“And Bones, and Skin, and Fat, and Blood, and Dung,
Marrow, Milk, Urine, to the fight are brought.”
—(Edition of William Tooke, F. R. S., London, 1820, vol. i. p. 741.)
SEXTUS PLACITUS.
This author is supposed to have lived in the beginning of the fourth century after Christ.
The edition of his work, “De Medicamentis ex Animalibus,” was printed in Lyons, in 1537. The pages are not numbered, and the citations are consequently by chapter.
Goat-urine was given as a drink to dropsical patients (“De Capro”). This urine was also drunk by women to relieve suppression of the menses.
For inflammation of the joints, goat-dung was dried and applied as a fine powder; for colic, a fomentation of hot goat-dung was applied to the abdomen; for serpent bites it was applied as a plaster, and also drunk in some convenient liquor. For tumors goat-dung was to be applied externally.
For ear troubles goat-urine was applied as a lotion. “Ad aures nimus bene audientium, Apri lotium in nitro repositum tepefactum, auribus instillatur audire facit” (“De Apro”).
For burns, whether by water or fire, burnt cow-dung was to be sprinkled on. “Ad combusturam sive ab aqua, sive ab igne factam, Taurinus fimus combustus et aspersus sanat” (“De Tauro”).