Thus far the distemper is combated with no great difficulty. If it is more grievous, and neither the fever nor the cough abate, and the body appears to be wasting, there is a necessity for more powerful remedies. An ulcer must be made with a hot iron in one place under the chin, another in the throat, two at both breasts, and under the extremity of the blade-bones, which the Greeks call omoplatæ[BT]; and these ulcers must not be allowed to heal, unless the cough should cease: which, it is plain, must also require a distinct method of cure. Then the extremities are to be brushed briskly three or four times a day; the chest must be rubbed gently with the hand; after meat, at the interval of an hour, the legs and arms must also be rubbed. After ten days the patient is to be put into a bath consisting of warm water and oil. On the other days he is to drink water; at that time wine must be given to drink cold, if the cough is gone; if it is not, with the cold taken off. It is proper also in the remissions to give food every day; to make use of friction and gestation in like manner; on the fourth or fifth day to take sometimes the blood herb with vinegar, or to eat plantain. The juice of plantain alone, or that of horehound boiled up with honey, is a remedy; of the first of which a cyathus may be supped, and a spoonful of the other may be licked at times; or one part of turpentine, and another of butter and honey, mixed together and boiled. But the most material of all these things, are the diet, gestation, sailing, and gruel. A loose belly is particularly to be avoided. A frequent vomiting in this distemper, and especially of blood, is pernicious. When a person begins to grow a little better, he ought to increase his exercises, friction and food; and then keeping in his breath to rub himself; to abstain long from wine, the bath, and venery. [BT] ὠμοπλάται. CHAP. XXIII. OF THE EPILEPSY AND ITS CURE. Amongst the best known distempers is that, which is called comitial(38), or the greater. A man falls suddenly down, foams at the mouth; then after some time returns to himself, and rises of his own accord. This disorder more frequently attacks men than women; and it commonly continues long, even to the dying day, and is not dangerous to life. Sometimes however, when it is recent, it kills a person; and if it has not been removed by remedies, it is often cured in boys by their first venereal liberties, in females by the first appearance of the menses. Sometimes a person falls down with a convulsion of the limbs or nerves, sometimes without it. Some endeavour to rouze these by the same means as lethargic people; which is quite needless: both because even a lethargic person is not cured by this method; and because he may never awake, and thus perish for want, whereas the other returns to himself.