River crabs, bruised and applied, disperse pustules on the generative organs: the same, too, with calcined heads of mænæ, or the flesh of that fish, boiled and applied. Heads of salted perch, reduced to ashes, and applied with honey, are equally useful for the purpose; or else calcined heads of pelamides, or skin of the squatina reduced to ashes. It is the skin of this fish that is used, as already stated, for giving a polish to wood; for the sea even, we find, furnishes its aid to our artificers. For a similar purpose the fishes called “smarides” are applied topically; as also ashes of the shell of the murex or of the purple, applied with honey; which last are still more efficacious when the flesh has been burnt with the shell.
Salt fish, boiled with honey, is particularly good for the cure of carbuncles upon the generative organs. For relaxation of the testes, the slime of snails is recommended, applied in the form of a liniment.
The flesh of hippocampi, grilled and taken frequently as food, is a cure for incontinence of urine; the ophidion, too, a little fish similar to the conger in appearance, eaten with a lily root; or the small fry found in the bellies of larger fish that have swallowed them, reduced to ashes and taken in water. It is recommended, too, to burn African snails, both shells and flesh, and to administer the ashes with wine of Signia.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 36.
REMEDIES FOR GOUT, AND FOR PAINS IN THE FEET. THE BEAVER: FOUR REMEDIES. BRYON: ONE REMEDY.
For the cure of gout and of diseases of the joints, oil is useful in which the intestines of frogs have been boiled. Ashes, too, of burnt bramble-frogs are similarly employed, with stale grease; in addition to which, some persons use calcined barley, the three ingredients being mixed in equal proportions. It is recommended too, in cases of gout, to rub the parts affected with a sea-hare, fresh caught, and to wear shoes made of beaver’s skin, Pontic beaver more particularly, or else of sea-calf’s skin, an animal the fat of which is very useful for the purpose: the same being the case also with bryon, a plant of which we have already spoken, similar to the lettuce in appearance, but with more wrinkled leaves, and destitute of stem. This plant is of a styptic nature, and, applied topically, it tends to modify the paroxysms of gout. The same, too, with sea-weed, of which we have also spoken already; due precaution being taken not to apply it dry.
Chilblains are cured by applying the pulmo marinus; ashes of sea-crabs with oil; river crabs, bruised and burnt to ashes and kneaded up with oil; or else fat of the silurus. In diseases of the joints, the paroxysms are modified by applying fresh frogs every now and then: some authorities recommend that they should be split asunder before being applied. The liquor from mussels and other shell-fish has a tendency to make flesh.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 37.
REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.
Epileptic patients, as already stated, are recommended to drink the rennet of the sea-calf, mixed with mares’ milk or asses’ milk, or else with pomegranate juice, or, in some cases, with oxymel: some persons, too, swallow the rennet by itself, in the form of pills. Castoreum is sometimes administered, in three cyathi of oxymel, to the patient fasting; but where the attacks are frequent, it is employed in the form of a clyster, with marvellous effect. The proper proportions, in this last case, are two drachmæ of castoreum, one sextarius of oil and honey, and the same quantity of water. At the moment that the patient is seized with a fit, it is a good plan to give him castoreum, with vinegar, to smell. The liver, too, of the sea- weasel is given to epileptic patients, or else that of sea-mice, or the blood of tortoises.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 38. (10.)
REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY.
Recurrent fevers are effectually checked by making the patient taste the liver of a dolphin, just before the paroxysm comes on. Hippocampi are stifled in oil of roses, and the patients are rubbed therewith in cold agues, the fish, also, being worn as an amulet by the patient. In the same way, too, the small stones that are found at full moon in the head of the fish called “asellus” are worn, attached in a piece of linen cloth to the patient’s body. A similar virtue is attributed to the longest tooth of the river-fish called phagrus, attached to the patient with a hair, provided he does not see the person who attaches it to him for five days. Frogs are boiled in oil in a spot where three roads meet, and, the flesh being first thrown away, the patients are rubbed with the decoction, by way of cure for quartan fever. Some persons, again, suffocate frogs in oil, and, after attaching them to the patient without his knowing it, anoint him with the oil. The heart of a frog, worn as an amulet, modifies the cold chills in fevers; the same, too, with oil in which the intestines of frogs have been boiled. But the best remedy for quartan fevers, is to wear attached to the body either frogs from which the claws have been removed, or else the liver or heart of a bramble-frog, attached in a piece of russet-coloured cloth.
River-crabs, bruised in oil and water, are highly beneficial in fevers, the patient being anointed with the preparation just before the paroxysms come on: some authorities recommend the addition of pepper to the mixture. Others prescribe for quartan fevers a decoction of river-crabs in wine, boiled down to one fourth, the patient taking it at the moment of leaving the bath: by some, too, it is recommended to swallow the left eye of a river-crab. The magicians engage to cure a tertian fever, by attaching as an amulet to the patient, before sunrise, the eyes of river-crabs, the crabs when thus blinded being set at liberty in the water. They say, too, that these eyes, attached to the body in a piece of deer’s hide, with the flesh of a nightingale, will dispel sleep and promote watchfulness. In cases where there are symptoms of lethargy, the rennet of the balæna or of the sea-calf is given to the patient to smell; some persons, too, use the blood of tortoises as a liniment for lethargic patients.
Tertian fevers, it is said, may be cured by wearing one of the vertebræ of a perch attached to the body, and quartan fevers by using fresh river snails, as an aliment. Some persons preserve these snails in salt for this purpose, and give them, pounded, in drink.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 39.
REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.
Strombi, left to putrefy in vinegar, act as an excitant upon lethargic patients by their smell; they are very useful, too, for the cure of cardiac diseases. For cachectic patients, where the body is wasting with consumption, tetheæ are considered beneficial, mixed with rue and honey. For the cure of dropsy, dolphin’s fat is melted and taken with wine, the repulsive taste of it being neutralized by first touching the nostrils with unguent or some other odoriferous substance, or else by plugging the nostrils in some way or other. The flesh of strombi, pounded and given in three heminæ of honied wine and the same quantity of water, or, if there is fever, in hydromel, is very useful for dropsy: the same, too, with the juice of river-crabs, administered with honey. Water frogs, too, are boiled with old wine and spelt, and taken as food, the liquor in which they have been boiled being drunk from the same vessel: or else the feet, head, and tail of a tortoise are cut off, and the intestines removed, the rest of the flesh being seasoned in such a manner as to allow of its being taken without loathing. River-crabs, too, eaten with their broth, are said to be very good for the cure of phthisis.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 40.
REMEDIES FOR BURNS AND FOR ERYSIPELAS.
Burns are cured by applying ashes of calcined sea-crabs or river-crabs with oil: fish-glue, too, and calcined frogs are used as an application for scalds produced by boiling water. The same treatment also restores the hair, provided the ashes are those of river-crabs: it is generally thought, too, that the preparation should be applied with wax and bears’ grease. Ashes, too, of burnt beaver-skin are very useful for these purposes. Live frogs act as a check upon crysipelas, the belly side being applied to the part affected: it is recommended, too, to attach them lengthwise b
y the hinder legs, so as to render them more beneficial by reason of their increased respiration. Heads, too, of salted siluri are reduced to ashes and applied with vinegar.
Prurigo and itch-scab, not only in man but in quadrupeds as well, are most efficaciously treated with the liver of the pastinaca boiled in oil.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 41.
REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SINEWS.
The exterior callosity with which the flesh of purples is covered, beaten up, unites the sinews, even when they have been severed asunder. It is a good plan, for patients suffering from tetanus, to take sea-calf’s rennet in wine, in doses of one obolus, as also fish-glue. Persons affected with fits of trembling find much relief from castoreum, provided they are well anointed with oil. I find it stated that the surmullet, used as an article of diet, acts injuriously upon the sinews.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 42.
METHODS OF ARRESTING HÆMORRHAGE AND OF LETTING BLOOD. THE POLYP: ONE REMEDY.
Fish, used as an aliment, it is generally thought, make blood. The polyp, bruised and applied, arrests hæmorrhage, it is thought: in addition to which we find stated the following particulars respecting it — that of itself it emits a sort of brine, in consequence of which, there is no necessity to use any in cooking it — that it should always be sliced with a reed — and that it is spoilt by using an iron knife, becoming tainted thereby, owing to the antipathy which naturally exists (between it and iron). For the purpose also of arresting hæmorrhage, ashes of burnt frogs are applied topically, or else the dried blood of those animals. Some authorities recommend the frog to be used, that is known by the Greeks as “calamites,” from the fact that it lives among reeds and shrubs; it is the smallest and greenest of all the frogs, and either the blood or the ashes of it are recommended to be employed. Others, again, prescribe, in cases of bleeding at the nostrils, an injection of the ashes of young water-frogs, in the tadpole state, calcined in a new carthen vessel.
On the other hand, again, in cases where it is required to let blood, the kind of leech is used which is known among us by the name of “sanguisuga.” Indeed, the action of these leeches is looked upon as pretty much the same as that of the cupping-glasses used in medicine, their effect being to relieve the body of superfluous blood, and to open the pores of the skin. Still, however, there is this inconvenience attending them — when they have been once applied, they create a necessity for laving recourse to the same treatment at about the same period in every succeeding year. Many physicians have been of opinion also, that leeches may be successfully applied in cases of gout. When gorged, they fall off in consequence of los<*>ag their hold through the weight of the blood, but if not, they must be sprinkled with salt for the purpose.
Leeches ar apt, however, to leave their heads buried in the flesh; the consequence of which is an incurable wound, which has caused death in many cases, that of Messalinus, for example, a patrician of consular rank, after an application of leeches to his knee. When this is the case, that which was intended as a remedy is turned into an active poison; a result which is to be apprehended in using the red leeches more particularly. Hence it is that when these last are employed, it is the practice to snip them with a pair of scissors while sucking; the consequence of which is, that the blood oozes forth, through a siphon, as it were, and the head, gradually contracting as the animal dies, is not left behind in the wound. There is a natural antipathy existing between leeches and bugs, and hence it is that the latter are killed by the aid of a fumigation made with leeches. Ashes of beaver-skin burnt with tar, kneaded up with leek-juice, arrest bleeding at the nostrils.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 43.
METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN BODIES FROM THE FLESH.
To extract pointed weapons which have pierced the flesh, ashes of calcined shells of the sæpia are used, as also of the purple, the meat of salted fish, bruised river-crabs, or flesh of the silurus (a river-fish that is found in other streams as well as the Nilus), applied either fresh or salted. The ashes also of this fish, as well as the fat, have the property of extracting pointed bodies, and the back-bone, in a calcined state, is used as a substitute for spodium.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 44.
REMEDIES FOR ULCERS, CARCINOMATA, AND CARBUNCLES.
Ulcers of a serpiginous nature, as also the fleshy excrescences which make their appearance in them, are kept in check by applying ashes of calcined heads of mænæ, or else ashes of the silurus. Carcinomata, too, are treated with heads of salted perch, their efficacy being considerably increased by using some salt along with the ashes, and kneading them up with heads of cunila and olive-oil. Ashes of sea-crabs, calcined with lead, arrest the progress of carcinomatous sores: a purpose for which ashes of river-crabs, in combination with honey and fine lint, are equally useful; though there are some authorities which prefer mixing alum and barley with the ashes. Phagedænic ulcers are cured by an application of dried silurus pounded with sandarach; malignant cancers, corrosive ulcers, and putrid sores, by the agency of stale cybium.
Maggots that breed in sores are removed by applying frogs’ gall; and fistulas are opened and dried by introducing a tent made of salt fish, with a dossil of lint. Salt fish, kneaded up and applied in the form of a plaster, will remove all proud flesh in the course of a day, and will arrest the further progress of putrid and serpiginous ulcers. Alex, applied in lint, acts detergently, also, upon ulcers; the same, too, with the ashes of calcined shells of sea-urchins. Salted slices of the coracinus disperse carbuncles, an effect equally produced by the ashes of salted surmullets. Some persons, however, use the head only of the surmullet, in combination with honey or with the flesh of the coracinus. Ashes of the murex, applied with oil, disperse tumours, and the gall of the sea-scorpion makes scars disappear.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 45.
REMEDIES FOR WARTS, AND FOR MALFORMED NAILS. THE GLANIS: ONE REMEDY.
To remove warts, the liver of the glanis is applied to the part; ashes also of heads of mænæ bruised with garlic — substances which should be used raw where it is thymewarts that require to be removed — the gall of the red seascorpion, smarides pounded and applied, or alex thoroughly boiled. Ashes of calcined heads of mænæ are used to rectify malformed nails.
Detailed table of contents
CHAP. 46.
REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS: ONE REMEDY.
The milk is increased in females by eating the glauciscus in its own liquor, or else smarides with a ptisan, or boiled with fennel. Ashes of calcined shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey, are an effectual cure for affections of the mamillæ; river-crabs, too, and sea-crabs, applied topically, are equally good. The meat of the murex, applied to the mamillæ, removes hairs growing upon those parts. The squatina, applied topically, prevents the mamillæ from becoming too distended. Lint greased with dolphin’s fat, and then ignited, produces a smoke which acts as an excitant upon females suffering from hysterical suffocations; the same, too, with strombi, left to putrefy in vinegar. Heads of perch or of mænæ, calcined and mixed with salt, oil, and cunila, are curative of diseases of the uterus: used as a fumigation, they bring away the afterbirth. Fat, too, of the sea-calf, melted by the agency of fire, is introduced into the nostrils of females when swooning from hysterical suffocations; and for a similar purpose, the rennet of that animal is applied as a pessary, in wool.
The pulmo marinus, attached to the body as an amulet, is an excellent promoter of menstruation; an effect which is equally produced by pounding live sea-urchins, and taking them in sweet wine. River-crabs, bruised in wine, and taken internally, arrest menstruation. The silurus, that of Africa more particularly, used as a fumigation, facilitates parturition, it is said. Crabs, taken in water, arrest menstruation; but used with hyssop, they act as an emmenagogue, we are told. In cases, too, where the infant is in danger of suffocation at the mome
nt of delivery, a similar drink, administered to the mother, is highly efficacious. Crabs, too, either fresh or dried, are taken in drink, for the purpose of preventing abortion. Hippocrates prescribes them as a promoter of menstruation, and as an expellent of the dead fœtus, beaten up with five roots of lapathum and rue and some soot, and administered in honied wine. Crabs, boiled and taken in their liquor, with lapathum and parsley, promote the menstrual discharge, and increase the milk. In cases of fever, attended with pains in the head and throbbing of the eyes, crabs are said to be highly beneficial to females, given in astringent wine.
Castoreum, taken in honied wine, is useful as a promoter of menstruation: in cases of hysterical suffocation, it is given to the patient to smell at with pitch and vinegar, or else it is made up into tablets and used as a pessary. For the purpose also of bringing away the afterbirth it is found a useful plan to employ castoreum with panax, in four cyathi of wine; and in cases where the patient is suffering from cold, in doses of three oboli. If, however, a female in a state of pregnancy should happen to step over castoreum, or over the beaver itself, abortion, it is said, will be the sure result: so, too, if castoreum is only held over a pregnant woman’s head, there will be great danger of miscarriage.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder Page 228
