ANIMAL AND PLANT LORE. 377 



confervaceous vegetation, commonly found floating on the surface 

 of pools and sluggish streams, and known by the vulgar name of 

 * frog-spit/' is used as an application for inflamed eyes, no doubt 

 in the full belief that, as a kind of spittle, it possesses all the heal- 

 ing powers of that substance. I remember, when a child, in 

 northern Ohio, hearing older people say that sore eyes could 

 usually be cured by anointing them with spittle upon awakening 

 for three mornings in succession. Among the Gaelic community 

 on Cape Breton, above mentioned, I find that a popular cure either 

 for a sty or for ophthalmia is to wet one or both eyes, as the 

 case may be, for nine mornings in succession with fasting saliva. 

 Dr. Buck reports that the Swabians also believe in the efficacy of 

 fasting spittle for sore eyes ; and our never-failing Pliny records 

 the Roman belief that ophthalmia may be cured by anointing the 

 eyes every morning with fasting spittle. From Black's Folk 

 Medicine I quote : " Hilarion cured a (blind) woman in Egypt by 

 spitting on her eyes. Vespasian so cured a blind man of Alex- 

 andria." Many other examples could be quoted to show the gen- 

 eral occurrence of this mode of treatment of disorders of the eyes, 

 both in earlier times and at the present day. It will be noticed 

 that in a majority of the instances just mentioned it is morning 

 or fasting spittle that is recommended to be used in order to 

 accomplish a cure. A belief in the specific qualities of fasting 

 spittle ranges far and wide. Besides the general recommendation 

 of morning or fasting saliva for ophthalmia, Pliny states that 

 the Romans generally considered that a woman's fasting spittle 

 was highly efficacious for bloodshot eyes. If the woman had ab- 

 stained from food and wine the day before, better results were to 

 be expected. Scot, in the Discoverie of Witchcraft, records an 

 accredited method " To heale the kings or queenes evill, or any 

 other sorenesse in the throte : Let a virgine, fasting, laie hir hand 

 on the sore and saie : Apollo denieth that the heate of the plague 

 can increase where a naked virgine quenchith it, and spet three 

 times upon it." Fasting spittle is popularly supposed to have 

 both curative and poisonous properties. Black quotes the following 

 from a correspondent : " Two old-fashioned ladies we know (they 

 are Scotch, by the way) hold firmly to the belief that it is very 

 hurtful to swallow the saliva that is in the mouth on first waking. 

 They would not do it on any account." In Madagascar the first 

 spittle in the morning is called " bitter or disagreeable " saliva, 

 and it is thought to have medicinal virtue in healing diseases 

 either of the ear or of the eye. 



It is a very common habit throughout the United States and 

 New Brunswick to moisten a mosquito-bite, a slight bee-sting, or 

 the bite of a fly or other insect with saliva. Dr. Buck says that 

 the Swabians also treat fly and bee stings with saliva, morning or 



