_Medical Use of Mice._--Seeing some Queries and Replies on this subject,
I am induced to send you a few extracts from an old book in my
possession (marked "very scarce"), published in 1661. Its title is
_Panzoologicomineralogia, or a Compleat History of Animals and
Minerals_. By Richard Lovell, St. C. C. Oxon. It treats chiefly of the
medicinal uses of the various objects. I am tempted to tell you the use
of a "unicorne," but confine myself to the mouse.
"The flesh eaten causeth oblivion, and corrupteth the meat; yet
those of Chalecut eat them; it is hot, soft, and fattish, and
expelleth melancholy.... A mouse dissected and applied, draweth
out reeds, darts, and other things that stick in the flesh....
Mice bruised, and reduced to the consistence of an _acopon_
(what's that?), with old wine, cause hair on the eyebrows....
Being eaten by children when rosted, they dry up the spittle. The
magicians eat them twice a month against the paines of the teeth.
The water in which they have been boiled helps against the
quinsey. Being boiled and eaten, they help children's pissing in
bed. The fresh blood kills warts. The ashes of the skinne, applied
with vinegar, help the paines of the head. The head worn in a
cloth, helps the headach and epilepsy. The braine being steeped in
wine, and applied to the forehead, helpeth the headach. Used with
water, it cureth the phrensy. The heart, _taken out of a mouse_
WHEN ALIVE, worne about the arme of a woman, causeth no
conception. The fillet of the liver, drunk with austere wine,
helpeth quartans. The liver, rosted in the new of the moon, trieth
the epilepsy. The dung, is corrosive. Given in any liquor, it
helpeth the collicke. It looseneth the body; therefore some nurses
use it for children in suppositories(?). It helpeth hollow teeth,
being put therein."
There is more of the sort, to the extent of 2¾ closely printed pages.
It should be added that the author quotes authorities, old and new, for
the several facts he adduces. Pliny is a great authority with him, and
Galen is often cited.