Dr. Fletcher, United States Army, states that in old medical practice in England, from the time of Queen Elizabeth down to comparatively modern days, consumptive patients were directed to inhale the fumes of ordure. “Some physicians say that the smell of a jakes is good against the plague.”—(“Ajax,” p. 74.)
Urine was one of the ingredients from which Paracelsus prepared his “Crocus or Tincture of Metals.”—(See “Archidoxes,” English translation, London, 1661, p. 59.)
Further on he says, “The salt of man’s urine hath an excellent quality to cleanse; it is made thus,” etc. (p. 74). He also says: “Man’s dung, or excrement, hath very great virtues, because it contains in it all the noble essences, viz.: of the Food and Drink, concerning which wonderful things might be written.”—(“Archidoxes,” lib. v. p. 74.)
“To distill Oyle of a Man’s Excrements, ... Take the Doung of a young, sanguine child, or man, as much as you will.... This helpeth the Canker and mollifieth fistulas; comforteth those that are troubled with Alopecea.”—(“The Secrets of Physicke,” London, 1633, p. 98.)
“For any manner of Ache ... a plaister of Pigeon’s dung” (see “A Rich Storehouse or Treasurie for the Diseased,” Ralph Blower, London, 1616, black letter, p. 3); also, “Hen’s Dung” (idem, p. 4); to provoke urine, a plaster of Horse dung was applied to the patient (p. 25.)
“For spitting of blood ... the dung of mice was drunk in wine” (idem, p. 29); for sore breasts of women, a plaster of Goose dung (p. 33); “for Burns and Scalds ... a Plaster of Sheepe’s doung,” (p. 38); also, “the Doung of Geese” (p. 39).
“For deafe ears ... the pisse of a pale Goat” was poured into them (p. 67); horse-dung was used as a face-lotion (p. 106); for the bloody flux soak the feet in water in which “Doue’s Doung has been seethed” (p. 119). For the gout, “Stale pisse” was an ingredient in a composition for external application (p. 119). For stitch in the side and back “Pigeon’s Doung” was used externally (p. 172); for sciatica, “Oxe-Doung and Pigeon’s Doung” in equal parts, were applied as a plaster (p. 173). Cow-dung was used internally in hydrocele (“The Chyrurgeon’s Closet,” London, 1632, p. 38); the urine of boys was used as an application to ulcers in the legs (idem, p. 24); again, the urine of immaculate boys was employed for the cure of all inveterate ulcers (p. 27); goat-dung was applied externally for the cure of auricular abscesses and for ulcers (pp. 35 and 42); cow-dung and dove-dung were used in the same manner (idem p. 42); dove-dung was also used externally in the treatment of sciatica (p. 48), and for “Shingles” (idem p. 51). Goat-dung, externally, for tumors (p. 49); goose-dung, externally, for canker in the breasts of women (p. 50); swallow-dung, externally, for angina; chicken-dung for the same (p. 58); cow-dung, externally, for tumors in the feet (p. 56); cow and goat dung, externally, in dropsy (p. 222); and many others throughout the volume.
In a black letter copy of “The Englishman’s Treasure,” London, 1641, is given a cure for wounds, in which it is directed “To wash the wounde very cleane with urine.”—(In Toner Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.)
To restrain excessive menstrual flow, apply hot plasters of horse-dung, between the navel and the privy parts.—(See “The Englishman’s Treasure,” by Thomas Vicary, Surgeon to King Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth; London, 1641, p. 184; this little volume contains nothing else of value to this work.)
Horse-dung was used internally for pleurisy (“Secrets in Physicke,” by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, pp. 26, 27); goose-dung, internally, for yellow jaundice (idem, p. 37); “Hound’s Turd,” externally, “to cure the bleeding of a Wound” (idem, p. 46); peacock’s dung, internally, for the falling sickness or convulsions (idem, p. 56); “The patient’s own water,” externally, for pains in the breast (p. 64); pigeon’s dung, both internally and externally, in child-birth pains (p. 68); goose-dung, externally, for burns (p. 96); hen’s dung, externally, for burns (p. 152); and for sore eyes (p. 174); “stale urine,” externally, for sore feet (p. 163).