Κόπρος,
Stercus, Dung; all kinds of it are of a heating, desiccative, and discutient nature, but they differ from one another according to the temperament and diet of the animal which voids it. The dung, then, of dogs fed on bones, when dried, cures dysenteric affections if taken in a draught with divided milk (lac scissum), and old ulcers, if mixed with suitable medicines. In cynanche and inflammations about the tonsils, it is rubbed into the parts mixed with honey. These complaints are greatly relieved by the dung of children who have not been permitted to take too much food. The dung of wolves and the whiter sort which is found upon certain shrubs, is an admirable remedy for colics, and that, not only in a draught, but also when appended as an amulet. It may be fastened either with the wool of a sheep recently killed by a wolf, or the skin of a stag. Goat’s dung, being more acrid and discutient, discusses scirrhous tumours when applied externally, more especially upon hard flesh. When burnt it is more detergent and attenuate. The dung of oxen has some attractive powers, and, therefore, cures the stings of wasps and bees. And if the whole body of persons affected with dropsy be rubbed with cow’s dung in the sun they will be much relieved thereby. Sheep’s dung with vinegar cures myrmecia, acrochordon, furunculus, and clavus. That of wild pigeons, being much more acrid than the other kinds, proves rubefacient when applied with the seed of cardamus. That of domestic fowls, when drunk with oxymel, vinegar, or wine and honey, causes the suffocative mushrooms to be vomited, and proves a preservative from them. Some have given it to drink also in colics. They say also that the dung of storks, when drunk, is useful in orthopnœa. That of mice, being more detergent than all others, agrees with alopecia, and when applied to the anus of children provokes evacuation. The dung of starlings, when they feed on rice, becomes detergent so as to clear away freckles. That of land crocodiles removes alphos, as that of the crocodiles of the Nile is believed to attenuate leucoma (white films on the eyes).
Commentary. Our author’s account of the medicinal properties of Dung is abridged from Galen. As we have no wish to see this article restored to the Materia Medica, we shall not enlarge upon the subject. Those who wish to improve their knowledge of the medicinal articles mentioned under this head by our author, may find them treated of usque ad nauseam by Dioscorides, Galen, Serapion, and Avicenna. Many of them were retained in the Dispensatory down to a comparatively recent date. For example, the white dung of dogs, usually called Album Græcum, was long used in the cure of quinsies. See Quincy (140, 206.)
Κοράλλιον,
Corallium, Coral, is a sort of petrified arboret, not growing on dry land, but among the mud of the sea, being of a red colour, and like stone. Its powers are decidedly desiccant and moderately astringent. It answers, therefore, with cases of hæmoptysis and dysentery.
Commentary. The Coral of the ancients is the Isis nobilis, Pall.; the name Isis being borrowed from Pliny. (H. N. xiii, 52.) Pliny mentions, in another place, that corals, burnt and pulverised, and drunk in water, are useful in some pains of the bowels and bladder, and in calculus. He adds that they are also soporific. Corals were much used as amulets or phylacteries. (H. N. xxxii, 5.) See also Solinus (ii), and Geopon. (xv, 1.) Celsus ranks the corallium with those substances which burn: “Veratrum, album et nigrum, corallium, cantharides, pyrethrum, adurunt.” (v, 208.) This article does not occur in the Hippocratic treatises, nor in Galen’s work ‘On the Faculties of Simples.’ The latter, however, prescribes it for spitting of blood in another place. (De Comp. Med. sec. loc. vii.) Dioscorides and Serapion, likewise, recommend it as an astringent in hæmoptysis and in dysentery. It appears from the Royal Pharmacopœia of Moses Charras, that it was used for the cure of these complaints in his time. He prefers the red coral, and directs us to give it in the form of an impalpable powder. The red coral held a place in our English Dispensatory until a recent date. See Quincy (101.) It was much used in infantile convulsions. It is still admitted to be a good antacid. See Gray (Pharmacol. 146.) According to Dr. Ainslie, the Tamool practitioners prescribe it, when calcined, in cases of diabetes and bleeding piles. The Arabians place it among their astringents and cordials. (Mat. Ind. 52.) The sea-coralline is retained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia, under the title of Helminthochortos, which, however, as is there stated, comprehends several species of the Ceramium helminthochortum, mixed up with ulvæ, confervæ, but especially red corallines. (77.) On the use of it by the Arabians, see the commentators on Mesue. (De Electariis, 89.) The Electarium de Gemmis, in which it occurs as an ingredient, is said to be most efficacious in cold affections of the brain, heart, stomach, liver, and womb; an excellent exhilarant and cordial; and restorative in palpitation of the heart, and in syncope.
Κόρεις,
Cimices, Bugs; these animals are of an acrid nature. Some write that when drunk with vinegar they eject leeches.
Commentary. Dioscorides recommends Bugs in quartan intermittents, uterine suffocation, and as an antidote to the bite of the asp. (ii, 36.) Galen properly recommends garlic as a substitute for them in the case of leeches which have been swallowed. Pliny, apparently deriving his information from Dioscorides, ascribes to bugs alexipharmic properties of the most general nature; and more especially commends them as being a remedy against the bite of asps. (H. N. xxix, 17.) The Arabians copy all that the Greeks had recorded respecting the medicinal virtues of bugs, without making any addition. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 270.)