306 pliny's katubal history. [Book XXVIII. 



for that purpose of charcoal of cabbage root, myrtle root, or 

 tamarisk root, quenched in the menstrual discharge ; they say 

 that she-asses will be barren for as many years as they have 

 eaten barley-corns steeped in this fluid ; and they have enu- 

 merated various other monstrous and irreconcileable properties, 

 the one telling us, for instance, that fruitfulness may be ensured 

 by the very same methods, which, according to the statement 

 of the other, are productive of barrenness; to all which stories it 

 is the best plan to refuse credit altogether. Bithus of Dyrrha- 

 chium informs us that a mirror, ^^ which has been tarnished by 

 the gaze of a menstruous female, will recover its brightness if 

 the same woman looks steadily upon the back of it ; he states, 

 also, that all evil influences of this nature will be entirely 

 neutralized, if the woman carries the fish known as the sur 

 mullet about her person. 



On the other hand, again, many writers say that, baneful as 

 it is, there are certain remedial properties in this fluid ; that it 

 is a good plan, for instance, to use it as a topical application for 

 gout, and that women, while menstruating, can give relief by 

 touching scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid 

 glands, inflamed tumours, erysipelas, boils, and defluxions of 

 the eyes. According to Lais and Salpe, the bite of a mad dog, 

 as well as tertian or quartan fevers, may be cured by putting 

 some menstruous blood in the wool of a black ram and enclo- 

 sing it in a silver bracelet ; and we learn from Diotimus of 

 Thebes that the smallest portion will suffice of any kind of 

 cloth that has been stained therewith, a thread even, if in- 

 serted and worn in a bracelet. The midwife Sotira informs 

 us that the most efficient cure for tertian and quartan fevers is 

 to rub the soles of the patient's feet therewith, the result being 

 still more successful if the operation is performed by the woman 

 herself, without the patient being aware of it ; she says, too, 

 that this is an excellent method for reviving persons when 

 attacked with epilepsy. 



Icetidas the physician pledges his word that quartan fever 

 may be cured by sexual intercourse, provided the woman is 

 just beginning to menstruate. It is universally agreed, too, that 

 when a person has been bitten by a dog and manifests a dread 

 of water and of all kinds of drink, it will be quite sufficient 

 to put under his cup a strip of cloth that has been dipped in 

 39 See B. vii. c. 13. 



