REMEDIES FOR URINARY CALCULI AND AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Murino fimo contra calculos inlinere ventrem prodest. irenacei carnem iucundam esse aiunt, si capite percusso uno ictu interficiatur, priusquam in se urinam reddat. haec caro ad hunc modum occisi stillicidium vesicae emendat, item suffitus ex eodem. quod si urinam in se reddiderit, eos, qui carnem comederint, stranguriae morbum contrahere traditur. iubent et vermes terrenos bibi ex vino aut passo ad comminuendos calculos vel cocleas decoctas ut in suspiriosis, easdem exemptas testis III tritasque in vini cyatho bibi, sequenti die II, tertio die I, ut stillicidium urinae emendent, testarum vero inanium cinerem ad calculos pellendos, item hydri iocur bibi vel scorpionum cinerem aut in pane sumi [vel si quis ut locusta edit], lapillos, qui in gallinaceorum vesica aut in palumbium ventriculo inveniantur, conteri et potioni inspergi, item membranam e ventriculo gallinacei aridam vel, si recens sit, tostam, fimum quoque palumbinum in faba sumi contra calculos et alias difficultates vesicae, similiter plumarum cinerem palumbium ferorum ex aceto mulso et intestinorum ex his cinerem coclearibus III, e nido hirundinum glaebam dilutam aqua calida, ossifragi ventrem arefactum, turturis fimum in mulso decoctum vel ipsius discoctae ius. turdos quoque edisse cum bacis myrti prodest urinae, cicadas tostas in patellis, milipedam oniscon bibisse et in vesicae doloribus decoctum agninorum pedum. alvum ciet gallinaceorum discoctorum ius et acria mollit, ciet et hirundinum fimum adiecto melle subditum.

Sedis vitiis efficacissima sunt oesypum—quidam adiciunt pompholygem et rosaceum—, canini capitis cinis, senecta serpentis ex aceto, si rhagades sint, cinis fimi canini candidi cum rosaceo—aiunt inventum Aesculapii esse eodemque et verrucas efficacissime tolli—, murini fimi cinis, adeps cygni, adeps bovae. procidentia ibi sucus coclearum punctis evocatus inlita repellit. adtritis medetur cinis muris silvatici cum melle, fel irenacei cum vespertilionis cerebro et canino lacte, adeps anserinus cum cerebro et alumine et oesypo, fimum columbinum cum melle, condylomatis privatim araneus dempto capite pedibusque infricatus, ne acria perurant, adeps anserinus cum cera Punica, cerussa, rosaceo, adeps cygni. hic et haemorroidas sanare dicitur. ischiadicis cocleas crudas tritas cum vino Ammineo et pipere potu prodesse dicunt, lacertam viridem in cibo ablatis pedibus, interaneis, capite; sic et stelionem adiectis huic papaveris nigri obolis III; ruptis, convulsis fel ovium cum lacte mulierum. verendorum formicationibus verrucisque medetur arietini pulmonis inassati sanies, ceteris vitiis vellerum eius vel sordidorum cinis ex aqua, sebum ex omento pecudis, praecipue a renibus, admixto pumicis cinere et sale, lana sucida ex aqua frigida, carnes pecudis combustae ex aqua, mulae ungularum cinis, dentis caballini contusi farina inspersa, testibus vero farina ex ossibus canini capitis sine came tusis. si decidat testium alter, spumam coclearum inlitam in remedio esse tradunt. taetris ibi ulceribus et manantibus auxiliantur canini capitis recentes cineres, cocleae parvae, latae contritae ex aceto, senectus anguium ex aceto vel cinis eius, mel, in quo apes sint inmortuae, cum resina, cocleae nudae, quas in Africa gigni diximus, tritae cum turis polline et ovorum albo; XXX die resolvunt; aliqui pro ture bulbum admiscent. hydrocelicis stelionis mire prodesse tradunt capite, pedibus, interaneis ademptis relicum corpus inassatum—in cibo id saepius datur—, sicut ad urinae incontinentiam caninum adipem cum alumine schisto fabae magnitudine, cocleas Africanas cum sua carne et testa crematas poto cinere, anserum III linguas inassatas in cibo. huius rei auctor est Anaxilaus. at panos aperit sebum pecudum cum sale tosto, murinum fimum admixto turis polline et sandaraca discutit, lacertae cinis et ipsa divisa inposita, item multipeda contrita admixta resina terebinthina ex parte tertia—quidam et sinopidem admiscent—, cocleae contusae per se, cinis inanium coclearum cerae mixtus. discussoriam vim habet fimum columbarum per sese vel cum farina hordeacia aut avenacia inlitum. cantharides mixtae calce panos scalpelli vice auferunt, inguinum tumorem cocleae minutae cum melle inlitae leniunt.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

For the cure of urinary calculi, it is a good plan to rub the abdomen with mouse-dung. The flesh of a hedge-hog is agreeable eating, they say, if killed with a single blow upon the head, before it has had time to discharge its urine upon its body: [persons who eat this flesh, it is said, will never by any possibility suffer from strangury.] The flesh of a hedge-hog thus killed, is a cure for urinary obstructions of the bladder; and the same, too, with fumigations made therewith. If, on the other hand, the animal has discharged its urine upon its body, those who eat the flesh will be sure to be attacked by strangury, it is said. As a lithontriptic, earth-worms are recommended, taken in ordinary wine or raisin wine; or else boiled snails, prepared the same way as for the cure of asthma. For the cure of urinary obstructions, snails are taken from the shells, pounded, and administered in one cyathus of wine, three the first day, two the second, and one the third. For the expulsion of calculi, the empty shells are reduced to ashes and taken in drink: the liver also of a water-snake, and the ashes of burnt scorpions are similarly employed, or are taken with bread or eaten with a locust. For the same purpose, the small grits that are found in the gizzard of poultry or in the craw of the ringdove, are beaten up and sprinkled in the patient’s drink; the craw, too, of poultry is taken, dried, or if fresh, grilled.

For urinary calculi and other obstructions of the bladder, dung of ring-doves is taken, with beans; ashes also of wild ring-doves’ feathers, mixed with vinegar and honey; the intestines of those birds, reduced to ashes, and administered in doses of three spoonfuls; a small clod from a swallow’s nest, dissolved in warm water; the dried crop of an ossifrage; the dung of a turtle-dove, boiled in honied wine; or the broth of a boiled turtle-dove.

It is very beneficial also for urinary affections to eat thrushes with myrtle-berries, or grasshoppers grilled on a shallow-pan; or else to take the millepedes, known as “onisci,” in drink. For pains in the bladder, a decoction of lambs’ feet is used. Chicken-broth relaxes the bowels and mollifies acridities; swallows’ dung, too, with honey, employed as a suppository, acts as a purgative.

The most efficacious remedies for diseases of the rectum are wool-grease,—to which some add pompholix and oil of roses— a dog’s head reduced to ashes; or a serpent’s slough, with vinegar. In cases where there are chaps and fissures of those parts, the ashes of the white portion of dogs’ dung are used, mixed with oil of roses; a prescription due, they say, to Æsculapius, and remarkably efficacious also for the removal of warts. Ashes of burnt mouse-dung, swan’s fat, and cow suet, are also used. Procidence of the rectum is reduced by an application of the juices discharged by snails when punctured. For the cure of excoriation of those parts, ashes of burnt wood-mice are used, with honey; the gall of a hedge-hog, with a bat’s brains and bitches’ milk; goose-grease, with the brains of the bird, alum, and wool-grease; or else pigeons’ dung, mixed with honey. A spider, the head and legs being first removed, is remarkably good as a friction for condylomata. To prevent the acridity of the humours from fretting the flesh, goose-grease is applied, with Punic wax, white lead, and oil of roses; swan’s grease also, which is said to be a cure for piles.

A very good thing, they say, for sciatica, is, to pound raw snails in Aminean wine, and to take them with pepper; to eat a green lizard, the feet, head, and intestines being first removed; or to eat a spotted lizard, with the addition of three oboli of black poppy. Ruptures and convulsions are treated with sheep’s gall, diluted with woman’s milk. The gravy which escapes from a ram’s lights roasted, is used for the cure of itching pimples and warts upon the generative organs: for other affections of those parts, the ashes of a ram’s wool, unwashed even, are used, applied with water; the suet of a sheep’s caul, and of the kidneys more particularly, mixed with ashes of pumice-stone and salt; greasy wool, applied with cold water; sheep’s flesh, burnt to ashes, and applied with water; a mule’s hoofs, burnt to ashes; or the powder of pounded horse teeth, sprinkled upon the parts. In cases of decidence of either of the testes, an application of the slime discharged by snails is remedial, they say. For the treatment of sordid or running ulcers of those parts, the fresh ashes of a burnt dog’s head are found highly useful; the small, broad kind of snail, beaten up in vinegar; a snake’s slough, or the ashes of it, applied in vinegar; honey in which the bees have died, mixed with resin; or the kind of snail without a shell, that is found in Africa, as already mentioned, beaten up with powdered frankincense and white of eggs, the application being renewed at the end of thirty days; some persons, however substitute a bulb for the frankincense.

For the cure of hydrocele, a spotted lizard, they say, is marvellously good, the head, feet, and intestines being first removed, and the rest of the body roasted and taken frequently with the food. For incontinence of urine dogs’ fat is used, mixed with a piece of split alum the size of a bean; ashes, also, of African snails burnt with the shells, taken in drink; or else the tongues of three geese roasted and eaten with the food, a remedy which we owe to Anaxilaüs. Mutton-suet, mixed with parched salt, has an aperient effect upon inflammatory tumours, and mouse-dung, mixed with powdered frankincense and sandarach, acts upon them as a dispellent: the ashes, also, of a burnt lizard, or the lizard itself, split asunder and applied; or else bruised millepedes, mixed with one third part of turpentine. Some make use of earth of Sinope for this purpose, mixed with a bruised snail. Ashes of empty snail-shells burnt alone, mixed with wax, possess certain repercussive properties; the same, too, with pigeons’ dung, employed by itself, or applied with oat-meal or barley-meal. Cantharides, mixed with lime, remove inflammatory tumours quite as effectually as the lancet; and small snails, applied topically with honey, have a soothing effect upon tumours in the groin.