Chap. 40.] REMEDIES FOE BURNS. 49 



CHAP. 39. REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY. 



Strombi,^^ 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. Tor cachectic patients, where 

 the body is wasting with consumption, tethese^^ are considered 

 beneficial, mixed with rue and honey. For the cure of 

 dropsy, dolphin's fat is melted and taken with wine, the re- 

 pulsive 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 heminae 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,^'* 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 w^ax 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 re- 

 spiration. ^^ Heads, too, of salted siluri^^ are reduced to ashes 

 and applied with vinegar. 



Prurigo and itch-scab, not only in man but in quadrupeds 



36 See Chapter 29 of this Book. 



3" See Chapters 30 and 31 of the present Book, s^* See B. xviii. c. 19. 

 38 " Crebriore anhelitu." ^y ^oe B. ix. cc. 17, 25, 75. 



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