REMEDIES FOR GOUT AND FOR DISEASES OF THE FEET

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Podagris medetur ursinus adips taurinumque sebum, pari pondere et cerae. addunt quidam hypocist hidem et gallam. alii hircinum praeferunt sebum cum fimo caprae et croco, sinapi, item caulibus hederae tritis ac perdicio vel flore cucumeris silvestris. item bovis fimum cum aceti faece magnificant et vituli, qui nondum herbam gustaverit, fimum aut per se sanguinem tauri, vulpem decoctam vivam, donec ossa tantum restent, lupumve vivum oleo cerati modo incoctum, sebum hircinum cum helxines parte aequa, sinapis tertia, fimi caprini cinerem cum axungia. quin et ischiadicos uri sub pollicibus pedum eo fimo fervente utilissime tradunt, articulorumque vitiis fel ursinum utilissimum esse et pedes leporis adalligatos, podagras quidem mitigari pede leporis viventi absciso, si quis secum adsidue habeat. —Perniones ursinus adips rimasque pedum omnes sarcit, efficacius alumine addito, sebum caprinum, dentium equi farina, aprunum vel suillum fel cum adipe, pulmo inpositus et si subtriti sint contunsive offensatione, si vero adusti frigore, leporini pili cinis; eiusdem pulmo contusis dissectus aut pulmonis cinis. sole adusta sebo asinino aptissime curantur, item bubulo cum rosaceo.—Clavos et rimas callique vitia fimum apri vel suis recens inlitum ac tertio die solutum sanat, talorum cinis, pulmo aprunus aut suillus aut cervinus; adtritus calciamentorum urina asini cum lnto suo inlita; clavos sebum bubulum cum turis polline; perniones vero corium conbustum; melius, si ex vetere calciamento; iniurias e calceatu ex oleo corii caprini cinis. —Varicum dolores sedat fimi vitulini cinis cum lilii bulbis decoctus addito melle modico, itemque omnia inflammata et suppurationes minantia. eadem res et podagris prodest et articulariis morbis, e maribus praecipue vitulis; articulorum adtritis fel aprorum vel suum linteo calefacto inpositum, vituli, qui nondum herbam gustaverit, fimum, item caprinum cum melle in aceto decoctum.—Ungues scabros sebum vituli emendat, item caprinum admixta sandaraca.—Verrucas vero aufert fimi vitulini cinis ex aceto, asini urina et lutum.

Comitiali morbo testes ursinos edisse prodest vel aprunos bibisse ex lacte equino aut ex aqua, item aprunam urinam ex aceto mulso, efficacius quae inaruerit in vesica sua. dantur et suum testiculi inveterati tritique in suis lacte, praecedente vini abstinentia et sequente continuis quinis diebus. dantur et leporis sale custoditi pulmones cum turis tertia parte in vino albo per dies xxx, item coagula eiusdem; asini cerebrum ex aqua mulsa, infumatum prius in foliis, semuncia per dies VII, ungularum eius cinis coclearibus binis toto mense potus, item testes sale adservati et inspersi potioni in asinarum maxime lacte vel ex aqua. membrana partus earum, praecipue si marem pepererint, olefactata accedente morbo comitialium resistit. sunt qui e mare nigroque cor edendum cum pane sub diu prima aut seconda luna praecipiant, alii carnem, aliqui sanguinem aceto dilutum per dies XL bibendum. quidam urinam aquae ferrariae ex officinis miscent eademque potione et lymphatis medentur. comitialibus datur et lactis equini potus, lichen equi in aceto mulso bibendus; dantur et carnes caprinae in rogo hominis tostae, ut volunt Magi, sebum earum cum felle taurino pari pondere decoctum et in folliculo fellis reconditum ita, ne terrain attingat, potum vero ex aqua sublime. morbum ipsum deprehendit caprini cornus vel cervini usti nidor.—Sideratis urina pulli asinini nardo admixto perunctione prodesse dicitur.

Regio morbo cornus cervini cinis, sanguis asini ex vino, item fimum asinini pulli, quod primum edidit a partu, datum fabae magnitudine e vino medetur intra diem tertium. eadem et ex equino pullo similiterque vis est.

Fractis ossibus praesentaneus maxillarum apri cinis vel suis; item lardum elixun atque circumligatum mira celeritate solidat. costis quidem fractis laudatur unice caprinum fimum ex vino vetere: aperit, extrahit, persanat.

Febres arcet cervorum caro, ut diximus; eas quidem, quae certo dierum numero redeunt, oculus lupi, dexter salsus adalligatusque, si credimus Magis. est genus febrium, quod amphemerinon vocant; hoc liberari tradunt, si quis e vena auris asini III guttas sanguinis in II heminis aquae hauserit. quartanis Magi excrementa felis cum digito bubonis adalligari iubent et, ne recidant, non removeri septeno circumitu. quis hoc, quaeso, invenire potuit? quae est ista mixtura? cur digitus potissimum bubonis electus est? modestiores iocur felis decrescente luna occisae inveteratum sale ex vino bibendum ante accessiones quartanae dixere. iidem Magi fimi bubuli cinere consperso puerorum urina inlinunt digitos pedum manuum- que. leporis cor adalligant, coagulum ante accessiones propinant. datur et caseus caprinus recens cum melle diligenter sero expresso.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

For the cure of gout, bears’ grease is employed, mixed in equal proportions with bull-suet and wax; some persons add to the composition, hypocisthis and nut-galls. Others, again, prefer he-goat suet, mixed with the dung of a she-goat and saffron, or else with mustard, or sprigs of ivy pounded and used with perdicium, or with flowers of wild cucumber. Cow-dung is also used, with lees of vinegar. Some persons speak highly in praise of the dung of a calf which has not begun to graze, or else a bull’s blood, without any other addition; a fox, also, boiled alive till only the bones are left; a wolf boiled alive in oil to the consistency of a cerate; he-goat suet, with an equal proportion of helxine, and one-third part of mustard; or ashes of goats’ dung, mixed with axle-grease. They say, too, that for sciatica, it is an excellent plan to apply this dung boiling hot beneath the great toes; and that, for diseases of the joints, it is highly efficacious to attach bears’ gall or hares’ feet to the part affected. Gout, they say, may be allayed by the patient always carrying about with him a hare’s foot, cut off from the animal alive.

Bears’ grease is a cure for chilblains and all kinds of chaps upon the feet; with the addition of alum, it is still more efficacious. The same results are produced by using goat-suet; a horse’s teeth powdered; the gall of a wild boar or hog; or else the lights of those animals, applied with their grease; and this, too, where the soles are blistered, or the feet have been crushed by a substance striking against them. In cases where the feet have been frozen, ashes of burnt hare’s fur are used; and for contusions of the feet, the lights of that animal are applied, sliced or reduced to ashes. Blisters occasioned by the sun are most effectually treated by using asses’ fat, or else beef-suet, with oil of roses. Corns, chaps, and callosities of the feet are cured by the application of wild boars’ dung or swine’s dung, used fresh, and removed at the end of a couple of days. The pastern-bones of these animals are also used, reduced to ashes; or else the lights of a wild boar, swine, or deer. When the feet have been galled by the shoes, they are rubbed with the urine of an ass, applied with the mud formed by it upon the ground. Corns are treated with beef-suet and powdered frankincense; chilblains with burnt leather, that of an old shoe, in particular; and injuries produced by tight shoes with ashes of goat-skin, tempered with oil.

The pains attendant upon varicose veins are mitigated by using ashes of burnt calves’ dung, boiled with lily roots and a little honey: a composition which is equally good for all kinds of inflammations and sores that tend to suppurate. It is very useful, also, for gout and diseases of the joints, when it is the dung of a bull-calf that is used more particularly. For excoriations of the joints, the gall of a wild boar or swine is applied, in a warm linen cloth: the dung, also, of a calf that has not begun to graze; or else goat-dung, boiled in vinegar with honey. Veal-suet rectifies malformed nails, as also goat-suet, mixed with sandarach. Warts are removed by applying ashes of burnt calves’ dung in vinegar, or else the mud formed upon the ground by the urine of an ass.

In cases of epilepsy, it is a good plan to eat a bear’s testes, or those of a wild boar, with mares’ milk or water; or else to drink a wild boar’s urine with honey and vinegar, that being the best which has been left to dry in the bladder. The testes, also, of swine are prescribed, dried and beaten up in sows’ milk, the patient abstaining from wine some days before and after taking the mixture. The lights of a hare, too, are recommended, salted, and taken with one third of frankincense, for thirty consecutive days, in white wine: hare’s rennet also; and asses’ brains, smoked with burning leaves, and administered in hydromel, in doses of half an ounce per day. An ass’s hoofs are reduced to ashes, and taken for a month together, in doses of two spoonfuls; the testes, also, of an ass, salted and mixed with the drink, asses’ milk or water in particular. The secundines, also, of a she-ass are recommended, more particularly when it is a male that has been foaled: placed beneath the nostrils of the patient, when the fits are likely to come on, this substance will effectually repel them.

There are some persons who recommend the patient to eat the heart of a black he-ass in the open air with bread, upon the first or second day of the moon: others, again, prescribe the flesh of that animal, and others the blood, diluted with vinegar, and taken for forty days together. Some mix horse-stale for this purpose, with smithy water fresh from the forge, employing the same mixture for the cure of delirium. Epilepsy is also treated with mares’ milk, or the excrescences from a horse’s legs, taken in honey and vinegar. The magicians highly recommend goats’ flesh, grilled upon a funeral pile; as also the suet of that animal, boiled with an equal quantity of bull’s gall, and kept in the gall-bladder; care being taken not to let it touch the ground, and the patient swallowing it in water, standing aloft. The smell arising from a goat’s horns or deer’s antlers, burnt, efficiently detects the presence of epilepsy.

In cases where persons are suddenly paralyzed, the urine of an ass’s foal, applied to the body with nard, is very useful, it is said.

For the cure of jaundice, the ashes of a stag’s antlers are employed; or the blood of an ass’s foal, taken in wine. The first dung, too, that has been voided by the foal after its birth, taken in wine, in pieces the size of a bean, will effect a cure by the end of three days. The dung of a new-born colt is possessed of a similar efficacy.

For broken hones, a sovereign remedy is the ashes of the jaw-bone of a wild boar or swine: boiled bacon, too, tied round the broken bone, unites it with marvellous rapidity. For fractures of the ribs, goats’ dung, applied in old wine, is extolled as the grand remedy, being possessed in a high degree of aperient, extractive, and healing properties.

Deer’s flesh, as already stated, is a febrifuge. Periodical and recurrent fevers are cured, if we are to believe what the magicians tell us, by wearing the right eye of a wolf, salted, and attached as an amulet. There is one kind of fever generally known as “amphemerine;” it is to be cured, they say, by the patient taking three drops of blood from an ass’s ear, and swallowing them in two semi-sextarii of water. For quartan fever, the magicians recommend cats’ dung to be attached to the body, with the toe of a horned owl, and, that the fever may not be recurrent, not to be removed until the seventh paroxysm is past. Who, pray, could have ever made such a discovery as this? And what, too, can be the meaning of this combination? Why, of all things in the world, was the toe of a horned owl made choice of?

Other adepts in this art, who are more moderate in their suggestions, recommend for quartan fever, the salted liver of a cat that has been killed while the moon was on the wane, to be taken in wine just before the paroxysms come on. The magicians recommend, too, that the toes of the patient should be rubbed with the ashes of burnt cow-dung, diluted with a boy’s urine, and that a hare’s heart should be attached to the hands; they prescribe, also, hare’s rennet, to be taken in drink just before the paroxysms come on. New goats’ milk cheese is also given with honey, the whey being carefully extracted first.