Chap. 34.] REMEDIES TOR INFLAMED TIIMOIiaS. 45 



cined intestines and scales of the sciaena.^® The sea-scorpion,®' 

 too, is used for the same purpose, boiled in wine, and applied 

 as a fomentation to the part affected. Shells of sea-urchins, 

 bruised and applied with water, act as a check upon incipient 

 inflammatory tumours. Ashes of the murex, or of the purple, 

 are employed in either case, whether it is wanted to disperse 

 inflammatory tumours in an incipient state, or to bring them 

 to a head and break them. Some authorities prescribe the fol- 

 lowing preparation : of wax and frankincense twenty drachmae, 

 of litharge forty drachmae, of calcined murex ten drachmae, 

 and of old oil, one semisextarius. Salt fish, boiled and ap- 

 plied by itself, is highly useful for the above purposes. 



River crabs, bruised and applied, disperse pustules on the 

 generative organs : the same, too, with calcined heads of 

 maenae,^ or the flesh of that fish, boiled and applied. Heads 

 of salted perch,^ reduced to ashes, and applied with honey, are 

 equally useful for the purpose ; or else calcined heads of pe- 

 lamides,^ or skin of the squatina reduced to ashes."* It is the 

 skin of this fish that is used, as already^ stated, for giving a 

 polish to wood ; for the sea even, we find, furnishes its aid to our 

 artificers. For a similar purpose the fishes called " smarides"^ 

 are applied topically ; as also ashes of the shell of the murex 

 or of the purple, applied with honey ; which last are still more 

 efficacious when the flesh has been burnt with the shell. 



Salt fish, boiled with honey, is particularly good for the 

 cure of carbuncles upon the generative organs. Por relaxation 

 of the testes, the slime'' of snails is recommended, applied in 

 the form of a liniment. 



98 See B. ix. c. 24. 



99 See Chapters 23, 24, 30, 32, and 53 of the present Book. Also B. 

 XX. c. 53. 1 See B. ix. c. 42. 



' " Perca." See B. ix. c. 24. 3 See Note 93 above. 



* See B. ix. c. 14. 5 In B. ix. c. 14. 



^ Ajasson remarks that many writers have identified the Smaris with the 

 Sardine or the Anchovy. In his opinion, however, it is neither ; hut he 

 thinks that under this head were included seven or eight varieties of the 

 Pickerel, the principal of which are, the Sparus smaris of Linnaeus and 

 Lacepede, the Sparus mana of Linnaeus, or Sparus mendola of Lacepede, 

 and the Sparus haflfara of Lacepede and Linnaeus. 



'' See Chapter 22 of the present Book. 



