“Qui mane jejune, per novem dies, bibit propriam urinam non patietur epilepsiam, paralysim, nec colicam, et qui bibit propriam urinam sanabitur a sumpto veneno.”—(Idem, pp. 169, 170.)
“D’après le témoignage de Charles Lancilotti, l’acqua di sterco humano pigliata in una calante por lo spation di nuove giorni sana quelli che patiscono il male caduco.” (Voyez Guida alla Chimica.)—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 29.)
Schurig’s “Chylologia,” published in Dresden, 1725, contains citations from nearly seven hundred authorities. As these are nearly all of very ancient date, and only in a few cases accessible to scholars restricted to American libraries, this learned work of Schurig becomes all the more valuable to such as desire to study intelligently and profoundly this subject of the use of human and animal excreta in religious rites or in religious medicine.
Some of the writers quoted by Schurig favor, others oppose the medical employment of the human excretions. Among those in favor of it, according to him, may be seen the names of Galen and Dioscorides. In Schurig’s day there seems to have been much opposition developing, especially when other remedies were available; although Schurig says that the Dutch soldiers returning from the Indies spoke in praise of what they had seen there of the use of such medicaments. Among European practitioners, human ordure was employed alone, mixed with water or other ingredients, or a water and an oil were distilled from it.
It would be a useless task to repeat the names of all the authorities mentioned by this learned German, or to give in detail all the prescriptions in which the alvine dejecta figure as components. Their insertion here would add nothing to the value of these notes, as they are strictly pharmaceutical in their spirit; it may, however, be of some interest to the student to learn just what diseases were supposed to be amenable to this course of treatment, and just how the curatives were to be administered.
For angina pectoris, the ordure passed by a young boy after eating lupines, to be taken internally (p. 758). For the same disease there were other recipes for ordure in pills, plasters, and decoctions, as well as for electuaries of ordure, to be blended with honey (p. 756).
For bringing boils, ulcers, etc., to a head, for sprains, luxations, etc., a poultice of human ordure, applied hot, was considered the best specific (p. 757).
For rheumatic gout, a hot poultice of human ordure was considered of value (p. 757).
Renal calculi. “Aqua ex stercore distillata” was given internally (p. 757). For cancers and malign ulcers, human ordure was used as a local poultice; also given internally, in pills or powders. Pope Benedict was cured of a cancer by this treatment (pp. 758, 759).
Epilepsy. Peacock-dung was used internally in conjunction with human ordure (p. 762).