According to the historians of the expedition of Alexander, there were oysters found in the Indian Sea a foot[176] in diameter: among ourselves, too, the nomenclature of some spendthrift and gourmand has found for certain oysters the name of “tridacna,”[177] wishing it to be understood thereby, that they are so large as to require three bites in eating them. We will take the present opportunity of stating all the medicinal properties that are attributed to oysters. They are singularly refreshing[178] to the stomach, and tend to restore the appetite. Luxury, too, has imparted to them an additional coolness by burying them in snow, thus making a medley of the produce of the tops of mountains and the bottom of the sea. Oysters are slightly laxative to the bowels; and boiled in honied wine, they relieve tenesmus, in cases where it is unattended with ulceration. They act detergently also upon ulcerations of the bladder.[179] Boiled in their shells, unopened just as they come to hand, oysters are marvellously efficacious for rheumatic defluxions. Calcined oyster-shells, mixed with honey, allay affections of the uvula and of the tonsillary glands: they are similarly used for imposthumes of the parotid glands, inflamed tumours, and indurations of the mamillæ. Applied with water, these ashes are good for ulcerations of the head, and impart a plumpness to the skin in females. They are sprinkled, too, upon burns, and are highly esteemed as a dentifrice. Applied with vinegar, they are good for the removal of prurigo and of pituitous eruptions. Beaten up in a raw state, they are curative of scrofula and of chilblains upon the feet. Purples, too, are useful[180] as a counterpoison. CHAP. 22.—SEA-WEED: TWO REMEDIES. According to Nicander, sea-weed is also a theriac.[181] There are numerous varieties of it, as already[182] stated; one, for instance, with an elongated leaf, another red, another again with a broader leaf, and another crisped. The most esteemed kind of all is that which grows off the shores of Crete, upon the rocks there, close to the ground: it being used also for dyeing wool, as it has the property[183] of so fixing the colours as never to allow of their being washed out. Nicander recommends it to be taken with wine. CHAP. 23. (7.)—REMEDIES FOR ALOPECY, CHANGE OF COLOUR IN THE HAIR, AND ULCERATIONS OF THE HEAD. THE SEA-MOUSE: TWO REMEDIES, THE SEA-SCORPION: TWELVE REMEDIES. THE LEECH: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE MUREX: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE CONCHYLIUM: FIVE REMEDIES.