Strombi,[336] left to putrefy in vinegar, act as an excitant upon lethargic patients by their smell; they are very useful, too, for the cure of cardiac diseases. For cachectic patients, where the body is wasting with consumption, tetheæ[337] are considered beneficial, mixed with rue and honey. For the cure of dropsy, dolphin’s fat is melted and taken with wine, the repulsive taste of it being neutralized by first touching the nostrils with unguent or some other odoriferous substance, or else by plugging the nostrils in some way or other. The flesh of strombi, pounded and given in three heminæ of honied wine and the same quantity of water, or, if there is fever, in hydromel, is very useful for dropsy: the same, too, with the juice of river-crabs, administered with honey. Water frogs, too, are boiled with old wine and spelt,[338] and taken as food, the liquor in which they have been boiled being drunk from the same vessel: or else the feet, head, and tail of a tortoise are cut off, and the intestines removed, the rest of the flesh being seasoned in such a manner as to allow of its being taken without loathing. River-crabs, too, eaten with their broth, are said to be very good for the cure of phthisis. CHAP. 40.—REMEDIES FOR BURNS AND FOR ERYSIPELAS. Burns are cured by applying ashes of calcined sea-crabs or river-crabs with oil: fish-glue, too, and calcined frogs are used as an application for scalds produced by boiling water. The same treatment also restores the hair, provided the ashes are those of river-crabs: it is generally thought, too, that the preparation should be applied with wax and bears’ grease. Ashes, too, of burnt beaver-skin are very useful for these purposes. Live frogs act as a check upon erysipelas, the belly side being applied to the part affected: it is recommended, too, to attach them lengthwise by the hinder legs, so as to render them more beneficial by reason of their increased respiration.[339] Heads, too, of salted siluri[340] are reduced to ashes and applied with vinegar. Prurigo and itch-scab, not only in man but in quadrupeds as well, are most efficaciously treated with the liver of the pastinaca[341] boiled in oil. CHAP. 41.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SINEWS. The exterior callosity with which the flesh of purples is covered, beaten up, unites the sinews, even when they have been severed asunder. It is a good plan, for patients suffering from tetanus, to take sea-calf’s rennet in wine, in doses of one obolus, as also fish-glue.[342] Persons affected with fits of trembling find much relief from castoreum,[343] provided they are well anointed with oil. I find it stated that the surmullet,[344] used as an article of diet, acts injuriously upon the sinews. CHAP. 42.—METHODS OF ARRESTING HÆMORRHAGE AND OF LETTING BLOOD. THE POLYP: ONE REMEDY.