Pains and diseases of the ears are cured by using the urine of a wild boar, kept in a glass vessel, or the gall of a wild boar, swine, or ox, mixed with castor-oil and oil of roses in equal proportions. But the best remedy of all is bull’s gall, warmed with leek juice, or with honey, if there is any suppuration. Bull’s gall too, warmed by itself in a pomegranate rind, is an excellent remedy for offensive exhalations from the ears: in combination with woman’s milk, it is efficacious as a cure for ruptures of those organs. Some persons are of opinion that it is a good plan to wash the ears with this preparation in cases where the hearing is affected; while others again, after washing the ears with warm water, insert a mixture composed of the old slough of a serpent and vinegar, wrapped up in a dossil of wool. In cases, however, where the deafness is very considerable, gall warmed in a pomegranate rind with myrrh and rue, is injected into the ears; sometimes, also, fat bacon is used for this purpose, or fresh asses’ dung, mixed with oil of roses: in all cases, however, the ingredients should be warmed.
The foam from a horse’s mouth is better still, or the ashes of fresh horse dung, mixed with oil of roses: fresh butter too is good; beef-suet mixed with goose-grease; the urine of a bull or she-goat; or fullers’ lant, heated to such a degree that the steam escapes by the neck of the vessel. For this purpose also, one third part of vinegar is mixed with a small portion of the urine of a calf, which has not begun to graze. They apply also to the ears calf’s dung, mixed with the gall of that animal and sloughs of serpents, care being taken to warm the ears before the application, and all the remedies being wrapped in wool. Veal-suet, too, is used, with goose-grease and extract of ocimum; or else veal marrow, mixed with bruised cummin and injected into the ears. For pains in the ears, the liquid ejected by a boar in copulation is used, due care being taken to receive it before it falls to the ground. For fractures of the ears, a glutinous composition is made from the genitals of a calf, which is dissolved in water when used; and for other diseases of those organs, foxes’ fat is employed, goat’s gall mixed with rose-oil warmed, or else extracted juice of leeks: in all cases where there is any rupture, these preparations are used in combination with woman’s milk. Where a patient is suffering from hardness of hearing, ox-gall is employed, with the urine of a he or she-goat; the same, too, where there is any suppuration.
Whatever the purpose for which they are wanted, it is the general opinion that these substances are more efficacious when they have been smoked in a goat’s horn for twenty days. Hare’s rennet, too, is highly spoken of, taken in Aminean[2325] wine, in the proportion of one third of a denarius of rennet to one half of a denarius of sacopenum.[2326] Bears’ grease, mixed with equal proportions of wax and bull-suet, is a cure for imposthumes of the parotid glands: some persons add hypocisthis[2327] to the composition, or else content themselves with employing butter only, after first fomenting the parts affected with a decoction of fenugreek, the good effects of which are augmented by strychnos. The testes, too, of the fox, are very useful for this purpose; as also bull’s blood, dried and reduced to powder. She-goats’ urine, made warm, is used as an injection for the ears; and a liniment is made of the dung of those animals, in combination with axle-grease.
CHAP. 49.—REMEDIES FOR TOOTH-ACHE.
The ashes of deer’s horns strengthen loose teeth and allay tooth-ache, used either as a friction or as a gargle. Some persons, however, are of opinion that the horn, unburnt and reduced to powder, is still more efficacious for all these purposes. Dentifrices are made both from the powder and the ashes. Another excellent remedy is a wolf’s head, reduced to ashes: it is a well-known fact, too, that there are bones generally found in the excrements of that animal; these bones, attached to the body as an amulet, are productive of advantageous effects. For the cure of tooth-ache, hare’s rennet is injected into the ear: the head also of that animal, reduced to ashes, is used in the form of a dentifrice, and, with the addition of nard, is a corrective of bad breath. Some persons, however, think it a better plan to mix the ashes of a mouse’s head with the dentifrice. In the side of the hare there is a bone found, similar to a needle in appearance: for the cure of tooth-ache it is recommended to scarify the gums with this bone. The pastern-bone of an ox, ignited and applied to loose teeth which ache, has the effect of strengthening them in the sockets; the same bone, reduced to ashes, and mixed with myrrh, is also used as a dentifrice. The ashes of burnt pig’s feet are productive of a similar effect, as also the calcined bones of the cotyloïd cavities in which the hip-bones move. It is a well-known fact, that, introduced into the throat of beasts of burden, these bones are a cure for worms, and that, in a calcined state, they are good for strengthening the teeth.
When the teeth have been loosened by a blow,[2328] they are strengthened by using asses’ milk, or else ashes of the burnt teeth of that animal, or a horse’s lichen, reduced to powder, and injected into the ear with oil. By lichen[2329] I do not mean the hippomanes, a noxious substance which I purposely forbear to enlarge upon, but an excrescence which forms upon the knees of horses, and just above the hoofs. In the heart[2330] of this animal there is also found a bone which bears a close resemblance to the eye-teeth of a dog: if the gums are scarified with this bone, or with a tooth taken from the jaw-bone of a dead horse, corresponding in place with the tooth affected, the pain will be removed, they say. Anaxilaüs assures us that if the liquid which exudes from a mare when covered, is ignited on the wick of a lamp, it will give out a most marvellous representation[2331] of horses’ heads; and the same with reference to the she-ass. As to the hippomanes, it is possessed of properties so virulent and so truly magical, that if it is only thrown into fused metal[2332] which is being cast into the resemblance of an Olympian mare, it will excite in all stallions that approach it a perfect frenzy for copulation.
Another remedy for diseases of the teeth is joiners’ glue, boiled in water and applied, care being taken to remove it very speedily, and instantly to rinse the teeth with wine in which sweet pomegranate-rind has been boiled. It is considered, also, a very efficacious remedy to wash the teeth with goats’ milk, or bull’s gall. The pastern-bones of a she-goat just killed, reduced to ashes, and indeed, to avoid the necessity for repetition, of any other four-footed beast reared in the farm-yard, are considered to make an excellent dentifrice.
CHAP. 50. (12.)—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FACE.
It is generally believed that asses’ milk effaces wrinkles in the face, renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its whiteness: and it is a well-known fact, that some women are in the habit of washing their face with it seven[2333] hundred times daily, strictly observing that number. Poppæa, the wife of the Emperor Nero, was the first to practise this; indeed, she had sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses’ milk, for which purpose whole troops of she-asses[2334] used to attend her on her journies.[2335] Purulent eruptions on the face are removed by an application of butter, but white lead, mixed with the butter, is an improvement. Pure butter, alone, is used for serpiginous eruptions of the face, a layer of barley-meal being powdered over it. The caul of a cow that has just calved, is applied, while still moist, to ulcers of the face.
The following recipe may seem frivolous, but still, to please the women,[2336] it must not be omitted; the pastern-bone of a white steer, they say, boiled forty days and forty nights, till it is quite dissolved, and then applied to the face in a linen cloth, will remove wrinkles and preserve the whiteness of the skin. An application of bull’s dung, they say, will impart a rosy tint to the cheeks, and not crocodilea[2337] even is better for the purpose; the face, however, must be washed with cold water, both before and after the application. Sun-burns and all other discolorations of the skin, are removed by the aid of calves’ dung kneaded up by hand with oil and gum; ulcerations and chaps of the mouth, by an application of veal or beef-suet, mixed with goose-grease and juice of ocimum. There is another composition, also, made of veal-suet with stag’s marrow and leaves of white-thorn, the whole beaten up together. Marrow, too, mixed with resin, even if it be cow marrow only, is equally good; and the broth of cow-beef is productive of similar effects. A most excellent remedy for lichens on the face is a glutinous substance prepared from the genitals of a male calf, melted with vinegar and live sulphur, and stirred together with the branch of a fig-tree: this composition is applied twice a day, and should be used quite fresh. This glue, similarly prepared from a decoction of honey and vinegar, is a cure for leprous spots, which are also removed by applying a he-goat’s liver warm.