REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SHOULDERS

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

strumis exulceratis mustelae sanguis, ipsa decocta in vino; non tamen sectis admovetur. aiunt et in cibo sumptam idem efficere vel cinerem eius sarmentis conbustae mixtum axungia. lacertus viridis adalligatur; oportet post dies XXX alium adalligatum. quidam cor eius in argenteo vasculo servant ad femineas strumas et viriles. cocleae cum testa sua tusae inlinuntur, maxime quae frutectis adhaerent, item cinis aspidum cum sebo taurino inponitur, anguinus adeps mixtus oleo, item anguium cinis ex oleo inlitus vel cum cera. edisse quoque eos medios abscisis utrimque extremis partibus adversus strumas prodest vel cinerem bibisse in novo fictili ita crematorum, efficacius multo inter duas orbitas occisorum. et gryllum inlinere cum sua terra effossum suadent, item fimum columbarum per sese vel cum farina hordeacia aut avenacia ex aceto, talpae cinerem ex melle inlinere. alii iocur eiusdem contritum inter manus inlinunt et triduo non abluunt. dextrum quoque pedum eius remedio esse strumis adfirmant. alii praecidunt caput et cum terra a talpis excitata tusum digerunt in pastillos pyxide stagnea et utuntur ad omnia, quae intumescant, et quae apostemata vocant quaeque in cervice sint; vesci suilla tunc vetant. tauri vocantur scarabaei terrestres ricino similes —nomen cornicula dedere—, alii pediculos terrae vocant; ab his quoque terrain egestam inlinunt strumis et similibus vitiis et podagris, triduo non abluunt. prodest haec medicina in annum, omniaque his adscribunt, quae nos in gryllis rettulimus. quidam et a formicis terra egesta sic utuntur. alii vermes terrenos totidem, quot sint strumae, adalligant, pariterque cum iis arescunt. alii viperam circa canis ortum circumcidunt ut diximus, dein mediam comburunt, cinerem eum dant bibendum ter septenis diebus, quantum prenditur ternis digitis; sic strumis medentur, aliqui vero circumligantes lino, quo praeligata infra caput vipera pependerit, donec exanimaretur. et milipedis utuntur addita resinae terebinthinae parte quarta, quo medicamento omnia apostemata curari iubent.

Umeri doloribus mustelae cinis cum cera medetur.—Ne sint alae hirsutae, formicarum ova pueris infricata praestant, item mangonibus, ut lanugo sit pubescentium, sanguis e testiculis agnorum, cum castrantur. qui evulsis pilis inlitus et contra virus proficit.

Praecordia vocamus uno nomine exta in homine, quorum in dolore cuiuscumque partis si catulus lactens admoveatur adprimaturque his partibus, transire in eum dicitur morbus, idque exinterato perfusoque vino deprehendi vitiato viscere illo, quod doluerit homini, sed obrui tales religio est. ii quoque, quos Melitaeos vocamus, stomachi dolorem sedant adplicati saepius; transire morbos aegritudine eorum intellegitur, plerumque et morte.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

For ulcerated scrofula, a weasel’s blood is employed, or the animal itself, boiled in wine; but not in cases where the tumours have been opened with the knife. It is said, too, that a weasel, eaten with the food, is productive of a similar effect; sometimes, also, it is burnt upon twigs, and the ashes are applied with axle-grease. In some instances, a green lizard is attached to the body of the patient, a fresh one being substituted at the end of thirty days. Some persons preserve the heart of this animal in a small silver vessel, as a cure for scrofula in females. Old snails, those found adhering to shrubs more particularly, are pounded with the shells on, and applied as a liniment. Asps, too, are similarly employed, reduced to ashes and mixed with bull suet; snakes’ fat also, diluted with oil; and the ashes of a burnt snake, applied with oil or wax. It is a good plan also, in cases of scrofula, to eat the middle of a snake, the extremities being first removed, or to drink the ashes of the reptile, similarly prepared and burnt in a new earthen vessel: they will be found much more efficacious, however, when the snake has been killed between the ruts made by wheels. It is recommended also, to dig up a cricket with the earth about its hole, and to apply it in the form of a liniment; to use pigeons’ dung, either by itself, or with barley-meal, or oatmeal and vinegar; or else to apply the ashes of a burnt mole, mixed with honey.

Some persons apply the liver of this last animal, crumbled in the hands, due care being taken not to wash it off for three days: it is said, too, that a mole’s right foot is a remedy for scrofula. Others, again, cut off the head of a mole, and after kneading it with earth thrown up by those animals, divide it into tablets, and keep it in a pewter box, for the treatment of all kinds of tumours, diseases of the neck, and the affections known as “apostemes:” in all such cases the use of swine ’s flesh is forbidden to the patient. “Taurus” is the name usually given to an earth-beetle, very similar to a tick in appearance, and which it derives from the diminutive horns with which it is furnished: some persons call it the “earth-louse.” From the earth thrown up by these insects a liniment is prepared for scrofula and similar diseases, and for gout the application not being washed off till the end of three days. This last remedy is effectual for a whole year, and all those other properties are attributed to it which we have mentioned when speaking of crickets. There are some, again, who make a similar use of the earth thrown up by ants; while others attach to the patient as many earth-worms as there are scrofulous tumours, the sores drying as the worms dry up.

Some persons cut off the head and tail of a viper, as already mentioned, about the rising of the Dog-star, which done, they burn the middle, and give a pinch of the ashes in three fingers, for thrice seven days, in drink—such is the plan they use for the cure of scrofula. Others, again, pass round the scrofulous tumours a linen thread, with which a viper has been suspended by the neck till dead. Millepedes are also used, with one fourth part of turpentine; a remedy which is equally recommended for the cure of all kinds of apostemes.

The ashes of a burnt weasel, mixed with wax, are a cure for pains in the shoulders. To prevent the arm-pits of young persons from becoming hairy, they should be well rubbed with ants’ eggs. Slave-dealers also, to impede the growth of the hair in young persons near puberty, employ the blood that flows from the testes of lambs when castrated. This blood, too, applied to the arm-pits, the hairs being first pulled out, is a preventive of the rank smell of those parts.

We give the one general name of “præcordia” to the human viscera; for pains in any part of which, a sucking whelp is applied, being pressed close to the part affected. The malady, it is said, will in such case pass into the animal; a fact which may be satisfactorily ascertained; for on disembowelling it, and sprinkling the entrails with wine, that part of the viscera will be found affected in which the patient himself was sensible of pain: to bury the animal in such a case is a point most religiously observed. The dogs, too, which we call “Melitæi,” applied to the stomach every now and then, allay pains in that region: the malady, it is supposed, passes into the animal’s body, as it gradually loses its health, and it mostly dies.