Chap. 21.] REMEDIES DEEIVED EEOM WOMAN'S MILK. 303 



defluxions of the eyes. If a frog'^^ has spirted its secretions''^ 

 into the eye, woman's milk is a most excellent remedy j and 

 for the bite of that reptile it is used both internally and ex- 

 ternally. 



It is asserted that if a person is rubbed at the same moment 

 with the milk of both mother and daughter, he will be proof 

 for the rest of his life against all aflfections of the eyes. 

 Mixed with a small quantity of oil, woman's milk is a cure for 

 diseases of the ears ; and if they are in pain from the effects 

 of a blow, it is applied warm with goose-grease. If the ears 

 emit an offensive smell, a thing that is mostly the case in 

 diseases of long standing, wool is introduced into those organs, 

 steeped in woman's milk and honey. While symptoms of 

 jaundice are still visible in the eyes, woman's milk is injected, 

 in combination with elaterium."^ Taken as a drink, it is pro- 

 ductive of singularly good effects, where the poison of the 

 sea-hare, the buprestis,-^ or, as Aristotle tells us, the plant 

 dorycnium'^° has been administered ; as a preventive also of the 

 madness produced by taking henbane. Woman's milk also, 

 mixed with hemlock, is recommended as a liniment for gout ; 

 while some there are who employ it for that purpose in com- 

 bination with wool-grease^^ or goose-grease ; a form in which 

 it is used as an application for pains in the uterus. Taken as 

 a drink, it arrests diarrhoea, Eabirius^^ says, and acts as an 

 emmenagogue ; but where the woman has been delivered of a 

 female child, her milk is of use only for the cure of face 

 diseases. 



Woman's milk is also a cure for affections of the lungs ; and, 

 mixed with the urine of a youth who has not arrived at pu- 

 berty, and Attic honey, in the proportion of one spoonful 

 of each, it removes singing in the ears, I find. Dogs which 

 have once tasted the milk of a woman who has been delivered 

 of a male child, will never become mad, they say. 



26 " Rana." He means the *'rubeta" probably, or " bramble- frog/' 

 so often mentioned by him. See Note 84, p. 290. 



27 " Salivam." _ 2. See B. xx. c. 2. 



29 See B. XXX. c. 10. Latreille has written a very able treatise on the 

 Buprestis of the ancients, and considers it to belong to the family of Can- 

 tharides. Amialcs du Museum dVustoire Naturelle, Vol. xix. p. 129, etseq. 



20 Convolvulus dorycnium ; see B. xxi. c. 105, and B. xxiii. c. 18. 



31 '' CEsypum." See B- xxx. c. 23. 



32 PossiUy the Epic writer of that name, mentioned by Ovid. Seneca, 

 Quintilian, and Velleius Paterculus. 



