depth of winter even, to immerse themselves in cold water. His
patients he used to plunge into large vessels filled with cold water,
and it was a common thing to see aged men of consular rank make it a
matter of parade to freeze themselves; a method of treatment, in favour
of which Annæus[2473] Seneca gives his personal testimony, in writings
still extant.
There can be no doubt whatever, that all these men, in the pursuit of
celebrity by the introduction of some novelty or other, made purchase
of it at the downright expense of human life. Hence those woeful
discussions, those consultations at the bed-side of the patient, where
no one thinks fit to be of the same opinion as another, lest he may
have the appearance of being subordinate to another; hence, too, that
ominous inscription to be read upon a tomb, “It was the multitude of
physicians that killed me.”[2474]
The medical art, so often modified and renewed as it has been, is still
on the change from day to day, and still are we impelled onwards by
the puffs[2475] which emanate from the ingenuity of the Greeks. It is
quite evident too, that every one among them that finds himself skilled
in the art of speech, may forthwith create himself the arbiter of our
life and death: as though, forsooth, there were not thousands[2476]
of nations who live without any physicians at all, though not, for
all that, without the aid of medicine. Such, for instance, was the
Roman[2477] people, for a period of more than six hundred years; a
people, too, which has never shown itself slow to adopt all useful
arts, and which even welcomed the medical art with avidity, until,
after a fair experience of it, there was found good reason to condemn
it.
CHAP. 6.—WHO FIRST PRACTISED AS A PHYSICIAN AT ROME, AND AT WHAT PERIOD.
And, indeed, it appears to me not amiss to take the present opportunity
of reviewing some remarkable facts in the days of our forefathers
connected with this subject. Cassius Hemina,[2478] one of our most
ancient writers, says that the first physician that visited Rome was
Archagathus, the son of Lysanias, who came over from Peloponnesus, in
the year of the City 535, L. Æmilius and M. Livius being consuls. He
states also, that the right of free citizenship[2479] was granted him,
and that he had a shop[2480] provided for his practice at the public
expense in the Acilian Cross-way;[2481] that from his practice he
received the name of “Vulnerarius;”[2482] that on his arrival he was
greatly welcomed at first, but that soon afterwards, from the cruelty
displayed by him in cutting and searing his patients, he acquired the
new name of “Carnifex,”[2483] and brought his art and physicians in
general into considerable disrepute.
That such was the fact, we may readily understand from the words of M.
Cato, a man whose authority stands so high of itself, that but little
weight is added to it by the triumph[2484] which he gained, and the
Censorship which he held. I shall, therefore, give his own words in
reference to this subject.
CHAP. 7.—THE OPINIONS ENTERTAINED BY THE ROMANS ON THE ANCIENT
PHYSICIANS.
“Concerning those Greeks, son Marcus, I will speak to you more at
length on the befitting occasion. I will show you the results of my
own experience at Athens, and that, while it is a good plan to dip
into their literature,[2485] it is not worth while to make a thorough
acquaintance with it. They are a most iniquitous and intractable
race, and you may take my word as the word of a prophet, when I tell
you, that whenever that nation shall bestow its literature upon Rome
it will mar everything; and that all the sooner, if it sends its
physicians among us. They have conspired among themselves to murder all
barbarians with their medicine; a profession which they exercise for
lucre, in order that they may win our confidence,[2486] and dispatch
us all the more easily. They are in the common habit, too, of calling
us barbarians, and stigmatize us beyond all other nations, by giving
us the abominable appellation of Opici.[2487] I forbid you to have
anything to do with physicians.”
CHAP. 8.—EVILS ATTENDANT UPON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.
Cato, who wrote to this effect, died in his eighty-fifth year, in the
year of the City 605; so that no one is to suppose that he had not
sufficient time to form his experience, either with reference to the
duration of the republic, or the length of his own life. Well then—are
we to conclude that he has stamped with condemnation a thing that
in itself is most useful? Far from it, by Hercules! for he subjoins
an account of the medical prescriptions, by the aid of which he had
ensured to himself and to his wife a ripe old age; prescriptions[2488]
upon which we are now about to enlarge. He asserts also that he has a
book of recipes in his possession, by the aid of which he treats the
maladies of his son, his servants, and his friends; a book from which
we have extracted the various prescriptions according to the several
maladies for which they are employed.
It was not the thing itself that the ancients condemned, but it was
the art as then practised, and they were shocked, more particularly,
that man should pay so dear for the enjoyment of life. For this reason
it was, they say, that the Temple of Æsculapius even after he was
received as a divinity, was built without the City, and afterwards
on an island;[2489] for this reason, too, it was, that when, long
after the time of Cato, the Greeks were expelled from Italy, the
physicians were not[2490] exempted from the decree. And here I
will[2491] improve upon the foresight displayed by them. Medicine is
the only one of the arts of Greece, that, lucrative as it is, the Roman
gravity has hitherto refused to cultivate. It is but very few of our
fellow-citizens that have even attempted it, and so soon as ever they
have done so, they have become deserters to the Greeks forthwith.[2492]
Nay, even more than this, if they attempt to treat of it in any other
language than Greek, they are sure to lose all credit, with the most
ignorant even, and those who do not understand a word of Greek; there
being all the less confidence felt by our people in that which so
nearly concerns their welfare, if it happens to be intelligible to
them. In fact, this is the only one of all the arts, by Hercules! in
which the moment a man declares[2493] himself to be an adept, he is at
once believed, there being at the same time no imposture, the results
of which are more fraught with peril. To all this, however, we give no
attention, so seductive is the sweet influence of the hope entertained
of his ultimate recovery by each.
And then besides, there is no law in existence whereby to punish the
ignorance of physicians, no instance before us of capital punishment
inflicted. It is at the expense of our perils that they learn, and
they experimentalize by putting us to death, a physician being the
only person that can kill another with sovereign impunity. Nay, even
more than this, all the blame is thrown upon the sick man only; he
is accused of disobedience forthwith, and it is the person who is
dead and gone that is put upon his trial. It is the usage at Rome for
the decuries[2494] to pass examination under the censorship of the
emperor, and for inquisitions to be made at our party-walls[2495] even:
persons who are to sit in judgment on our monetary matters are sent for
to Gades[2496] and the very Pillars of Hercules; while a question of
exile is never entertained without a panel of forty-five men selected
for the purpose.[2497] But when it is the judge’s own life that is at
stake, who are the persons that are to hold council upon it, but those
who the very next moment are about to take it!
And yet so it is, that we only meet with our deserts, no one of us
feeling the least anxiety to know what is necessary for his own
welfare. We walk[2498] with the feet of other people, we see with
the eyes of other people, trusting to the memory of others we salute
one another, and it is by the aid of others that we live. The most
precious objects of existence, and the chief supports[2499] of life,
are entirely lost to us, and we have nothing left but our pleasures
to call our own. I will not leave Cato exposed to the hatred of a
profession so ambitious as this, nor yet that senate which judged as he
did, but at the same time I will pursue my object without wresting to
my purpose the cries practised by its adepts, as some might naturally
expect. For what profession has there been more fruitful in poisonings,
or from which there have emanated more frauds upon wills? And then,
too, what adulteries have been committed, in the very houses of our
princes even! the intrigue of Eudemus,[2500] for example, with Livia,
the wife of Drusus Cæsar, and that of Valens with the royal lady
previous mentioned.[2501] Let us not impute these evils, I say, to the
art, but to the men who practise it; for Cato, I verily believe, as
little apprehended such practices as these in the City, as he did the
presence of royal ladies[2502] there.
I will not accuse the medical art of the avarice even of its
professors, the rapacious bargains made with their patients while
their fate is trembling in the balance, the tariffs framed upon their
agonies, the monies taken as earnest for the dispatching of patients,
or the mysterious secrets of the craft. I will not mention how that
cataract must be couched[2503] only, in the eye, in preference to
extracting it at once—practices, all of them, which have resulted
in one very great advantage, by alluring hither such a multitude of
adventurers; it being no moderation on their part, but the rivalry
existing between such numbers of practitioners, that keeps their
charges within moderation. It is a well-known fact that Charmis, the
physician[2504] already mentioned, made a bargain with a patient of his
in the provinces, that he should have two hundred thousand sesterces
for the cure; that the Emperor Claudius extorted from Alcon, the
surgeon,[2505] ten millions of sesterces by way of fine; and that the
same man, after being recalled from his exile in Gaul, acquired a sum
equally large in the course of a few years.
These are faults, however, which must be imputed to individuals only;
and it is not my intention to waste reproof upon the dregs of the
medical profession, or to call attention to the ignorance displayed by
that crew,[2506] the violation of all regimen in their treatment of
disease, the evasions practised in the use of warm baths, the strict
diet they imperiously prescribe, the food that is crammed into these
same patients, exhausted as they are, several times a day; together
with a thousand other methods of showing how quick they are to change
their mind, their precepts for the regulation of the kitchen, and their
recipes for the composition of unguents, it being one grand object with
them to lose sight of none of the usual incitements to sensuality. The
importation of foreign merchandize, and the introduction of tariffs
settled by foreigners,[2507] would have been highly displeasing to our
ancestors, I can readily imagine; but it was not these inconveniences
that Cato had in view, when he spoke thus strongly in condemnation of
the medical art.
“Theriace”[2508] is the name given to a preparation devised by luxury;
a composition formed of six hundred[2509] different ingredients; and
this while Nature has bestowed upon us such numbers of remedies, each
of which would have fully answered the purpose employed by itself! The
Mithridatic[2510] antidote is composed of four and fifty ingredients,
none of which are used in exactly the same proportion, and the
quantity prescribed is in some cases so small as the sixtieth part
of one denarius! Which of the gods, pray, can have instructed man in
such trickery as this, a height to which the mere subtlety of human
invention could surely never have reached? it clearly must emanate
from a vain ostentation of scientific skill and must be set down as a
monstrous system of puffing off the medical art.
And yet, after all, the physicians themselves do not understand this
branch of their profession; and I have ascertained that it is a common
thing for them to put mineral vermilion[2511] in their medicines, a
rank poison, as I shall have occasion[2512] to show when I come to
speak of the pigments, in place of Indian cinnabar, and all because
they mistake the name of the one drug for that of the other! These,
however, are errors which only concern the health of individuals, while
it is the practices which Cato foresaw and dreaded, less dangerous in
themselves and little regarded, practices, in fact, which the leading
men in the art do not hesitate to avow, that have wrought[2513] the
corruption of the manners of our empire.
The practices I allude to are those to which, while enjoying robust
health, we submit: such, for instance, as rubbing the body with wax and
oil,[2514] a preparation for a wrestling match, by rights, but which,
these men pretend, was invented as a preservative of health; the use
of hot baths, which are necessary, they have persuaded us, for the
proper digestion of the food, baths which no one ever leaves without
being all the weaker for it, and from which the more submissive of
their patients are only carried to the tomb; potions taken fasting;
vomits to clear the stomach, and then a series of fresh drenchings
with drink; emasculation, self-inflicted by the use of pitch-plasters
as depilatories; the public exposure, too, of even the most delicate
parts of the female body for the prosecution of these practices. Most
assuredly so it is, the contagion which has seized upon the public
morals, has had no more fertile source than the medical art, and
it continues, day by day even, to justify the claims of Cato to be
considered a prophet and an oracle of wisdom, in that assertion of his,
that it is quite sufficient to dip into the records of Greek genius,
without becoming thoroughly acquainted with them.
Such then is what may be said in justification of the senate and of
the Roman people, during that period of six hundred years in which
they manifested such repugnance to an art, by the most insidious terms
of which, good men are made to lend their credit and authority to the
very worst, and so strongly entered their protest against the silly
persuasions entertained by those, who fancy that nothing can benefit
them but what is coupled with high price.
I entertain no doubt, too, that there will be found some to express
their disgust at the particulars which I am about to give, in relation
to animals: and yet Virgil himself has not disdained—when, too, there
was no necessity for his doing so—to speak of ants and weevils,
“And nests by beetles made that shun the light.”[2515]
Homer,[2516] too, amid his description of the battles of the gods, has
not disdained to remark upon the voracity of the common fly; nor has
Nature, she who engendered man, thought it beneath her to engender
these insects as well. Let each then make it his care, not so much to
regard the thing itself, as to rightly appreciate in each case the
cause and its effects.
CHAP. 9.—THIRTY-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WOOL.
I shall begin then with some remedies that are well known, those
namely, which are derived from wool and from the eggs of birds,
thus giving due honour to those substances which hold the principal
place in the estimation of mankind; though at the same time I shall
be necessitated to speak of some others out of their proper place,
according as occasion may offer. I should not have been at a loss
for high-flown language with which to grace my narrative, had I made
it my design to regard anything else than what, as being strictly
trustworthy,[2517] becomes my work: for among the very first remedies
mentioned, we find those said to be derived from the ashes and nest
of the phœnix,[2518] as though, forsooth, its existence were a well
ascertained fact, and not altogether a fable. And then besides, it
would be a mere mockery to describe remedies that can only return to us
once in a thousand years.
(2.) The ancient Romans attributed to wool a degree of religious
importance even, and it was in this spirit that they enjoined that the
bride should touch the door-posts of her husband’s house with wool. In
addition to dress and protection from the cold, wool, in an unwashed
state, used in combination with oil, and wine or vinegar, supplies us
with numerous remedies, according as we stand in need of an emollient
or an excitant, an astringent or a laxative. Wetted from time to
time with these liquids, greasy wool is applied to sprained limbs,
and to sinews that are suffering from pain. In the case of sprains,
some persons are in the habit of adding salt, while others, again,
apply pounded rue and grease, in wool: the same, too, in the case of
contusions or tumours. Wool will improve the breath, it is said, if the
teeth and gums are rubbed with it, mixed with honey; it is very good,
too, for phrenitis,[2519] used as a fumigation. To arrest bleeding at
the nose, wool is introduced into the nostrils with oil of roses; or it
is used in another manner, the ears being well plugged with it. In the
case of inveterate ulcers it is applied topically with honey: soaked in
wine or vinegar, or in cold water and oil, and then squeezed out, it is
used for the cure of wounds.
Rams’ wool, washed in cold water, and steeped in oil, is used for
female complaints, and to allay inflammations of the uterus. Procidence
of the uterus is reduced by using this wool in the form of a
fumigation. Greasy wool, used as a plaster and as a pessary, brings
away the dead fœtus, and arrests uterine discharges. Bites inflicted
by a mad dog are plugged with unwashed wool, and the application being
removed at the end of seven days. Applied with cold water, it is a
cure for agnails: steeped in a mixture of boiling nitre, sulphur, oil,
vinegar, and tar, and applied twice a day, as warm as possible, it
allays pains in the loins. By making ligatures with unwashed rams’ wool
about the extremities of the limbs, bleeding is effectually stopped.
In all cases, the wool most esteemed is that from the neck of the
animal; the best kinds of wool being those of Galatia, Tarentum,
Attica, and Miletus. For excoriations, blows, bruises, contusions,
crushes, galls, falls, pains in the head and other parts, and for
inflammation of the stomach, unwashed wool is applied, with a mixture
of vinegar and oil of roses. Reduced to ashes, it is applied to
contusions, wounds, and burns, and forms an ingredient in ophthalmic
compositions. It is employed, also, for fistulas and suppurations of
the ears. For this last purpose, some persons take the wool as it
is shorn, while others pluck it from the fleece; they then cut off
the ends of it, and after drying and carding it, lay it in pots of
unbaked earth, steep it well in honey, and burn it. Others, again,
arrange it in layers alternately with chips of torch-pine,[2520]
and, after sprinkling it with oil, set fire to it: they then rub the
ashes into small vessels with the hands, and let them settle in water
there. This operation is repeated and the water changed several times,
until at last the ashes are found to be slightly astringent, without
the slightest pungency; upon which, they are put by for use, being
possessed of certain caustic properties,[2521] and extremely useful as
a detergent the eyelids.
CHAP. 10.—THIRTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WOOL-GREASE.
And not only this, but the filthy excretions even of sheep, the sweat
adhering to the wool of the flanks and of the axillary concavities—a
substance known as “œsypum”[2522]—are applied to purposes almost
innumerable; the grease produced by the sheep of Attica being the most
highly esteemed. There are numerous ways of obtaining it, but the most
approved method is to take the wool, fresh clipped from those parts of
the body, or else the sweat and grease collected from any part of the
fleece, and boil it gently in a copper vessel upon a slow fire: this
done, it is left to cool, and the fat which floats upon the surface
collected into an earthen vessel. The material originally used is then
subjected to another boiling, and the two results are washed in cold
water; after which, they are strained through a linen cloth and exposed
to the sun till they become bleached and quite transparent, and are
then put by in a pewter box for keeping.
The best proof of its genuineness is its retention of the strong smell
of the original grease, and its not melting when rubbed with water
upon the hand, but turning white, like white-lead in appearance.
This substance is extremely useful for inflammations of the eyes and
indurations of the eyelids. Some persons bake the wool in an earthen
pot, until it has lost all its grease, and are of opinion that,
prepared this way, it is a more useful remedy for excoriations and
indurations of the eyelids, for eruptions at the corners of the eyes,
and for watery eyes. And not only does this grease heal ulcerations
of the eyes, but, mixed with goose-grease, of the ears and generative
organs as well; in combination also with melilote and butter, it is
a cure for inflammations of the uterus, and for excoriations of the
rectum and condylomata. The other uses to which it is applied, we shall
detail on a more appropriate occasion.
The grease, too, of the wool about the tail is made up into pills,
unmixed with any substance: these pills are dried and pulverized, being
an excellent application for the teeth, when loose even, and for the
gums, when attacked by spreading ulcers of a cancerous nature. Sheep’s
wool, too, cleaned, is applied by itself, or with the addition of
sulphur, for dull, heavy pains, and the ashes of it, burnt, are used
for diseases of the generative organs: indeed, this wool is possessed
of such sovereign virtues, that it is used as a covering for medicinal
applications even. It is also an especial remedy for the sheep itself,
when it has lost its stomach, and refuses to feed; for, upon plucking
some wool from the tail, and then tying the tail therewith, as tight
as possible, the sheep will fall to feeding immediately. It is said
however, that the part of the tail which lies beyond the knot so made
will quickly mortify and die.
CHAP. 11. (3.)—TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM EGGS.
There is a considerable affinity also between wool and eggs, which
are applied together as a frontal to the forehead by way of cure
for defluxions of the eyes. Wool, however, is not required for this
purpose to have been dressed with radicula,[2523] the only thing
requisite to be combined with it being the white of an egg and powdered
frankincense. The white of an egg, also applied by itself, arrests
defluxions of the eyes, and has a cooling effect upon inflammations of
those organs: some, however, prefer mixing saffron with it, and employ
it as an ingredient in eye-salves, in place of water. For ophthalmia
in infants there is hardly any remedy to be found, except white of egg
mixed with fresh butter. Eggs beaten up with oil, are very soothing for
erysipelas, beet leaves being laid on the liniment.
White of egg, mixed with pounded gum ammoniac, is used as a bandoline
for arranging the hairs of the eyelids; and, in combination with
pine-nuts and a little honey, it forms a liniment for the removal
of pimples on the face. If the face is well rubbed with it, it will
never be sun-burnt. If, the moment the flesh has been scalded, an egg
is applied, no blisters will form: some persons, however, mix with
it barley-meal and a little salt. In cases of ulceration formed by
burns, there is nothing better than parched barley and hogs’ lard,
mixed with the white of an egg. The same mixture is also used as an
application for diseases of the rectum, in infants even, and in cases,
too, when there is procidence of those parts. For the cure of chaps
upon the feet, white of eggs is boiled, with two denarii of white
lead, an equal quantity of litharge, a little myrrh, and some wine.
For the cure of erysipelas they use the whites of three eggs with
amylum:[2524] it is said, too, that white of egg has the effect of
knitting wounds and of expelling urinary calculi. The yolk of eggs
boiled hard, applied in woman’s milk with a little saffron and honey,
has a soothing effect upon pains in the eyes. The yolk is applied also
to the eyes in wool, mixed with honied wine and oil of roses: or else
mixed with ground parsley-seed and polenta, and applied with honied
wine. The yolk of a single egg, swallowed raw by itself without being
allowed to touch the teeth, is remarkably good for cough, defluxions
of the chest, and irritations of the fauces. It is used, too, both
internally and externally, in a raw state, as a sovereign cure for
the sting of the hæmorrhoïs;[2525] and it is highly beneficial for
the kidneys, for irritations and ulcerations of the bladder, and for
bloody expectorations. For dysentery, the yolks of five eggs are taken
raw in one semi-sextarius of wine, mixed with the ashes of the shells,
poppy-juice, and wine.
For cœliac fluxes, it is recommended to take the yolks of eggs, with
like proportions of pulpy raisins and pomegranate rind, in equal
quantities, for three consecutive days; or else to follow another
method, and take the yolks of three eggs, with three ounces of old
bacon and honey, and three cyathi of old wine; the whole being beaten
up to the consistency of honey, and taken in water, when needed, in
pieces the size of a hazel nut. In some cases, too, the yolks of three
eggs are fried in oil, the whole of the egg having been steeped a day
previously in vinegar. It is in this way that eggs are used for the
treatment of spleen diseases; but for spitting of blood, they should
be taken with three cyathi of must. Yolk of egg is used, too, for the
cure of bruises of long standing, in combination with bulbs and honey.
Boiled and taken in wine, yolks of eggs arrest menstruation: applied
raw with oil or wine, they dispel inflations of the uterus. Mixed with
goose-grease and oil of roses, they are useful for crick in the neck;
and they are hardened over the fire, and applied warm, for the cure of
maladies of the rectum. For condylomata, eggs are used in combination
with oil of roses; and for the treatment of burns, they are hardened
in water, and set upon hot coals till the shells are burnt, the yellow
being used as a liniment with oil of roses.
Eggs become entirely transformed into yolk, on being removed after the
hen has sat upon them for three days; in which state they are known by
the name of “sitista.”[2526] The chicks that are found within the shell
are used for strengthening a disordered stomach, being eaten with half
a nut-gall, and no other food taken for the next two hours. They are
given also for dysentery, boiled in the egg with one semi-sextarius
of astringent wine, and an equal quantity of olive oil and polenta.
The pellicle that lines the shell is used, either raw or boiled, for
the cure of cracked lips; and the shell itself, reduced to ashes, is
taken in wine for discharges of blood: care must be taken, however, to
burn it without the pellicle. In the same way, too, a dentifrice is
prepared. The ashes of the shell, applied topically with myrrh, arrest
menstruation when in excess. So remarkably strong is the shell of an
egg, that if it is set upright, no force or weight can break it, unless
a slight inclination be made to one side or other of the circumference.
Eggs taken whole in wine, with rue, dill, and cummin, facilitate
parturition. Used with oil and cedar-resin, they remove itch and
prurigo, and, applied in combination with cyclaminos,[2527] they are
remedial for running ulcers of the head. For purulent expectorations
and spitting of blood, a raw egg is taken, warmed with juice of
cut-leek and an equal quantity of Greek honey. For coughs, eggs are
administered, boiled and beaten up with honey, or else raw, with raisin
wine and an equal quantity of olive oil. For diseases of the male
organs, an injection is made, of an egg, three cyathi of raisin wine,
and half an ounce of amylum,[2528] the mixture being used immediately
after the bath. Where injuries have been inflicted by serpents, boiled
eggs are used as a liniment, beaten up with nasturtium.
In what various ways eggs are used as food is well known to all,
passing downwards, however swollen the throat may be, and warming
the parts as they pass. Eggs, too, are the only diet which, while it
affords nutriment in sickness, does not load the stomach, possessing
at the same moment all the advantages both of food and drink. We have
already[2529] stated, that the shell of an egg becomes soft when
steeped in vinegar: it is by the aid of eggs thus prepared, and kneaded
up with meal into bread, that patients suffering from the cœliac flux
are often restored to strength. Some, however, think it a better plan
to roast the eggs, when thus softened, in a shallow pan; a method, by
the aid of which, they arrest not only looseness of the bowels, but
excessive menstruation as well. In cases, again, where the discharges
are greatly in excess, eggs are taken raw, with meal, in water. The
yolks, too, are employed alone, boiled hard in vinegar and roasted with
ground pepper, when wanted to arrest diarrhœa.
For dysentery, there is a sovereign remedy, prepared in the following
manner: an egg is emptied into a new earthen vessel, which done, in
order that all the proportions may be equal, fill the shell, first with
honey, then with oil, and then with vinegar; beat them up together,
and thoroughly incorporate them: the better the quality of the several
ingredients, the more efficacious the mixture will be. Others, again,
instead of oil and vinegar, use the same proportions of red resin and
wine. There is also another way of making up this preparation: the
proportion of oil, and of that only, remains the same, and to it they
add two sixtieth parts of a denarius of the vegetable which we have
spoken of under the name of “rhus,”[2530] and five oboli of honey. All
these ingredients are boiled down together, and no food is eaten by
the patient till the end of four hours after taking the mixture. Many
persons, too, have a cure for griping pains in the bowels, by beating
up two eggs with four cloves of garlick, and administering them, warmed
in one semi-sextarius of wine.
Not to omit anything in commendation of eggs, I would here add that
glair of egg, mixed with quicklime, unites broken[2531] glass. Indeed,
so great is the efficacy of the substance of an egg, that wood dipped
in it will not take fire, and cloth with which it has come in contact
will not ignite.[2532] On this occasion, however, it is only of the
eggs of poultry that I have been speaking, though those of the various
other birds as well are possessed of many useful properties, as I shall
have to mention on the appropriate occasions.
CHAP. 12.—SERPENTS’ EGGS.
In addition to the above, there is another kind of egg,[2533] held in
high renown by the people of the Gallic provinces, but totally omitted
by the Greek writers. In summer[2534] time, numberless snakes become
artificially entwined together, and form rings around their bodies with
the viscous slime which exudes from their mouths, and with the foam
secreted by them: the name given to this substance is “anguinum.”[2535]
The Druids tell us, that the serpents eject these eggs into the air by
their hissing,[2536] and that a person must be ready to catch them in
a cloak, so as not to let them touch the ground; they say also that he
must instantly take to flight on horseback, as the serpents will be
sure to pursue him, until some intervening river has placed a barrier
between them. The test of its genuineness, they say, is its floating
against the current of a stream, even though it be set in gold. But, as
it is the way with magicians to be dexterous and cunning in casting a
veil about their frauds, they pretend that these eggs can only be taken
on a certain day of the moon; as though, forsooth, it depended entirely
upon the human will to make the moon and the serpents accord as to the
moment of this operation.
I myself, however, have seen one of these eggs: it was round, and about
as large as an apple of moderate size; the shell[2537] of it was formed
of a cartilaginous substance, and it was surrounded with numerous
cupules, as it were, resembling those upon the arms of the polypus:
it is held in high estimation among the Druids. The possession of it
is marvellously vaunted as ensuring success[2538] in law-suits, and
a favourable reception with princes; a notion which has been so far
belied, that a Roman of equestrian rank, a native of the territory
of the Vocontii,[2539] who, during a trial, had one of these eggs in
his bosom, was slain by the late Emperor Tiberius, and for no other
reason, that I know of, but because he was in possession of it. It is
this entwining of serpents with one another, and the fruitful results
of this unison, that seem to me to have given rise to the usage among
foreign nations, of surrounding the caduceus[2540] with representations
of serpents, as so many symbols of peace—it must be remembered, too,
that on the caduceus, serpents are never[2541] represented as having
crests.
CHAP. 13.—THE METHOD OF PREPARING COMMAGENUM. FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED
FROM IT.
Having to make mention, in the present Book, of the eggs of the goose
and the numerous uses to which they are applied, as also of the bird
itself, it is our duty to award the honour to Commagene[2542] of a
most celebrated preparation there made. This composition is prepared
from goose-grease, a substance applied to many other well-known uses
as well; but in the case of that which comes from Commagene, a part of
Syria, the grease is first incorporated with cinnamon, cassia,[2543]
white pepper, and the plant called “commagene,”[2544] and then placed
in vessels and buried in the snow. The mixture has an agreeable smell,
and is found extremely useful for cold shiverings, convulsions, heavy
or sudden pains, and all those affections, in fact, which are treated
with the class of remedies known as “acopa;”[2545] being equally an
unguent and a medicament.
There is another method, also, of preparing it in Syria: the fat of
the bird is preserved in manner already[2546] described, and there is
added to it erysisceptrum,[2547] xylobalsamum,[2548] palm elate,[2549]
and calamus, each in the same proportion as the grease; the whole being
gently boiled some two or three times in wine. This preparation is made
in winter, as in summer it will never thicken, except with the addition
of wax. There are numerous other remedies, also, derived from the
goose, as well as from the raven;[2550] a thing I am much surprised at,
seeing that both the goose and the raven[2551] are generally said to be
in a diseased state at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
CHAP. 14. (4.)—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE DOG.
We have already[2552] spoken of the honours earned by the geese, when
the Gauls were detected in their attempt to scale the Capitol. It is
for a corresponding reason, also, that punishment is yearly inflicted
upon the dogs, by crucifying them alive upon a gibbet of elder, between
the Temple of Juventas[2553] and that of Summanus.[2554]
In reference to this last-mentioned animal, the usages of our
forefathers compel us to enter into some further details. They
considered the flesh of sucking whelps to be so pure a meat, that they
were in the habit of using them as victims even in their expiatory
sacrifices. A young whelp, too, is sacrificed to Genita Mana;[2555]
and, at the repasts celebrated in honour of the gods, it is still
the usage to set whelps’ flesh on table; at the inaugural feasts,
too, of the pontiffs, this dish was in common use, as we learn from
the Comedies[2556] of Plautus. It is generally thought that for
narcotic[2557] poisons there is nothing better than dogs’ blood; and
it would appear that it was this animal that first taught man the use
of emetics. Other medicinal uses of the dog which are marvellously
commended, I shall have occasion to refer to on the appropriate
occasions.
CHAP. 15.—REMEDIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE DIFFERENT MALADIES.
REMEDIES FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY SERPENTS. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MICE.
We will now resume the order originally proposed.[2558] For stings
inflicted by serpents fresh sheeps’-dung, boiled in wine, is considered
a very useful application: as also mice split asunder and applied
to the wound. Indeed, these last animals are possessed of certain
properties by no means to be despised, at the ascension of the planets
more particularly, as already[2559] stated; the lobes increasing or
decreasing in number, with the age of the moon, as the case may be.
The magicians have a story that swine will follow any person who gives
them a mouse’s liver to eat, enclosed in a fig: they say, too, that it
has a similar effect upon man, but that the spell may be destroyed by
swallowing a cyathus of oil.
CHAP. 16.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE WEASEL.
There are two varieties of the weasel; the one, wild,[2560] larger than
the other, and known to the Greeks as the “ictis:” its gall is said to
be very efficacious as an antidote to the sting of the asp, but of a
venomous nature in other respects.[2561] The other kind,[2562] which
prowls about our houses, and is in the habit, Cicero tells us,[2563] of
removing its young ones, and changing every day from place to place,
is an enemy to serpents. The flesh of this last, preserved in salt, is
given, in doses of one denarius, in three cyathi of drink to persons
who have been stung by serpents: or else the maw of the animal is
stuffed with coriander seed and dried, to be taken for the same purpose
in wine. The young one of the weasel is still more efficacious for
these purposes.
CHAP. 17.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BUGS.
There are some things, of a most revolting nature, but which are
recommended by authors with such a degree of assurance, that it would
be improper to omit them, the more particularly as it is to the
sympathy or antipathy of objects that remedies owe their existence.
Thus the bug, for instance, a most filthy insect, and one the very name
of which inspires us with loathing, is said to be a neutralizer of the
venom of serpents, asps in particular, and to be a preservative against
all kinds of poisons. As a proof of this, they tell us that the sting
of an asp is never fatal to poultry, if they have eaten bugs that day;
and that, if such is the case, their flesh is remarkably beneficial to
persons who have been stung by serpents. Of the various recipes[2564]
given in reference to these insects, the least revolting are the
application of them externally to the wound, with the blood of a
tortoise; the employment of them as a fumigation to make leeches loose
their hold; and the administering of them to animals in drink when a
leech has been accidentally swallowed. Some persons, however, go so far
as to crush bugs with salt and woman’s milk, and anoint the eyes with
the mixture; in combination, too, with honey and oil of roses, they use
them as an injection for the ears. Field-bugs, again, and those found
upon the mallow,[2565] are burnt, and the ashes mixed with oil of roses
as an injection for the ears.
As to the other remedial virtues attributed to bugs, for the cure
of vomiting, quartan fevers, and other diseases, although we find
recommendations given to swallow them in an egg, some wax, or in a
bean, I look upon them as utterly unfounded, and not worthy of further
notice. They are employed, however, for the treatment of lethargy, and
with some fair reason, as they successfully neutralize the narcotic
effects of the poison of the asp: for this purpose seven of them are
administered in a cyathus of water, but in the case of children only
four. In cases, too, of strangury, they have been injected into the
urinary channel:[2566] so true it is that Nature, that universal
parent, has engendered nothing without some powerful reason or other.
In addition to these particulars, a couple of bugs, it is said,
attached to the left arm in some wool that has been stolen from
the shepherds, will effectually cure nocturnal fevers; while those
recurrent in the daytime may be treated with equal success by enclosing
the bugs in a piece of russet-coloured cloth. The scolopendra, on the
other hand, is a great enemy to these insects; used in the form of a
fumigation, it kills them.
CHAP. 18.—PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE ASP.
The sting of the asp takes deadly effect by causing torpor and
drowsiness. Of all serpents, injuries inflicted by the asp are the
most incurable; and their venom, if it comes in contact with the blood
or a recent wound, produces instantaneous death. If, on the other
hand, it touches an old sore, its fatal effects are not so immediate.
Taken internally, in however large a quantity, the venom is not
injurious,[2567] as it has no corrosive properties; for which reason it
is that the flesh of animals killed by it may be eaten with impunity.
I should hesitate in giving circulation to a prescription for
injuries inflicted by the asp, were it not that M. Varro, then in the
eighty-third year of his age, has left a statement to the effect that
it is a most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted by this reptile, for
the person stung to drink his own urine.
CHAP. 19.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BASILISK.
As to the basilisk,[2568] a creature which the very serpents fly from,
which kills by its odour even, and which proves fatal to man by only
looking upon him, its blood has been marvellously extolled by the
magicians.[2569] This blood is thick and adhesive, like pitch, which
it resembles also in colour: dissolved in water, they say, it becomes
of a brighter red than that of cinnabar. They attribute to it also the
property of ensuring success to petitions preferred to potentates, and
to prayers even offered to the gods; and they regard it as a remedy for
various diseases, and as an amulet preservative against all noxious
spells. Some give it the name of “Saturn’s blood.”
CHAP. 20.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE DRAGON.
The dragon[2570] is a serpent destitute of venom. Its head, placed
beneath the threshold of a door, the gods being duly propitiated by
prayers, will ensure good fortune to the house, it is said. Its eyes,
dried and beaten up with honey, form a liniment which is an effectual
preservative against the terrors of spectres by night, in the case of
the most timorous even. The fat adhering to the heart, attached to the
arm with a deer’s sinews in the skin of a gazelle, will ensure success
in law-suits, it is said; and the first joint of the vertebræ will
secure an easy access to persons high in office. The teeth, attached
to the body with a deer’s sinews in the skin of a roe-buck, have the
effect of rendering masters indulgent and potentates gracious, it is
said.
But the most remarkable thing of all is a composition, by the aid of
which the lying magicians profess to render persons invincible. They
take the tail and head of a dragon, the hairs of a lion’s forehead with
the marrow of that animal, the foam of a horse that has won a race, and
the claws of a dog’s feet: these they tie up together in a deer’s skin,
and fasten them alternately with the sinews of a deer and a gazelle. It
is, however, no better worth our while to refute such pretensions as
these, than it would be to describe the alleged remedies for injuries
inflicted by serpents, seeing that all these contrivances are so many
evil devices to poison[2571] men’s morals.
Dragon’s fat will repel venomous creatures; an effect which is equally
produced by burning the fat of the ichneumon.[2572] They will take to
flight, also, at the approach of a person who has been rubbed with
nettles bruised in vinegar.
CHAP. 21.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VIPER.
The application of a viper’s head, even if it be not the one that has
inflicted the wound, is of infinite utility as a remedy. It is highly
advantageous, too, to hold the viper that inflicted the injury on the
end of a stick, over the steam of boiling water, for it will quite
undo[2573] the mischief, they say. The ashes, also, of the viper, are
considered very useful, employed as a liniment for the wound. According
to what Nigidius tells us, serpents are compelled, by a sort of natural
instinct, to return to the person who has been stung by them. The
people of Scythia split the viper’s head between the ears, in order to
extract a small stone,[2574] which it swallows in its alarm, they say:
others, again, use the head entire.
From the viper are prepared those tablets which are known as
“theriaci”[2575] to the Greeks: for this purpose the animal is cut away
three fingers’ length from both the head and the tail, after which the
intestines are removed and the livid vein adhering to the back-bone.
The rest of the body is then boiled in a shallow pan, in water seasoned
with dill, and the bones are taken out, and fine wheaten flour added;
after which the preparation is made up into tablets,[2576] which are
dried in the shade and are employed as an ingredient in numerous
medicaments. I should remark, however, that this preparation, it would
appear, can only be made from the viper. Some persons, after cleansing
the viper in manner above described, boil down the fat, with one
sextarius of olive oil, to one half. Of this preparation, when needed,
three drops are added to some oil, with which mixture the body is
rubbed, to repel the approach of all kinds of noxious animals.
CHAP. 22.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE OTHER SERPENTS.
In addition to these particulars, it is a well-known fact that for
all injuries inflicted by serpents, and those even of an otherwise
incurable nature, it is an excellent remedy to apply the entrails of
the serpent itself to the wound; as also, that persons who have once
swallowed a viper’s liver, boiled, will never afterwards be attacked
by serpents. The snake, too, is not venomous, except, indeed, upon
certain days of the month when it is irritated by the action of the
moon: it is a very useful plan to take it alive, and pound it in water,
the wound inflicted by it being fomented with the preparation. Indeed,
it is generally supposed that this reptile is possessed of numerous
other remedial properties, as we shall have occasion more fully to
mention from time to time: hence it is that the snake is consecrated
to Æsculapius.[2577] As for Democritus, he has given some monstrous
preparations from snakes, by the aid of which the language of birds, he
says, may be understood.[2578]
The Æsculapian snake was first brought to Rome from Epidaurus,[2579]
but at the present day it is very commonly reared in our houses[2580]
even; so much so, indeed, that if the breed were not kept down by the
frequent conflagrations, it would be impossible to make head against
the rapid increase of them. But the most beautiful of all the snakes
are those which are of an amphibious nature. These snakes are known as
“hydri,”[2581] or water-snakes: in virulence their venom is inferior to
that of no other class of serpents, and their liver is preserved as a
remedy for the ill effects of their sting.
A pounded scorpion neutralizes the venom of the spotted lizard.[2582]
From this last animal, too, there is a noxious preparation made; for
it has been found that wine in which it has been drowned, covers the
face of those who drink it with morphew. Hence it is that females, when
jealous of a rival’s beauty, are in the habit of stifling a spotted
lizard in the unguents which they use. In such a case, the proper
remedy is yolk of egg, honey, and nitre. The gall of a spotted lizard,
beaten up in water, attracts weasels, they say.
CHAP. 23.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SALAMANDER.
But of all venomous animals it is the salamander[2583] that is by far
the most dangerous; for while other reptiles attack individuals only,
and never kill many persons at a time—not to mention the fact that
after stinging a human being they are said to die of remorse, and the
earth refuses to harbour[2584] them—the salamander is able to destroy
whole nations at once, unless they take the proper precautions against
it. For if this reptile happens to crawl up a tree, it infects all the
fruit with its poison, and kills those who eat thereof by the chilling
properties of its venom, which in its effects is in no way different
from aconite. Nay, even more than this, if it only touches with its
foot the wood upon which bread is baked, or if it happens to fall into
a well, the same fatal effects will be sure to ensue. The saliva, too,
of this reptile, if it comes in contact with any part of the body, the
sole of the foot even, will cause the hair to fall off from the whole
of the body. And yet the salamander, highly venomous as it is, is
eaten by certain animals, swine for example; owing, no doubt, to that
antipathy which prevails in the natural world.
From what we find stated, it is most probable, that, next to the
animals which eat it, the best neutralizers of the poison of this
reptile, are, cantharides taken in drink, or a lizard eaten with the
food; other antidotes we have already mentioned, or shall notice in
the appropriate place. As to what the magicians[2585] say, that it is
proof against fire, being, as they tell us, the only animal that has
the property of extinguishing fire, if it had been true, it would have
been made trial of at Rome long before this. Sextius says that the
salamander, preserved in honey and taken with the food, after removing
the intestines, head, and feet, acts as an aphrodisiac: he denies also
that it has the property of extinguishing fire.
CHAP. 24.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BIRDS FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY
SERPENTS. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VULTURE.
Among the birds that afford us remedies against serpents, it is the
vulture that occupies the highest rank; the black vulture, it has
been remarked, being less efficacious than the others. The smell of
their feathers, burnt, will repel serpents, they say; and it has been
asserted that persons who carry the heart of this bird about them will
be safe, not only from serpents, but from wild beasts as well, and will
have nothing to fear from the attacks of robbers or from the wrath of
kings.
CHAP. 25.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM POULTRY.
The flesh of cocks and capons, applied warm the moment it has been
plucked from the bones, neutralizes the venom of serpents; and the
brains, taken in wine, are productive of a similar effect. The people
of Parthia, however, prefer applying a hen’s brains to the wound.
Poultry broth, too, is highly celebrated as a cure, and is found
marvellously useful in many other cases. Panthers and lions will never
touch persons who have been rubbed with it, more particularly if it has
been flavoured with garlic. The broth that is made of an old cock is
more relaxing to the bowels; it is very good also for chronic fevers,
numbness of the limbs, cold shiverings and maladies of the joints,
pains also in the head, defluxions of the eyes, flatulency, sickness at
stomach, incipient tenesmus, liver complaints, diseases of the kidneys,
affections of the bladder, indigestion, and asthma. Hence there are
several recipes for preparing this broth; it being most efficacious
when boiled up with sea-cabbage,[2586] salted tunny,[2587] capers,
parsley, the plant mercurialis,[2588] polypodium,[2589] or dill. The
best plan, however, is to boil the cock or capon with the plants
above-mentioned in three congii of water, down to three semi-sextarii;
after which it should be left to cool in the open air, and given at the
proper moment, just after an emetic has been administered.
And here I must not omit to mention one marvellous fact, even though it
bears no reference to medicine: if the flesh of poultry is mingled with
gold[2590] in a state of fusion, it will absorb the metal and consume
it, thus showing that it acts as a poison upon gold. If young twigs are
made up into a collar and put round a cock’s neck, it will never crow.
CHAP. 26.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM OTHER BIRDS.
The flesh of pigeons also, or of swallows, used fresh and minced, is a
remedy for injuries inflicted by serpents: the same, too, with the feet
of a horned owl, burnt with the plant plumbago.[2591] While mentioning
this bird, too, I must not forget to cite another instance of the
impositions practised by the magicians: among other prodigious lies of
theirs, they pretend that the heart of a horned owl, applied to the
left breast of a woman while asleep, will make[2592] her disclose all
her secret thoughts. They say, also, in addition to this, that persons
who have it about them in battle will be sure to display valour. They
describe, too, certain remedies made from the egg of this bird for the
hair. But who, pray, has ever had the opportunity of seeing the egg of
a horned owl, considering that it is so highly ominous to see the bird
itself?[2593] And then besides, who has ever thought proper to make the
experiment, and upon his hair more particularly? In addition to all
this, the magicians go so far as to engage to make the hair curl by
using the blood of the young of the horned owl.
What they tell us, too, about the bat, appears to belong to pretty
much the same class of stories: if one of these animals is carried
alive, three times round a house, they say, and then nailed outside of
the window with the head downwards, it will have all the effects of
a countercharm: they assert, also, that the bat is a most excellent
preservative for sheepfolds, being first carried three times round
them, and then hung up by the foot over the lintel of the door.[2594]
The blood of the bat is also recommended by them as a sovereign remedy,
in combination with a thistle,[2595] for injuries inflicted by serpents.
CHAP. 27.—REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE PHALANGIUM. THE SEVERAL
VARIETIES OF THAT INSECT, AND OF THE SPIDER.
Of the phalangium,[2596] an insect unknown to Italy, there are
numerous kinds; one of which resembles the ant, but is much larger,
with a red head, black as to the other parts of the body, and covered
with white spots. Its sting is much more acute than that of the wasp,
and it lives mostly in the vicinity of ovens and mills. The proper
remedy is, to present before the eyes of the person stung another
insect of the same description, a purpose for which they are preserved
when found dead. Their husks also, found in a dry state, are beaten
up and taken in drink for a similar purpose. The young of the weasel,
too, as already[2597] stated, are possessed of a similar property. The
Greeks give the name of “phalangion” also to a kind of spider, but they
generally distinguish it by the surname of the “wolf.”[2598] A third
kind, also known as the “phalangium,” is a spider with a hairy[2599]
body, and a head of enormous size. When opened, there are found in
it two small worms, they say: these, attached in a piece of deer’s
skin, before sunrise, to a woman’s body, will prevent conception,
according to what Cæcilius, in his Commentaries, says. This property
lasts, however, for a year only; and, indeed, it is the only one
of all the anti-conceptives[2600] that I feel myself at liberty to
mention, in favour of some women whose fecundity, quite teeming with
children,[2601] stands in need of some such respite.
There is another kind again, called “rhagion,”[2602] similar to a black
grape in appearance, with a very diminutive mouth, situate beneath the
abdomen, and extremely short legs, which have all the appearance of
not being fully developed. The bite of this last insect causes fully
as much pain as the sting of the scorpion, and the urine of persons
who are injured by it, presents filmy appearances like cobwebs. The
asterion[2603] would be identical with it, were it not distinguished by
white streaks upon the body: its bite causes failing in the knees. But
worse than either of these last, is a blue spider, covered with black
hair, and causing dimness of the sight and vomiting of a matter like
cobwebs in appearance. A still more dangerous kind is one which differs
only from the hornet, in form, in being destitute of wings, and the
bite of which causes a wasting away of the system. The myrmecion[2604]
in the head resembles the ant, has a black body spotted with white,
and causes by its bite a pain like that attendant upon the sting of
the wasp. Of the tetragnathius[2605] there are two varieties, the more
noxious of which has two white streaks crossing each other on the
middle of the head; its bite causes the mouth to swell. The other one
is of an ashy colour, whitish on the posterior part of the body, and
not so ready to bite.
The least noxious of all is the spider that is seen extending its web
along the walls, and lying in wait for flies; it is of the same ashy
colour as the last.
For the bite of all spiders, the best remedies are: a cock’s brains,
taken in oxycrate with a little pepper; five ants, swallowed in drink;
sheep’s dung, applied in vinegar; and spiders of any kind, left to
putrefy in oil. The bite of the shrew-mouse is cured by taking lamb’s
rennet in wine; the ashes of a ram’s foot with honey; or a young
weasel, prepared in manner already[2606] mentioned by us when speaking
of serpents. In cases where a shrew-mouse has bitten beasts of burden,
a mouse, fresh caught, is applied to the wound with oil, or a bat’s
gall with vinegar. The shrew-mouse itself too, split asunder and
applied to the wound, is a cure for its bite; indeed, if the animal
is with young when the injury is inflicted, it will instantly burst
asunder. The best plan is to apply the mouse itself which has inflicted
the bite, but others are commonly kept for this purpose, either steeped
in oil or coated with clay. Another remedy, again, for its bite is the
earth taken from the rut made by a cart-wheel; for this animal, it is
said, owing to a certain torpor which is natural to it, will never
cross[2607] a rut made by a wheel.
CHAP. 28.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE STELLIO OR SPOTTED LIZARD.
The stellio, in its turn, is said to have the greatest antipathy to the
scorpion;[2608] so much so indeed, that the very sight of it strikes
terror in that reptile, and a torpor attended with cold sweats; hence
it is that this lizard is left to putrefy in oil, as a liniment
for injuries inflicted by the scorpion. Some persons boil down the
oil with litharge, and make a sort of plaster of it to apply to the
wound. The Greeks give the name of “colotes” to this lizard, as also
“ascalabotes,” and “galeotes:” it is never[2609] found in Italy, and is
covered with small spots, utters a shrill, piercing noise, and lives on
food; characteristics, all of them, foreign to the stellio of Italy.
CHAP. 29.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM VARIOUS INSECTS.
Poultry dung, too, is good as an application for the sting of the
scorpion; a dragon’s liver also; a lizard or mouse split asunder; or
else the scorpion itself, either applied to the wound, grilled and
eaten, or taken in two cyathi of undiluted wine. One peculiarity of
the scorpion is, that it never stings the palm of the hand, and never
touches any parts of the body but those covered with hair. Any kind of
pebble, applied to the wound on the side which has lain next to the
ground, will alleviate the pain. A potsherd too, covered with earth on
any part of it, and applied just as it is found, will effect a cure,
it is said—the person, however, who applies it must not look behind
him, and must be equally careful that the sun does not shine upon him.
Earth-worms also, are pounded and applied to the wound; in addition to
which, they form ingredients in numerous other medicaments, being kept
in honey for the purpose.
For injuries inflicted by bees, wasps, hornets, and leeches, the owlet
is considered a very useful remedy; persons, too, who carry about them
the beak of the woodpecker[2610] of Mars are never injured by any
of these creatures. The smaller kinds of locusts also, destitute of
wings and known as “attelebi,” are a good remedy for the sting of the
scorpion.
There is a kind of venomous ant, by no means common in Italy; Cicero
calls it “solipuga,” and in Bætica it is known as “salpuga.”[2611] The
proper remedy for its venom and that of all kinds of ants is a bat’s
heart. We have already[2612] stated that cantharides are an antidote to
the salamander.
CHAP. 30.—REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CANTHARIDES.
But with reference to cantharides, there has been considerable
controversy on the subject, seeing that, taken internally, they are a
poison, attended with excruciating pains in the bladder. Cossinus, a
Roman of the Equestrian order, well known for his intimate friendship
with the Emperor Nero, being attacked with lichen,[2613] that prince
sent to Egypt for a physician to cure him; who recommending a potion
prepared from cantharides, the patient was killed in consequence.
There is no doubt, however, that applied externally they are useful,
in combination with juice of Taminian[2614] grapes, and the suet of a
sheep or she-goat. As to the part of the body in which the poison of
the insect is situate, authors are by no means agreed. Some fancy that
it exists in the feet and head, while others, again, deny it; indeed
the only point that has been well ascertained is, that the wings[2615]
are the only antidote to their venom, wherever it may be situate.
Cantharides are produced from a small grub, found more particularly in
the spongy excrescences which grow on the stem of the dog-rose,[2616]
and still more abundantly upon the ash. Other kinds, again, are found
upon the white rose, but they are by no means so efficacious. The most
active of all in their properties, are those which are spotted with
yellow streaks running transversely across the wings, and are plump
and well-filled. Those which are small, broad, and hairy, are not so
powerful in their operation, and the least useful of all are those
which are thin and shrivelled, and present one uniform colour. They
are put in a small earthen pot, not coated with pitch, and stopped at
the mouth with a linen cloth, a layer of full-blown roses being placed
upon them; they are then suspended over vinegar boiled with salt,
until the steam has penetrated the cloth and stifled them, after which
they are put by for use. They have a caustic effect upon the skin,
and cover the ulcerations with a crust; a property which belongs also
to the pine-caterpillar[2617] found upon the pitch-tree, and to the
buprestis,[2618] both of which are prepared in a similar manner.
All these insects are extremely efficacious for the cure of leprosy
and lichens. It is said, too, that they act as an emmenagogue and
diuretic, for which last reason Hippocrates used to prescribe them for
dropsy. Cato of Utica was reproached with selling poison, because, when
disposing of a royal property by auction,[2619] he sold a quantity of
cantharides, at the price of sixty thousand sesterces. (5.) We may here
remark, too, that it was on the same occasion that some ostrich fat was
sold, at the price of thirty thousand sesterces, a substance which is
preferable to goose-grease in every respect.
CHAP. 31.—VARIOUS COUNTER-POISONS.
We have already[2620] spoken of various kinds of poisonous honey: the
antidote employed for it is honey in which the bees have been stifled.
This honey, too, taken in wine, is a remedy for indispositions caused
by eating fish.
CHAP. 32.—REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE MAD DOG.
When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, he may be preserved from
hydrophobia by applying the ashes of a dog’s head to the wound. All
ashes of this description, we may here remark once for all, are
prepared in the same method; the substance being placed in a new
earthen vessel well covered with potter’s clay, and put into a furnace.
These ashes, too, are very good, taken in drink, and hence some
recommend the head itself to be eaten in such cases. Others, again,
attach to the body of the patient a maggot, taken from the carcase of
a dead dog; or else place the menstruous blood of a bitch, in a linen
cloth, beneath his cup, or insert in the wound ashes of hairs from the
tail of the dog that inflicted the bite. Dogs will fly from any one
who has a dog’s heart about him, and they will never bark at a person
who carries a dog’s tongue in his shoe, beneath the great toe, or the
tail of a weasel which has been set at liberty after being deprived of
it. There is beneath the tongue of a mad dog a certain slimy spittle,
which, taken in drink, is a preventive of hydrophobia: but much the
most useful plan is, to take the liver of the dog that has inflicted
the injury, and eat it raw, if possible; should that not be the case,
it must be cooked in some way or other, or else a broth must be taken,
prepared from the flesh.
There is a small worm[2621] in a dog’s tongue, known as “lytta”[2622]
to the Greeks: if this is removed from the animal while a pup, it will
never become mad or lose its appetite. This worm, after being carried
thrice round a fire, is given to persons who have been bitten by a
mad dog, to prevent them from becoming mad. This madness, too, is
prevented by eating a cock’s brains; but the virtue of these brains
lasts for one year only, and no more. They say, too, that a cock’s
comb, pounded, is highly efficacious as an application to the wound;
as also, goose-grease, mixed with honey. The flesh also of a mad dog
is sometimes salted, and taken with the food, as a remedy for this
disease. In addition to this, young puppies of the same sex as the dog
that has inflicted the injury, are drowned in water, and the person who
has been bitten eats their liver raw. The dung of poultry, provided it
is of a red colour, is very useful, applied with vinegar; the ashes,
too, of the tail of a shrew-mouse, if the animal has survived and been
set at liberty; a clod from a swallow’s nest, applied with vinegar;
the young of a swallow, reduced to ashes; or the skin or old slough of
a serpent that has been cast in spring, beaten up with a male crab in
wine: this slough, I would remark, put away by itself in chests and
drawers, destroys moths.
So virulent is the poison of the mad dog, that its very urine even,
if trod upon, is injurious, more particularly if the person has
any ulcerous sores about him. The proper remedy in such case is
to apply horse-dung, sprinkled with vinegar, and warmed in a fig.
These marvellous properties of the poison will occasion the less
surprise, when we remember that, “a stone bitten by a dog” has become
a proverbial expression for discord and variance.[2623] Whoever makes
water where a dog has previously watered, will be sensible of numbness
in the loins, they say.
The lizard known by some persons as the “seps,”[2624] and by others as
the “chalcidice,” taken in wine, is a cure for its own bite.
CHAP. 33.—REMEDIES FOR THE OTHER POISONS.
Where persons have been poisoned by noxious preparations from the wild
weasel,[2625] the proper remedy is the broth of an old cock, taken
in considerable quantities. This broth, too, is particularly good,
taken as a counter-poison for aconite, in combination with a little
salt. Poultry dung—but the white part only—boiled with hyssop, or with
honied wine, is an excellent antidote to the poison of fungi and of
mushrooms: it is a cure also for flatulency and suffocations; a thing
the more to be wondered at, seeing that if any other living creature
only tastes this dung, it is immediately attacked with griping pains
and flatulency. Goose blood, taken with an equal quantity of olive
oil, is an excellent neutralizer of the venom of the sea-hare: it
is kept also as an antidote for all kinds of noxious drugs, made up
into lozenges with red earth of Lemnos and juice of white-thorn, five
drachmæ of the lozenges being taken in three cyathi of water. The same
property belongs also to the young of the weasel, prepared in manner
already[2626] mentioned.
Lambs’ rennet is an excellent antidote to all noxious preparations;
the blood, also, of ducks from Pontus;[2627] for which reason it is
preserved in a dry state, and dissolved in wine when wanted, some
persons being of opinion that the blood of the female bird is the
most efficacious. In a similar manner, the crop of a stork acts as an
universal counter-poison; and so does sheep’s rennet. A broth made
from ram’s flesh is particularly good as a remedy for cantharides:
sheep’s milk also, taken warm; this last being very useful in cases
where persons have drunk an infusion of aconite, or have swallowed the
buprestis in drink. The dung of wood-pigeons is particularly good taken
internally as an antidote to quicksilver; and for narcotic poisons
the common weasel is kept dried, and taken internally, in doses of two
drachmæ.
CHAP. 34. (6.)—REMEDIES FOR ALOPECY.
Where the hair has been lost through alopecy,[2628] it is made to grow
again by using ashes of burnt sheep’s dung, with oil of cyprus[2629]
and honey; or else the hoof of a mule of either sex, burnt to ashes
and mixed with oil of myrtle. In addition to these substances, we
find our own writer, Varro, mentioning mouse-dung, which he calls
“muscerda,”[2630] and the heads of flies, applied fresh, the part
being first rubbed with a fig-leaf. Some recommend the blood of flies,
while others, again, apply ashes of burnt flies for ten days, in the
proportion of one part of the ashes to two of ashes of papyrus or of
nuts. In other cases, again, we find ashes of burnt flies kneaded up
with woman’s milk and cabbage, or, in some instances, with honey only.
It is generally believed that there is no creature less docile or less
intelligent than the fly; a circumstance which makes it all the more
marvellous that at the sacred games at Olympia, immediately after the
immolation of the bull in honour of the god called “Myiodes,”[2631]
whole clouds of them take their departure from that territory. A
mouse’s head or tail, or, indeed, the whole of the body, reduced to
ashes, is a cure for alopecy, more particularly when the loss of the
hair has been the result of some noxious preparation. The ashes of a
hedge-hog, mixed with honey, or of its skin, applied with tar, are
productive of a similar effect. The head, too, of this last animal,
reduced to ashes, restores the hair to scars upon the body; the place
being first prepared, when this cure is made use of, with a razor and
an application of mustard: some persons, however, prefer vinegar for
the purpose. All the properties attributed to the hedge-hog are found
in the porcupine in a still higher degree.[2632]
A lizard burnt, as already[2633] mentioned, with the fresh root of
a reed, cut as fine as possible, to facilitate its being reduced
to ashes, and then mixed with oil of myrtle, will prevent the hair
from coming off. For all these purposes green lizards are still more
efficacious, and the remedy is rendered most effectual, when salt is
added, bears’ grease, and pounded onions. Some persons boil ten green
lizards in ten sextarii of oil, and content themselves with rubbing
the place with the mixture once a month. Alopecy is also cured very
speedily with the ashes of a viper’s skin, or by an application of
fresh poultry dung. A raven’s egg, beaten up in a copper vessel and
applied to the head, previously shaved, imparts a black colour to
the hair; care must be taken, however, to keep some oil in the mouth
till the application is quite dry, or else the teeth will turn black
as well. The operation must be performed also in the shade, and the
liniment must not be washed off before the end of three days. Some
persons employ the blood and brains of a raven, in combination with red
wine; while others, again, boil down the bird, and put it, at bedtime,
in a vessel made of lead. With some it is the practice, for the cure
of alopecy, to apply bruised cantharides with tar, the skin being
first prepared with an application of nitre:—it should be remembered,
however, that cantharides are possessed of caustic properties, and due
care must be taken not to let them eat too deep into the skin. For the
ulcerations thus produced, it is recommended to use applications made
of the heads, gall, and dung of mice, mixed with hellebore and pepper.
CHAP. 35.—REMEDIES FOR LICE AND FOR PORRIGO.
Nits are destroyed by using dogs’ fat, eating serpents cooked[2634]
like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink. Porrigo is cured by
applying sheep’s gall with Cimolian chalk, and rubbing the head with
the mixture till dry.
CHAP. 36.—REMEDIES FOR HEAD-ACHE AND FOR WOUNDS ON THE HEAD.
A good remedy for head-ache are the heads taken from the snails which
are found without[2635] shells, and in an imperfect state. In these
heads there is found a hard stony substance, about as large as a
common pebble: on being extracted from the snail, it is attached
to the patient, the smaller snails being pounded and applied to the
forehead. Wool-grease, too, is used for a similar purpose; the bones
of a vulture’s head, worn as an amulet; or the brains of that bird,
mixed with oil and cedar resin, and applied to the head and introduced
into the nostrils. The brains of a crow or owlet, are boiled and taken
with the food: or a cock is put into a coop, and kept without food a
day and a night, the patient submitting to a similar abstinence, and
attaching to his head some feathers plucked from the neck or the comb
of the fowl. The ashes, too, of a weasel are applied in the form of
a liniment; a twig is taken from a kite’s nest, and laid beneath the
patient’s pillow; or a mouse’s skin is burnt, and the ashes applied
with vinegar: sometimes, also, the small bone is extracted from the
head of a snail that has been found between two cart ruts, and after
being passed through a gold ring, with a piece of ivory, is attached
to the patient in a piece of dog’s skin; a remedy well known to most
persons, and always used with success.[2636]
For fractures of the cranium, cobwebs are applied, with oil and
vinegar; the application never coming away till a cure has been
effected. Cobwebs are good, too, for stopping the bleeding of
wounds[2637] made in shaving. Discharges of blood from the brain are
arrested by applying the blood of a goose or duck, or the grease of
those birds with oil of roses. The head of a snail cut off with a
reed, while feeding in the morning, at full moon more particularly,
is attached to the head in a linen cloth, with an old thrum, for the
cure of head-ache; or else a liniment is made of it, and applied with
white wax to the forehead. Dogs’ hairs are worn also, attached to the
forehead in a cloth.
CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS.
A crow’s brains, taken with the food, they say, will make the eyelashes
grow; or else wool-grease, applied with warmed myrrh, by the aid of
a fine probe. A similar result is promised by using the following
preparation: burnt flies and ashes of mouse-dung are mixed in equal
quantities, to the amount of half a denarius in the whole; two sixths
of a denarius of antimony are then added, and the mixture is applied
with wool-grease. For the same purpose, also, the young ones of a mouse
are beaten up, in old wine, to the consistency of the strengthening
preparations known as “acopa.”[2638] When eyelashes are plucked out
that are productive of inconvenience, they are prevented from growing
again by using a hedge-hog’s gall; the liquid portion, also, of a
spotted lizard’s eggs; the ashes of a burnt salamander; the gall of
a green lizard, mixed with white wine, and left to thicken to the
consistency of honey in a copper vessel in the sun; the ashes of a
swallow’s young, mixed with the milky juice of tithymalos;[2639] or
else the slime of snails.
CHAP. 38.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES.
According to what the magicians say, glaucoma[2640] may be cured by
using the brains of a puppy seven days old; the probe being inserted
in the right side [of the eye], if it is the right eye that is being
operated on, and in the left side, if it is the left. The fresh gall,
too, of the asio[2641] is used, a bird belonging to the owlet tribe,
with feathers standing erect like ears. Apollonius of Pitanæ used to
prefer dog’s gall, in combination with honey, to that of the hyæna,
for the cure of cataract, as also of albugo. The heads and tails of
mice, reduced to ashes and applied to the eyes, improve the sight,
it is said; a result which is ensured with even greater certainty by
using the ashes of a dormouse or wild mouse, or else the brains or
gall of an eagle. The ashes and fat of a field-mouse, beaten up with
Attic honey and antimony, are remarkably useful for watery eyes—what
this antimony[2642] is, we shall have occasion to say when speaking of
metals.
For the cure of cataract, the ashes of a weasel are used, as also the
brains of a lizard or swallow. Weasels, boiled and pounded, and so
applied to the forehead, allay defluxions of the eyes, either used
alone, or else with fine flour or with frankincense. Employed in a
similar manner, they are very good for sun-stroke, or in other words,
for injuries inflicted by the sun. It is a remarkably good plan, too,
to burn these animals alive, and to use their ashes, with Cretan honey,
as a liniment for films upon the eyes. The cast-off[2643] slough of
the asp, with the fat of that reptile, forms an excellent ointment
for improving the sight in beasts of burden. To burn a viper alive in
a new earthen vessel, with one cyathus of fennel juice, and a single
grain of frankincense, and then to anoint the eyes with the mixture, is
remarkably good for cataract and films upon the eyes; the preparation
being generally known as “echeon.”[2644] An eye-salve, too, is
prepared, by leaving a viper to putrefy in an earthen pot, and bruising
the maggots that breed in it with saffron. A viper, too, is burnt in
a vessel with salt, and the preparation is applied to the tip of the
tongue, to improve the eyesight, and to act generally as a corrective
of the stomach and other parts of the body. This salt is given also
to sheep, to preserve them in health, and is used as an ingredient in
antidotes to the venom of serpents.
Some persons, again, use vipers as an article of food: when this is
done, it is recommended, the moment they are killed, to put some salt
in the mouth and let it melt there; after which, the body must be
cut away to the length of four fingers at each extremity, and, the
intestines being first removed, the remainder boiled in a mixture of
water, oil, salt, and dill. When thus prepared, they are either eaten
at once, or else kneaded in a loaf, and taken from time to time as
wanted. In addition to the above-mentioned properties, viper-broth
cleanses all parts of the body of lice,[2645] and removes itching
sensations as well upon the surface of the skin. The ashes, also,
of a viper’s head, used by themselves, are evidently productive of
considerable effects; they are employed very advantageously in the
form of a liniment for the eyes; and so, too, is viper’s fat. I would
not make so bold as to advise what is strongly recommended by some,
the use, namely, of vipers’ gall; for that, as already stated[2646]
on a more appropriate occasion, is nothing else but the venom of
the serpent. The fat of snakes, mixed with verdigrease,[2647] heals
ruptures of the cuticle of the eyes; and the skin or slough that is
cast off in spring, employed as a friction for the eyes, improves the
sight. The gall of the boa[2648] is highly vaunted for the cure of
albugo, cataract, and films upon the eyes, and the fat is thought to
improve the sight.
The gall of the eagle, which tests its young, as already stated,[2649]
by making them look upon the sun, forms, with Attic honey, an eye-salve
which is very good for the cure of webs, films, and cataracts of the
eye. A vulture’s gall, too, mixed with leek-juice and a little honey,
is possessed of similar properties; and the gall of a cock, dissolved
in water, is employed for the cure of argema and albugo: the gall,
too, of a white cock, in particular, is recommended for cataract.
For short-sighted persons, the dung of poultry is recommended as a
liniment, care being taken to use that of a reddish colour only. A
hen’s gall, too, is highly spoken of, and the fat in particular, for
the cure of pustules upon the pupils, a purpose for which hens are
expressly fattened. This last substance is marvellously useful for
ruptures of the coats of the eyes, incorporated with the stones known
as schistos[2650] and hæmatites. Hens’ dung, too, but only the white
part of it, is kept with old oil in boxes made of horn, for the cure of
white specks upon the pupil of the eye. While mentioning this subject,
it is worthy of remark, that peacocks[2651] swallow their dung, it is
said, as though they envied man the various uses of it. A hawk, boiled
in oil of roses, is considered extremely efficacious as a liniment for
all affections of the eyes, and so are the ashes of its dung, mixed
with Attic honey. A kite’s liver, too, is highly esteemed; and pigeons’
dung, diluted with vinegar, is used as an application for fistulas of
the eye, as also for albugo and marks upon that organ. Goose gall and
duck’s blood are very useful for contusions of the eyes, care being
taken, immediately after the application, to anoint them with a mixture
of wool-grease and honey. In similar cases, too, gall of partridges is
used, with an equal quantity of honey; but where it is only wanted to
improve the sight, the gall is used alone. It is generally thought,
too, upon the authority of Hippocrates,[2652] that the gall to be used
for these purposes should be kept in a silver box.
Partridges’ eggs, boiled in a copper vessel, with honey, are curative
of ulcers of the eyes, and of glaucoma. For the treatment of blood-shot
eyes, the blood of pigeons, ring-doves, turtle-doves, and partridges
is remarkably useful; but that of the male pigeon is generally looked
upon as the most efficacious. For this purpose, a vein is opened
beneath the wing, it being warmer than the rest of the blood, and
consequently more[2653] beneficial. After it is applied, a compress,
boiled in honey, should be laid upon it, and some greasy wool, boiled
in oil and wine. Nyctalopy,[2654] too, is cured by using the blood of
these birds, or the liver of a sheep—the most efficacious being that
of a tawny sheep—as already[2655] stated by us when speaking of goats.
A decoction, too, of the liver is recommended as a wash for the eyes,
and, for pains and swellings in those organs, the marrow, used as a
liniment. The eyes of a horned owl, it is strongly asserted, reduced
to ashes and mixed in an eye-salve, will improve the sight. Albugo is
made to disappear by using the dung of turtle-doves, snails burnt to
ashes, and the dung of the cenchris, a kind of hawk, according to the
Greeks.[2656] All the substances above mentioned, used in combination
with honey, are curative of argema: honey, too, in which the bees have
died, is remarkably good for the eyes.
A person who has eaten the young of the stork will never suffer from
ophthalmia for many years to come, it is said; and the same when a
person carries about him the head of a dragon:[2657] it is stated,
too, that the fat of this last-named animal, applied with honey and
old oil, will disperse incipient films of the eyes. The young of
the swallow are blinded at full moon, and the moment their sight is
restored,[2658] their heads are burnt, and the ashes are employed, with
honey, to improve the sight, and for the cure of pains, ophthalmia, and
contusions of the eyes.
Lizards, also, are employed in numerous ways as a remedy for
diseases of the eyes. Some persons enclose a green lizard in a new
earthen vessel, together with nine of the small stones known as
“cinædia,”[2659] which are usually attached to the body for tumours
in the groin. Upon each of these stones they make nine[2660] marks,
and remove one from the vessel daily, taking care, when the ninth day
is come, to let the lizard go, the stones being kept as a remedy for
affections of the eyes. Others, again, blind a green lizard, and after
putting some earth beneath it, enclose it in a glass vessel, with some
small rings of solid iron or gold. When they find, by looking through
the glass, that the lizard has recovered its sight,[2661] they set it
at liberty, and keep the rings as a preservative against ophthalmia.
Others employ the ashes of a lizard’s head as a substitute for
antimony, for the treatment of eruptions of the eyes. Some recommend
the ashes of the green lizard with a long neck that is usually found in
sandy soils, as an application for incipient defluxions of the eyes,
and for glaucoma. They say, too, that if the eyes of a weasel are
extracted with a pointed instrument, its sight will return; the same
use being made of it as of the lizards and rings above mentioned. The
right eye of a serpent, worn as an amulet, is very good, it is said,
for defluxions of the eyes, due care being taken to set the serpent at
liberty after extracting the eye. For continuous watering[2662] of the
eyes, the ashes of a spotted lizard’s head, applied with antimony, are
remarkably efficacious.
The cobweb of the common fly-spider, that which lines its hole more
particularly, applied to the forehead across the temples, in a compress
of some kind or other, is said to be marvellously useful for the cure
of defluxions of the eyes: the web must be taken, however, and applied
by the hands of a boy who has not arrived at the years of puberty; the
boy, too, must not show himself to the patient for three days, and
during those three days neither of them must touch the ground with his
feet uncovered. The white spider[2663], with very elongated, thin,
legs, beaten up in old oil, forms an ointment which is used for the
cure of albugo. The spider, too, whose web, of remarkable thickness, is
generally found adhering to the rafters of houses, applied in a piece
of cloth, is said to be curative of defluxions of the eyes. The green
scarabæus has the property of rendering the sight more piercing[2664]
of those who gaze upon it: hence it is that the engravers of precious
stones use these insects to steady their sight.
CHAP. 39.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS AND DISEASES OF THE EARS.
A sheep’s gall, mixed with honey, is a good detergent of the ears.
Pains in those organs are allayed by injecting a bitch’s milk; and
hardness of hearing is removed by using dogs’ fat, with wormwood and
old oil, or else goose-grease. Some persons add juice of onions and of
garlic,[2665] in equal proportions. The eggs, too, of ants are used, by
themselves, for this purpose; these insects being possessed, in fact,
of certain medicinal properties, and bears, it is well known, curing
themselves when sick, by eating[2666] them as food. Goose-grease, and
indeed that of all birds, is prepared by removing all the veins and
leaving the fat, in a new, shallow, earthen vessel, well covered, to
melt in the sun, some boiling water being placed beneath it; which
done, it is passed through linen strainers, and is then put by in a
cool spot, in a new earthen vessel, for keeping: with the addition of
honey it is less liable to turn rancid. Ashes of burnt mice, injected
with honey or boiled with oil of roses, allay pains in the ears. In
cases where an insect has got into the ears, a most excellent remedy
is found in an injection of mouse gall, diluted with vinegar: where,
too, water has made its way into the passages of the ear, goose-grease
is used, in combination with juice of onions. Some persons skin a
dormouse, and after removing the intestines boil the body in a new
vessel with honey. Medical men, however, prefer boiling it down to
one-third with nard, and recommend it to be kept in that state, and to
be warmed when wanted, and injected with a syringe. It is a well-known
fact, that this preparation is an effectual remedy for the most
desperate maladies of the ears: the same, too, with an injection of
earth-worms boiled with goose-grease. The red worms, also, that are
found upon trees, beaten up with oil, are a most excellent remedy
for ulcerations and ruptures of the ears. Lizards, which have been
suspended for some time and dried, with salt in the mouth, are curative
of contusions of the ears, and of injuries inflicted by blows: the most
efficacious for this purpose are those which have iron-coloured spots
upon the skin,[2667] and are streaked with lines along the tail.
Millepedes, known also as “centipedes” or “multipedes,” are insects
belonging to the earth-worm genus, hairy, with numerous feet, forming
curves as they crawl, and contracting themselves when touched: the
Greeks give to this insect the name of “oniscos,”[2668] others, again,
that of “tylos.” Boiled with leek-juice in a pomegranate rind, it is
highly efficacious, they say, for pains in the ears; oil of roses
being added to the preparation, and the mixture injected into the ear
opposite to the one affected. As for that kind which does not describe
a curve when moving, the Greeks give it the name of “seps,” while
others, again, call it “scolopendra;” it is smaller than the former
one, and is injurious.[2669] The snails which are commonly used as
food, are applied to the ears with myrrh or powdered frankincense; and
those with a small, broad, shell are employed with honey as a liniment
for fractured ears. Old sloughs of serpents, burnt in a heated potsherd
and mixed with oil of roses, are used as an injection for the ears,
which is considered highly efficacious for all affections of those
organs, and for offensive odours arising therefrom in particular. In
cases where there is suppuration of the ears, vinegar is used, and it
is still better if goat’s gall, ox-gall, or that of the sea tortoise,
is added. This slough, however, is good for nothing when more than a
year old; the same, too, when it has been drenched with rain, as some
think. The thick pulp of a spider’s body, mixed with oil of roses,
is also used for the ears; or else the pulp applied by itself with
saffron or in wool: a cricket, too, is dug up with some of its earth,
and applied. Nigidius attributes great[2670] virtues to this insect,
and the magicians still greater, and all because it walks backwards,
pierces the earth, and chirrups by night! The mode of catching it is by
throwing an ant,[2671] made fast with a hair, into its hole, the dust
being first blown away to prevent it from concealing itself: the moment
it seizes the ant, it is drawn out.
The dried craw of poultry, a part that is generally thrown away, is
beaten up in wine, and injected warm, for suppurations of the ears; the
same, too, with the grease of poultry.
On pulling off the head of a black beetle,[2672] it yields a sort of
greasy substance, which, beaten up with rose oil, is marvellously good,
they say, for affections of the ears: care must be taken, however, to
remove the wool very soon, or else this substance will be speedily
transformed into an animal, in the shape of a small grub. Some writers
assert that two or three of these insects, boiled in oil, are extremely
efficacious for the ears; and that they are good, beaten up and applied
in linen, for contusions of those organs.
This insect, also, is one of those that are of a disgusting character;
but I am obliged, by the admiration which I feel for the operations
of Nature, and for the careful researches of the ancients, to enter
somewhat more at large upon it on the present occasion. Their writers
have described several varieties of it; the soft beetle, for instance,
which, boiled in oil, has been found by experience to be a very useful
liniment for warts. Another kind, to which they have given the name of
“mylœcon,”[2673] is generally found in the vicinity of mills: deprived
of the head, it has been found to be curative of leprosy—at least
Musa[2674] and Picton[2675] have cited instances to that effect. There
is a third kind, again, odious for its abominable smell, and tapering
at the posterior extremities. Used in combination with pisselæon,[2676]
it is curative, they say, of ulcers of a desperate nature, and, if kept
applied for one-and-twenty days, for scrofulous sores and inflamed
tumours. The legs and wings being first removed, it is employed for
the cure of bruises, contusions, cancerous sores, itch-scabs, and
boils—remedies, all of them, quite disgusting even to hear of. And yet,
by Hercules! Diodorus[2677] tells us that he has administered this
remedy internally, with resin and honey, for jaundice and hardness of
breathing; such unlimited power has the medical art to prescribe as a
remedy whatever it thinks fit!
Physicians who keep more within bounds, recommend the ashes of these
insects to be kept for these various purposes in a box made of horn;
or else that they should be bruised and injected in a lavement for
hardness of breathing and catarrhs. At all events, that, applied
externally, they extract foreign substances adhering to the flesh, is a
fact well known.
Honey, too, in which the bees have died, is remarkably useful for
affections of the ears. Pigeons’ dung, applied by itself, or with
barley-meal or oat-meal, reduces imposthumes of the parotid glands;
a result which is equally obtained by injecting into the ear an
owlet’s brains or liver, mixed with oil, or by applying the mixture
to the parotid glands; also, by applying millepedes with one-third
part of resin; by using crickets in the form of a liniment; or by
wearing crickets attached to the body as an amulet. The other kinds
of maladies, and the several remedies for them, derived from the same
animals or from others of the same class, we shall describe in the
succeeding Book.
SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, six hundred and
twenty-one.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,[2678] L. Piso,[2679] Flaccus
Verrius,[2680] Antias,[2681] Nigidius,[2682] Cassius Hemina,[2683]
Cicero,[2684] Plautus,[2685] Celsus,[2686] Sextius Niger[2687] who
wrote in Greek, Cæcilius[2688] the physician, Metellus Scipio,[2689]
the Poet Ovid,[2690] Licinius Macer.[2691]
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Homer, Aristotle,[2692] Orpheus,[2693]
Palæphatus,[2694] Democritus,[2695] Anaxilaüs.[2696]
MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.—Botrys,[2697] Apollodorus,[2698]
Archidemus,[2699] Aristogenes,[2700] Xenocrates,[2701]
Democrates,[2702] Diodorus,[2703] Chrysippus[2704] the philosopher,
Horus,[2705] Nicander,[2706] Apollonius[2707] of Pitanæ.