The flesh of hippocampi,[308] grilled and taken frequently as food, is a cure for incontinence of urine; the ophidion,[309] too, a little fish similar to the conger in appearance, eaten with a lily root; or the small fry found in the bellies of larger fish that have swallowed them, reduced to ashes and taken in water. It is recommended, too, to burn[310] African snails, both shells and flesh, and to administer the ashes with wine[311] of Signia.
CHAP. 36.—REMEDIES FOR GOUT, AND FOR PAINS IN THE FEET. THE BEAVER: FOUR REMEDIES. BRYON: ONE REMEDY.
For the cure of gout and of diseases of the joints, oil is useful in which the intestines of frogs have been boiled. Ashes, too, of burnt bramble-frogs[312] are similarly employed, with stale grease; in addition to which, some persons use calcined barley, the three ingredients being mixed in equal proportions. It is recommended too, in cases of gout, to rub the parts affected with a sea-hare,[313] fresh caught, and to wear shoes made of beaver’s skin, Pontic beaver more particularly, or else of sea-calf’s[314] skin, an animal the fat of which is very useful for the purpose: the same being the case also with bryon, a plant of which we have already spoken,[315] similar to the lettuce in appearance, but with more wrinkled leaves, and destitute of stem. This plant is of a styptic nature, and, applied topically, it tends to modify the paroxysms of gout. The same, too, with sea-weed, of which we have also spoken already;[316] due precaution being taken not to apply it dry.
Chilblains are cured by applying the pulmo marinus;[317] ashes of sea-crabs with oil; river crabs,[318] bruised and burnt to ashes and kneaded up with oil; or else fat of the silurus.[319] In diseases of the joints, the paroxysms are modified by applying fresh frogs every now and then: some authorities recommend that they should be split asunder before being applied. The liquor from mussels[320] and other shell-fish has a tendency to make flesh.
CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.
Epileptic patients, as already[321] stated, are recommended to drink the rennet of the sea-calf,[322] mixed with mares’ milk or asses’ milk, or else with pomegranate juice, or, in some cases, with oxymel: some persons, too, swallow the rennet by itself, in the form of pills. Castoreum[323] is sometimes administered, in three cyathi of oxymel, to the patient fasting; but where the attacks are frequent, it is employed in the form of a clyster, with marvellous effect. The proper proportions, in this last case, are two drachmæ of castoreum, one sextarius of oil and honey, and the same quantity of water. At the moment that the patient is seized with a fit, it is a good plan to give him castoreum, with vinegar, to smell. The liver, too, of the sea-weasel[324] is given to epileptic patients, or else that of sea-mice,[325] or the blood of tortoises.
CHAP. 38. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS. THE FISH CALLED ASELLUS: ONE REMEDY. THE PHAGRUS: ONE REMEDY. THE BALÆNA: ONE REMEDY.
Recurrent fevers are effectually checked by making the patient taste the liver of a dolphin, just before the paroxysm comes on. Hippocampi[326] are stifled in oil of roses, and the patients are rubbed therewith in cold agues, the fish, also, being worn as an amulet by the patient. In the same way, too, the small stones that are found at full moon in the head of the fish called “asellus”[327] are worn, attached in a piece of linen cloth to the patient’s body. A similar virtue is attributed to the longest tooth of the river-fish called phagrus,[328] attached to the patient with a hair, provided he does not see the person who attaches it to him for five days. Frogs are boiled in oil in a spot where three roads meet, and, the flesh being first thrown away, the patients are rubbed with the decoction, by way of cure for quartan fever. Some persons, again, suffocate frogs in oil, and, after attaching them to the patient without his knowing it, anoint him with the oil. The heart of a frog, worn as an amulet, modifies the cold chills in fevers; the same, too, with oil in which the intestines of frogs have been boiled. But the best remedy for quartan fevers, is to wear attached to the body either frogs from which the claws have been[329] removed, or else the liver or heart of a bramble-frog,[330] attached in a piece of russet-coloured cloth.
River-crabs,[331] bruised in oil and water, are highly beneficial in fevers, the patient being anointed with the preparation just before the paroxysms come on: some authorities recommend the addition of pepper to the mixture. Others prescribe for quartan fevers a decoction of river-crabs in wine, boiled down to one fourth, the patient taking it at the moment of leaving the bath: by some, too, it is recommended to swallow the left eye of a river-crab. The magicians engage to cure a tertian fever, by attaching as an amulet to the patient, before sunrise, the eyes of river-crabs, the crabs when thus blinded being set at liberty in the water. They say, too, that these eyes, attached to the body in a piece of deer’s hide, with the flesh of a nightingale,[332] will dispel sleep and promote watchfulness. In cases where there are symptoms of lethargy, the rennet of the balæna[333] or of the sea-calf[334] is given to the patient to smell; some persons, too, use the blood of tortoises as a liniment for lethargic patients.
Tertian fevers, it is said, may be cured by wearing one of the vertebræ[335] of a perch attached to the body, and quartan fevers by using fresh river snails, as an aliment. Some persons preserve these snails in salt for this purpose, and give them, pounded, in drink.