antiquity. This saying is founded upon a correct physiological
observation; an excess of one secretion results in a proportionate
diminution of others.
The great Greek scholar, Porson, indulged his wit by transliterating
into Hellenic characters the above homely saw, and thereby mystified the
learned pundits who were called upon to read it.[70]
“If love demands weeping, oh, why should I spare
Those floods which, of course, must be lavished elsewhere?”
“And midst their bawling and their hissing,
They cried, to keep themselves from p⸺g.
Finding their water would come out,
They thought it best, without dispute,
Rather than wet both breeks and thighs,
To let it bubble through their eyes.”
(Homer Burlesqued, book xii.)
“I must call, from between thy thighs,
The urine back into thine eyes,
And make thee, when my tale thou hearest,
Channel thy cheeks with launt reversed.”
(Musarum Deliciæ, i. p. 110.)
“Launt” is an obsolete word, meaning urine. See Cotgrave’s Dictionary.
“What if she whine, shed tears, and frown?
Laugh at her folly, she’ll have done;
Never dry up her tears with kisses,
The more she cries, the less she p⸺s.”
(Reflections, Moral, Critical, and Cosmical, part iii.
p. 23, A.D. 1707.)
This expression is to be found also in old French,—perhaps is derived
from it: “Pleurez donc, et chiez bien des yeux, vous en pissez
moins.”—(“Moyen de Parvenir,” A.D. 1610.)
“Juletta, how loath she was to talk, too, how she feared me!
I could now piss mine eyes out for mere anger.”
(“The Pilgrim,” iii. 4, Beaumont and Fletcher.)
The converse of the adage is illustrated in the following epigram on a
lady who shed her water at seeing the tragedy of “Cato:”
“Whilst maudlin chiefs deplore their Cato’s fate,
Still, with dry eyes, the Tory Celia sate;
But, though her pride forbade her eyes to flow,
The gushing waters found a vent below.
Tho ’n secret, yet with copious streams she mourns,
Like twenty river-gods, with all their urns.
Let others screw on hypocritic face,
She shows her grief in a sincerer place;
Here Nature reigns, and passion, void of art,
For this road leads directly to the heart.”
(Nick Rowe.)
“But Sandwich, though with vast surprise,
He saw the monarch’s weeping eyes,
Told him it would not be amiss,—
The more he cryed, the less he pissed.”
(From “The New Foundling Hospital of Wit,” vol. lv. p. 204.)
“‘Boh,’ said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his
opponent, Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself.”—(Grose, Dict. of
Buckish Slang, art. “Boh.” See, also, in same volume, the account of
the Puritan preacher who met with the same accident in his pulpit upon
hearing that the royal troops were approaching,—art. “Sh—t Sack.”)
XLI.
ORDURE AND URINE IN MEDICINE.
The administration of urine as a curative opens the door to a flood of
thought. Medicine, both in theory and practice, even among nations of the
highest development and refinement, has not, until within the present
century, cleared its skirts of the superstitious hand-prints of the dark
ages. With tribes of a lower degree of culture it is still subordinate
to the incantations and exorcisms of the “medicine man.” It might not be
going a step too far to assert that the science of therapeutics, pure and
simple, has not yet taken form among savages; but to shorten discussion
and avoid controversy, it will be assumed here that such a science does
exist, but in an extremely rude and embryotic state; and to this can
be referred all examples of the introduction of urine or ordure in the
_materia medica_, where the aid of the “medicine man” does not seem to
have been invoked, as in the method employed for the eradication of
dandruff by Mexicans, Eskimo, and others, the Celtiberian dentifrice,
etc.[71]
When the compilation and correlation of data bearing upon this subject
was first begun, the exceeding importance of the pharmaceutical
division was manifest. In the opinion of the author, this part of the
investigation should have been assumed by a student possessed of a
preliminary training in medicine, and it was not until urged on by
friendly correspondents that he concluded, upon resuming his labors, to
augment these references by citations from the more prominent writers of
ancient and modern times, who have demonstrated the importance of the
subject by devoting to its consideration not passing sentences and scant
allusions, but pregnant chapters and bulky volumes.
By great good fortune he was enabled to make the fullest use of the
library of the Army Medical Museum, which, under the supervision of
Surgeon John S. Billings, United States Army, has become the finest
special bibliothèque in the world.
From Surgeon Billings, and his able assistants, Doctors Fletcher and
Wise, were received, besides the courteous attentions which every student
has the right to expect, an intelligent and sympathetic co-operation
which cannot be too gratefully acknowledged.
In such an embarrassment of riches as now confronted him, he exercised
the right of drawing only upon the authorities which would appeal to
all critics as most entitled to prominence; to have followed any other
course, and to have attempted to engraft all available material, would
have swollen this chapter to hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages.
“Sprengel pense que Asclépiade, surnommé Pharmacion, est le premier
qui ait conseillé les excréments humains; mais il est probable qu’il
ne fit qu’ériger en préceptes écrits un usage déjà consacré en Orient,
particulièrement en Egypte.”—(“Bib. Scat.,” pp. 29, 30.)
The earliest writer whose works have been consulted was Hippocrates,
termed the “Father of Medicine,” born 460 B.C. “He was a member of the
family of the Asclepiadæ, ... and a descendant of both Esculapius and
Hercules. He was born of a family of priest-physicians, and was the first
to throw superstition aside, and to base the practice of medicine on the
principles of inductive philosophy.”—(“Encyclopædia Britannica.”)
Galen wrote a series of commentaries upon his writings. Medical
commentators are not in accord as to how many of the works attributed to
him are genuine; but the editions of the accepted and the suspected to be
spurious are almost innumerable, and printed in every language of Europe.
In the edition by Francis Adams (Sydenham Society, London, 1849), there
is no mention of the use of human or animal excreta in pharmacy. But
in another edition can be read that ass’s dung was given to restrain
excessive catamenial flow.—(Kuhn’s edition, Leipsig, 1829, vol. i. p.
481.)
Etmuller says that Hippocrates prescribed hawk-dung to aid in the
expulsion of the fœtus and as a remedy for sterility (vol. ii. p. 285).
The general use of excrementitious material in the medical practice of
Hippocrates’ own day must be accepted from evidence deduced from outside
sources. For example, Aristophanes, who was his contemporary (born
446 B.C., Encyc. Britan.), stigmatized all the medical fraternity as
“excrement-eaters;” and Xenocrates, another practitioner of the same
date, of whose writings, however, nothing has come down to us beyond
the meagre outline to be found in the commentaries of Galen, made
constant employment not only of human and animal excreta, but of all the
secretions and excretions as well. According to Appleton’s Encyclopædia,
Xenocrates was born 396 B.C.
Schurig relates of Aristophanes that he called doctors “fecivores ...
quod quidem adulatores fuerint quin excrementa Magnorum degustare
voluerint.” He also says: “Quare de illo non inepte dixit quidam, eum
dignum fuisse Xenocrates Medico, qui excrementis variis animalium omnes
morbos curare solitus erat.”—(“Chylologia,” p. 82.)
“Xenocrates, who flourished sixty years before Galen, had also a good
list of nasty prescriptions, for which the veil of a dead language is
required.” (“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. p. xviii.) These included the
urine of women and their catamenia.
Aristophanes called the physicians of his time σκατοφάγους, or
excrement-eaters. “Ce qui était plus malin que vrai, car les compères
en faisaient manger à leurs clients plus qu’ils n’en mangeaient
eux-mêmes.”—(“Bibliotheca Scatalogica.”)
Human excrements, under the name of “botryon,” were used by Æschines of
Athens, for the cure of quinsy. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 10.) Æschines
lived between 389-317 B.C.
“Serapion of Alexandria flourished B.C. 278, forty years after the
date of Alexander the Great, and was one of the chiefs of the empiric
school.... He in epilepsy prescribed ... dung of crocodiles.”—(“Saxon
Leechdoms,” vol. i. p. xiv.)
The next in chronological order would be Pliny, from whom can be
extracted a veritable mine of information on this point; then
Dioscorides, who lived in the latter years of the first and the opening
ones of the second centuries of the Christian era; and then Galen, born
at Pergamos, in Mysia, 130 A.D., “the most celebrated of ancient medical
writers,” and “appointed by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the position
of medical guardian of his son, the young prince, and later on Emperor,
Commodus.”—(Encyc. Brit.)
The classical authorities will conclude with Sextus Placitus, from whose
works much of importance has been extracted.
Each author will be allowed to speak in his own words, and the necessary
deductions will be made afterwards; only the remarks bearing upon
love-philters and child-birth have been assigned to the chapters devoted
to the treatment of those subjects, and this merely to reduce the chances
of repetition.
The following remedies are taken from Pliny, from the books and chapters
given opposite each case:—
“A plant that has been grown upon a dung-heap in a field is a very
efficacious remedy, taken in water, for quinsy.”—(Lib. xxiv. c. 110.)
“A plant upon which a dog has watered, torn up by the roots, and not
touched with iron, is a very speedy cure for sprains.”—(Idem, c. 111.)
“Camel’s dung, reduced into ashes, and incorporat with oile, doth curle
and frizzle the hair of the head, and taken in drinke, as much as a man
may comprehend with three fingers, cureth the dysenterie; so doth it also
the falling sickness. Camel’s piss, they say, is passing good for Fullers
to scour their cloth withall; and the same healeth any running sores
which be bathed therein. It is well known that the barbarous nations
keep this stale of theirs until it be five years old, and then a draught
thereof to the quantity of one hermine is a good laxative potion.”—(Lib.
xxviii. c. 8.)
Goat’s dung good for sore eyes.—(Idem, c. 11.)
For “Skals in the Head” the Romans used “Bul’s Urine.” Stale chamber-lye
was also considered good. “The gall of buck goats, tempered with Bul’s
stale, killeth lice.” Dog-dung and goat-dung also were prescribed.—(Idem,
c. 11.)
Wolf’s dung is mentioned as good for cataract.—(Idem, c. 11.)
Hen’s dung, the white part, prescribed for the cure of poisonous
mushrooms; also to cure flatulence (but in any living creature it causes
flatulence, says Pliny). Ashes of horse-dung fresh made and burned, the
urine of a wild boar, the green dung of an ass, are among the medicaments
mentioned for ear-ache (idem, c. 11); also “Urine of a Bul or a Goat, or
stale chamber lye made hotte;” also “Calfe’s Pisse, Calfe’s dung.” Goat
and horse dung were employed to drive away snakes.—(Idem, c. 110.)
Human urine used in curing the bites of mad dogs.—(Idem, c. 18.)
Pliny notices that the Greeks used the scrapings of the bodies of
athletes for emmenagogues, for uterine troubles, for sprains, muscular
rheumatism, etc. “We find authors of the very highest repute proclaiming
aloud that the seminal fluid is a sovereign remedy for the sting of the
scorpion. In the case, too, of a woman afflicted with sterility they
recommend the application of a pessary made of the fresh excrement voided
by an infant at the moment of its birth.... They have even gone so far,
too, as to scrape the very filth from off the walls of the gymnasia, and
to assert that this is possessed of certain calorific properties.... The
urine has been the subject not only of numerous theories with authors,
but of various religious observances as well, its properties being
classified under several distinctive heads; thus, for instance, the urine
of eunuchs, they say, is highly beneficial as a promoter of fruitfulness
in females.” He mentions the urine of children as a sovereign remedy for
the poisonous secretion of the asp, which “spits its venom into the eyes
of human beings.” Human urine was used in eye troubles, “albugo, films,
and marks upon the eyes, white specks upon the pupils, and maladies of
the eyelids.” It was also used in the cure of burns, suppuration of the
ears, as an emmenagogue, for sun-burn, and for taking out ink-spots.
“Male urine cured Gout.” Urine cured “eruptions on the bodies of infants,
corrosive sores, running ulcers, chaps upon the body, stings inflicted
by serpents, ulcers of the head, and cancerous sores of the generative
organs.... Every person’s urine is the best for his own case.”—(Lib.
xxviii. c. 18.)
The ashes of camel’s dung were administered internally in epilepsy, and
also for dysentery.—(Idem, c. 27.)
Camel’s urine applied to running sores; barbarous nations kept it for
five years, and then used it as a purgative.—(Idem.)
The dung of the hippopotamus was used in fumigations, “for the cure of a
cold ague.”—(Idem, c. 31.)
The urine of the once (ounce) “helpeth the strangury;” it was also taken
internally for sore throat.—(Idem.)
Hyena-urine “is said to be useful in diseases of long standing” (idem, c.
27); also given in drink for dysentery; also applied in liniments.—(Idem.)
Crocodile-dung used for eye troubles and for epilepsy; used in form of a
pessary, as an emmenagogue.—(Lib. xxviii. c. 29.)
Lynx-urine for strangury and pains in the chest.—(Idem, c. 32.)
Goat-urine an antidote for bites of serpents.—(Idem, c. 42.)
Goat-dung an antidote for bites of serpents.—(Idem.)
Horse-dung, taken from a horse on pasture, an antidote for the bites of
serpents.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung for scorpion bites.—(Idem.)
Calves’ dung for scorpion bites.—(Idem.)
She-goat’s dung, bite of mad dog.—(Idem.)
Badger-dung, cuckoo-dung, swallow-dung, taken internally, bite of mad
dog.—(Idem.)
Bull-dung, dandruff, applied locally.—(Idem, c. 46.)
Goat’s dung, dandruff.—(Idem.)
Wolf-dung for cataract.—(Idem, c. 47.)
She-goat’s dung for ophthalmia and eye-troubles generally;
internally.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar urine, ear-troubles.—(Idem, c. 48.)
Ass-dung, deafness.—(Idem.)
Horse-dung, deafness; also used in liniments.—(Idem.)
Bull’s urine, deafness.—(Idem.)
She-goat’s urine, deafness.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, deafness.—(Idem.)
Calf-urine, deafness.—(Idem.)
Asses’ urine, internally, in elephantiasis.—(Lib. xxviii. c. 30.)
Cat-dung, rubbed on the neck, to remove bones from the throat.—(Idem, c.
51.)
Warm urine, cow-dung, and goat-dung applied to scrofulous sores.—(Idem.)
Goat urine and dung for cricks in neck.—(Idem, c. 52.)
Hare-dung, internally, for cough.—(Idem, c. 53.)
Boar’s dung, swine’s dung, internally, pains in loins.—(Idem, c. 56.)
Cow-dung, externally, sciatica.—(Idem, c. 56.)
Asses’ dung, internally, affections of spleen.—(Idem, c. 57.)
Horse-dung, internally, bowel complaints.—(Idem, c. 58.)
Boar’s or swine’s dung, internally, dysentery.—(Idem, c. 59.)
Hare, ass, horse, or goat dung, internally, dysentery.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, internally, flatulence.—(Idem.)
Hare-dung, internally, hernia.—(Idem.)
Ass-dung, internally, diseases of colon.—(Idem.)
Swine-dung, internally, diseases of colon.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s urine, internally, diseases of bladder; also used internally
in treatment of urinary calculi.—(Idem, c. 60.)
Goat-dung, internally, urinary calculi.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, externally, ulcers upon the generative organs.—(Idem.)
Wild-asses’ urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally.—(Idem, c. 61.)
Goat-urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, diseases of the genitalia, externally; also, internally, for
gout.—(Idem.)
Cow-dung, internally, gout.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, internally, gout.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, sciatica, externally.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, chaps, corns, callosities.—(Idem, c. 62.)
Asses’ urine, applied to feet galled by travel.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, burnt, applied to varicose veins.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s urine, drunk, for epilepsy.—(Idem, c. 63.)
Horse’s urine, drunk, for epilepsy; also for delirium.—(Idem.)
Asses’ urine, externally, in paralysis.—(Idem.)
Dung of a new-born ass, internally, yellow jaundice.—(Idem, c. 64.)
Dung of a colt, internally, yellow jaundice.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, externally, for broken bones.—(Idem, c. 65.)
Cow-dung, burnt, diluted with boys’ urine, was rubbed on the toes of the
patient in quartan fevers.—(Idem, c. 66.)
Calf-dung, internally, in melancholia.—(Idem, c. 67.)
Swine’s dung, internally, consumption.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem, c. 68.)
Cow-urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem.)
Calf-urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem.)
Bull-urine, internally, dropsy.[72]—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, cow-dung, swine’s dung, asses’ dung, all applied externally
for the cure of erysipelas and purulent eruptions.—(Idem, c. 69.)
Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, calf-dung, goat-dung, cow-dung,
externally, for sprains, indurations, and boils.—(Idem, c. 70.)
Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, hare-dung, goat-dung, externally, burns
of all kinds.—(Idem, c. 71.)
Goat-dung, wild-boar’s dung, externally, contusions, bruises, etc.—(Idem,
c. 72.)
The Emperor Nero, being of scrofulous tendency, drank the ashes of
wild-boar dung in water, to refresh himself.—(Idem.)
Asses’ dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages.—(Idem, c. 73.)
Calf’s dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages.—(Idem.)
Swine’s dung, externally, to ulcers.—(Idem, c. 74.)
Goat-dung, externally, to ulcers.—(Idem.)
Swine’s dung, fresh, externally, to wounds.—(Idem.)
Horse’s dung, cow-dung, fresh, externally, to wounds.—(Idem.)
Asses’ dung, externally, itch.—(Idem, c. 75.)
Cow-dung, externally, itch.—(Idem.)
Cow-dung, she-goat’s dung, applied externally to extract thorns.—(Idem,
c. 76.)
Wild-boar’s dung, or swine’s dung, internally, in inflammation of the
uterus.—(Idem, c. 77.)
Asses’ dung, in plaster or powder, or as a fumigation, for all uterine
troubles.—(Idem.)
Ox-dung as a fumigation, for falling of the womb.—(Idem, lib. xxviii. c.
77.)
Cat’s dung, as a pessary, for uterine ulcerations.—(Idem.)
“She-goat’s urine, taken internally, and the dung applied topically, will
arrest uterine discharges, however much in excess.”—(Idem.)
Swine’s dung, as an injection, used to cure beasts of burden of voiding
blood.—(Idem, c. 81.)
“The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the
abdomen, it is said, by swallowing human excrement.”—(Idem.)
Dung of mice and the ashes of sheep-dung prescribed for dandruff. The
dung of a peacock stated to be of great value in medicine, but for what
not stated.—(Idem, c. 6.)
Sheep-dung, externally, in serpent bites.—(Idem, c. 15.)
“A most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted by the asp,” was for “the
person stung to drink his own urine.”—(Idem, c. 18.)
“For the bite of all spiders ... sheep’s-dung, applied in
vinegar.”—(Idem, c. 27.)
Poultry-dung, good as an application for the sting of the
scorpion.—(Idem, c. 29.)
“The dung of poultry, provided it is of a red color, is very useful,
applied with vinegar.” Also for bite of a mad dog.—(Idem, c. 32.)
The urine of a mad dog was believed to be injurious to those people who
trod upon it, especially those persons with scrofulous sores.—(Idem.)
“The proper remedy in such cases is to apply horse-dung.”—(Idem.)
“Whoever makes water where a dog has previously watered, will be
susceptible of numbness in the loins.”—(Idem, c. 32.)
“Poultry-dung, but the white part only, ... is an excellent antidote to
the poison of fungi and mushrooms; it is a cure also for flatulence and
suffocations,—a thing the more to be wondered at, seeing that if any
living creature only tastes this dung, it is immediately attacked with
griping pains and flatulency.”—(Idem, c. 33.)
“The dung of wood pigeons ... an antidote to quicksilver.”—(Idem.)
Sheep-dung, mouse-dung, poultry-dung, applied externally in the treatment
of baldness or “alopœcia,” so called from “alopex,” a fox, “an animal
very subject to the loss of its hair.”—(Idem, c. 34.)
Mouse-dung, externally, “affections of the eyelids.”—(Idem, c. 37.)
Poultry-dung as a liniment for short-sighted persons.—(Idem, c. 38.)
“Peacocks swallow their dung, it is said, as though they envied man the
various uses of it.”—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s dung, externally, fistula.—(Idem.)
Hawk-dung, turtle-dove dung, externally, “albugo.”—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s dung, externally, imposthumes of the parotid gland.—(Lib. 29,
39.)
Mouse-dung, raven’s dung, sparrow-dung. The ashes of these were plugged
into carious teeth, and used externally for all tooth troubles.—(Lib. 30,
c. 8.)
Mouse-dung, good to impart sweetness to sour breath (idem, c. 9); also
prescribed for the stone.—(Idem, c. 8.)
“The dung of lambs before they have begun to graze ... alleviated ...
affections of the uvula and pains in the fauces. It should be dried in
the shade.”—(Idem, c. 11.)
Pigeon’s dung used as a gargle for sore throat (idem); used internally
for quinsy (idem, c. 12); internally for dysentery (idem, c. 19); and
externally for the cure of “iliac passion.”—(Idem, c. 20.)
Mouse-dung, rubbed on the abdomen, was considered to be a cure for
urinary calculi.—(Idem, c. 21.)
The flesh of a hedge-hog, killed before it had time to discharge its
urine upon its body, was a cure for strangury; but, it would cause
strangury if able to urinate upon itself before death.—(Idem, c. 21.)
Dove-dung, internally, for urinary calculi.—(Idem.)
Swallow-dung, as a suppository and purgative.—(Idem.)
Dog-dung, externally, fissure in ano.—(Idem, c. 22.)
Mouse-dung.—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s dung, externally, in fissure in ano.—(Idem.)
Mouse-dung and pigeon’s-dung, externally, for tumors.—(Idem.)
Sheep and poultry dung, externally, in gout.—(Idem.)
Ring-dove-dung, liniment for pains in the joints.—(Idem, c. 23.)
The ashes of pigeon’s or of poultry dung, externally, for excoriations of
the feet.—(Idem, c. 25.)
Mule-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for corns on feet.—(Idem.)
Dog-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for warts of all
kinds.—(Idem.)
Swallow-dung, internally, cure of fevers.—(Idem, c. 30.)
Pigeon’s, poultry, and sheep dung, externally, boils and
carbuncles.—(Idem, caps. 33, 34.)
Sheep-dung, externally, burns.—(Idem, c. 35.)
Pigeon’s dung, snuff made of for brain hemorrhage.—(Idem, c. 38.)
Horse-dung, externally, hemorrhages from wounds.—(Idem.)
Sheep-dung, ashes of, externally, carcinoma.—(Idem, c. 39.)
Sheep-dung, externally, wounds and fistulas.—(Idem.)
Mouse-dung, cautery.—(Idem.)
Weasel’s dung, ashes of, cautery.—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s-dung, ashes of, cautery.—(Idem.)
Poultry-dung and pigeon’s dung, externally, old cicatrices.—(Idem, c. 40.)
Sheep’s dung, externally, female complaints.—(Idem, c. 43.)
Mouse-dung, externally, swelled breasts.—(Idem.)
EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DIOSCORIDES.
Dioscorides devotes a chapter to the medicinal values of different
ordures; a condensation only of the translation need be given, since the
original is inserted.