know that “Eau de Millefleurs” was itself a composition of cow-dung);
take bees internally (the only instance recorded of such a use of this
insect), or the dung of horses, cats, swallows, or chickens, externally.
A youth in Leyden fell madly in love with a young girl, but could not get
the consent of his parents to marry her. He was seized with a violent
fever and constipation. In this desperate condition he imagined that a
drink of fresh urine from his beloved would benefit him; he accordingly
wrote to her, begging her to satisfy his longing, which she accordingly
granted, and after drinking of the beverage to his heart’s content, he
found immediate relief (whether from the constipation or the passion
Paullini neglects to state).—(Paullini, pp. 106, 107.)
Abnormal appetite. The same remedies as are enumerated for colic, q. v.
Worms. The patient’s own urine, internally; the dung of horses or cows or
hogs, internally.
Hernia. Rabbit-dung, internally.
Sciatica. External application of the dung of goats, pigeons, horses, or
chickens.
Constipation. Human ordure, internally; human urine, internally; or the
excreta of sows, mice, chickens, geese, sparrows, magpies, or pigeons
internally.
Diarrhœa. Dog-dung, internally; sow, donkey, or cow dung, externally.
Dysentery. The patient’s own ordure or that of a boy, internally; human
urine, internally; or the excreta of dogs, horses, hogs, crows, rabbits,
donkeys, mules, or elephants, internally.
Obstructions of the liver. Salts of urine, internally; or the dung of
geese, swallows, or deer, internally.
Dropsy. Human ordure, internally; the patient’s own urine or that of a
boy, internally; or external applications of dung of geese, chickens,
goats, donkeys, dogs, deer, horses, or sheep, internally.
Kidney troubles. Human urine, both internally and externally; goose-dung,
internally; sheep-dung, externally; donkey or deer dung, internally.
Kidney diseases, stone in the bladder. Take internally human urine or
water, distilled over human ordure, or the dried catamenia of women, or
the scrapings of chamber-pots taken in brandy.—(Paullini, pp. 142, 143.)
Gravel. The patient’s own urine, internally; or the dung of pigeons,
rats, chickens, mice, wild hogs, or donkeys, both internally and
externally.
Excessive urination. The dung of goats, mice, or wild hog, internally.
Difficult urination. The urine of a girl, internally; the urine of
the patient, both internally and externally; the dung of sparrows,
internally; or the dung of donkeys, goats, chickens, geese, roosters, or
pigeons, externally.
Impaired virility and swelling of the testicles. The dung of prairie
hens, or that of sparrows, internally; or the dung of rabbits, bulls,
cows, or goats, externally.
Uterine displacements. Human ordure, internally; the dung of falcons,
horses, or bulls, internally, or the dung of sows, donkeys, or sheep.
Human excrement was applied outwardly in treatment of falling of the
womb; this was also considered a good method of treating inflammation of
the vagina; stale urine and the steam of old socks, and asses’ dung, was
applied outwardly. The scrapings of chamber vessels was taken inwardly,
mixed with other ingredients (pp. 154, 155).
For menstrual troubles menstrual blood was administered internally;
the urine of boys, internally; the excreta of donkeys and rabbits,
both internally and externally; and those of hogs, rats, and horses,
externally.
For cessation of the menses. Take internally pulverized menses dried, and
wear a chemise smeared with human blood (most probably the chemise of a
woman who had been more fortunate in her purgation); or boil boys’ urine
and garlic together, and inhale the steam (p. 158).
Gout, rheumatism. The patient’s own urine, both internally and
externally; the urine of boys, externally; the dung of mice or rabbits,
internally; the excreta of cows, bulls, calves, donkeys, pigeons,
peacocks, storks, dogs, goats, or wild hogs, externally.
Another remedy for gout and rheumatism was the excreta of chickens, dogs,
or cocks, internally.
Tertiary fever. Human ordure and urine, internally; the excreta of sows,
donkeys, chickens, and swallows, and the white dung of dogs, internally.
Quaternary fever. The ordure of infants, internally; the urine of an old
woman, mixed with donkey-dung, externally; the dung of geese gathered in
May, of dogs, of sparrows, chickens, and sheep, internally; and cat-dung,
externally.
Malignant fevers. The urine of the patient, internally; the urine of a
jenny, internally; the dung of a red cow, of a reindeer, horse, sheep, or
goat, internally; no external applications in this case.
Antidotes for poisons. Human ordure internally, and human urine both
internally and externally; the excreta of hogs, ducks, swallows, goats,
calves, or chickens, internally; of pigeons, cows, sheep, donkeys, and
horses, externally.
Plague. Human ordure and urine, internally; bull-dung, internally; the
dung of cows, chickens, or pigeons, externally.
Syphilis and venereal diseases. Human urine, internally, also externally;
and the excreta of horses and dogs, externally.
Abscesses and sprains. The urine of boys, externally; the excreta of
cows, goats, dogs, pigeons, chickens, camels, geese, externally; or of
the wild hog, both internally and externally.
Boils. Human ordure and urine, externally; the dung of chickens, pigeons,
goats, dogs, cows, bulls, sheep, or foxes, externally.
Wounds. Human ordure and urine, externally; the excreta of dogs and
goats, internally; or of cows, pigeons, chickens, donkeys, and sheep,
externally.
Ring-worm, felons. Human ordure, externally; menstrual blood,
externally; the excreta of geese, cows, sows, cats, sheep, goats, or
chickens, externally.
Itch, freckles, rash, tetter, etc. Geese-dung, internally; the excreta of
donkeys, dogs, chickens, crocodiles, foxes, or pigeons, externally.
Loss of hair, lice. Human urine, externally; the excreta of pigeons,
cats, rats, mice, swallows, geese, rabbits, or goats, externally.
Gangrene. The urine of a virgin, externally; the white dung of chickens,
or horse-dung, externally.
Colds. Human ordure and urine, externally; the excreta of sheep, cows,
bulls, chickens, hogs, pigeons, or horses, externally.
Warts. The patient’s own urine, externally; the excreta of dogs, sheep,
camels, goats, cows, calves, or of a black dog, externally.
Fissure of the rectum, bunions, corns. The excreta of dogs, hogs, sheep,
pigeons, chickens, goats, mice, or of cows, gathered in May, externally.
Fistula. Human ordure, externally; the dung of dogs and mice, internally.
Yellow jaundice. Take internally the oil of human excrements, or drink
human urine for nine days (pp. 132, 133).
Bloody flux. Human excrements dried, taken internally, are of great
benefit (pp. 108, 109).
Insomnia. Take the “Spiritus Urinæ” internally.
Fits or spasms. Take the urine of young boys internally (pp. 28 and 29.)
“Take an old rusty piece of iron, be it a horse-shoe or anything else;
lay it on the fire until it be red-hot; then take it out of the fire
and let the patient make water upon it and take the fume thereof at his
nose and mouth, using this three days together, and it will cure him (of
yellow jaundice).”—(“The Poor Man’s Physician,” John Moncrief, Edinburgh,
1716, p. 174.)
“For running ulcers of the head ... bathe the whole head with old
urine.”—(Idem, p. 66.)
“To provoke flow of urine ... neat’s dung, mixt with honey, made hot,
applied to the share bone.”—(Idem, p. 133.)
For stone in bladder, “mouce-dung drunk.”—(Idem, p. 134.)
“The dung, flesh, and haire of a hare drunk.”—(Idem, p. 131.)
“Goat’s-dung drunk ... for the space of three days.” (Jaundice.)—(Idem,
p. 116.)
“Goat’s-dung, if drunk, brought back the catamenia.”—(Idem, p. 141.)
“Goose and hen dung, drunk with the best wine, miraculously cureth sudden
suffocations of the mother.”—(Idem, p. 144.)
“For a perverse or froward mother (i. e., womb), apply stinking smells to
the privities, and sweet smells to the nose.”—(Idem, pp. 144, 151.)
“For the squinsy ... take the dung of a hog, newly made and as hot as you
can get it, ... apply to the place, and it cureth.”—(Idem, p. 172.)
“For all imposthemes ... the dung of a goose which had first fasted
three days, and then fed on an eel before being killed,” was applied
externally.—(Idem, p. 180.)
“For swellings behind the ears, ... goat-dung, boiled,” was applied as a
plaster.—(Idem, p. 84.)
For boils, carbuncles, etc., “an emplaister made of the dung of a peacock
cureth faithfully.”—(Idem, p. 163.)
“For the cure of fistula, ‘man’s-dung and pepper’ were to be applied
externally; goat’s-dung externally; dove’s-dung was to be drunk in
goat’s-milk; the juice of cow-dung, in wine, was to be cast into the
fistula, and a plaster of the same was to be applied.”—(Idem, pp. 165,
166.)
“Qui mane jejune, per novem dies, bibit propriam urinam non patietur
epilepsiam, paralysim, nec colicam, et qui bibit propriam urinam
sanabitur a sumpto veneno.”—(Idem, pp. 169, 170.)
“D’après le témoignage de Charles Lancilotti, l’acqua di sterco humano
pigliata in una calante por lo spation di nuove giorni sana quelli
che patiscono il male caduco.” (Voyez Guida alla Chimica.)—(“Bib.
Scatalogica,” p. 29.)
Schurig’s “Chylologia,” published in Dresden, 1725, contains citations
from nearly seven hundred authorities. As these are nearly all of very
ancient date, and only in a few cases accessible to scholars restricted
to American libraries, this learned work of Schurig becomes all the more
valuable to such as desire to study intelligently and profoundly this
subject of the use of human and animal excreta in religious rites or in
religious medicine.
Some of the writers quoted by Schurig favor, others oppose the medical
employment of the human excretions. Among those in favor of it, according
to him, may be seen the names of Galen and Dioscorides. In Schurig’s day
there seems to have been much opposition developing, especially when
other remedies were available; although Schurig says that the Dutch
soldiers returning from the Indies spoke in praise of what they had seen
there of the use of such medicaments. Among European practitioners, human
ordure was employed alone, mixed with water or other ingredients, or a
water and an oil were distilled from it.
It would be a useless task to repeat the names of all the authorities
mentioned by this learned German, or to give in detail all the
prescriptions in which the alvine dejecta figure as components. Their
insertion here would add nothing to the value of these notes, as they
are strictly pharmaceutical in their spirit; it may, however, be of some
interest to the student to learn just what diseases were supposed to be
amenable to this course of treatment, and just how the curatives were to
be administered.
For angina pectoris, the ordure passed by a young boy after eating
lupines, to be taken internally (p. 758). For the same disease there were
other recipes for ordure in pills, plasters, and decoctions, as well as
for electuaries of ordure, to be blended with honey (p. 756).
For bringing boils, ulcers, etc., to a head, for sprains, luxations,
etc., a poultice of human ordure, applied hot, was considered the best
specific (p. 757).
For rheumatic gout, a hot poultice of human ordure was considered of
value (p. 757).
Renal calculi. “Aqua ex stercore distillata” was given internally (p.
757). For cancers and malign ulcers, human ordure was used as a local
poultice; also given internally, in pills or powders. Pope Benedict was
cured of a cancer by this treatment (pp. 758, 759).
Epilepsy. Peacock-dung was used internally in conjunction with human
ordure (p. 762).
Erysipelas was treated with a poultice of human ordure (p. 762). “Oleum
ex stercore distillatum” was also given internally (p. 762).
Cicatrices, small-pox pustules. Bathe with “aqua ex stercore distillata”
(p. 760).
Gangrene, cured by application of warm ordure and urine (p. 763).
Dropsy; use “aqua ex stercore distillata” internally (p. 764).
Yellow jaundice, by human ordure drunk in wine (p. 764). Here he quotes
Paullini, and others with whom we are already familiar.
Piles. Plaster of human ordure (p. 766). The same method of treatment for
tumors (p. 777).
Ring-worm and other skin diseases. Use “oleum ex stercore” internally (p.
766).
Inflammation of the breasts of young mothers; local application of human
ordure (p. 767).
Burns and scalds. “Aqua ex stercore” locally (p. 760). Inflammations,
ditto (p. 766).
Dysentery. “Aqua ex stercore” internally (p. 761), quoting Paullini.
Empyematis. “Oleum ex stercore,” internally (p. 761).
Epilepsy. “Cured and prevented by excrement. infantis,” internally (p.
761).
For all fevers. Ordure, mixed with honey, internally, quoting Paullini
(pp. 762, 763).
Fistula in ano or in lachryma. Local application of human ordure (p. 763).
Birth-marks were effaced by a plaster of human ordure, or of meconium (p.
771).
Ophthalmia, cataract, etc. Human ordure, applied as a plaster. Also,
“aqua ex stercore distillata,” internally (p. 771).
Toothache. Plaster of human ordure, mixed with powdered chamomile
flowers, quoting Paullini (p. 772).
Œdema. Plaster of human ordure and of cow-dung (p. 772).
Felons. Plaster of human ordure. Also, one of the same, mixed with
assafœtida, quoting Paullini (p. 772).
Hysteria. Human ordure, drunk in wine (p. 773).
Bites of mad dogs, serpents, and all wild animals. Ordure, or “oleum ex
stercore distillatum,” or “aqua ex stercore distillata,” internally (pp.
767, 768).
In the island of Manilla, human ordure was held in such high estimation
as a remedy for the cure of the bites of all venomous animals, that it
was carried fresh, or dessicated, in little pyxes or pouches suspended
from the neck, ready for instant use. An example is given, on the
authority of a Franciscan friar, for years a missionary in that country,
of a man so bitten, and so near death that he could not open his mouth,
whose teeth were pried asunder, and this remedy inserted. He recovered
immediately.
Human ordure was also used internally, in Mexico, for the cure of serpent
bites, as we have learned previously from other sources. (p. 767.)
For worms in the head. “Oleum ex stercore distillatum,” applied locally
(p. 777).
Poisons. Human ordure, internally (pp. 777, 778).
For wounds occasioned by poisoned weapons, in the island of Macassar,
human ordure was administered internally, until vomiting was induced.
The same treatment was observed in Armenia, while in Celebes it was the
recognized antidote against vegetable poisons, quoting Paullini (pp. 778,
779).
Plague. Human ordure and human urine were mixed together, and taken
internally, to cure or prevent the plague. Human ordure was also taken
alone, in the form of pills, and applied to plague buboes as a plaster.
Schurig says he personally knew a certain clergyman in Dresden, in 1680,
who took such pills with good effect (p. 775).
Scabs and tetter, local applications of “oleum ex stercore distil.” (p.
776).
Pleurisy, “Ol. ex sterc. dist.,” internally (p. 774).
Gout. Human ordure as a plaster, and also internally (p. 775); here he
again cites Paullini, among others not known to us.
SCHURIG’S IDEAS REGARDING THE USE IN MEDICINE OF THE EGESTÆ OF ANIMALS.
Schurig devotes the fourteenth chapter of his work to a treatise “De
Stercoribus Brutorum.” It is unnecessary to enter much into detail
upon this point; it will be sufficient to give only a small number of
the recipes, with notes upon the manner of administering, and, where
possible, the opinions expressed in regard to their efficacy.
From these we may be enabled to form some idea of the line of medical
thought of the ancient practitioners.
Beginning with goose-dung, we find it commended as warm and drying in
its effects; an aperient and endowed with power over the menses; also
over the after-birth and urine; and hence of value in jaundice, scurvy,
and dropsy. It was also employed in many other diseases, principally in
fevers, in whooping-cough, in cachexy, liver troubles, and when applied
externally as a plaster, was of such value in the treatment of sore
eyes that the Emperor Maximilian resorted to its use with the greatest
advantage; again, applied as a plaster, it was used in angina and in
mammary cancer. The dung of young geese was regarded as the best, and
it should be gathered when possible in the early spring, preferably in
the month of March, while still “green,” on the meadows; most of the old
prescriptions insist upon this, as will be seen from the sample given in
this paragraph.
The dose of the dried powder was from half a dram to a full dram, and
it was administered in wine, or mixed with cinnamon and sugar. It was
frequently combined with hen-dung, or diluted with the urine of she-goats
or he-calves. Some practitioners doubted whether it was superior to
dove-dung for the same diseases. When used in whooping-cough or throat
swellings, it was placed under the tongue of the patient. The following
are the words with which Schurig begins his panegyric upon its virtues:—
“Calefacit et siccat vehementer; incidit, aperit; menses, secundinas, et
urinas potenter movet; hinc maximi usus est in morbo regio, scorbuto, et
hydrope.”
℞:
Stercor. Anserin. vern. temp. collect. et in Sole exsic.
Pull. Gallinæ.—ana. ʒi.
Absinth. ℈ii.
Cinnamoni. ℈i.
Sacchar. ℥i½. —M. ft. Pulv. subtiliss.
Asses’ dung was considered by Schurig to be an especially good remedy
in all diseases of hemorrhage. “Singulare remedium contra quamvis
hæmorrhagias” (p. 800); but it had to be collected in the month of May;
“Stercus asininum in Majo collectum.” It was to be taken in doses of one
or more drachms, or only the juice squeezed from it into some medicinal
water.
Dried in the sun, or in a warm place, it was good for bleeding at the
nose; “ad solem vel in loco calido exsiccetur et fiat pulvis qui per
nares attractus subito illarum hæmorrhagias compescit.” It was regarded
as an infallible remedy for restraining an excessive menstrual flow.
“Infallibile remedium ad constringendum fluxum menstruum esse stercus
asininum ... asserit Johannes Petrus Albrechtus.”
This dung was also in great vogue in all cases of uterine inflammation,
applied locally as a plaster. It was administered both internally and
externally for gout of the feet, and used as a component of a plaster
for dropsy. It was given internally for colic. Collected in the month of
May, it was administered internally to dissolve calculi. “Stercus bubulum
mense Majo collectum miram præbet aquam adversus Calculos, quos solvit
et una urinam movet, quam nigram prima die pellit, calculis vehementer
attritis. Hæc aqua in officinis vocatur omnium florum.” This water, known
officinally as “water of all-flowers,” was used in attacks of plague, and
in cases of gangrene, inflammation, rheumatism, etc.; also in dropsy and
in cancerous ulcers (p. 800 _et seq._).
Schurig devotes considerable space to the dung of dogs, called by some
“Flowers of Melampius,” and by others by the “more honest name of album
Græcum.” “Stercus caninum, quod nonnulli flores Melampi, pharmacopœi
autem honestiore nomine album Græcum vocant (to differentiate it from
the black, which was the dung of mice), ad differentiam nigri, quod est
muscerda” (p. 803).
He believed that it was in its effects “drying, cleansing, solvent,
an aperient, a dissipater of swellings, such as carbuncles, a solver
of ulcers,—hence useful in dysentery, in epilepsy, colic, and such
complaints, as well as in angina, guttæ, malignant ulcers, hard tumors,
dropsy, warts, etc.” “Siccat, abstergit, discutit, aperit, apostemata
rumpit, exulceratione abstergit, hinc utile est in Dysenteria, quin etiam
in Epilepsia, dolore colico, et similibus;” also “in anginæ, gutturi,
ulceribus malignis, tumores duros, hydropicas, verrucas, etc.” Also in
fistulas, inflammation of the tonsils, etc. It was applied externally to
malignant ulcers by being sprinkled upon them, or as a plaster; applied
also as a plaster in dropsy. It was used in combination with the dung of
swallows (“stercus hirundinum”), or of owls (“noctuæ”). Used as a gargle
in throat trouble (pp. 803-807).
“Album Græcum” was considered best when obtained from “white” dogs,
as they were supposed to have the soundest constitutions. This was
especially the case in the treatment of epilepsy (p. 80). Here we have a
very decided trace of “Color Symbolism.”
“Album Græcum” was taken, preferentially, from dogs which, for at least
three days previously, had been nourished on hard bones, with the least
possible amount of water to drink; such dung was hard, white, and of
faint odor, “durum, album, nec graviter olet.” Some of the prescriptions
call for the dung of a fasting dog; “stercum canis per jejunium emaciati”
(p. 806).
Schurig tells us that the dung of the goat was used both internally
and externally in medicine. It was believed to be efficacious in the
expulsion of calculi, in the reduction of hard tumors, in the dissipation
of tetter, ring-worm, scald, leprosy, abscesses behind the ears, bites
of serpents and other wild animals, in the restriction of excessive
catamenial flow, etc. It was applied as a plaster in the treatment of
tumors in the limbs, swellings of the testicles, in gout, œdema, cancer,
inflammatory rheumatism, carbuncles, atrophy of the muscles, tumors in
the mammæ, etc. But when made into a plaster, was frequently mixed with
the patient’s own urine (p. 809).
Schurig pronounces it a rubefacient; it was of use in alleviating
rheumatic pains, headache, vertigo, pains in side, shoulders, brain, and
loins, colic, apoplexy, lethargy; it was supposed to be able to dissolve
scrofulous and all other tumors, and was beneficial in the treatment of
gout; used internally, it expelled dropsical water through the urine and
also dissolved calculi; as a plaster, it was used in the cure of the
bites of mad dogs; likewise for scald head; internally, the Austrian
midwives employed it in the treatment of hysteria; while, throughout
Germany, it was administered in cases of suppression of the menses (p.
809 _et seq._).
As to horse-dung, Schurig has to say that either it or the juice
extracted from it was drunk to aid in easing the pains of colic, to
assist in the expulsion of the placenta, or of a dead fœtus, or in
cases of strangulation of the uterus; externally, it was believed to be
serviceable in restraining eruptions of the blood. To be of the greatest
medicinal value, this dung should be taken from a stallion fed on oats.
It was regarded as of great value in developing small-pox pustules upon
women and children (p. 812 _et seq._).
A rustic remedy which seems to have had a wide dissemination, for the
alleviation of the cramp-colic, was composed of the juice expressed
from horse-dung, mixed with warm beer, taken internally, while at the
same time there was applied to the region of the umbilicus a plaster of
warm horse-dung and hot ashes; such a plaster was employed in the cure
of pleurisy among the English. In the same disease a mixture of warm
horse-dung and beer was taken both internally and externally.
Cat-dung, in wine, formed the remedy in cases of vertigo and epilepsy.
While its use was recommended principally in external applications, there
were not wanting those who relied upon it mainly in internal application.
It was reputed to possess especial efficacy in loss of hair, and supposed
to be serviceable in preventing baldness, applied as an unguent.
Administered internally, it suppressed immoderate menstrual flow. For the
cure of felons, which so many in those days believed to be occasioned by
a small worm, it was of certain efficacy, if bound round the afflicted
thumb or finger. Paullini is quoted as having had personal experience
with felons thus cured. But Paullini himself was of opinion that the dung
of the goose was of equal value with that of the cat in this case (p.
815).