340 PLINT's NATUUAL HISTOEY. [Book XXVIII. 



to the she-ass. As to the hippomanes, it is possessed of proper- 

 ties so virulent and so trulj'- magical, that if it is only thrown 

 into fused metaP^ which is being cast into the resemblance of 

 an Olympian mare, it will excite in all stallions that approach 

 it a perfect frenzy for copulation. 



Another remedy for diseases of the teeth is joiners' glue, 

 boiled in water and applied, care being taken to remove it very 

 speedily, and instantly to rinse the teeth with wine in which 

 sweet pomegranate-rind has been boiled. It is considered, 

 also, a very efficacious remedy to wash the teeth with goats* 

 milk, or bull's gall. The pastern-bones of a she-goat just 

 killed, reduced to ashes, and indeed, to avoid the necessity for 

 repetition, of any other four-footed beast reared in the farm- 

 yard, are considered to make an excellent dentifrice. 



CHAP. 50. (12.) liEMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FACE. 



It is generally believed that asses' milk effaces wrinkles in 

 the face, renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its white- 

 ness : and it is a well-known fact, that some women are in the 

 habit of washing their face with it seven^^ hundred times daily, 

 strictly observing that number. Poppsea, the wife of the 

 Emperor Nero, was the first to practise this ; indeed, she had 

 sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses' milk, for which pur- 

 pose whole troops of she- asses^'' used to attend her on her jour- 

 nies.^^ Purulent eruptions on the face are removed by an 

 application of butter, but white lead, mixed with the butter, 

 is an improvement. Pure butter, alone, is used for serpigi- 

 nous eruptions of the face, a layer of barley-meal being pow- 

 dered over it. The caul of a cow that has just calved, is 

 applied, while still moist, to ulcers of the face. 



The following recipe may seem frivolous, but still, to please 

 the women,^^ it must not be omitted ; the pastern-bone of a 

 white steer, they say, boiled forty days and forty nights, till it is 



turn usus" given by Sillig. Be it what it may, the meaning of the pas- 

 sage is doubtful. 



18 See ^Uan, Var. Hist. xiv. 18. 



*9 There surely must be a wrong reading here, or he cannot intend this 

 to be understood literally. ^ See B. xi. c. 96. 



'^ One of the mistresses of Louis XV. not only did this, but (in a spirit 

 of great charity and consideration, of course) gave the milk to the poor 

 after she had thus used it. 



a " Ad dfisideria mulierum." 



