When dried, let them be moistened with vinegar. The carbuncle is made to suppurate and burst, by the inner part of old walnuts, or even of that which is not old, and by the leaves and shoots of cypress, or by its young and tender balls (pilulæ), with barley-flour; by raisins deprived of their stones; by dried figs boiled in wine; by the flowers of horned poppy; by the juice of laserwort, with rue and some honey; by liquid pitch with raisins and axunge. _An excellent application for carbuncles._ Of litharge, lb. j; of old oil, lb. j; of arsenic, oz. j; boil the oil and litharge until they do not stain, and taking them off the fire, add the arsenic, and then boil it until it become black, and having levigated it in a mortar, use upon pledgets. _For gangrene, old ulcers, those called chironia, strumous ulcers, and the gout: it is a most admirable application for carbuncle, particularly in the eyelids._ Of opium, of acacia, of toasted misy, of flakes of copper, of each, dr. ij; of copperas, dr. j; of the seed of henbane, dr. j; triturate in water, and use. They say also that the ointment called tetrapharmacon, having a fifth part of frankincense, is an excellent application. But for carbuncles in the pudenda, take of chalcitis, of copperas, of each, dr. viij; of aphronitrum, dr. ij; triturate with water, and use. Sheep’s dung roasted with honey is also a good remedy. In Alexandria they use the green serapias, which is also called orchis and triorchis, with crumbs of bread, as a cataplasm for carbuncles and all sloughy ulcers; and when the eschar falls off, they cure them as a common ulcer. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The carbuncle is briefly treated of by Hippocrates (Epidem. ii, 1), and is frequently mentioned by him as a symptom of the pestilential fever. (Epidem. iii.) Celsus gives a very minute description of carbuncle. With regard to the treatment, nothing, he says, answers so well as immediate burning, which produces no pain, as the flesh is dead. The sore is to be treated like other burnt parts. Under the use of eroding applications a crust is formed, which, being removed from the living flesh, carries all the corrupted parts along with it, and leaves a clean cavity, which is to be filled up by incarnants. When the disease is superficial, corrosive or caustic substances may be substituted, of such a degree of strength as to produce a separation between the dead and sound flesh. But if these applications fail, recourse must be had to burning. He recommends abstinence from food and wine at the commencement, and directs water to be given freely, especially if fever be present. Pliny gives an indistinct account of an epidemical anthrax, which, he says, prevailed in the province of Narbonne. (Nat. Hist. xxvi, 4.)