The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 5 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 5 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
Pains and diseases of the ears are cured by using the urine of a wild
boar, kept in a glass vessel, or the gall of a wild boar, swine, or
ox, mixed with castor-oil and oil of roses in equal proportions. But
the best remedy of all is bull’s gall, warmed with leek juice, or with
honey, if there is any suppuration. Bull’s gall too, warmed by itself
in a pomegranate rind, is an excellent remedy for offensive exhalations
from the ears: in combination with woman’s milk, it is efficacious
as a cure for ruptures of those organs. Some persons are of opinion
that it is a good plan to wash the ears with this preparation in cases
where the hearing is affected; while others again, after washing the
ears with warm water, insert a mixture composed of the old slough of a
serpent and vinegar, wrapped up in a dossil of wool. In cases, however,
where the deafness is very considerable, gall warmed in a pomegranate
rind with myrrh and rue, is injected into the ears; sometimes, also,
fat bacon is used for this purpose, or fresh asses’ dung, mixed with
oil of roses: in all cases, however, the ingredients should be warmed.
The foam from a horse’s mouth is better still, or the ashes of fresh
horse dung, mixed with oil of roses: fresh butter too is good;
beef-suet mixed with goose-grease; the urine of a bull or she-goat; or
fullers’ lant, heated to such a degree that the steam escapes by the
neck of the vessel. For this purpose also, one third part of vinegar
is mixed with a small portion of the urine of a calf, which has not
begun to graze. They apply also to the ears calf’s dung, mixed with the
gall of that animal and sloughs of serpents, care being taken to warm
the ears before the application, and all the remedies being wrapped in
wool. Veal-suet, too, is used, with goose-grease and extract of ocimum;
or else veal marrow, mixed with bruised cummin and injected into the
ears. For pains in the ears, the liquid ejected by a boar in copulation
is used, due care being taken to receive it before it falls to the
ground. For fractures of the ears, a glutinous composition is made
from the genitals of a calf, which is dissolved in water when used;
and for other diseases of those organs, foxes’ fat is employed, goat’s
gall mixed with rose-oil warmed, or else extracted juice of leeks:
in all cases where there is any rupture, these preparations are used
in combination with woman’s milk. Where a patient is suffering from
hardness of hearing, ox-gall is employed, with the urine of a he or
she-goat; the same, too, where there is any suppuration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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