Asses’ dung was considered by Schurig to be an especially good remedy in all diseases of hemorrhage. “Singulare remedium contra quamvis hæmorrhagias” (p. 800); but it had to be collected in the month of May; “Stercus asininum in Majo collectum.” It was to be taken in doses of one or more drachms, or only the juice squeezed from it into some medicinal water.
Dried in the sun, or in a warm place, it was good for bleeding at the nose; “ad solem vel in loco calido exsiccetur et fiat pulvis qui per nares attractus subito illarum hæmorrhagias compescit.” It was regarded as an infallible remedy for restraining an excessive menstrual flow. “Infallibile remedium ad constringendum fluxum menstruum esse stercus asininum ... asserit Johannes Petrus Albrechtus.”
This dung was also in great vogue in all cases of uterine inflammation, applied locally as a plaster. It was administered both internally and externally for gout of the feet, and used as a component of a plaster for dropsy. It was given internally for colic. Collected in the month of May, it was administered internally to dissolve calculi. “Stercus bubulum mense Majo collectum miram præbet aquam adversus Calculos, quos solvit et una urinam movet, quam nigram prima die pellit, calculis vehementer attritis. Hæc aqua in officinis vocatur omnium florum.” This water, known officinally as “water of all-flowers,” was used in attacks of plague, and in cases of gangrene, inflammation, rheumatism, etc.; also in dropsy and in cancerous ulcers (p. 800 et seq.).
Schurig devotes considerable space to the dung of dogs, called by some “Flowers of Melampius,” and by others by the “more honest name of album Græcum.” “Stercus caninum, quod nonnulli flores Melampi, pharmacopœi autem honestiore nomine album Græcum vocant (to differentiate it from the black, which was the dung of mice), ad differentiam nigri, quod est muscerda” (p. 803).
He believed that it was in its effects “drying, cleansing, solvent, an aperient, a dissipater of swellings, such as carbuncles, a solver of ulcers,—hence useful in dysentery, in epilepsy, colic, and such complaints, as well as in angina, guttæ, malignant ulcers, hard tumors, dropsy, warts, etc.” “Siccat, abstergit, discutit, aperit, apostemata rumpit, exulceratione abstergit, hinc utile est in Dysenteria, quin etiam in Epilepsia, dolore colico, et similibus;” also “in anginæ, gutturi, ulceribus malignis, tumores duros, hydropicas, verrucas, etc.” Also in fistulas, inflammation of the tonsils, etc. It was applied externally to malignant ulcers by being sprinkled upon them, or as a plaster; applied also as a plaster in dropsy. It was used in combination with the dung of swallows (“stercus hirundinum”), or of owls (“noctuæ”). Used as a gargle in throat trouble (pp. 803-807).
“Album Græcum” was considered best when obtained from “white” dogs, as they were supposed to have the soundest constitutions. This was especially the case in the treatment of epilepsy (p. 80). Here we have a very decided trace of “Color Symbolism.”
“Album Græcum” was taken, preferentially, from dogs which, for at least three days previously, had been nourished on hard bones, with the least possible amount of water to drink; such dung was hard, white, and of faint odor, “durum, album, nec graviter olet.” Some of the prescriptions call for the dung of a fasting dog; “stercum canis per jejunium emaciati” (p. 806).
Schurig tells us that the dung of the goat was used both internally and externally in medicine. It was believed to be efficacious in the expulsion of calculi, in the reduction of hard tumors, in the dissipation of tetter, ring-worm, scald, leprosy, abscesses behind the ears, bites of serpents and other wild animals, in the restriction of excessive catamenial flow, etc. It was applied as a plaster in the treatment of tumors in the limbs, swellings of the testicles, in gout, œdema, cancer, inflammatory rheumatism, carbuncles, atrophy of the muscles, tumors in the mammæ, etc. But when made into a plaster, was frequently mixed with the patient’s own urine (p. 809).
Schurig pronounces it a rubefacient; it was of use in alleviating rheumatic pains, headache, vertigo, pains in side, shoulders, brain, and loins, colic, apoplexy, lethargy; it was supposed to be able to dissolve scrofulous and all other tumors, and was beneficial in the treatment of gout; used internally, it expelled dropsical water through the urine and also dissolved calculi; as a plaster, it was used in the cure of the bites of mad dogs; likewise for scald head; internally, the Austrian midwives employed it in the treatment of hysteria; while, throughout Germany, it was administered in cases of suppression of the menses (p. 809 et seq.).