Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

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  CHAP. 35.

  REMEDIES FOR LICE AND FOR PORRIGO.

  Nits are destroyed by using dogs’ fat, eating serpents cooked like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink. Porrigo is cured by applying sheep’s gall with Cimolian chalk, and rubbing the head with the mixture till dry.

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  CHAP. 36.

  REMEDIES FOR HEAD-ACHE AND FOR WOUNDS ON THE HEAD.

  A good remedy for head-ache are the heads taken from the snails which are found without shells, and in an imperfect state. In these heads there is found a hard stony substance, about as large as a common pebble: on being extracted from the snail, it is attached to the patient, the smaller snails being pounded and applied to the forehead. Wool-grease, too, is used for a similar purpose; the bones of a vulture’s head, worn as an amulet; or the brains of that bird, mixed with oil and cedar resin, and applied to the head and introduced into the nostrils. The brains of a crow or owlet, are boiled and taken with the food: or a cock is put into a coop, and kept without food a day and a night, the patient submitting to a similar abstinence, and attaching to his head some feathers plucked from the neck or the comb of the fowl. The ashes, too, of a weasel are applied in the form of a liniment; a twig is taken from a kite’s nest, and laid beneath the patient’s pillow; or a mouse’s skin is burnt, and the ashes applied with vinegar: sometimes, also, the small bone is extracted from the head of a snail that has been found between two cart ruts, and after being passed through a gold ring, with a piece of ivory, is attached to the patient in a piece of dog’s skin; a remedy well known to most persons, and always used with success.

  For fractures of the cranium, cobwebs are applied, with oil and vinegar; the application never coming away till a cure has been effected. Cobwebs are good, too, for stopping the bleeding of wounds made in shaving. Discharges of blood from the brain are arrested by applying the blood of a goose or duck, or the grease of those birds with oil of roses. The head of a snail cut off with a reed, while feeding in the morning, at full moon more particularly, is attached to the head in a linen cloth, with an old thrum, for the cure of headache; or else a liniment is made of it, and applied with white wax to the forehead. Dogs’ hairs are worn also, attached to the forehead in a cloth.

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  CHAP. 37.

  REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS.

  A crow’s brains, taken with the food, they say, will make the eyelashes grow; or else wool-grease, applied with warmed myrrh, by the aid of a fine probe. A similar result is promised by using the following preparation: burnt flies and ashes of mouse-dung are mixed in equal quantities, to the amount of half a denarius in the whole; two sixths of a dena- rius of antimony are then added, and the mixture is applied with wool-grease. For the same purpose, also, the young ones of a mouse are beaten up, in old wine, to the consistency of the strengthening preparations known as “acopa.” When eyelashes are plucked out that are productive of inconvenience, they are prevented from growing again by using a hedge-hog’s gall; the liquid portion, also, of a spotted lizard’s eggs; the ashes of a burnt salamander; the gall of a green lizard, mixed with white wine, and left to thicken to the consistency of honey in a copper vessel in the sun; the ashes of a swallow’s young, mixed with the milky juice of tithymalos; or else the slime of snails.

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  CHAP. 38.

  REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES.

  According to what the magicians say, glaucoma may be cured by using the brains of a puppy seven days old; the probe being inserted in the right side [of the eye], if it is the right eye that is being operated on, and in the left side, if it is the left. The fresh gall, too, of the asio is used, a bird belonging to the owlet tribe, with feathers standing erect like ears. Apollonius of Pitanæ used to prefer dog’s gall, in combination with honey, to that of the hyæna, for the cure of cataract, as also of albugo. The heads and tails of mice, reduced to ashes and applied to the eyes, improve the sight, it is said; a result which is ensured with even greater certainty by using the ashes of a dormouse or wild mouse, or else the brains or gall of an eagle. The ashes and fat of a field-mouse, beaten up with Attic honey and antimony, are remarkably useful for watery eyes — what this antimony is, we shall have occasion to say when speaking of metals.

  For the cure of cataract, the ashes of a weasel are used, as also the brains of a lizard or swallow. Weasels, boiled and pounded, and so applied to the forehead, allay defluxions of the eyes, either used alone, or else with fine flour or with frankincense. Employed in a similar manner, they are very good for sun-stroke, or in other words, for injuries inflicted by the sun. It is a remarkably good plan, too, to burn these animals alive, and to use their ashes, with Cretan honey, as a liniment for films upon the eyes. The cast-off slough of the asp, with the fat of that reptile, forms an excellent ointment for improving the sight in beasts of burden. To burn a viper alive in a new earthen vessel, with one cyathus of fennel juice, and a single grain of frankincense, and then to anoint the eyes with the mixture, is remarkably good for cataract and films upon the eyes; the preparation being generally known as “echeon.” An eye-salve, too, is prepared, by leaving a viper to putrefy in an earthen pot, and bruising the maggots that breed in it with saffron. A viper, too, is burnt in a vessel with salt, and the preparation is applied to the tip of the tongue, to improve the eyesight, and to act generally as a corrective of the stomach and other parts of the body. This salt is given also to sheep, to preserve them in health, and is used as an ingredient in antidotes to the venom of serpents.

  Some persons, again, use vipers as an article of food: when this is done, it is recommended, the moment they are killed, to put some salt in the mouth and let it melt there; after which, the body must be cut away to the length of four fingers at each extremity, and, the intestines being first removed, the remainder boiled in a mixture of water, oil, salt, and dill. When thus prepared, they are either eaten at once, or else kneaded in a loaf, and taken from time to time as wanted. In addition to the above-mentioned properties, viper-broth cleanses all parts of the body of lice, and removes itching sensations as well upon the surface of the skin. The ashes, also, of a viper’s head, used by themselves, are evidently productive of considerable effects; they are employed very advantageously in the form of a liniment for the eyes; and so, too, is viper’s fat. I would not make so bold as to advise what is strongly recommended by some, the use, namely, of vipers’ gall; for that, as already stated on a more appropriate occasion, is nothing else but the venom of the serpent. The fat of snakes, mixed with verdigrease, heals ruptures of the cuticle of the eyes; and the skin or slough that is cast off in spring, employed as a friction for the eyes, improves the sight. The gall of the boa is highly vaunted for the cure of albugo, cataract, and films upon the eyes, and the fat is thought to improve the sight.

  The gall of the eagle, which tests its young, as already stated, by making them look upon the sun, forms, with Attic honey, an eye-salve which is very good for the cure of webs, films, and cataracts of the eye. A vulture’s gall, too, mixed with leek-juice and a little honey, is possessed of similar properties; and the gall of a cock, dissolved in water, is employed for the cure of argema and albugo: the gall, too, of a white cock, in particular, is recommended for cataract. For shortsighted persons, the dung of poultry is recommended as a liniment, care being taken to use that of a reddish colour only. A hen’s gall, too, is highly spoken of, and the fat in particular, for the cure of pustules upon the pupils, a purpose for which hens are expressly fattened. This last substance is marvellously useful for ruptures of the coats of the eyes, incorporated with the stones known as schistos and hæmatites. Hens’ dung, too, but only the white part of it, is kept with old oil in boxes made of horn, for the cure of white specks upon the pupil of the eye. While mentioning this subject, it is worthy of remark, that peacocks swallow their dung, it is said, as though they envied man the various
uses of it. A hawk, boiled in oil of roses, is considered extremely efficacious as a liniment for all affections of the eyes, and so are the ashes of its dung, mixed with Attic honey. A kite’s liver, too, is highly esteemed; and pigeons’ dung, diluted with vinegar, is used as an application for fistulas of the eye, as also for albugo and marks upon that organ. Goose gall and duck’s blood are very useful for contusions of the eyes, care being taken, immediately after the application, to anoint them with a mixture of woolgrease and honey. In similar cases, too, gall of partridges is used, with an equal quantity of honey; but where it is only wanted to improve the sight, the gall is used alone. It is generally thought, too, upon the authority of Hippocrates, that the gall to be used for these purposes should be kept in a silver box.

  Partridges’ eggs, boiled in a copper vessel, with honey, are curative of ulcers of the eyes, and of glaucoma. For the treatment of blood-shot eyes, the blood of pigeons, ring-doves, turtle-doves, and partridges is remarkably useful; but that of the male pigeon is generally looked upon as the most efficacious. For this purpose, a vein is opened beneath the wing, it being warmer than the rest of the blood, and consequently more beneficial. After it is applied, a compress, boiled in honey, should be laid upon it, and some greasy wool, boiled in oil and wine. Nyctalopy, too, is cured by using the blood of these birds, or the liver of a sheep — the most efficacious being that of a tawny sheep — as already stated by us when speaking of goats. A decoction, too, of the liver is recommended as a wash for the eyes, and, for pains and swellings in those organs, the marrow, used as a liniment. The eyes of a horned owl, it is strongly asserted, reduced to ashes and mixed in an eye-salve, will improve the sight. Albugo is made to disappear by using the dung of turtle-doves, snails burnt to ashes, and the dung of the cenchris, a kind of hawk, according to the Greeks. All the substances above mentioned, used in combination with honey, are curative of argema: honey, too, in which the bees have died, is remarkably good for the eyes.

  A person who has eaten the young of the stork will never suffer from ophthalmia for many years to come, it is said; and the same when a person carries about him the head of a dragon: it is stated, too, that the fat of this last-named animal, applied with honey and old oil, will disperse incipient films of the eyes. The young of the swallow are blinded at full moon, and the moment their sight is restored, their heads are burnt, and the ashes are employed, with honey, to improve the sight, and for the cure of pains, ophthalmia, and contusions of the eyes.

  Lizards, also, are employed in numerous ways as a remedy for diseases of the eyes. Some persons enclose a green lizard in a new earthen vessel, together with nine of the small stones known as “cinædia,” which are usually attached to the body for tumours in the groin. Upon each of these stones they make nine marks, and remove one from the vessel daily, taking care, when the ninth day is come, to let the lizard go, the stones being kept as a remedy for affections of the eyes. Others, again, blind a green lizard, and after putting some earth beneath it, enclose it in a glass vessel, with some small rings of solid iron or gold. When they find, by looking through the glass, that the lizard has recovered its sight, they set it at liberty, and keep the rings as a preservative against ophthalmia. Others employ the ashes of a lizard’s head as a substitute for antimony, for the treatment of eruptions of the eyes. Some recommend the ashes of the green lizard with a long neck that is usually found in sandy soils, as an application for incipient defluxions of the eyes, and for glaucoma. They say, too, that if the eyes of a weasel are extracted with a pointed instrument, its sight will return; the same use being made of it as of the lizards and rings above mentioned. The right eye of a serpent, worn as an amulet, is very good, it is said, for defluxions of the eyes, due care being taken to set the serpent at liberty after extracting the eye. For continuous watering of the eyes, the ashes of a spotted lizard’s head, applied with antimony, are remarkably efficacious.

  The cobweb of the common fly-spider, that which lines its hole more particularly, applied to the forehead across the temples, in a compress of some kind or other, is said to be marvellously useful for the cure of defluxions of the eyes: the web must be taken, however, and applied by the hands of a boy who has not arrived at the years of puberty; the boy, too, must not show himself to the patient for three days, and during those three days neither of them must touch the ground with his feet uncovered. The white spider with very elongated, thin, legs, beaten up in old oil, forms an ointment which is used for the cure of albugo. The spider, too, whose web, of remarkable thickness, is generally found adhering to the rafters of houses, applied in a piece of cloth, is said to be curative of defluxions of the eyes. The green scarabæus has the property of rendering the sight more piercing of those who gaze upon it: hence it is that the engravers of precious stones use these insects to steady their sight.

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  CHAP. 39.

  REMEDIES FOR PAINS AND DISEASES OF THE EARS.

  A sheep’s gall, mixed with honey, is a good detergent of the ears. Pains in those organs are allayed by injecting a bitch’s milk; and hardness of hearing is removed by using dogs’ fat, with wormwood and old oil, or else goose-grease. Some persons add juice of onions and of garlic, in equal proportions. The eggs, too, of ants are used, by themselves, for this purpose; these insects being possessed, in fact, of certain medicinal properties, and bears, it is well known, curing themselves when sick, by eating them as food. Goose-grease, and indeed that of all birds, is prepared by removing all the veins and leaving the fat, in a new, shallow, earthen vessel, well covered, to melt in the sun, some boiling water being placed beneath it; which done, it is passed through linen strainers, and is then put by in a cool spot, in a new earthen vessel, for keeping: with the addition of honey it is less liable to turn rancid. Ashes of burnt mice, injected with honey or boiled with oil of roses, allay pains in the ears. In cases where an insect has got into the ears, a most excellent remedy is found in an injection of mouse gall, diluted with vinegar; where, too, water has made its way into the passages of the ear, goose-grease is used, in combination with juice of onions. Some persons skin a dormouse, and after removing the intestines boil the body in a new vessel with honey. Medical men, however, prefer boiling it down to one-third with nard, and recommend it to be kept in that state, and to be warmed when wanted, and injected with a syringe. It is a well-known fact, that this preparation is an effectual remedy for the most desperate maladies of the ears the same, too, with an injection of earth-worms boiled with goose-grease. The red worms, also, that are found upon trees, beaten up with oil, are a most excellent remedy for ulcerations and ruptures of the ears. Lizards, which have been suspended for some time and dried, with salt in the mouth, are curative of contusions of the ears, and of injuries inflicted by blows: the most efficacious for this purpose are those which have ironcoloured spots upon the skin, and are streaked with lines along the tail.

  Millepedes, known also as “centipedes” or “multipedes,” are insects belonging to the earth-worm genus, hairy, with numerous feet, forming curves as they crawl, and contracting themselves when touched: the Greeks give to this insect the name of “oniscos,” others, again, that of “tylos.” Boiled with leek-juice in a pomegranate rind, it is highly efficacious, they say, for pains in the ears; oil of roses being added to the preparation, and the mixture injected into the ear opposite to the one affected. As for that kind which does not describe a curve when moving, the Greeks give it the name of “seps,” while others, again, call it “scolopendra;” it is smaller than the former one, and is injurious. The snails which are commonly used as food, are applied to the ears with myrrh or powdered frankincense; and those with a small, broad, shell are employed with honey as a liniment for fractured ears. Old sloughs of serpents, burnt in a heated potsherd and mixed with oil of roses, are used as an injection for the ears, which is considered highly efficacious for all affections of those organs, and for offensive odours arising there from in particular. In cases where there is suppur
ation of the ears, vinegar is used, and it is still better if goat’s gall, ox-gall, or that of the sea tortoise, is added. This slough, however, is good for nothing when more than a year old; the same, too, when it has been drenched with rain, as some think. The thick pulp of a spider’s body, mixed with oil of roses, is also used for the ears; or else the pulp applied by itself with saffron or in wool: a cricket, too, is dug up with some of its earth, and applied. Nigidius attributes great virtues to this insect, and the magicians still greater, and all because it walks backwards, pierces the earth, and chirrups by night! The mode of catching it is by throwing an ant, made fast with a hair, into its hole, the dust being first blown away to prevent it from concealing itself: the moment it seizes the ant, it is drawn out.