356 PLiirr's natural history. [Book XXYIII. 



the people of Achaia. They say too, that the smoke of dried 

 cow-dung — that of the animal when grazing, I mean — is re- 

 markably good for phthisis, inhaled through a reed ;^^ and we 

 find it stated that the tips of cows' horns are burnt, and ad- 

 ministered with honey, in doses of two spoonfuls, in the form 

 of pills. Goat suet, many persons say, taken in a pottage of 

 alica,^- or melted fresh with honied wine, in the proportion of 

 one ounce of suet to one cyathus of wine, is good for cough 

 and phthisis, care being taken to stir the mixture with a sprig 

 of rue. One author of credit assures us that before now, a 

 patient whose recovery has been despaired of, has been restored 

 to health by taking one cyathus of wild goat^^ suet and an 

 equal quantity of milk. Some writers, too, have stated that 

 ashes of burnt swine's dung are very useful, mixed with raisin 

 wine ; as also the lights of a deer, a spitter®* deer in particular, 

 smoke-dried and beaten up in wine. 



CHAP. 68. REMEDIES FOR DROPSY. 



Eor dropsy, a wild boar's urine is good, taken in small doses 

 in the patient's drink ; it is of much greater efficacy, however, 

 when it has been left to dry in the bladder of the animal. The 

 ashes, too, of burnt cow-dung, and of bulls' dung in particular 

 — animals that are reared in herds, I mean — are highly esteemed. 

 This dung, the name given to which is " bolbiton,"^^ is re- 

 duced to ashes, and taken in doses of three spoonfuls to one 

 semisextarius of honied wine ; that of the female animal being 

 used where the patient is a woman, and that of the other sex 

 in the case of males ; a distinction about which the magicians 

 have made a sort of grand mystery. The dung of a bull-calf is 

 also applied topically for this disease, and ashes of burnt calves' 

 dung are taken with seed of staphy linos, ^"^ in equal proportions, 

 in wine. Goats' blood also is used, with the marrow ; but it 

 is generally thought that the blood of the he-goat is the most 

 efficacious, when the animal has fed upon lentisk, more par- 

 ticular] y. 



^^ Another instance of smoking, though not a very tempting one. 

 92 See B. xviii. c. 29. 9^ '' Rupicapra." 



»* "Subulo." 95 From the Greek. 



^ See B. xix. c. 27, B. xx. c. 15, and B. xxv. c. 64. 



