Surmullets act as an emetic, dried and pounded, and taken in drink. Castoreum, taken fasting, with a small quantity of hammoniacum[247] in oxymel, is extremely good for asthma: spasms, too, in the stomach are assuaged by taking a similar potion with warm oxymel. Frogs stewed in their own liquor in the saucepan, the same way in fact that fish are dressed, are good for a cough, it is said. In some cases, also, frogs are suspended by the legs, and after their juices[248] have been received in a platter, it is recommended to gut them, and the entrails being first carefully removed, to preserve them for the above purpose. There is a small frog,[249] also, which ascends trees, and croaks aloud there: if a person suffering from cough spits into its mouth and then lets it go, he will experience a cure, it is said. For cough attended with spitting of blood, it is recommended to beat up the raw flesh of a snail, and to drink it in hot water. CHAP. 30. (9.)—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LIVER AND SIDE. THE ELONGATED CONCH: SIX REMEDIES. THE TETHEA: FIVE REMEDIES. For pains in the liver, a sea-scorpion is killed in wine, and the liquid is taken. The meat, too, of the elongated conch[250] is taken with honied wine and water, in equal quantities, or, if there are symptoms of fever, with hydromel. Pains in the side are assuaged by taking the flesh of the hippocampus,[251] grilled, or else the tethea,[252] very similar to the oyster, with the ordinary food. For sciatica, the pickle of the silurus is injected, by way of clyster. The flesh of conchs, too, is prescribed, for fifteen days, in doses of three oboli soaked in two sextarii of wine. CHAP. 31.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE BOWELS. SEA-WORT: ONE REMEDY. THE MYAX: TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES. THE MITULUS: EIGHT REMEDIES. PELORIDES: ONE REMEDY. SERIPHUM: TWO REMEDIES. THE ERYTHINUS: TWO REMEDIES. The silurus,[253] taken in its broth, or the torpedo,[254] used as food, acts as a laxative upon the bowels. There is a sea-wort,[255] also, similar in appearance to the cultivated cabbage: it is injurious to the stomach, but acts most efficiently as a purgative, requiring to be cooked with fat meat for the purpose, in consequence of its extreme acridity. The broth, too, of all boiled fish is good for this purpose; it acting, also, as a strong diuretic, taken with wine more particularly. The best kind of all is that prepared from the sea-scorpion, the iulis,[256] and rock-fish in general, as they are destitute of all rankness and are free from fat. The proper way of cooking them is with dill, parsley, coriander, and leeks, with the addition of oil and salt. Stale cybium,[257] too, acts as a purgative, and is particularly useful for carrying off crudities, pituitous humours, and bile.