In the treatment of wounds, sponges are sometimes used as a substitute for greasy wool, either with wine and oil, or with salt and water; the only difference being, that wool acts emolliently upon sores, whereas sponge has an astringent action, and absorbs the vitiated humours. To dropsical patients, bandages of sponge are applied, either dry or steeped in warm water or oxycrate, according as there is a necessity for soothing the skin, or for covering it up and drying it. Sponges are applied, also, in all those diseases where warmth is required, being first soaked in boiling water and then squeezed out between a couple of boards. Employed in this manner, too, they are very useful for affections of the stomach and for the excessive heats attendant upon fever. Steeped in oxycrate, they are good for diseases of the spleen, and in vinegar for erysipelas; nothing, in fact, being equally efficacious. Sponge, when thus used, should always be so applied as amply to cover the adjacent parts that are not affected.
Employed with vinegar or cold water, sponge arrests hæmorrhage; soaked in warm salt and water, and frequently renewed, it removes the lividity which results from a recent blow. Used with oxycrate, it disperses pains and swellings in the testes. To bites inflicted by dogs, it is a good plan to apply sponge, from time to time, cut fine, and moistened with vinegar, cold water, or honey. Ashes of African[3228] sponge, with juice of cut-leek and a mixture of salt and cold water, are good, taken internally, for patients suffering from discharges of blood: applied topically to the forehead, with oil or vinegar, they are curative of tertian fevers. The sponge of Africa, more particularly, soaked in oxycrate, disperses tumours. Ashes of any kind of sponge burnt with pitch, arrest the discharge of blood from wounds; though some recommend, for this purpose, the sponge with large pores only, burnt with pitch. For affections of the eyes; sponge is burnt in vessels of unbaked earthenware; the ashes being found highly efficacious for granulations of the eyelids, fleshy excrescences, and all diseases of those parts which require detergents, astringents, or expletives. For all these purposes, however, it is the best plan first to rinse the ashes. When the body is in a diseased state, sponge acts as a substitute for body-scrapers and linen towels, and it protects the head most efficiently against the action of the sun.
Medical men, in their ignorance, comprehend all sponges under two names; African sponge, the substance of which is tougher and firmer; and Rhodian sponge, which is softer and better adapted for fomentations. At the present day, however, the softest sponges of all are those found about the walls of the city of Antiphellos.[3229] Trogus informs us that the softest tent sponges are found out at sea, off the coast of Lycia, upon spots from which the sponge has been previously removed: we learn, too, from Polybius, that these fine sponges, suspended over a patient’s bed, will ensure him additional repose at night.[3230]
We will now turn to the remedies derived from the marine and aquatic animals.
Summary.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine hundred and twenty-four.
Roman authors quoted.—M. Varro,[3231] Cassius[3232] of Parma, Cicero,[3233] Mucianus,[3234] Cælius,[3235] Celsus,[3236] Trogus,[3237] Ovid,[3238] Polybius,[3239] Sornatius.[3240]
Foreign authors quoted.—Callimachus,[3241] Ctesias,[3242] Eudicus,[3243] Theophrastus,[3244] Eudoxus,[3245] Theopompus,[3246] Polycritus,[3247] Juba,[3248] Lycus,[3249] Apion,[3250] Epigenes,[3251] Pelops,[3252] Apelles,[3253] Democritus,[3254] Thrasyllus,[3255] Nicander,[3256] Menander[3257] the Comic writer, Attalus,[3258] Sallustius Dionysius,[3259] Andreas,[3260] Niceratus,[3261] Hippocrates,[3262] Anaxilaüs.[3263]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See B. xvi. cc. 6, 8, 33, 50.