It is considered a remarkably good plan to subject the uterus to fumigations made with burnt goats’ horns. The blood of the wild goat, mixed with sea-palm,[2392] acts as a depilatory. The gall of the other kinds of goat, used as an injection, acts emolliently upon callosities of the uterus, and ensures conception immediately after menstruation: it possesses also the virtues of a depilatory, the application being left for three days upon the flesh after the hair has been removed. The midwives assure us that she-goats’ urine, taken in drink, and the dung, applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however much in excess. The membrane in which the kid is enclosed in the uterus, dried and taken in wine, acts as an expellent upon the after-birth. For affections of the uterus, it is thought a desirable plan to fumigate it with burnt kids’ hair; and for discharges of blood, kids’ rennet is administered in drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According to Osthanes, if a woman’s loins are rubbed with blood taken from the ticks upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to sexual intercourse: she will forget, too, her former love, by taking a he-goat’s urine in drink, some nard being mixed with it to disguise the loathsome taste.
CHAP. 78.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.
For infants there is nothing more useful than butter,[2393] either by itself or in combination with honey; for dentition more particularly, for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of the mouth. A wolf’s tooth, attached to the body, prevents infants from being startled, and acts as a preservative against the maladies attendant upon dentition; an effect equally produced by making use of a wolf’s skin. The larger teeth, also, of a wolf, attached to a horse’s neck, will render him proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare’s rennet, applied to the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhœa in the infant suckled by her. An ass’s liver, mixed with a little panax, and dropped into the mouth of an infant, will preserve it from epilepsy and other diseases to which infants are liable; this, however, must be done for forty days, they say. An ass’s skin, too, thrown over infants, renders them insensible to fear. The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as an amulet to infants, facilitate dentition, and are better still, when not allowed to touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox’s milt is administered in honey, and applied topically; and for running ulcers it is used as an application, with honey. A calf’s milt, boiled in wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers of the mouth.
The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the infant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy and other infantile diseases. Goats’ dung, attached to infants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being restless, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of infants with goats’ milk or hare’s brains, dentition is greatly facilitated.
CHAP. 79.—PROVOCATIVES OF SLEEP.
Cato was of opinion that hare’s flesh,[2394] taken as a diet, is provocative of sleep. It is a vulgar notion, too, that this diet confers beauty for nine days on those who use it; a silly play[2395] upon words, no doubt, but a notion which has gained far too extensively not to have had some real foundation. According to the magicians, the gall of a she-goat, but only of one that has been sacrificed, applied to the eyes or placed beneath the pillow, has a narcotic effect. Too profuse perspiration is checked by rubbing the body with ashes of burnt goats’ horns mixed with oil of myrtle.
CHAP. 80.—STIMULANTS FOR THE SEXUAL PASSIONS.
Among the aphrodisiacs, we find mentioned, a wild boar’s gall, applied externally; swine’s marrow, taken inwardly; asses’ fat, mixed with the grease of a gander and applied as a liniment; the virulent substance described by Virgil[2396] as distilling from mares when covered; and the dried testes of a horse, pulverized and mixed with the drink. The right testicle, also, of an ass, is taken in a proportionate quantity of wine, or worn attached to the arm in a bracelet; or else the froth discharged by that animal after covering, collected in a piece of red cloth and enclosed in silver, as Osthanes informs us. Salpe recommends the genitals of this animal to be plunged seven times in boiling oil, and the corresponding parts to be well rubbed therewith. Bialcon[2397] says that these genitals should be reduced to ashes and taken in drink; or else the urine that has been voided by a bull immediately after covering: he recommends, also, that the groin should be well rubbed with earth moistened with this urine.