Every kind of milk is more aqueous in spring than in summer, and the same in all cases where the animal has grazed upon a new pasture. The best milk of all is that which adheres to the finger nail, when placed there, and does not run from off it. Milk is most harmless when boiled, more particularly if sea pebbles[2257] have been boiled with it. Cows’ milk is the most relaxing, and all kinds of milk are less apt to inflate when boiled. Milk is used for all kinds of internal ulcerations, those of the kidneys, bladder, intestines, throat, and lungs in particular; and externally, it is employed for itching sensations upon the skin, and for purulent eruptions, it being taken fasting for the purpose. We have already[2258] stated, when speaking of the plants, how that in Arcadia cows’ milk is administered for phthisis, consumption, and cachexy. Instances are cited, also, of persons who have been cured of gout in the hands and feet, by drinking asses’ milk. To these various kinds of milk, medical men have added another, to which they have given the name of “schiston;”[2259] following being the usual method of preparing it. Goats’ milk, which is used in preference for the purpose, is boiled in a new earthen vessel, and stirred with branches of a fig-tree newly gathered, as many cyathi of honied wine being added to it as there are semisextarii of milk. When the mixture boils, care is taken to prevent it running over, by plunging into it a silver cyathus measure filled with cold water, none of the water being allowed to escape. When taken off the fire, the constituent parts of it divide as it cools, and the whey is thus separated from the milk. Some persons, again, take this whey, which is now very strongly impregnated with wine, and, after boiling it down to one third, leave it to cool in the open air. The best way of taking it, is in doses of one semisextarius, at stated intervals, during five consecutive days; after taking it, riding exercise should be used by the patient. This whey is administered in cases of epilepsy, melancholy, paralysis, leprosy, elephantiasis, and diseases of the joints.