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
It is considered a remarkably good plan to subject the uterus to
fumigations made with burnt goats’ horns. The blood of the wild goat,
mixed with sea-palm,[2392] acts as a depilatory. The gall of the other
kinds of goat, used as an injection, acts emolliently upon callosities
of the uterus, and ensures conception immediately after menstruation:
it possesses also the virtues of a depilatory, the application being
left for three days upon the flesh after the hair has been removed. The
midwives assure us that she-goats’ urine, taken in drink, and the dung,
applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however much in
excess. The membrane in which the kid is enclosed in the uterus, dried
and taken in wine, acts as an expellent upon the after-birth. For
affections of the uterus, it is thought a desirable plan to fumigate
it with burnt kids’ hair; and for discharges of blood, kids’ rennet
is administered in drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According
to Osthanes, if a woman’s loins are rubbed with blood taken from the
ticks upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to
sexual intercourse: she will forget, too, her former love, by taking a
he-goat’s urine in drink, some nard being mixed with it to disguise the
loathsome taste.
CHAP. 78.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.
For infants there is nothing more useful than butter,[2393] either by
itself or in combination with honey; for dentition more particularly,
for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of the mouth. A wolf’s
tooth, attached to the body, prevents infants from being startled, and
acts as a preservative against the maladies attendant upon dentition;
an effect equally produced by making use of a wolf’s skin. The larger
teeth, also, of a wolf, attached to a horse’s neck, will render him
proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare’s rennet, applied to
the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhœa in the infant
suckled by her. An ass’s liver, mixed with a little panax, and dropped
into the mouth of an infant, will preserve it from epilepsy and other
diseases to which infants are liable; this, however, must be done for
forty days, they say. An ass’s skin, too, thrown over infants, renders
them insensible to fear. The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as
an amulet to infants, facilitate dentition, and are better still, when
not allowed to touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox’s milt
is administered in honey, and applied topically; and for running ulcers
it is used as an application, with honey. A calf’s milt, boiled in
wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers of the mouth.
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