Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  For this last purpose, some persons cut off the legs of two frogs, and then macerate the bodies in two heminæ of wine, recommending this preparation as a collutory for strengthening loose teeth. Others attach the frogs, whole, to the exterior of the jaws : and with some it is the practice to boil ten frogs, in three sextarii of vinegar, down to one-third, and to use the decoction as a strengthener of loose teeth. By certain authorities, too, it has been recommended to boil the hearts of six-and-thirty frogs beneath a copper vessel, in one sextarius of old oil, and then to inject the decoction into the ear on the same side of the jaw as the part affected: while others again have used, as an application for the teeth, a frog’s liver, boiled, and beaten up with honey. All the preparations above described will be found still more efficacious if made from the seafrog In cases where the teeth are carious and emit an offensive smell, it is recommended to dry some whale’s flesh in an oven for a night, and then to add an equal quantity of salt, and use the mixture as a dentifrice. “Enhydris” is the name given by the Greeks to a snake that lives in the water. With the four upper teeth of this reptile, it is the practice, for the cure of aching in the upper teeth, to lance the upper gums, and with the four lower teeth, for aching in the lower. Some persons, however, content themselves with using an eyetooth only. Ashes, too, of burnt crabs are used for this purpose; and the murex, reduced to ashes, makes an excellent dentifrice.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 27.

  REMEDIES FOR LICHENS, AND FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE. THE DOLPHIN: NINE REMEDIES. COLUTHIA OR CORYPHIA: THREE REMEDIES. HALCYONEUM : SEVEN REMEDIES. THE TUNNY : FIVE REMEDIES.

  Lichens and leprous spots are removed by applying the fat of the sea-calf, ashes of the mæna in combination with three oboli of honey, liver of the pastinaca boiled in oil, or ashes of the dolphin or hippocampus mixed with water. After the parts have been duly excoriated, a cicatrizing treatment ought to be pursued. Some persons bake dolphin’s liver in an earthen vessel, till a grease flows therefrom like oil in ap- pearance: this they use by way of ointment for these diseases.

  Burnt shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey, have a detergent effect upon spots on the face in females: used as an application for seven consecutive days, a fomentation made of white of eggs being substituted on the eighth, they efface wrinkles, and plump out the skin. To the genus “ murex” belong the shell-fish known by the Greeks as “coluthia” or “coryphia,” equally turbinated, but considerably smaller: for all the above purposes they are still more efficacious, and the use of them tends to preserve the sweetness of the breath. Fish-glue effaces wrinkles and plumps out the skin; being boiled for the purpose in water some four hours, and then pounded and kneaded up till it attains a thin consistency, like that of honey. After being thus prepared, it is put by in a new vessel for keeping; and, when wanted for use, is mixed, in the proportion of four drachmæ, with two drachmæ of sulphur, two of alkanet, and eight of litharge; the whole being sprinkled with water and beaten up together. The preparation is then applied to the face, and is washed off at the end of four hours. For the cure of freckles and other affections of the face, calcined bones of cuttle-fish are also used; an application which is equally good for the removal of fleshy excrescences and the dispersion of running sores.

  (8.) For the cure of itch-scab, a frog is boiled in five semisextarii of sea-water, the decoction being reduced to the consistency of honey. There is a sea production called “halcyoneum,” composed, as some think, of the nests of the birds known as the “halcyon” and “ceyx,” or, according to others, of the concretion of sea-foam, or of some slime of the sea, or a certain lanuginous inflorescence thrown up by it. Of this halcyoneum there are four different kinds; the first, of an ashy colour, of a compact substance, and possessed of a pungent odour; the second, soft, of a milder nature, and with a smell almost iden- tical with that of sea-weed; the third, whiter, and with a variegated surface; the fourth, more like pumice in appearance, and closely resembling rotten sponge. The best of all is that which nearly borders upon a purple hue, and is known as the “Milesian” kind: the whiter it is, the less highly it is esteemed.

  The properties of halcyoneum are ulcerative and detergent: when required for use, it is parched and applied without oil. It is quite marvellous how efficiently it removes leprous sores, lichens, and freckles, used in combination with lupines and two oboli of sulphur. It is employed, also, for the removal of marks upon the eyes. Andreas has recommended for the cure of leprosy ashes of burnt crabs, with oil; and Attalus, fresh fat of tunny.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 28.

  REMEDIES FOR SCROFULA, IMPOSTHUMES OF THE PAROTID GLANDS, QUINSY, AND DISEASES OF THE FAUCES. THE MÆNA: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE SEA-SCOLOPENDRA: TWO REMEDIES. THE SAURUS: ONE REMEDY. SHELL-FISH: ONE REMEDY. THE SILURUS: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.

  Ulcerations of the mouth are cured by an application of brine in which mænæ have been pickled, in combination with calcined heads of the fish, and honey. For the cure of scrofula, it is a good plan to prick the sores with the small bone that is found in the tail of the fish known as the sea-frog; care being taken to avoid making a wound, and to repeat the operation daily, until a perfect cure is effected. The same property, too, belongs to the sting of the pastinaca, and to the sea-hare, applied topically to the sores: but in both cases due care must be taken to remove them in an instant. Shells of sea-urchins are bruised, also, and applied with vinegar; shells also of sea-scolopendræ, applied with honey; and river-crabs pounded or calcined, and applied with honey. Bones, too, of the sæpia, triturated and applied with stale axle-grease, are marvellously useful for this purpose.

  This last preparation is used, also, for the cure of imposthumes of the parotid glands; a purpose for which the liver of the sea-fish known as the “saurus” is employed. Nay, even more than this, fragments of earthen vessels in which salt fish have been kept are pounded with stale axle-grease, and applied to scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid glands; as also calcined murex, incorporated with oil. Stiffness in the neck is allayed by taking what are known as sea-lice, in doses of one drachma in drink, taking castoreum mixed with pepper in honied wine, or making a decoction of frogs in oil and salt, and taking the liquor.

  Opisthotony, too, and tetanus are treated in a similar manner; and spasms, with the addition of pepper. Ashes of burnt heads of salted mænæ are applied externally, with honey, for the cure of quinsy; as also a decoction of frogs, boiled in vinegar, a preparation which is equally good for affections of the tonsillary glands. River-crabs, pounded, one to each hemina of water, are used as a gargle for the cure of quinsy; or else they are taken with wine and hot water. Garum, put beneath the uvula with a spoon, effectually cures diseases of that part. The silurus, used as food, either fresh or salted, improves the voice.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 29.

  REMEDIES FOR COUGH AND DISEASES OF THE CHEST.

  Surmullets act as an emetic, dried and pounded, and taken in drink. Castoreum, taken fasting, with a small quantity of hammoniacum in oxymel, is extremely good for asthma: spasms, too, in the stomach are assuaged by taking a similar potion with warm oxymel. Frogs stewed in their own liquor in the saucepan, the same way in fact that fish are dressed, are good for a cough, it is said. In some cases, also, frogs are suspended by the legs, and after their juices have been received in a platter, it is recommended to gut them, and the entrails being first carefully removed, to preserve them for the above purpose. There is a small frog, also, which ascends trees, and croaks aloud there: if a person suffering from cough spits into its mouth and then lets it go, he will experience a cure, it is said. For cough attended with spitting of blood, it is recommended to beat up the raw flesh of a snail, and to drink it in hot water.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 30. (9.)

  REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LIVER AND SIDE. THE ELONGATED CONCH: SIX REMEDIES. THE TETHEA: FIVE REMEDIES.

  For pain
s in the liver, a sea-scorpion is killed in wine, and the liquid is taken. The meat, too, of the elongated conch is taken with honied wine and water, in equal quantities, or, if there are symptoms of fever, with hydromel. Pains in the side are assuaged by taking the flesh of the hippocampus, grilled, or else the tethea, very similar to the oyster, with the ordinary food. For sciatica, the pickle of the silurus is injected, by way of clyster. The flesh of conchs, too, is prescribed, for fifteen days, in doses of three oboli soaked in two sextarii of wine.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 31.

  REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE BOWELS. SEA-WORT: ONE REMEDY. THE MYAX: TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES. THE MITULUS: EIGHT REMEDIES. PELORIDES: ONE REMEDY. SERIPHUM: TWO REMEDIES. THE ERYTHINUS: TWO REMEDIES.

  The silurus, taken in its broth, or the torpedo, used as food, acts as a laxative upon the bowels. There is a sea-wort, also, similar in appearance to the cultivated cabbage: it is injurious to the stomach, but acts most efficiently as a purgative, requiring to be cooked with fat meat for the purpose, in consequence of its extreme acridity. The broth, too, of all boiled fish is good for this purpose; it acting, also, as a strong diuretic, taken with wine more particularly. The best kind of all is that prepared from the sea-scorpion, the iulis, and rock-fish in general, as they are destitute of all rankness and are free from fat. The proper way of cooking them is with dill, parsley, coriander, and leeks, with the addition of oil and salt. Stale cybium, too, acts as a purgative, and is particularly useful for carrying off crudities, pituitous humours, and bile.

  The myax is of a purgative nature, a shell-fish of which we shall take this opportunity of giving the natural history at length. These fish collect together in masses, like the murex, and are found in spots covered with sea-weed. They are the finest eating in autumn, and are found in the greatest perfection in places where fresh-water streams discharge themselves into the sea; for which reason it is that those of Egypt are held in such high esteem. As the winter advances, they contract a bitter flavour, and assume a reddish hue. The liquor of these fish, it is said, acts as a purgative upon the bowels and bladder, has a detergent effect upon the intestines, acts aperiently upon all the passages, purges the kidneys, and diminishes the blood and adipose secretions. Hence it is that these shell-fish are found of the greatest use for the treatment of dropsy, for the regulation of the catamenia, and for the removal of jaundice, all diseases of the joints, and flatulency. They are very good, also, for the reduction of obesity, for diseases of the bile and of the pituitous secretions, for affections of the lungs, liver, and spleen, and for rheumatic defluxions. The only inconvenience resulting from them is, that they irritate the throat and impede the articulation. They have, also, a healing effect upon ulcers of a serpiginous nature, or which stand in need of detergents, as also upon carcinomatous sores. Calcined, the same way as the murex, and employed with honey, they are curative of bites inflicted either by dogs or human beings, and of leprous spots or freckles. The ashes of them, rinsed, are good for the removal of films upon the eyes, granulations of those organs and indurations of the membrane, as also for diseases of the gums and teeth, and for pituitous eruptions. They serve, also, as an antidote to dorycnium and to opocarpathon.

  There are two species of this shell-fish, of a degenerate kind: the mitulus, which has a strong flavour, and a saltish taste; and the myisca, which differs from the former in the roundness of its shell, is somewhat smaller, and is covered with filaments, the shell being thinner, and the meat of a sweeter flavour. The ashes, also, of the mitulus, like those of the murex, are possessed of certain caustic properties, and are very useful for the removal of leprous spots, freckles, and blemishes of the skin. They are rinsed, too, in the same manner as lead, for the removal of swellings of the eyelids, of indurations of the membranes, and of films upon the eyes, as also of sordid ulcers upon other parts of the body, and of pustules upon the head. The meat of them, also, is employed as an application for bites inflicted by dogs.

  As to pelorides, they act as a gentle laxative upon the bowels, an effect equally produced by castoreum, taken in doses of two drachmæ, in hydromel: where, however, a more drastic purgative is required, one drachma of dried garden-cucumber root is added, and two drachmæ of aphronitrum. The tethea is good for griping pains in the bowels and for attacks of flatulency: they are generally found adhering to the leaves of marine plants, sucking their nutriment therefrom, and may be rather looked upon as a sort of fungus than as a fish. They are useful, also, for the removal of tenesmus and of diseases of the kidneys.

  There grows also in the sea a kind of absinthium, known by some persons as “seriphum,” and found in the vicinity of Taposiris, in Egypt, more particularly. It is of a more slender form than the land absinthium, acts as a purgative upon the bowels, and effectually removes intestinal worms. The sæpia, too, is a laxative; for which purpose these fish are administered with the food, boiled with a mixture of oil, salt, and meal. Salted mænæ, applied with bull’s gall to the navel, acts as a purgative upon the bowels.

  The liquor of fish, boiled in the saucepan with lettuces, dispels tenesmus. River-crabs, beaten up and taken with water, act astringently upon the bowels, and they have a diuretie effect, if taken with white wine. Deprived of the legs, and taken in doses of three oboli with myrrh and iris, one drachma of each, they disperse urinary calculi. For the cure of the iliac passion and of attacks of flatulency, castoreum should be taken, with seed of daucus and of parsley, a pinch in three fingers of each, the whole being mixed with four cyathi of warm honied wine. Griping pains in the bowels should be treated with castoreum and a mixture of dill and wine. The fish called “erythinus,” used as food, acts astringently upon the bowels. Dysentery is cured by taking frogs boiled with squills, and prepared in the form of boluses, or else hearts of frogs beaten up with honey, as Niceratus recommends. For the cure of jaundice, salt fish should be taken with pepper, the patient abstaining from all other kinds of meat.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 32.

  REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN, FOR URINARY CALCULI, AND FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER. THE SOLE: ONE REMEDY. THE TURBOT: ONE REMEDY. THE BLENDIUS: ONE REMEDY. THE SEA-NETTLE: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE PULMO MARINUS: SIX REMEDIES. ONYCHES: FOUR REMEDIES.

  For the cure of spleen diseases, the fish known as the sole is applied to that part; the torpedo, also, or else a live turbot; it being then set at liberty in the sea. The seascorpion, killed in wine, is a cure for diseases of the bladder and for urinary calculi; the stone, also, that is found in the tail of this last fish, taken in drink, in doses of one obolus; the liver of the enhydris; and the ashes of the fish called “blendius; taken with rue. In the head, too, of the fish called “bacchus,” there are found certain small stones, as it were: these, taken in water, six in number, are an excellent cure for urinary calculi. They say, too, that the sea-nettle, taken in wine, is very useful for this purpose, as also the pulmo marinus, boiled in water, The eggs of the sæpia have a diuretic effect, and carry off pituitous humours from the kidneys. Ruptures and convulsions are very effectually treated by taking river-crabs, bruised in asses’ milk more particularly; and urinary calculi by drinking sea-urchins pounded, spines and all, in wine; the due proportion being one semisextarius of wine for each urchin, and the treatment being continued till its good effects are visible. The flesh, too, of the sea-urchin, taken as food, is very useful as a remedy for the same malady.

  Scallops also, taken as food, act detergently upon the bladder: the male fish is by some persons called “donax,” and by others “aulos,” the female being known as “onyx.” The male scallop has a diuretic effect: the flesh of the female is sweeter than that of the male, and of an uniform colour. The eggs, too, of the sæpia promote the urinary secretions, and act detergently upon the kidneys.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 33.

  REMEDIES FOR INTESTINAL HERNIA, AND FOR DISEASES OF THE RECTUM. THE WATER-SNAKE: ONE REMEDY. THE HYDRUS: ONE REMED
Y. THE MULLET: ONE REMEDY. THE PELAMIS: THREE REMEDIES.

  For the cure of intestinal hernia the sea-hare is applied, bruised with honey. The liver of the water-snake, and that of the hydrus, bruised and taken in drink, are remedial for urinary calculi. Sciatica is cured by using the pickle of the silurus as a clyster, the bowels being first thoroughly purged. For chafing of the fundament, an application is made of heads of mullets and surmullets, reduced to ashes; for which purpose they are calcined in an earthen vessel, and must be applied in combination with honey. Calcined heads, too, of the fish known as mænæ are useful for the cure of chaps and condylomata; as also heads of salted pelamides, reduced to ashes, or calcined cybium, applied with honey.

  The torpedo, applied topically, reduces procidence of the rectum. River-crabs, reduced to ashes, and applied with oil and wax, are curative of chaps of the fundament: sea-crabs, too, are equally useful for the purpose.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 34.

  REMEDIES FOR INFLAMED TUMOURS, AND FOR DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. THE SCIÆNA: ONE REMEDY. THE PERCH: FOUR REMEDIES. THE SQUATINA: THREE REMEDIES. THE SMARIS: THREE REMEDIES.

  The pickle of the coracinus disperses inflammatory tumours; an effect which is equally produced by using the cal- cined intestines and scales of the sciæna. The sea-scorpion, too, is used for the same purpose, boiled in wine, and applied as a fomentation to the part affected. Shells of sea-urchins, bruised and applied with water, act as a check upon incipient inflammatory tumours. Ashes of the murex, or of the purple, are employed in either case, whether it is wanted to disperse inflammatory tumours in an incipient state, or to bring them to a head and break them. Some authorities prescribe the following preparation: of wax and frankincense twenty drachmæ, of litharge forty drachmæ, of calcined murex ten drachmæ, and of old oil, one semisextarius. Salt fish, boiled and applied by itself, is highly useful for the above purposes.