SQUILL VINEGAR: SEVENTEEN REMEDIES

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Acetum scillinum inveteratum magis probatur. prodest super ea, quae diximus, acescentibus cibis, gustatu enim discutit poenam eam; item iis qui ieiuni vomant, callum enim faucium facit ac stomachi. odorem oris tollit, gingivas adstringit, dentes firmat, colorem meliorem praestat. tarditatem quoque aurium gargarizatione purgat et transitum auditus aperit. oculorum aciem obiter exacuit, comitialibus, melancholicis, vertigini, volvarum strangulationibus, percussis aut praecipitatis et ob id sanguine conglobato, nervis infirmis, renium vitiis perquam utile, cavendum exulceratis.

Oxymeli antiqui, ut Dieuches tradit, hoc modo temperabant: mellis minas x, aceti veteris heminas v, salis marini pondo libram quadrantem, aquae sextarios v pariter coquebant deciens defervescente cortina atque ita diffundebant inveterabantque. sustulit totum id Asclepiad es coarguitque—nam etiam in febribus databant —, profuisse tamen fatetur contra serpentes, quas sepas vocant, et contra meconium ac viscum, et anginis calidum gargarizatum et auribus, oris gutturisque desideriis. quae nunc omnia oxyalme contingunt, id est sale et aceto recente, efficacius.

Vino cognata res sapa est musto decocto, donec tertia pars supersit. ex albo hoc melius. usus contra cantharidas, buprestim, pinorum erucas, quas pityocampas vocant, salamandras, contra mordentia venenata. secundas partusque emortuos trahit cum bulbis potum. Fabianus auctor est venenum esse, si quis ieiunus a balineis id bibat.

Consequens horum est faex, sui cuiusque generis. ergo vini faecibus tanta vis est, ut descendentes in cupas enecet. experimentum demissa praebet lucerna, quamdiu extinguatur, periculum denuntians. inlota miscetur medicamentis, cum iridis vero pari pondere eruptionibus pituitae inlinitur, et sicca vel madida contra phalangia et testium mammarumque inflammationi vel in quacumque parte corporis, item cum hordeacia farina et turis polline in vino cocta. crematur et siccata. experimentum est legitime coctae, ut refrigerata linguam tactu videatur urere. celerrime exanimatur non inclusa condita. crematio ei multum virium adicit, utilissimae ad conpescendos lichenas, furfures cum fico decocta. sic et lepris et ulceribus manantibus inponitur. fungorum naturae contraria est pota, sed magis cruda. oculorum medicamentis cocta et lota miscetur. medetur inlita et testibus et genitalibus, in vino autem adversus strangurias bibitur. cum expiravit quoque, lavandis corporibus et vestibus utilis, tunc tuncque v.a.S. usum acaciae habet.

Faex aceti pro materia acrior sit necesse est multoque magis exulceret. resistit suppurationum incrementis; stomachum, interanea, ventrem inlita adiuvat. sistit rheumatismos earum partium et mulierum menses. panos discutit nondum exulceratos et anginas, ignes sacros cum cera. mammas lactis sui inpatientes eadem extinguit, ungues scabros aufert. e serpentibus contra cerastas validissima cum polenta, cum melanthio autem contra crocodili morsus et canis. et haec cremata ampliat vires. tunc addito lentiscino oleo inlita una nocte rufat capillum. eadem ex aqua in linteolo adposita vulvas purgat.

Sapae faece ambusta sanantur, melius addita lanugine harundinis, eadem faece decocta potaque tusses veteres. decoquitur in patinis cum sale et adipe ad tumorem quoque maxillarum et cervicium.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

Squill vinegar is the more esteemed, the older it is. In addition to the properties which we have already mentioned, it is useful in cases where the food turns sour upon the stomach, a mere taste of it being sufficient to act as a corrective. It is good, too, when persons are seized with vomiting, while fasting, having the effect of indurating the passages of the throat and stomach. It is a corrective, also, of bad breath, strengthens the teeth and gums, and improves the complexion.

Used as a gargle, squill vinegar remedies hardness of hearing, and opens the passages of the ears, while at the same time it tends to improve the sight. It is very good, too, for epilepsy, melancholy, vertigo, hysterical suffocations, blows, falls with violence, and extravasations of blood in consequence, as also for debility of the sinews, and diseases of the kidneys. In cases of internal ulceration, however, the use of it must be avoided.

The following, as we learn from Dieuches, was the manner in which oxymeli was prepared by the ancients. In a cauldron they used to put ten minæ of honey, five heminæ of old vinegar, a pound and a quarter of sea-salt, and five sextarii of rain-water; the mixture was then boiled together till it had simmered some ten times, after which it was poured off, and put by for keeping. Asclepiades, however, condemned this preparation, and put an end to the use of it, though before his time it used to be given in fevers even. Still, however, it is generally admitted that it was useful for the cure of stings inflicted by the serpent known as the “seps” and that it acted as an antidote to opium and mistletoe. It was usefully employed also, warm, as a gargle for quinsy and maladies of the ears, and for affections of the mouth and throat; for all these purposes, however, at the present day, oxalme is employed, the best kind of which is made with salt and fresh vinegar.

Sapa has a close affinity with wine, being nothing else but must boiled down to one third: that which is prepared from white must is the best. It is used medicinally in cases of injuries inflicted by cantharides, the buprestis, the pine caterpillars known as pityocampæ, salamanders, and all venomous bites and stings. Taken with onions it has the effect of bringing away the dead fœtus and the after-birth. According to Fabianus, it acts as a poison, if taken by a person fasting, immediately after the bath.

Next in the natural order come the lees of these several liquids. The lees of wine are so extremely powerful as to prove fatal to persons on descending into the vats. The proper precaution for preventing this, is to let down a light first, which so long as it refuses to burn, is significant of danger. Wine-lees, in an unrinsed state, form an ingredient in several medicinal preparations: with an equal proportion of iris, a liniment is prepared from them for purulent eruptions; and, either moist or dried, they are used for stings inflicted by the phalangium, and for inflammations of the testes, mamillæ, or other parts of the body. A decoction of wine-lees is prepared, too, with barley-meal and powdered frankincense; after which it is first parched and then dried. The test of its being properly boiled, is its imparting, when cold, a burning sensation to the tongue. When left exposed to the air, wine-lees very rapidly lose their virtues; which, on the other hand, are greatly heightened by the action of fire.

Wine-lees are very useful, too, boiled with figs, for the cure of lichens and cutaneous eruptions; they are applied also in a similar manner to leprous sores and running ulcers. Taken in drink, they act as an antidote to the poison of fungi, and more particularly if they are undiluted; boiled and then rinsed, they are used in preparations for the eyes. They are employed also topically for diseases of the testes and generative organs, and are taken in wine for strangury. When wine-lees have lost their strength, they are still useful for cleansing the body and scouring clothes, in which case they act as a substitute for gum acacia.

The lees of vinegar, as a matter of course, considering the material from which they are derived, are much more acrid than those of wine, and more caustic in their effects. This substance prevents the increase of suppuration, and, employed topically, is good for the stomach, intestines, and regions of the abdomen. It has the property also of arresting fluxes of those parts, and the catamenia when in excess; it disperses inflamed tumours which have not come to a head, and is a cure for quinsy. Applied with wax, it is curative of erysipelas. It reduces swellings of the mamillæ when gorged with milk, and removes malformed nails. Employed with polenta, it is very efficacious for the cure of stings inflicted by the serpent called cerastes; and in combination with melanthium, it heals bites inflicted by crocodiles and dogs.

Vinegar lees, too, by being subjected to the action of fire, acquire additional strength. Mixed in this state with oil of mastich, and applied to the hair, they turn it red in a single night. Applied with water in linen, as a pessary, they act as a detergent upon the uterus.

The lees of sapa are used for the cure of burns, it being the best plan to employ with them the down that grows on the reed; a decoction too, of these lees, is good for the cure of an inveterate cough. They are boiled also in a saucepan with salt and grease as an ointment for tumours of the jaws and neck.