She-goats, they say, are never affected with ophthalmia, from the circumstance that they browse upon certain kinds of herbs: the same, too, with the gazelle. Hence it is that we find it recommended, at the time of new moon, to swallow the dung of these animals, coated with wax. As they are able to see, too, by night, it is a general belief that the blood of a he-goat is a cure for those persons affected with dimness of sight to whom the Greeks have given the name of “nyctalopes.”[2323] A similar virtue is attributed to the liver of a she-goat, boiled in astringent wine. Some are in the habit of rubbing the eyes with the thick gravy[2324] which exudes from a she-goat’s liver roasted, or with the gall of that animal: they recommend the flesh also as a diet, and say that the patient should expose his eyes to the fumes of it while boiling: it is a general opinion, too, that the animal should be of a reddish colour. Another prescription is, to fumigate the eyes with the steam arising from the liver boiled in an earthen jar, or, according to some authorities, roasted. Goats’ gall is applied for numerous purposes: with honey, for films upon the eyes; with one-third part of white hellebore, for cataract; with wine, for spots upon the eyes, indurations of the cornea, films, webs, and argema; with extracted juice of cabbage, for diseases of the eyelids, the hairs being first pulled out, and the preparation left to dry on the parts affected; and with woman’s milk, for rupture of the coats of the eye. For all these purposes, the gall is considered the most efficacious, when dried. Nor is the dung of this animal held in disesteem, being applied with honey for defluxions of the eyes. The marrow, too, of a goat, or a hare’s lights, we find used for pains in the eyes; and the gall of a goat, with raisin wine or honey, for the dispersion of films upon those organs. It is recommended also, for ophthalmia, to anoint the eyes with wolf’s fat or swine’s marrow: we find it asserted, too, that persons who carry a wolf’s tongue, inserted in a bracelet, will always be exempt from ophthalmia. CHAP. 48.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES AND AFFECTIONS OF THE EARS.