Pliny speaks of its use in medicine (lib. xxviii. cap. 7); Galen does also. Flemming recommended its internal use in colic and cramps; and externally as an application to wounds.—(“De Remediis,” etc., p. 22.)
Paullini was of the opinion that a good salve for sore eyes could be prepared from cerumen (pp. 42, 43).
“The excrement of the ears, like unto a yellow oyntment, is a great comfort in the pricking of the sinews.”—(Von Helmont, “Oritrika,” English translation, London, 1662, p. 247.)
Galen thought that ear-wax was efficacious in the cure of whit-nails; the other “sordes” were also employed, but he would not write about them, on account of the difficulty of obtaining them,—such as the perspiration flowing in the bath, or scraped from the body after severe exercise; and, finally, the fatty matter of wool was of medicinal value, and seemed to have the same properties as butter.—(Galen, “Opera Omnia,” lib. xii. p. 309, Kuhn’s edition, Leipzig, 1829.)
WOMAN’S MILK.
Woman’s milk mitigated redness of eyes and inflammation of the lachrymal glands; it should be used with vitriol. For “gutta serena” it was applied as an ointment; in cases of atrophy it was regarded by many as of commendable utility, especially if drawn from the woman’s breast; the same treatment was a specific in obstinate hiccough.
A butter prepared from woman’s milk was used in diseases of children, especially colic, and in ocular affections. (See Flemming, “De Remediis,” etc., p. 18.) Its remedial efficacy forms the basis of Pliny’s c. 21, lib. xxviii.; if possible, it should be that of a woman who had just borne male twins. “If a person is rubbed at the same time with the milk of both mother and daughter, he will be proof for all the rest of his life against all affections of the eyes.... Mixed with the urine of a youth who has not yet arrived at puberty, it removes ringing in the ears.”—(Idem.)
“Matricis vulneribus confert ... lac mulieris.”—(Avicenna, vol. i. p. 337, a 36.)
The Empress of China took the milk of sixty wet nurses to keep herself alive, according to Mr. Frank G. Carpenter.