292 plint's natural history. [Book XXVIII. 



the woman has conceived, unties his girdle, and, after tying it 

 round her, unties it, adding at the same time this formula, '* I 

 have tied it, and I will untie it," and then taking his de- 

 parture, 



CHAP. 10. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HUMAN BLOOD, THE 



SEXUAL CONGRESS, ETC. 



The hlood of the human body, come from what part it may, 

 is most efficacious, according to Orpheus and Archelaiis, as an 

 application for quinzy : they say, too, that if it is applied to 

 the mouth of a person who has fallen down in a fit of epilepsy, 

 he will come to himself immediately. Some say that, for 

 epilepsy, the great toes should be pricked, and the drops of 

 blood that exude therefrom applied to the face ; or else, that a 

 virgin should touch the patient with her right thumb — a cir- 

 cumstance that has led to the belief that persons suffering from 

 epilepsy should eat the flesh of animals in a virgin state. 

 ^scliines of Athens used to cure quinzy, carcinoma, and affec- 

 tions of the tonsillary glands and uvula, with the ashes of 

 burnt excrements, a medicament to which he gave the name 

 of '' botryon."^^ 



There are many kinds of diseases which disappear entirely 

 after the first sexual congress,^^ or, in the case of females, at the 

 first appearance of menstruation ; indeed, if such is not the 

 case, they are apt to become chronic, epilepsy in particular. 

 Even more than this — a man, it is said, who has been stung 

 by a serpent or scorpion, experiences relief from the sexual 

 congress ; but the woman, on the other hand, is sensible of 

 detriment. We are assured, too, that if persons, when washing 

 tlieir feet, touch the eyes three times with the water, they will 

 never be subject to ophthalmia or other diseases of the eyes. 



CHAP. 11. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE DEAD. 



Scrofula, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and throat 

 diseases, they say, may be cured by the contact of the hand of 

 a person who has been carried off by an early death : indeed 

 there are some who assert that any dead body will produce the 

 same effect, provided it is of the same sex as the patient, and 



^'^ Properly meaning "a cluster of grapes." 



^ Ajasson remarks that there is a considerable degree of truth in this 

 assertion. He gives a long list of French works on the subject. 



