(5.) For ulcerated scrofula, a weasel’s blood is employed, or the animal itself, boiled in wine; but not in cases where the tumours have been opened with the knife. It is said, too, that a weasel, eaten with the food, is productive of a similar effect; sometimes, also, it is burnt upon twigs, and the ashes are applied with axle-grease. In some instances, a green lizard is attached to the body of the patient, a fresh one being substituted at the end of thirty days. Some persons preserve the heart of this animal in a small silver vessel,[2779] as a cure for scrofula in females. Old snails, those found adhering to shrubs more particularly, are pounded with the shells on, and applied as a liniment. Asps, too, are similarly employed, reduced to ashes and mixed with bull suet; snakes’ fat also, diluted with oil; and the ashes of a burnt snake, applied with oil or wax. It is a good plan also, in cases of scrofula, to eat the middle of a snake, the extremities being first removed, or to drink the ashes of the reptile, similarly prepared and burnt in a new earthen vessel: they will be found much more efficacious, however, when the snake has been killed between the ruts made by wheels. It is recommended also, to dig up a cricket with the earth about its hole, and to apply it in the form of a liniment; to use pigeons’ dung, either by itself, or with barley-meal, or oatmeal and vinegar; or else to apply the ashes of a burnt mole, mixed with honey.
Some persons apply the liver of this last animal, crumbled in the hands, due care being taken not to wash it off for three days: it is said, too, that a mole’s right foot is a remedy for scrofula. Others, again, cut off the head of a mole, and after kneading it with earth thrown up by those animals, divide it into tablets, and keep it in a pewter box, for the treatment of all kinds of tumours, diseases of the neck, and the affections known as “apostemes:” in all such cases the use of swine’s flesh is forbidden to the patient. “Taurus”[2780] is the name usually given to an earth-beetle, very similar to a tick in appearance, and which it derives from the diminutive horns with which it is furnished: some persons call it the “earth-louse.”[2781] From the earth thrown up by these insects a liniment is prepared for scrofula and similar diseases, and for gout the application not being washed off till the end of three days. This last remedy is effectual for a whole year, and all those other properties are attributed to it which we have mentioned[2782] when speaking of crickets. There are some, again, who make a similar use of the earth thrown up by ants; while others attach to the patient as many earth-worms as there are scrofulous tumours, the sores drying as the worms dry up.
Some persons cut off the head and tail of a viper, as already mentioned,[2783] about the rising of the Dog-star, which done, they burn the middle, and give a pinch of the ashes in three fingers, for thrice seven days, in drink—such is the plan they use for the cure of scrofula. Others, again, pass round the scrofulous tumours a linen thread, with which a viper has been suspended by the neck till dead. Millepedes[2784] are also used, with one fourth part of turpentine; a remedy which is equally recommended for the cure of all kinds of apostemes.
CHAP. 13.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SHOULDERS.
The ashes of a burnt weasel, mixed with wax, are a cure for pains in the shoulders. To prevent the arm-pits of young persons from becoming hairy, they should be well rubbed with ants’ eggs. Slave-dealers also, to impede the growth of the hair in young persons near puberty, employ the blood that flows from the testes of lambs when castrated. This blood, too, applied to the arm-pits,[2785] the hairs being first pulled out, is a preventive of the rank smell of those parts.
CHAP. 14.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE VISCERA.
We give the one general name of “præcordia” to the human viscera; for pains in any part of which, a sucking whelp is applied, being pressed close to the part affected.[2786] The malady, it is said, will in such case pass into the animal; a fact which may be satisfactorily ascertained; for on disembowelling it, and sprinkling the entrails with wine, that part of the viscera will be found affected in which the patient himself was sensible of pain: to bury the animal in such a case is a point most religiously observed. The dogs,[2787] too, which we call “Melitæi,” applied to the stomach every now and then, allay pains in that region: the malady, it is supposed, passes into the animal’s body, as it gradually loses its health, and it mostly dies.
(6.) Affections of the lungs are cured by using mice, those of Africa more particularly, the animal being skinned and boiled, in salt and oil, and then taken with the food. The same preparation is used also, for the cure of purulent or bloody expectorations.
CHAP. 15.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE STOMACH.
One of the very best remedies for affections of the stomach, is to use a snail diet.[2788] They must first be left to simmer in water for some time, without touching the contents of the shell, after which, without any other addition, they must be grilled upon hot coals, and eaten with wine and garum;[2789] the snails of Africa being the best of all for the purpose. The efficacy of this remedy has been proved in numerous instances of late. Another point, too, to be observed, is to take an uneven number of them. Snails, however, have a juice, it should be remembered, which imparts to the breath an offensive smell. For patients troubled with spitting of blood, they are remarkably good, the shell being first removed, and the contents bruised and administered in water. The most esteemed kinds of all are those of Africa—those which come from Iol,[2790], in particular—of Astypalæa, and, after them, those of Ætna, in Sicily, those I mean of moderate size, for the large ones are hard, and destitute of juice. The Balearic snails, called “cavaticæ,” from being found in caverns, are much esteemed; and so, too, are those from the islands of Capreæ.[2791] Those of Greece, on the other hand, are never used for food, either old or fresh.