Of Medicine, in Eight Books

by Aulus Cornelius Celsus

Now in the cure of all pustules, the first thing is to walk much, and to take exercise: if that cannot be complied with, to use gestation. The second rule is, to lessen the quantity of food; to abstain from every thing acrid and extenuating. And nurses ought to observe the same rules, if their sucking child is thus affected. Besides these, one, that can bear it, if the pustules be small, ought to sweat in the bagnio; and at the same time to sprinkle nitre over them; and to anoint the part with a mixture of wine and oil; then to go into the bath. If no benefit accrues from these, or if the pustules be of a larger kind, a lentil must be applied, and when the surface of the skin is taken off, we must have recourse to lenient medicines. After the lentil, the epinyctis is to be treated with blood-herb, or green coriander.

The ulcers formed from pustules are cured by litharge mixed with fenugreek seed; and in compounding them, rose oil, or juice of endive, are used alternately, till the mixture have the consistence of honey. The proper composition for those pustules, which attack, infants, is of that stone, which the Greeks call pyrites p. viii. *. with fifty bitter almonds, and an addition of three cyathi of oil. But the pustules ought to be first rubbed with ceruss, and then anointed with this.

Of the scabies.

The scabies is a hardness of the skin, of a muddy colour, from whence pustules arise, some of them moist, others dry; from some of them issues a sanies; and in these there follows a continued itching ulceration, which in certain cases spreads very fast. In some people it goes entirely off, in others it returns at a certain season of the year; the greater its asperity, and the more it itches, the more difficult it is to cure. And therefore this species of it the Greeks call agria[ FM ], that is, cruel.

In this also the same diet is necessary, as above prescribed. The medicine proper for this in its beginning, consists of spodium, saffron, verdigrease, each p. i. *. white pepper, verjuice, each p. i. *. cadmia p. viii. *. But where there is already an ulceration, that, which is composed of sulphur p. i. *. wax p. iv. *. liquid pitch a hemina, two sextarii of oil. These must be boiled together to the consistence of honey. There is also another, which is said to have been invented by Protarchus. It contains a sextarius of lupine meal, four cyathi of nitre, a hemina of liquid pitch, half a pound of liquid resin, and three cyathi of vinegar. It is also proper to mix saffron, lycium, verdigrease, myrrh, ashes, in equal quantities, and boil them in passum. This heals every kind of scabies. And if there be nothing else at hand, lees of oil boiled to a third part, or sulphur mixed with liquid pitch, as I prescribed for cattle, relieve men also labouring under the scabies.

Of the impetigo.

Of the impetigo there are four species. The least malignant is that, which resembles the scabies. For it is red, hardish, ulcerated, and corrosive. But it differs widely from that, which is more ulcerated[(90)], and has pustules like to vari; and there appear to be in it somewhat like air bubbles, from which, after a time, something like scales come off; and this is more certain in its returns.

The second kind is worse, and is not unlike the papula, but of greater asperity and a more ruddy colour, having various figures; scales fall off from the surface of the skin, there is a greater erosion, it spreads more quickly, and broader, and both comes and goes at more certain intervals than the former. It is called the red.

The third kind is still worse. For it is both thicker and harder, and more swelled; it causes fissures in the surface of the skin, and corrodes more vehemently. This also is scaly, but black; it spreads wide[(91)], and does not stay long at a time; but is less uncertain as to its periods of coming and going; and is not to be entirely removed. This has the epithet of the black.

There is a fourth kind absolutely incurable, very different from the rest in colour. For it is whitish, and resembling a recent cicatrix; it has scales of a pale colour, some whitish, others resembling a lentil; which being taken off, blood sometimes follows. Otherwise the humour of it is white, the skin is hard and chopped, and it spreads wider.