Others, again, more particularly recommend for all affections of the ears one cyathus of the best garum,[218] with one cyathus and a half of honey, and one cyathus of vinegar, the whole gently boiled in a new pot over a slow fire, and skimmed with a feather every now and then: when it has become wholly free from scum, it is injected lukewarm into the ears. In cases where the ears are swollen, the same authorities recommend that the swellings should be first reduced with juice of coriander. The fat of frogs, injected into the ears, instantly removes all pains in these organs. The juice of river-crabs, kneaded up with barley-meal, is a most effectual remedy for wounds in the ears. Shells of the murex, reduced to ashes, and applied with honey, or the burnt shells of other shell-fish,[219] used with honied wine, are curative of imposthumes of the parotid glands. CHAP. 26.—REMEDIES FOR TOOTH-ACHE. THE DOG-FISH: FOUR REMEDIES. WHALE’S FLESH. Tooth-ache is alleviated by scarifying the gums with bones of the sea-dragon, or by rubbing the teeth once a year with the brains of a dog-fish[220] boiled in oil, and kept for the purpose. It is a very good plan too, for the cure of tooth-ache, to lance the gums with the sting of the pastinaca[221] in some cases. This sting, too, is pounded, and applied to the teeth with white hellebore, having the effect of extracting them without the slightest difficulty. Another of these remedies is, ashes of salted fish calcined in an earthen vessel, mixed with powdered marble. Stale cybium,[222] rinsed in a new earthen vessel, and then pounded, is very useful for the cure of tooth-ache. Equally good, it is said, are the back-bones of all kinds of salt fish, pounded and applied in a liniment. A decoction is made of a single frog boiled in one hemina of vinegar, and the teeth are rinsed with it, the decoction being retained in the mouth. In cases where a repugnance existed to making use of this remedy, Sallustius Dionysius[223] used to suspend frogs over boiling vinegar by the hind legs, so as to make them discharge their humours into the vinegar by the mouth, using considerable numbers of frogs for the purpose: to those, however, who had a stronger stomach, he prescribed the frogs themselves, eaten with their broth. It is generally thought, too, that this recipe applies more particularly to the double teeth, and that the vinegar prepared as above-mentioned, is remarkably useful for strengthening them when loose.