EXTRACTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DIOSCORIDES.
Dioscorides devotes a chapter to the medicinal values of different ordures; a condensation only of the translation need be given, since the original is inserted.
The fresh dung of domestic cattle was considered good for inflamed wounds; for pains at extremity of spine; and, when made into a plaster with oil, it dissolved glandular and scrofulous swellings and tumors. The dung of bulls was a remedy for falling of the womb; when drunk with wine, was frequently given as a remedy in epilepsy; used also in the cure of suppressed menstruation and to expel the fœtus in retarded delivery; administered in menstrual hemorrhages; for the alleviation of gout in the feet, serpent bites, erysipelas, etc. Goat and sheep dung was used for the same purposes.
Dried goat-dung, drunk in wine, checked hemorrhages, as did that of asses and horses. The dung of grass-fed kine taken in wine for scorpion bites.
Dove and poultry dung given to break up the old sores and scrofulous swellings.
Hen-dung believed to be almost a specific against the effects of poisonous mushrooms; it was to be drunk in wine.
Stork-dung was another remedy for epilepsy; it was also to be drunk in wine.
Vulture-dung expelled the fœtus; mouse-dung expelled calculi.
Hen-dung, especially that laid during the dog-days, was good for dysentery.
Fresh human ordure was applied to inflamed wounds, and as a plaster in angina; dog-dung was also used in such cases.
Crocodile-excrement was in high repute as a cosmetic. (See “Cosmetics.”) Purchasers were warned that it was frequently adulterated with the excrement of starlings fed on rice.
The urine of the patient himself should be drunk in cases of serpent bites, poisons from drugs, bites of scorpions, mad dogs, etc. For old ulcers, cicatrices, “lepras,” an excellent application; also for ulcerations in the genitalia, sores in the ears, etc.
The urine of an undefiled boy was highly commended for various purposes, especially when triturated with honey in a brass mortar.
The “sediment of urine” (see “Mangeurs de Blanc”) was regarded as of great value in erysipelas. Bull’s urine was given for the cure of ulcerated ears.
Goat urine expelled stone from the bladder; likewise, beneficial in dropsy, if drunk daily.
Asses’ urine cured mania.
“Dioscoride, lib. ii. cap. 73, et ses commentateurs, P. Andr. Mathicle, fol. 238, et J. Cornarius, comment. cap. 69, fol. m. 134, permettent l’usage des stercoraria pour les paysans, et quand on n’a rien de mieux sous la main, mais ils l’interdisent pour les habitants des villes et les personnages honorati alicujus estimationis. Outre son grand ouvrage, de maître médical on attribue généralement à Dioscoride un traité désigné sous le titre de Euporista, ou des remèdes faciles à procurer.” (This was published at Strasbourg and again at Frankfort in 1565 and 1598, respectively, from the original Greek.) “Dans l’Euporista, Dioscoride cherche à établir que les remèdes indigènes valent souvent mieux que ceux qu’on fait venir à grands frais des pays éloignés, et, à ce titre, il mentionne le stercus comme offrant de curieuses ressources.”—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 74.)
“Stercus bovis armentalis recens impositum, inflammationem ex vulneribus lenit; foliis autem involutum in cineris calentis calefit, atque ita imponuntur. Simili modo fotu applicitum coxendicis cruciatus mitigat. Ex aceto vero cataplasmatis vice impositum duritias, strumas et glandarum tumores discutit. Speciatim vero bovis masculi fimus prolapsum uterum suffitu restituit, accensi quoque nidore culices abiguntur. Cuprarum præsertim in montibus degentium, stercus ex vino bibitum regium morbum emendat, cum aromatibus vero potum menses ciet et fœtus ejiciet.
“Siccum, tritumque et cum turre in velleræ appositum, fluxum muliebrem cohibet aliasque sanguinis eruptiones ex aceto compescit. Ustum ac cum aceto aut oxymelite illitum calvitiei medetur. Cum axungia vero cataplasmata adhibitum podagracis opitulatur. Decoctum in aceto, aut vino imponitur ad serpentiæ morsum, herpetas, erysipelata, parotides. Quin et ischiadicis ustis eorum ope administratur utiliter hunc in modum; in eo cavo, quod est inter pollicem et indicem qua parte pollex committitur, lana oleo imbuta prius substernitur, ac dein singulatim imponuntur fimi caprini ferventes pilulæ, donec sensus per brachium ad coxendicem perveniat doloremque mitiget atque adustis talis arabica appellatur.
“At vero stercus ovillum ex aceto impositum sanat epinyctidas, clavos, verrucas, quæ thymi vocantur, et quæ pensiles sunt.... Aprinum autem aridum in aqua aut vino potum, sanguinis rejectionem sistit ac diuturnum sedat lateris dolorem. Sed ad rapta convulsaque, ex aceto bibitur; luxatis vero exceptum curato rosaceo medetur. Porro tam asinorum quam equorum fimum, sive crudum sive crematum, addito aceto, sanguinis eruptiones cohibet. Armentinorum vero, qui herba pascuntur, siccum stercus vino imbutum et bibitum a scorpione ictis magnopere auxiliatur.
“Columbinum quoniam vehementer calefacit ac urit, farinæ crudæ admiscetur, et ex aceto quidem strumas discutit. Carbunculos vero emarginat cum melle, lini seminæ, et oleo tritum, nec non ambustis quoque medetur. Gallinaceum eadem, sed malignis, præstat. Speciatim tamen contra letales fongos et colicos dolores confert, si ex aceto aut vino bibatur. Ciconæ vero fimium ex aqua potum comitialibus prodesse creditur. Vulturis suffumigatum fœtum excutere traditur. Murium cum aceto tritum illitumque calvitiei medetur, cum turre vero et mulso potum calculos expellit. Sed et subditæ infantibus muscerdæ alvum ad dejectionem lacessunt. Caninum stercus, quod per caniculæ ardores exceptum fuerit, aridum cum vino aut aqua potum, alvum cohibet. Ad humanum recens cataplasmatis vice impositum vulnera ab inflammatione vindicat, simul vero glutinat. Siccum autem cum melle perunctum anginosos auxiliari traditur.
“Stercus crocodilis terrestris mulieribus confert ad colorem facei nitoremque producendum.
“Optimum vero quod candidissimum et friabile amyli modo leve in humore statim eliquiescit, atque dum teritur, subacidum est et fermentum redolet. Sunt qui id vendant adulterant fimo non dissimili sturnorum quos oryza paverunt. Alii amylum aut cimoliam subigunt, et adescito, colore, per rarum cribrum, paullatim percolant et siccant, ut vermiculorum specie loco genuini vendant. Ceterum humanum stercus siccum melle subactum, et gutturi impositum sicut et caninum, anginosis opitulari in arcanis, aut turpibus etiam inveniunt.”—(Dioscorides, “Materia Medica,” Latin-Greek edit. of Kuhn, Leipsig, 1829, vol. i., pp. 222 et seq.)
“Humanam urinam suum cuique bibere prodest contra viperæ morsus et letalia pharmaca, hydropemque incipientem; prodest etiam ea fovere echinorum marinorum scorpionis itidem marini draconisque ictus. Canina rabidi canis morsibus perfundendis idonea est; lepras quoque et pruritus, nitro addito, exterit. Vetus etiam achoras, furfures, scabiem, fervidasque eruptiones potentius extergit, quin et ulcera depascentia, etiam genitalium coarcet. Purulentis quoque auribus infusa pus condensat, et in malicordio cocta animalcula (quæ forte in aures irrepsirent) ejicit. Pueri innocentis absorta urina anhelantibus confert, cocta vero in æreo vaso cum melle cicatrices albugines et caligines emendat.
“Quin etiam ex ea et ære cyprio idoneum auro ferruminando glutea paratur. Sedimentum urinæ erysipelata illita mitigat. Fervefactum cum cyprino appositumque uteri dolorem demulcet ex utero, strangulata levat, palpebras deterget et oculorum cicatrices expurgat. Taurinum lotium cum myrrha tritum et instillatum dolores aurium lenit.
“Aprinum iisdem viribus præditum est sed peculiariter vesicæ calculos potu comminuit et expellit. Caprinum traditur ad hydropem inter cutem cum spica nardi binisque aquæ cyathis quotidie bibiti urinas ducere et alvum instillatum, vero aurium doloribus mederi. Asinino denique ferunt nephreticos sanari.”—(Dioscorides, idem, vol. i. pp. 227 et seq.)
On p. 228 Dioscorides speaks of the use of a medicine known as “lynx urine,” but which he says was a variety of amber.