REMEDIES FOR OFFENSIVE ODOURS AND SORES OF THE MOUTH

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Oris saporem commendari adfirmant, murino cinere cum melle si fricentur dentes; admiscent quidam marathi radices. pinna vulturis si scalpantur dentes, acidum halitum faciunt. hoc idem hystricis spina fecisse ad firmitatem pertinet. linguae ulcera et labrorum hirundines in mulso decoctae sanant, adeps anseris aut gallinae rimas, oesypum cum galla, araneorum telae candidae et quae in trabibus parvae texuntur. si ferventia os intus exusserint, lacte canino statim sanabuntur.

Maculas in facie oesypum cum melle Corsico, quod asperrimum habetur, extenuat, item scobem cutis in facie cum rosaceo inpositum vellere —quidam et butyrum addunt—, si vero vitiligines sint, fel caninum prius acu conpunctas, liventia et suggillata pulmones arietum pecudumque in tenues consecti membranas calidi inpositi vel columbinum fimum. cutem in facie custodit adeps anseris vel gallinae. lichenas et murino fimo ex aceto inlinunt et cinere irenacei ex oleo; in hac curatione prius nitro ex aceto faciem foveri praecipiunt. tollit ex facie vitia et coclearum, quae latae et minutae passim inveniuntur, cum melle cinis. omnium quidem coclearum cinis spissat, calfacit smectica vi et ideo causticis miscetur psorisque et lepris et lentigini inlinitur. invenio et formicas Herculaneas appellari, quibus tritis adiecto sale exiguo talia vitia sanentur. buprestis animal est rarum in Italia, simillimum scarabaeo longipedi; fallit inter herbas bovem maxime, unde et nomen invenit, devoratumque tacto felle ita inflammat, ut rumpat. haec cum hircino sebo inlita lichenas ex facie tollit septica vi, ut supra dictum est. vulturinus sanguis cum chamaeleontos albae, quam herbam esse diximus, radice et cedria tritus contectusque brassica lepras sanat, item pedes locustarum cum sebo hircino triti, varos adeps gallinaceus cum cepa subactus. utilissimum et in facie mel, in quo apes sint inmortuae, praecipue tamen faciem purgat atque erugat cygni adeps. stigmata delentur columbino fimo ex aceto.

Gravedinem invenio finiri, si quis nares mulinas osculetur. uva et faucium dolor mitigatur fimo agnorum, priusquam herbam gustaverint, in umbra arefacto, uva suco cocleae acu transfossae inlita, ut coclea ipsa in fumo suspendatur, hirundinum cinere cum melle; sic et tonsillis succurritur. tonsillas et fauces lactis ovilli gargarizatio adiuvat, multipeda trita, fimum columbinum cum passo gargarizatum, etiam cum fico arida ac nitro inpositum extra. asperitatem faucium et destillationes leniunt cocleae —coqui debent inlotae demptoque tantum terreno conteri et in passo dari potui; sunt qui Astypalaeicas efficacissimas putent et minimas earum —, gryllus infricatus aut si quis manibus, quibus eum contriverit, tonsillas attingat.

Anginis felle anserino cum elaterio et melle citissime succurritur, cerebro noctuae, cinere hirundinis ex aqua calida poto. huius medicinae auctor est Ovidius poeta. sed efficaciores ad omnia, quae ex hirundinibus monstrantur, pulli silvestrium—figura nidorum eas deprehendit —, multo tamen efficacissimi ripariarum pulli; ita vocant in riparum cavis nidificantes. multi cuiuscumque hirundinis pullum edendum censent, ut toto anno non metuatur id malum. strangulatos cum sanguine comburunt in vase et cinerem cum pane aut in potu dant. quidam et mustelae cinerem pari modo admiscent; sic ad strumae remedia dant et comitialibus cotidie potui. in sale quoque servatae hirundines ad anginam drachma bibuntur, cui malo et nidus earum mederi dicitur potus. milipedam inlini anginis efficacissimum putant; alii XX tritas in aquae mulsae hemina dari per harundinem, quoniam dentibus tactis nihil prosint. tradunt et murem cum verbenaca excoctum, si bibatur is liquor, remedio esse, et corrigiam caninam ter collo circumdatam, fimum columbinum vino et oleo permixtum. cervicis nervis, opisthotono ex milui nido surculus viticis adalligatus auxiliari dicitur,

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

To impart sweetness to the breath, it is recommended to rub the teeth with ashes of burnt mouse-dung and honey; some persons are in the habit of mixing fennel root. To pick the teeth with a vulture’s feather, is productive of a sour breath; but to use a porcupine’s quill for that purpose, greatly strengthens the teeth. Ulcers of the tongue and lips are cured by taking a decoction of swallows, boiled in honied wine; and chapped lips are healed by using goose-grease or poultry-grease, wool-grease mixed with nut-galls, white spiders’ webs, or the fine cobwebs that are found adhering to the beams of roofs. If the inside of the mouth has been scalded with any hot substance, bitches’ milk will afford an immediate cure.

Wool-grease, mixed with Corsican honey—which by the way is considered the most acrid honey of all—removes spots upon the face. Applied with oil of roses in wool, it causes scurf upon the face to disappear: some persons add butter to it. In cases of morphew, the spots are first pricked with a needle, and then rubbed with dog’s gall. For livid spots and bruises on the face, the lights of a ram or sheep are cut fine and applied warm, or else pigeons’ dung is used. Goose-grease or poultry-grease is a good preservative of the skin of the face. For lichens a liniment is used, made of mouse-dung in vinegar, or of the ashes of a hedge-hog mixed with oil: but, when these remedies are employed, it is recommended first to foment the face with nitre dissolved in vinegar. Maladies of the face are also removed by employing the ashes of the small, broad, snail that is so commonly found, mixed with honey. Indeed, the ashes of all snails are of an inspissative nature, and are possessed of certain calorific and detersive properties: hence it is that they form an ingredient in caustic applications, and are used in the form of a liniment for itch-scabs, leprous sores, and freckles on the face.

I find it stated that a certain kind of ant known by the name of “Herculanea” is beaten up, with the addition of a little salt, and used for the cure of these diseases. The buprestis is an insect but rarely found in Italy, and very similar to a scarabæus, with long legs. Concealed among the grass, it is very liable to be swallowed unobserved, by oxen in particular; and the moment it comes in contact with the gall, it causes such a degree of inflammation, that the animal bursts asunder; a circumstance to which the insect owes its name. Applied topically with he-goat suet, it removes lichens on the face, owing to its corrosive properties, as previously stated. A vulture’s blood, beaten up with cedar resin and root of white chamæleon—a plant which we have already mentioned—and covered with a cabbage leaf, when applied, is good for the cure of leprosy; the same, too, with the legs of locusts, beaten up with he-goat suet. Pimples are treated with poultry grease, beaten up and kneaded with onions. One very useful substance for the face is honey in which the bees have died; but a sovereign detergent for that part is swans’ grease, which has also the property of effacing wrinkles. Brand-marks are removed by using pigeons’ dung, diluted in vinegar.

I find it stated that catarrhs oppressive to the head may be cured by the patient kissing a mule’s nostrils. Affections of the uvula and pains in the fauces are alleviated by using the dung of lambs before they have begun to graze, dried in the shade. Diseases of the uvula are cured with the juices of a snail pierced with a needle; the snail, however, must be then hung up in the smoke. The same maladies are treated also with ashes of burnt swallows, mixed with honey; a preparation which is equally good for affections of the tonsillary glands. Sheep’s milk, used as a gargle, alleviates diseases of the fauces and tonsillary glands. Millepedes, bruised with pigeons’ dung, are taken as a gargle, with raisin wine; and they are applied, externally, with dried figs and nitre, for the purpose of soothing roughness of the fauces and catarrhs. For such cases, too, snails should be boiled unwashed, the earth only being removed, and then pounded and administered to the patient in raisin wine. Some persons are of opinion, that for these purposes the snails of Astypalæa are the most efficacious, and they give the preference to the detersive preparation made from them. The parts affected are sometimes rubbed with a cricket, and affections of the tonsillary glands are alleviated by being rubbed with the hands of a person who has bruised a cricket.

For quinzy we have very expeditious remedies in goose-gall, mixed with elaterium and honey, an owlet’s brains, or the ashes of a burnt swallow, taken in warm water; which last remedy we owe to the poet Ovid. But of all the remedies spoken of as furnished by the swallow, one of the most efficacious is that derived from the young of the wild swallow, a bird which may be easily recognized by the peculiar conformation of its nest. By far the most effectual, however, of them all, are the young of the bank-swallow, that being the name given to the kind which builds its nest in holes on the banks of rivers. Many persons recommend the young of any kind of swallow as a food, assuring us that the person who takes it need be in no apprehension of quinzy for the whole of the ensuing year. The young of this bird are sometimes stifled and then burnt in a vessel with the blood, the ashes being administered to the patient with bread or in the drink: some, however, mix with them the ashes of a burnt weasel, in equal proportion. The same remedies are recommended also for scrofula, and they are administered for epilepsy, once a day, in drink. Swallows preserved in salt are taken for quinzy, in doses of one drachma, in drink: the nest, too, of the bird, taken internally, is said to be a cure for the same disease.

Millepedes, it is thought, used in the form of a liniment, are peculiarly efficacious for quinzy: some persons, also, administer eleven of them, bruised in one semi-sextarius of hydromel, through a reed, they being of no use whatever if once touched by the teeth. Other remedies mentioned are, the broth of a mouse boiled with vervain, a thong of dogskin passed three times round the back, and pigeons’ dung mixed with wine and oil. For the cure of rigidity of the muscles of the neck, and of opisthotony, a twig of vitex, taken from a kite’s nest, is attached to the body as an amulet.