Avicenna recommends at first washes prepared from the vegetable acids, and afterwards astringents, such as galls, sumach, balaustine, &c. (i, 3, 1.) See also Haly Abbas (Pract. i, 20.)
Alsaharavius states that aphthæ commonly arise from the sharpness of the milk. His general treatment consists in regulating the diet of the nurse, and using washes principally of an astringent nature for the child’s mouth. When they are very painful, he adds to the washes the juice of lettuce, endive, and the like. When they are whitish, he recommends a powder consisting of myrtle, saffron, and sugar. (Tr. xxvi, 20.) Rhases’ treatment is quite similar. (De Morbis Infantium, c. 14.)
The author of the following work, which has been falsely ascribed to Dioscorides, recommends certain applications of a strongly escharotic nature, such as this: Of arsenic, p. i; of burnt paper, p. iii; or this, of sandarach and rose-oil equal parts. (Euporist. i, 82.)
Psellus enumerates two kinds of aphthæ, namely, the white and the red; the former, he says, is mild, the latter very dangerous. (Poëma Medicum.)
SECT. XI.—ON EXCORIATIONS OF THE THIGHS.
Excoriations of the thighs may be sprinkled with dried myrtle, cyperus, and roses.
Commentary. See, in particular, Oribasius (Synops. v, 11); Aëtius (iv, 24); and Avicenna (i, 3, 1.) All recommend nearly the same astringent applications for the intertrigo of infants.
SECT. XII.—ON WATERY DISCHARGES FROM THE EARS.
Watery discharges from the ears may be dried up by applying to them wool with alum, or with wine and honey, or by an injection of old wine either alone or mixed with saffron.
Commentary. Oribasius, Aëtius, Avicenna, and Haly Abbas recommend the same treatment, which would seem to be very proper. Alsaharavius recommends wool soaked in a solution of alum, and injections, consisting of solutions of nitre (soda) in vinegar. Rhases makes mention of nearly the same applications. (De Morb. Infant. c. 9.)