Urine is also used for taking out ink spots. Male urine cures gout, witness the fullers for instance,[2205] who, for this reason, it is said, are never troubled with that disease. With stale urine some mix ashes of calcined oyster-shells, for the cure of eruptions on the bodies of infants, and all kinds of running ulcers: it is used, too, as a liniment for corrosive sores, burns, diseases of the rectum, chaps upon the body, and stings inflicted by scorpions. The most celebrated midwives have pronounced that there is no lotion which removes itching sensations more effectually; and, with the addition of nitre,[2206] they prescribe it for the cure of ulcers of the head, porrigo, and cancerous sores, those of the generative organs in particular. But the fact is, and there is no impropriety in saying so, that every person’s own urine is the best for his own case, due care being taken to apply it immediately, and unmixed with anything else; in such cases as the bite of a dog, for instance, or the quill of a hedge-hog entering the flesh, a sponge or some wool being the vehicle in which it is applied. Kneaded up with ashes, it is good for the bite of a mad dog, and for the cure of stings inflicted by serpents. As to the bite of the scolopendra, the effects of urine are said to be quite marvellous—the person who has been injured has only to touch the crown of his head with a drop of his own urine, and he will experience an instantaneous cure. CHAP. 19.—INDICATIONS OF HEALTH DERIVED FROM THE URINE. Certain indications of the health are furnished by the urine. Thus, for example, if it is white at first in the morning and afterwards high-coloured, the first signifies that the digestion is going on, the last that it is completed. When the urine is red, it is a bad sign; but when it is swarthy, it is the worst sign of all. So, too, when it is thick or full of bubbles, it is a bad sign; and when a white sediment forms, it is a symptom of pains in the region of the viscera or in the joints. A green-coloured urine is indicative of disease of the viscera, a pale urine of biliousness, and a red urine of some distemper in the blood. The urine is in a bad state, too, when certain objects form in it, like bran or fine clouds in appearance. A thin, white, urine also is in a diseased state; but when it is thick and possessed of an offensive smell, it is significant of approaching death: so, too, when with children it is thin and watery. The adepts in magic expressly forbid a person, when about to make water, to uncover the body in the face of the sun[2207] or moon, or to sprinkle with his urine the shadow of any object whatsoever. Hesiod[2208] gives a precept, recommending persons to make water against an object standing full before them, that no divinity may be offended by their nakedness being uncovered. Osthanes maintains that every one who drops some urine upon his foot in the morning will be proof against all noxious medicaments.