Chap. 57.] EEMEDIES FOE AFFECTIONS OF THE SPLEEN. 345 



To the above composition they add goats' dung, and recom- 

 mend it to be held in the hollow of the hand, as hot as possible, 

 a greased linen cloth being placed beneath, and care being 

 taken to hold it in the right hand if the pain is on the left 

 side, and in the left hand if the pain is on the right. They 

 recommend also that the dung employed for this purpose should 

 be taken up on the point of a needle made of copper. The 

 mode of treatment is, for the patient to hold the mixture in 

 his hand till the heat is felt to have penetrated to the loins, 

 after which the hand is rubbed with a pounded leek, and the 

 loins with the same dung annealed with honey. They prescribe 

 also for the same malady the testes of a hare, to be eaten by the 

 patient. In cases of sciatica they are for applying cow-dung 

 warmed upon hot ashes in leaves : and for pains in the kidneys 

 they recommend a hare's kidneys to be swallowed raw, or 

 perhaps boiled, but without letting them be touched by the 

 teeth. If a person carries about him the pastern-bone of a 

 hare, he will never be troubled with pains in the bowels, 

 they say. 



CHAP. 57. REMEDIES FOR AFFEOTIONS OF THE SPLEEN. 



Affections of the spleen are alleviated by taking the gall of 

 a wild boar or hog in drink ; ashes of burnt deer's horns in 

 vinegar ; or, what is best of all, the dried spleen of an ass, the 

 good effects being sure to be felt in the course of three days. 

 The first dung voided by an ass's foal — a substance known as 

 ''polea"^ by the people of Syria — is administered in oxymel 

 for these complaints ; a dried horse tongue, too, is taken in 

 wine, a sovereign remedy which, Coecilius Bion tells us, he first 

 heard of when living among the barbarous nations. The milt 

 of a cow or ox is used in a similar manner; but when it is 

 quite fresh, the practice is to roast or boil it and take it with 

 the food. For pains in the liver a topical application is made 

 by bruising twenty heads of garlick in one sextarius of vinegar, 

 and applying them in a piece of ox bladder. For the same 

 malady the magicians recommend a calf's milt, bought at the 

 price set upon it and without any haggling, that being an 

 important point, and one that should be religiously observed. 

 This done, the milt must be cut in two lengthwise, and attached 



•* This would appear to be a Greek word in reality. 



