Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  A very excellent cure for contusions of the joints is a spider’s web; but there are persons who give the preference to ashes of burnt cobwebs or of burnt pigeons’ dung, mixed with polenta and white wine. For sprains of the joints a sovereign remedy is mutton suet, mixed with the ashes of a woman’s hair; a good application, too, for chilblains is mutton suet, mixed with alum, or else ashes of a burnt dog’s head or of burnt mouse-dung. Ulcers, free from discharge, are brought to cicatrize by using the above-named substances in combination with wax; ashes, also, of burnt dormice, mixed with oil; ashes of burnt wood-mice, mixed with honey; ashes of burnt earthworms, applied with old oil; or else ashes of the snails without a shell that are so commonly found. All ulcers on the feet are cured by the application of ashes of snails, burnt alive; and for excoriations of the feet, ashes of burnt poultry-dung are used, or ashes of burnt pigeons’ dung, mixed with oil. When the feet have been galled by the shoes, the ashes of an old shoe- sole are used, or the lights of a lamb or ram. For gatherings beneath the nails, a horse’s tooth, powdered, is a sovereign remedy. A light application of a green lizard’s blood, will cure the feet of man or beast when galled beneath.

  For the removal of corns upon the feet, the urine of a mule of either sex is applied, mixed with the mud which it has formed upon the ground; sheep’s dung, also; the liver of a green lizard, or the blood of that animal, applied in wool; earth-worms, mixed with oil; the head of a spotted lizard, pounded with an equal quantity of vitex and mixed with oil; or pigeons’ dung, boiled with vinegar. For the cure of all kinds of warts, dogs’ urine is applied fresh, with the mud which it has formed upon the ground; dogs’ dung, also, reduced to ashes and mixed with wax; sheep’s dung; the blood of mice, ap- plied fresh, or the body of a mouse, split asunder; the gall of a hedgehog; a lizard’s head or blood, or the ashes of that animal, burnt entire; the cast-off slough of a snake; or else poultry dung, applied with oil and nitre. Cantharides, also, bruised with Taminian grapes, act corrosively upon warts: but when warts have been thus removed, the remedies should be employed which we have pointed out for ulcerations on the skin.

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  CHAP. 24. (10.)

  REMEDIES FOR EVILS WHICH ARE LIABLE TO AFFECT THE WHOLE BODY.

  We will now turn our attention to those evils which are a cause of apprehension, as affecting the whole body. According to what the magicians say, the gall of a male black dog is a counter-charm for the whole of a house; and it will be quite sufficient to make fumigations with it, or to use it as a purification, to ensure its preservation against all noxious drugs and preparations. They say the same, too, with reference to a dog’s blood, if the walls are sprinkled with it; and the genitals of that animal, if buried beneath the threshold. This will surprise persons the less who are aware how highly these same magicians extol that most abominable insect, the tick, and all because it is the only one that has no passage for the evacuations, its eating ending only in its death, and it living all the longer for fasting: in this latter state it has been known to live so long as seven days, they say, but when it gorges to satiety it will burst in a much shorter period. According to these authorities, a tick from a dog’s left ear, worn as an amulet, will allay all kinds of pains. They presage, too, from it on matters of life and death; for if the patient, they say, gives an answer to a person who has a tick about him, and, standing at the foot of the bed, asks how he is, it is an infallible sign that he will survive; while, on the other hand, if he makes no answer, he will be sure to die. They add, also, that the dog from whose left ear the tick is taken, must be entirely black. Nigidius has stated in his writings that dogs will avoid the presence all day of a person who has taken a tick from off a hog.

  The magicians likewise assure us that patients suffering from delirium will recover their reason on being sprinkled with a mole’s blood; and that persons who are apt to be troubled by the gods of the night and by Fauni, will experience relief by rubbing themselves morning and evening with the tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines of a dragon, boiled in oil, and cooled in the open air at night.

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  CHAP. 25.

  REMEDIES FOR COLD SHIVERINGS.

  A remedy for cold shiverings, according to Nicander, is a dead amphisbæna, or its skin only, attached to the body: in addition to which, he informs us that if one of these reptiles is attached to a tree that is being felled, the persons hewing it will never feel cold, and will fell it all the more easily. For so it is, that this is the only one among all the serpents that faces the cold, making its appearance the first of all, and even before the cuckoo’s note is heard. There is another marvellous fact also mentioned, with reference to the cuckoo: if, upon the spot where a person hears this bird for the first time, he traces round the space occupied by his right foot and then digs up the earth, it will effectually prevent fleas from breeding, wherever it is thrown.

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  CHAP. 26.

  REMEDIES FOR PARALYSIS.

  For persons apprehensive of paralysis the fat of dormice and of field-mice, they say, is very useful, boiled: and for patients threatened with phthisis, millepedes are good, taken in drink, in manner already mentioned for the cure of quinzy. The same, too, with a green lizard, boiled down to one cyathus in three sextarii of wine, and taken in doses of one spoonful daily, until the patient is perfectly cured; the ashes also of burnt snails, taken in wine.

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  CHAP. 27.

  REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.

  For the cure of epilepsy wool-grease is used, with a modicum of myrrh, a piece about the size of a hazel-nut being dissolved and taken after the bath, in two cyathi of wine: a ram’s testes, also, dried and pounded, and taken in doses of half a denarius, in water, or in a semi-sextarius of asses’ milk; the patient being forbidden wine five days before and after using the remedy. Sheep’s blood, too, is mightily praised, taken in drink; sheep’s gall, also, and lambs’ gall in particular, mixed with honey; the flesh of a sucking puppy, taken with wine and myrrh, the head and feet being first removed; the callosities from a mule’s legs, taken in three cyathi of oxymel; the ashes of a spotted lizard from beyond seas, taken in vinegar; the thin coat of a spotted lizard, which it casts like a snake, taken in drink — indeed some persons recommend the lizard itself; gutted with a reed and dried and taken in drink; while others, again, are for roasting it on a wooden spit and taking it with the food.

  It is worth while knowing how the winter slough of this lizard is obtained when it casts it off, before it has had the opportunity of devouring it; there being no creature, it is said, that resorts in its spite to more cunning devices for the deception of man; a circumstance owing to which, the name of “stellio” his been borrowed as a name of reproach. The place to which it retires in summer is carefully observed, being generally some spot beneath the projecting parts of doors or windows, or else in vaults or tombs. In the early days of spring, cages made of split reeds are placed before these spots; and the narrower the interstices the more delighted is the animal with them, it being all the better enabled thereby to disengage itself of the coat which adheres to its body and impedes its freedom of action: when, however, it has once quitted it, the construction of the cage prevents its return. There is nothing whatever preferred to this lizard as a remedy for epilepsy. The brains of a weasel are also considered very good, dried and taken in drink; the liver, too, of that animal, or the testes, uterus, or paunch, dried and taken with coriander, in manner already mentioned; the ashes also of a burnt weasel; or a wild weasel, eaten whole with the food. All these properties are equally attributed to the ferret. A green lizard is some- times eaten, dressed with seasonings to stimulate the appetite, the feet and head being first removed; the ashes, too, of burnt snails are used, as an ointment, with linseed, nettle-seed, and honey.

  The magicians think highly of a dragon’s tail, attached to the body, with a deer’s sinews, in the skin of a gazelle; as also the small
grits found in the crops of young swallows, tied to the left arm of the patient; for swallows, it is said, give small stones to their young the moment they are hatched. If, at the commencement of the first paroxysm, an epileptic patient eats the first of a swallow’s brood that has been hatched, he will experience a perfect cure: but at a later period the disease is treated by using swallow’s blood with frankincense, or by eating the heart of the bird quite fresh. Nay, even more than this, a small stone taken from a swallow’s nest will relieve the patient the moment it is applied, they say; worn, too, as an amulet, it will always act as a preservative against the malady. A kite’s liver, too, eaten by the patient, is highly vaunted; the slough also of a serpent; a vulture’s liver, beaten up with the blood of the bird, and taken thrice seven days in drink; or the heart of a young vulture, worn attached to the body.

  And not only this, but the vulture itself is recommended as a food for the patient, and that, too, when it has been glutted with human flesh. Some recommend the breast of this bird to be taken in drink from a cup made of cerrus wood, or the testes of a dunghill cock to be taken in milk and water; the patient abstaining from wine the five preceding days, and the testes being dried for the purpose. There have been authorities found to recommend one-and-twenty red flies-and those found dead, too!-taken in drink, the number being reduced where the patient is of a feeble habit.

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  CHAP. 28. (11.)

  REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.

  Jaundice is combated by administering ear-wax to the patient, or else the filth that adheres to the udders of sheep, in doses of one denarius, with a modicum of myrrh, in two cyathi of wine; the ashes, also, of a dog’s head, mixed with honied wine; a millepede, in one semi-sextarius of wine; earth- worms, in hydromel with myrrh; wine in which a hen’s feet have been washed, after being first cleansed with water — the hen must be one with yellow feet — the brains of a partridge or of an eagle, in three cyathi of wine; the ashes of a ring- dove’s feathers or intestines, in honied wine, in doses of three spoonfuls; or ashes of sparrows burnt upon twigs, in doses of two spoonfuls, in hydromel.

  There is a bird, known as the “icterus,” from its peculiar colour: if the patient looks at it, he will be cured of jaun- dice, they say, and the bird will die. In my opinion this is the same bird that is known in Latin by the name of “galgulus.”

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  CHAP. 29.

  REMEDIES FOR PHRENITIS.

  In cases of phrenitis a sheep’s lights, attached warm round the patient’s head, would appear to be advantageous. But as to giving a man suffering from delirium a mouse’s brains in water to drink, the ashes of a burnt weasel, or the dried flesh even of a hedgehog, who could possibly do it, supposing even the effects of the remedy were certain? I should be inclined, too, to rank the ashes of the eyes of a horned owl in the number of those monstrous prescriptions with which the adepts in the magic art abuse the credulity of mankind.

  It is in cases, too, of fever, more particularly, that the acknowledged rules of medicine run counter to the prescriptions of these men: for they have classified the various modes of treating the disease in accordance with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and relatively to the revolutions of the sun and moon, a system which deserves to be utterly repudiated, as I shall prove by a few instances selected from many. They recommend, for example, when the sun is passing through Gemini, that the patient should be rubbed with ashes of the burnt combs, ears, and claws of cocks, beaten up and mixed with oil. If, again, it is the moon that is passing through that sign, it is the spurs and wattles of cocks that must be similarly employed. When either of these luminaries is passing through Virgo, grains of barley must be used; and when through Sagittarius, a bat’s wings. When the moon is passing through Leo, it is leaves of tamarisk that must be employed, and of the cultivated tamarisk, they add: if, again, the sign is Aquarius, the patient must use an application of box-wood charcoal, pounded.

  Of the remedies, however, that we find recommended by them, I shall be careful to insert those only the efficacy of which has been admitted, or, at least, is probable in any degree; such, for instance, as the use of powerful odours, as an excitant for patients suffering from lethargy; among which, perhaps, may be reckoned the dried testes of a weasel, or the liver of that animal, burnt. They consider it a good plan, too, to attach a sheep’s lights, made warm, round the head of the patient.

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  CHAP. 30.

  REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.

  In the treatment of quartan fevers, clinical medicine is, so to say, pretty nearly powerless; for which reason we shall insert a considerable number of remedies recommended by professors of the magic art, and, first of all, those prescribed to be worn as amulets: the dust, for instance, in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached to the body; the longest tooth of a black dog; or the wasp known by the name of “pseudosphex,” which is always to be seen flying alone, caught with the left hand and attached beneath the patient’s chin. Some use for this purpose the first wasp that a person sees in the current year. Other amulets are, a viper’s head, severed from the body and wrapped in a linen cloth; a viper’s heart, removed from the reptile while still alive; the muzzle of a mouse and the tips of its ears, wrapped in red cloth, the animal being set at liberty after they are removed; the right eye plucked from a living lizard, and enclosed with the head, seperated from the body, in goat’s skin; the scarabænus also that forms pellets and rolls them along.

  It is on account of this kind of scarabæus that the people of a great part of Egypt worship those insects as divinities; an usage for which Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, as he does, by way of justifying the rites of his nation, that the, insect in its operations pictures the revolution of the sun. There is also another kind of scarabæus, which the magicians recom- mend to be worn as an amulet — the one that has small horns thrown backwards; it must be taken up, when used for this purpose, with the left hand. A third kind also, known by the name of “fullo,” and covered with white spots, they recom- mend to be cut asunder and attached to either arm, the other kinds being worn upon the left arm. Other amulets recom- mended by them, are, the heart of a snake taken from the living animal with the left hand; or four joints of a scorpion’s tail. together with the sting,, attached to the body in a piece of black cloth; due care being taken that the patient does not see the scorpion, which is set at liberty after the operation, or the person who has attached the amulet, for the space of three days: after the recurrence, too, of the third paroxysm, he must bury the whole in the ground. Some enclose a caterpillar in a piece of linen with a thread passed three times round it, and tie as many knots, repeating at each knot why it is that the patient performs that operation. A slug is sometimes wrapped in a piece of skin, or the heads of four slugs, cut from the body with a reed: a millepede is rolled up in wool: the small grubs that produce the gadfly, are used before the wings of the insect are developed; or any other kind of hairy grub is employed that is found adhering to prickly shrubs. Some persons attach to the body four of these grubs, enclosed in an empty walnut shell, or else some of the snails that are found without a shell.

  In other cases, again, it is the practice to enclose a spotted lizard in a little box, and to place it beneath the pillow, of the patient, taking care to set it at liberty when the fever abates. It is recommended also, that the patient should swallow the heart of a sea-diver, removed from the bird without the aid of iron, it being first dried and then bruised and taken in warm water. The heart of a swallow is also recommended, with honey; and there are persons who say that, just before the paroxysms come on, the patient should take one drachma of swallow’s dung in three cyathi of goats’ milk or ewes’ milk, or of raisin wine: others, again, are of opinion that the birds themselves should be taken, whole. The nations of Parthia, as a remedy for quartan fevers, take the skin of the asp, in doses of one sixth of a denarius, with an equal qu
antity of pepper. The philosopher Chrysippus has left a statement to the effect, that the phryganion, worn as an amulet, is a remedy for quartan fevers; but what kind of animal this is he has nowhere informed us, nor have I been able to meet with any one who knows. Still, however, I felt myself bound to notice a remedy that was mentioned by an author of such high repute, in case any other person should happen to be more successful in his researches. To eat the flesh of a crow, and to use nitre in the form of a liniment, is considered highly efficacious for the treatment of chronic diseases.