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The flesh of the sea-tortoise, mixed with that of frogs, is an excellent remedy for injuries caused by the salamander; indeed there is nothing that is a better neutralizer of the secretions of the salamander than the sea-tortoise. The blood of this animal reproduces the hair when lost through alopecy, and is curative of porrigo and all kinds of ulcerations of the head; the proper method of using it being to let it dry, and then gently wash it off. For the cure of ear-ache, this blood is injected with woman's milk, and for epilepsy it is eaten with fine wheaten flour, three heminae of the blood being mixed with one hemina of vinegar. It is prescribed also for the cure of asthma; but in this case in combination with one hemina of wine. Sometimes, too, it is taken by asthmatic patients, with barley-meal and vinegar, in pieces about the size of a bean; one of these pieces being taken each morning and evening at first, but after some days, two in the evening. In cases of epilepsy, the mouth of the patient is opened and this blood introduced. For spasmodic affections, when not of a violent nature, it is injected, in combination with castoreum, as a clyster. If a person rinses his teeth three times a year with blood of tortoises, he will be always exempt from tooth-ache. This blood is also a cure for asthmatic affections, and for the malady called "orthopnoea," being administered for these purposes in polenta.

The gall of the tortoise improves the eye-sight, effaces scars, and cures affections of the tonsillary glands, quinsy, and all kinds of diseases of the mouth, cancers of that part more particularly, as well as cancer of the testes. Applied to the nostrils it dispels epilepsy, and sets the patient on his feet: incorporated in vinegar with the slough of a snake, it is a sovereign remedy for purulent discharges from the ears. Some persons add ox-gall and the broth of boiled tortoise-flesh, with an equal proportion of snake's slough; but in such case, care must be taken to boil the tortoise in wine. Applied with honey, this gall is curative of all diseases of the eyes; and for the cure of cataract, gall of the sea-tortoise is used, in combination with blood of the river-tortoise and milk. The hair, too, of females, is dyed with this gall. For the cure of injuries inflicted by the salamander, it will be quite sufficient to drink the broth of boiled tortoise-flesh.

There is, again, a third kind of tortoise, which inhabits mud and swampy localities: the shell on its back is flat and broad, like that upon the breast, and the callipash is not arched and rounded, the creature being altogether of a repulsive appearance. However, there are some remedial medicaments to be derived even from this animal. Thus, for instance, three of them are thrown into a fire made with wood cuttings, and the moment their shells begin to separate they are taken off: the flesh is then removed, and boiled with a little salt, in one congius of water. When the water has boiled down to one third, the broth is used, being taken by persons apprehensive of paralysis or of diseases of the joints. The gall, too, is found very useful for carrying off pituitous humours and corrupt blood: taken in cold water, it has an astringent effect upon the bowels.

There is a fourth kind of tortoise, which frequents rivers. When used for its remedial properties, the shell of the animal is removed, and the fat separated from the flesh and beaten up with the plant aizo?m, in combination with unguent and lily seed: a preparation highly effectual, it is said, for the cure of quartan fevers, the patient being rubbed with it all over, the head excepted, just before the paroxysms come on, and then well wrapped up and made to drink hot water. It is stated also, that to obtain as much fat as possible, the tortoise should be taken on the fifteenth day of the moon, the patient being anointed on the sixteenth. The blood of this tortoise, dropt, by way of embrocation, upon the region of the brain, allays head-ache; it is curative also of scrofulous sores. Some persons recommend that the tortoise should be laid upon its back and its head cut off with a copper knife, the blood being received in a new earthen vessel; and they assure us that the blood of any kind of tortoise, when thus obtained, will be an excellent liniment for the cure of erysipelas, running ulcers upon the head, and warts. Upon the same authority, too, we are assured that the dung of any kind of tortoise is good for the removal of inflammatory tumours. Incredible also as the statement is, we find it asserted by some, that ships make way more slowly when they have the right foot of a tortoise on board.

CHAP. 15.--REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC ANIMALS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE RESPECTIVE DISEASES.

We will now proceed to classify the various remedies derived from the aquatic animals, according to the several diseases; not that we are by any means unaware that an exposition of all the properties of each animal at once, would be more to the reader's taste, and more likely to excite his admiration; but because we consider it more conducive to the practical benefit of mankind to have the various recipes thus grouped and classified; seeing that this thing may be good for one patient, that for another, and that some of these remedies may be more easily met with in one place and some in another.

We have already stated in what country the honey is venomous: the fish known as the dorade is an antidote to its effects. Honey, even in a pure state, is sometimes productive of surfeit, and of fits of indigestion, remarkable for their severity; the best remedy in such case, according to Pelops, is to cut off the feet, head, and tail, of a tortoise, and boil and eat the body; in place, however, of the tortoise, Apelles mentions the scincus, an animal which has been described elsewhere. We have already mentioned too, on several occasions, how highly venomous is the menstruous fluid: the surmullet, as already stated, entirely neutralizes its effects. This last fish, too, either applied topically or taken as food, acts as an antidote to the venom of the pastinaca, the land and sea scorpion, the dragon, and the phalangium. The head of this fish, taken fresh and reduced to ashes, is an active neutralizer of all poisons, that of fungi more particularly.

It is asserted also, that if the fish called the sea-star is smeared with a fox's blood, and then nailed to the upper lintel of the door, or to the door itself, with a copper nail, no noxious spells will be able to obtain admittance, or, at all events, to be productive of any ill effects.

CHAP. 17.--REMEDIES FOR THE STINGS OF SERPENTS, FOR THE BITES OF DOGS, AND FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY VENOMOUS ANIMALS. THE SEA-DRAGON: THREE REMEDIES. TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM SALTED FISH. THE SARDA: ONE REMEDY. ELEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CYBIUM.

Stings inflicted by the sea-dragon or by the sea-scorpion, are cured by an application of the flesh of those animals to the wound; the bites, too, of spiders are healed by the same means. In fine, as an antidote to every kind of poison, whether taken internally or acting through the agency of a sting or bite, there is considered to be nothing in existence more effectual than a decoction of the sea-dragon and sea-scorpion.

There are also certain remedies of this nature derived from preserved fish. Persons, for instance, who have received injuries from serpents, or have been bitten by other venomous animals, are recommended to eat salt fish, and to drink undiluted wine every now and then, so as, through its agency, to bring up the whole of the food again by vomit: this method being particularly good in cases where injuries have been received from the lizard called "chalcis," the cerastes, the reptile known as the "seps," the elops, or the dipsas. For the sting of the scorpion, salted fish should be taken in larger quantities, but not brought up again, the patient submitting to any amount of thirst it may create: salt fish, too, should be applied, by way of plaster, to the wound. For the bite of the crocodile there is no more efficient remedy known. For the sting of the serpent called "prester," the sarda is particularly good. Salt fish is employed also as a topical application for the bite of the mad dog; and even in cases where the wound has not been cauterized with hot iron, this is found to be sufficiently effectual as a remedy. For injuries, also, inflicted by the sea-dragon, an application is made of salt fish steeped in vinegar. Cybium, too, is productive of similar effects. As a cure for the venomous sting inflicted with its stickle by the sea-dragon, the fish itself is applied topically to the wound, or else its brain, extracted whole.

The broth prepared from sea-frogs, boiled in wine and vinegar, is taken internally as a neutralizer of poisons and of the venom of the bramble-frog, as also for injuries inflicted by the salamander. For the cure of injuries caused by the sea-hare and the various serpents above mentioned, it is a good plan to eat the flesh of river-frogs, or to drink the liquor in which they have been boiled: as a neutralizer, too, of the venom of the scorpion, river-frogs are taken in wine. Democritus assures us that if the tongue is extracted from a live frog, with no other part of the body adhering to it, and is then applied--the frog being first replaced in the water--to a woman while asleep, just at the spot where the heart is felt to palpitate, she will be sure to give a truthful answer to any question that may be put to her.

To this the Magi add some other particulars, which, if there is any truth in them, would lead us to believe that frogs ought to be considered much more useful to society than laws. They say, for instance, that if a man takes a frog and transfixes it with a reed, entering the body at the sexual parts and coming out at the mouth, and then dips the reed in the menstrual discharge of his wife, she will be sure to conceive an aversion for all paramours. That the flesh of frogs, attached to the kype or hook, as the case may be, makes a most excellent bait, for purples more particularly, is a well-known fact. Frogs, they say, have a double liver; and of this liver, when exposed to the attacks of ants, the part that is most eaten away is thought to be an effectual antidote to every kind of poison.

There are some frogs, again, which live only among brakes and thickets, for which reason they have received the name of "rubetae," or "bramble-frogs," as already stated. The Greeks call them "phryni:" they are the largest in size of all the frogs, have two protuberances like horns, and are full of poison. Authors quite vie with one another in relating marvellous stories about them; such, for instance, as that if they are brought into the midst of a concourse of people, silence will instantly prevail; as also that by throwing into boiling water a small bone that is found in their right side, the vessel will immediately cool, and the water refuse to boil again until it has been removed. This bone, they say, may be found by exposing a dead bramble-frog to ants, and letting them eat away the flesh: after which the bones must be put into the vessel, one by one.

On the other hand, again, in the left side of this reptile there is another bone, they say, which, thrown into water, has all the appearance of making it boil, and the name given to which is "apocynon." This bone, it is said, has the property of assuaging the fury of dogs, and, if put into the drink, of conciliating love and ending discord and strife. Worn, too, as an amulet, it acts as an aphrodisiac, we are told. The bone, on the contrary, which is taken from the right side, acts powerfully as a refrigerative upon boiling liquids, it is said: attached to the patient in a piece of fresh lamb's-skin, it has the repute of assuaging quartan and other fevers, and of checking amorous propensities. The spleen of these frogs is used as an antidote to the various poisons that are prepared from them; and for all these purposes the liver is considered still more efficacious.

There is also a snake which lives in the water, the fat and gall of which, carried about them by persons when in pursuit of the crocodile, are said to be marvellously efficacious, the beast not venturing, in such case, to make an attack upon them. As such preservative, they are still more effectual if mixed with the herbaceous plant known as potamogiton. River-crabs, taken fresh and beaten up and drunk in water, or the ashes of them, kept for the purpose, are useful in all cases of poisoning, as a counter-poison: taken with asses' milk they are particularly serviceable as a neutralizer of the venom of the scorpion; goats' milk or any other kind of milk being substituted where asses' milk cannot be procured. Wine, too, should also be used in all such cases. River-crabs, beaten up with ocimum, and applied to scorpions, are fatal to them. They are possessed of similar virtues, also, for the bites of all other kinds of venomous animals, the scytale in particular, adders, the sea-hare, and the bramble-frog. The ashes of them, preserved, are good for persons who give symptoms of hydrophobia after being bitten by a mad dog, some adding gentian as well, and administering the mixture in wine. In cases, too, where hydrophobia has already appeared, it is recommended that these ashes should be kneaded up into boluses with wine, and swallowed. If ten of these crabs are tied together with a handful of ocimum, all the scorpions in the neighbourhood, the magicians say, will be attracted to the spot. They recommend, also, that to wounds inflicted by the scorpion, these crabs, or the ashes of them, should be applied, with ocimum. For all these purposes, however, sea-crabs, it should be remembered, are not so useful. Thrasyllus informs us that there is nothing so antagonistic to serpents as crabs; that swine, when stung by a serpent, cure themselves by eating them; and that, while the sun is in the sign of Cancer, serpents suffer the greatest tortures.

The flesh, too, of river-snails, eaten either raw or boiled, is an excellent antidote to the venom of the scorpion, some persons keeping them salted for the purpose. These snails are applied, also, topically to the wound.

The coracinus is a fish peculiar to the river Nilus, it is true, but the particulars we are here relating are for the benefit of all parts of the world: the flesh of it is most excellent as an application for the cure of wounds inflicted by scorpions. In the number of the poisonous fishes we ought to reckon the sea-pig, a fish which causes great suffering to those who have been pierced with the pointed fin upon its back: the proper remedy in such case is the slime taken from the other parts of the body of the fish.

CHAP. 20.--THE SEA-CALF: TEN REMEDIES. THE MURAENA: ONE REMEDY. THE HIPPOCAMPUS: NINE REMEDIES. THE SEA-URCHIN: ELEVEN REMEDIES.

In cases of hydrophobia resulting from the bite of the mad dog, the practice is to rub the patient's face with the fat of the sea-calf; an application rendered still more efficacious by the admixture of hyaena's marrow, oil of mastich, and wax. Bites inflicted by the muraena are cured by an application of the head of that fish, reduced to ashes. The pastinaca, also, is remedial for its own bite, the ashes of the same fish, or of another of the same genus, being applied to the wound with vinegar. When this fish is intended for food, every portion of the back that is of a saffron colour should be removed, as well as the whole of the head: care, too, should be taken not to wash it over much; an observation equally applicable to all kinds of shell-fish, when intended for food, the flavour being deteriorated thereby.

The hippocampus, taken in drink, neutralizes the poison of the sea-hare. As a counter-poison to dorycnium, sea-urchins are remarkably useful; as also in cases where persons have taken juice of carpathum internally; more particularly if the urchins are used with the liquor in which they are boiled. Boiled sea-crabs, too, are looked upon as highly efficacious in cases of poisoning by dorycnium; and as a neutralizer of the venom of the sea-hare they are particularly good.

CHAP. 21. --THE VARIOUS KINDS OF OYSTERS: FIFTY-EIGHT REMEDIES AND OBSERVATIONS. PURPLES: NINE REMEDIES.

Oysters, too, neutralize the venom of the sea-hare--and now that we are speaking of oysters, it may possibly be thought that I have not treated of this subject at sufficient length in the former part of my work, seeing that for this long time past the palm has been awarded to them at our tables as a most exquisite dish. Oysters love fresh water and spots where numerous rivers discharge themselves into the sea; hence it is that the pelagia are of such small size and so few in number. Still, however, we do find them breeding among rocks and in places far remote from the contact of fresh water, as in the neighbourhood of Grynium and of Myrina, for example. Generally speaking, they increase in size with the increase of the moon, as already stated by us when treating of the aquatic animals: but it is at the beginning of summer, more particularly, and when the rays of the sun penetrate the shallow waters, that they are swollen with an abundance of milk. This, too, would appear to be the reason why they are so small when found out at sea; the opacity of the water tending to arrest their growth, and the moping consequent thereon producing a comparative indisposition for food.

Oysters are of various colours; in Spain they are red, in Illyricum of a tawny hue, and at Circeii black, both in meat and shell. But in every country, those oysters are the most highly esteemed that are compact without being slimy from their secretions, and are remarkable more for their thickness than their breadth. They should never be taken in either muddy or sandy spots, but from a firm, hard bottom; the meat should be compressed, and not of a fleshy consistence; and the oyster should be free from fringed edges, and lying wholly in the cavity of the shell. Persons of experience in these matters add another characteristic; a fine purple thread, they say, should run round the margins of the beard, this being looked upon as a sign of superior quality, and obtaining for them their name of "calliblephara."

Oysters are all the better for travelling and being removed to new waters; thus, for example, the oysters of Brundisium, it is thought, when fed in the waters of Avernus, both retain their own native juices and acquire the flavour of those of Lake Lucrinus. Thus much with reference to the meat of the oyster; we will now turn to the various countries which produce it, so that no coast may be deprived of the honours which properly belong to it. But in giving this description we will speak in the language of another, using the words of a writer who has evinced more careful discernment in treating of this subject than any of the other authors of our day. These then are the words of Mucianus, in reference to the oyster:--"The oysters of Cyzicus are larger than those of Lake Lucrinus, fresher than those of the British coasts, sweeter than those of Medulae, more tasty than those of Ephesus, more plump than those of Lucus, less slimy than those of Coryphas, more delicate than those of Istria, and whiter than those of Circeii." For all this, however, it is a fact well ascertained that there are no oysters fresher or more delicate than those of Circeii, last mentioned.

According to the historians of the expedition of Alexander, there were oysters found in the Indian Sea a foot in diameter: among ourselves, too, the nomenclature of some spendthrift and gourmand has found for certain oysters the name of "tridacna," 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 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. 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 mamillae. 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 as a counterpoison.

CHAP. 22.--SEA-WEED: TWO REMEDIES.

According to Nicander, sea-weed is also a theriac. There are numerous varieties of it, as already 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 of so fixing the colours as never to allow of their being washed out. Nicander recommends it to be taken with wine.

CHAP. 23. --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.

Ashes of the hippocampus, mixed with nitre and hog's lard, or else used solely with vinegar, are curative of alopecy; the skin being first prepared for the reception of the necessary medicaments by an application of powdered bone of saepia. Alopecy is cured also with ashes of the sea-mouse, mixed with oil; ashes of the sea-urchin, burnt, flesh and all together; the gall of the sea-scorpion; or else ashes of three frogs burnt alive in an earthen pot, applied with honey, or what is still better, in combination with tar. Leeches left to putrefy for forty days in red wine stain the hair black. Others, again, recommend one sextarius of leeches to be left to putrefy the same number of days in a leaden vessel, with two sextarii of vinegar, the hair to be well rubbed with the mixture in the sun. According to Sornatius, this preparation is naturally so penetrating, that if females, when they apply it, do not take the precaution of keeping some oil in the mouth, the teeth even will become blackened thereby. Ashes of burnt shells of the murex or purple are used as a liniment, with honey, for ulcerations of the head; the shells, too, of other shell-fish, powdered merely, and not calcined, are very useful for the same purpose, applied with water. For the cure of head-ache, castoreum is employed, in combination with peucedanum and oil of roses.

CHAP. 24.--REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES AND EYELIDS. TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FAT OF FISHES. THE CALLIONYMUS: THREE REMEDIES. THE GALL OF THE CORACINUS: ONE REMEDY. THE SAEPIA: TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. ICHTHYOCOLLA: FIVE REMEDIES.

The fat of all kinds of fish, both fresh-water as well as sea fish, melted in the sun and incorporated with honey, is an excellent improver of the eye-sight; the same, too, with castoreum, in combination with honey. The gall of the callionymus heals marks upon the eyes and cauterizes fleshy excrescences about those organs: indeed, there is no fish with a larger quantity of gall than this, an opinion expressed too by Menander in his Comedies. This fish is known also as the "uranoscopos," from the eyes being situate in the upper part of the head. The gall, too, of the coracinus has the effect of sharpening the eyesight.

The gall of the red sea-scorpion, used with stale oil or Attic honey, disperses incipient cataract; for which purpose, the application should be made three times, on alternate days. A similar method is also employed for removing indurations of the membrane of the eyes. The surmullet, used as a diet, weakens the eyesight, it is said. The sea-hare is poisonous itself, but the ashes of it are useful as an application for preventing superfluous hairs on the eyelids from growing again, when they have been once pulled out by the roots. For this purpose, however, the smaller the fish is, the better. Small scallops, too, are salted and beaten up with cedar resin for a similar purpose, or else the frogs known as "diopetes" and "calamitae," are used; the blood of them being applied with vine gum to the eyelids, after the hairs have been removed.

Powdered shell of saepia, applied with woman's milk, allays swellings and inflammations of the eyes; employed by itself it removes eruptions of the eyelids. When this remedy is used, it is the practice to turn up the eyelids, and to leave the medicament there a few moments only; after which, the part is anointed with oil of roses, and the inflammation modified by the application of a bread-poultice. Powdered bone of saepia is used also for the treatment of nyctalopy, being applied to the eyes with vinegar. Reduced to ashes, this substance removes scales upon the eyes: applied with honey, it effaces marks upon those organs: and used with salt and cadmia, one drachma of each, it disperses webs which impede the eyesight, as also albugo in the eyes of cattle. They say, too, that if the eyelids are rubbed with the small bone taken from this fish, a perfect cure will be experienced.

Sea-urchins, applied with vinegar, cause epinyctis to disappear. According to what the magicians say, they should be burnt with vipers' skins and frogs, and the ashes sprinkled in the drink; a great improvement of the eyesight being guaranteed as the sure result.

"Ichthyocolla" is the name given to a fish with a glutinous skin; the glue made from which is also known by the same name, and is highly useful for the removal of epinyctis. Some persons, however, assert that it is from the belly of the fish, and not the skin--as in the case of bull glue--that the ichthyocolla is prepared. That of Pontus is highly esteemed: it is white, free from veins or scales, and dissolves with the greatest rapidity. The proper way of using it, is to cut it into small pieces, and then to leave it to soak in water or vinegar a night and a day, after which it should be pounded with sea-shore pebbles, to make it melt the more easily. It is generally asserted that this substance is good for pains in the head and for tetanus.

The right eye of a frog, suspended from the neck in a piece of cloth made from wool of the natural colour, is a cure for ophthalmia in the right eye; and the left eye of a frog, similarly suspended, for ophthalmia in the left. If the eyes, too, of a frog are taken out at the time of the moon's conjunction, and similarly worn by the patient, enclosed in an eggshell, they will effectually remove indurations of the membrane of the eyes. The rest of the flesh applied topically, removes all marks resulting from blows. The eyes, too, of a crab, worn attached to the neck, by way of amulet, are a cure for ophthalmia, it is said. There is a small frog which lives in reed-beds and among grass more particularly, never croaks, being quite destitute of voice, is of a green colour, and is apt to cause tympanitis in cattle, if they should happen to swallow it. The slimy moisture on this reptile's body, scraped off with a spatula and applied to the eyes, greatly improves the sight, they say: the flesh, too, is employed as a topical application for the removal of pains in the eyes.

Some persons take fifteen frogs, and after spitting them upon as many bulrushes, put them into a new earthen vessel: they then mix the juices which flow from them, with gum of the white vine, and use it as an application for the eye-lids; first pulling out such eye-lashes as are in the way, and then dropping the preparation with the point of a needle into the places from which the hairs have been removed. Meges used to prepare a depilatory for the eyelids, by killing frogs in vinegar, and leaving them to putrefy; for which purpose he employed the spotted frogs which make their appearance in vast numbers during the rains of autumn. Ashes of burnt leeches, it is thought, applied in vinegar, are productive of a similar effect; care must be taken, however, to burn them in a new earthen vessel. Dried liver, too, of the tunny, made up into an ointment, in the proportion of four denarii, with oil of cedar, and applied as a depilatory for nine months together, is considered to be highly effectual for this purpose.

CHAP. 25.--REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EARS. THE BATIA: ONE REMEDY. THE BACCHUS OR MYXON: TWO REMEDIES. THE SEA-LOUSE: TWO REMEDIES.

For diseases of the ears, fresh gall of the fish called "batia" is remarkably good; the same, too, when it has been kept in wine. The gall, also, of the bacchus, by some known as the "myxon," is equally good; as also that of the callionymus, injected into the ears with oil of roses, or else castoreum, used with poppy-juice. There are certain animals too, known as "sea-lice," which are recommended as an injection for the ears, beaten up with vinegar. Wool, too, that has been dyed with the juice of the murex, employed by itself, is highly useful for this purpose; some persons, however moisten it with vinegar and nitre.

Others, again, more particularly recommend for all affections of the ears one cyathus of the best garum, 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, 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 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 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, 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 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.

CHAP. 27.--REMEDIES FOR LICHENS, AND FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE. THE DOLPHIN: NINE REMEDIES. COLUTHIA OR CORYPHIA: THREE REMEDIES. HALCYONEUM: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE TUNNY: FIVE REMEDIES.

Lichens and leprous spots are removed by applying the fat of the sea-calf, ashes of the maena in combination with three oboli of honey, liver of the pastinaca boiled in oil, or ashes of the dolphin or hippocampus mixed with water. After the parts have been duly excoriated, a cicatrizing treatment ought to be pursued. Some persons bake dolphin's liver in an earthen vessel, till a grease flows therefrom like oil in appearance: this they use by way of ointment for these diseases.

Burnt shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey, have a detergent effect upon spots on the face in females: used as an application for seven consecutive days, a fomentation made of white of eggs being substituted on the eighth, they efface wrinkles, and plump out the skin. To the genus "murex" belong the shell-fish known by the Greeks as "coluthia" or "coryphia," equally turbinated, but considerably smaller: for all the above purposes they are still more efficacious, and the use of them tends to preserve the sweetness of the breath. Fish-glue effaces wrinkles and plumps out the skin; being boiled for the purpose in water some four hours, and then pounded and kneaded up till it attains a thin consistency, like that of honey. After being thus prepared, it is put by in a new vessel for keeping; and, when wanted for use, is mixed, in the proportion of four drachmae, with two drachmae of sulphur, two of alkanet, and eight of litharge; the whole being sprinkled with water and beaten up together. The preparation is then applied to the face, and is washed off at the end of four hours. For the cure of freckles and other affections of the face, calcined bones of cuttle-fish are also used; an application which is equally good for the removal of fleshy excrescences and the dispersion of running sores.

For the cure of itch-scab, a frog is boiled in five semisextarii of sea-water, the decoction being reduced to the consistency of honey. There is a sea production called "halcyoneum," composed, as some think, of the nests of the birds known as the "halcyon" and "ceyx," or, according to others, of the concretion of sea-foam, or of some slime of the sea, or a certain lanuginous inflorescence thrown up by it. Of this halcyoneum there are four different kinds; the first, of an ashy colour, of a compact substance, and possessed of a pungent odour; the second, soft, of a milder nature, and with a smell almost identical with that of sea-weed; the third, whiter, and with a variegated surface; the fourth, more like pumice in appearance, and closely resembling rotten sponge. The best of all is that which nearly borders upon a purple hue, and is known as the "Milesian" kind: the whiter it is, the less highly it is esteemed.

The properties of halcyoneum are ulcerative and detergent: when required for use, it is parched and applied without oil. It is quite marvellous how efficiently it removes leprous sores, lichens, and freckles, used in combination with lupines and two oboli of sulphur. It is employed, also, for the removal of marks upon the eyes. Andreas has recommended for the cure of leprosy ashes of burnt crabs, with oil; and Attalus, fresh fat of tunny.

CHAP. 28.--REMEDIES FOR SCROFULA, IMPOSTHUMES OF THE PAROTID GLANDS, QUINSY, AND DISEASES OF THE FAUCES. THE MAENA: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE SEA-SCOLOPENDRA: TWO REMEDIES. THE SAURUS: ONE REMEDY. SHELL-FISH: ONE REMEDY. THE SILURUS: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.

Ulcerations of the mouth are cured by an application of brine in which maenae have been pickled, in combination with calcined heads of the fish, and honey. For the cure of scrofula, it is a good plan to prick the sores with the small bone that is found in the tail of the fish known as the sea-frog; care being taken to avoid making a wound, and to repeat the operation daily, until a perfect cure is effected. The same property, too, belongs to the sting of the pastinaca, and to the sea-hare, applied topically to the sores: but in both cases due care must be taken to remove them in an instant. Shells of sea-urchins are bruised, also, and applied with vinegar; shells also of sea-scolopendrae, applied with honey; and river-crabs pounded or calcined, and applied with honey. Bones, too, of the saepia, triturated and applied with stale axle-grease, are marvellously useful for this purpose. This last preparation is used, also, for the cure of imposthumes of the parotid glands; a purpose for which the liver of the sea-fish known as the "saurus" is employed. Nay, even more than this, fragments of earthen vessels in which salt fish have been kept are pounded with stale axle-grease, and applied to scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid glands; as also calcined murex, incorporated with oil. Stiffness in the neck is allayed by taking what are known as sea-lice, in doses of one drachma in drink, taking castoreum mixed with pepper in honied wine, or making a decoction of frogs in oil and salt, and taking the liquor.

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