362 Pliny's natural history. [Book XXVIII. 



they apply hare's rennet with honey ; and to prevent hairs 

 from growing again when once removed, they use a liniment 

 of hare's blood. 



Por inflations of the uterus, it is found a good plan to apply 

 wild boars' dung or swine's dung topically with oil : but a 

 still more effectual remedy is to dry the dung, and sprinkle it, 

 powdered, in the patient's drink, even though she should be 

 in a state of pregnancy or suffering the pains of child-birth. 

 By administering sow's milk with honied wine, parturition is 

 facilitated ; and if taken by itself it will promote the secre- 

 tion of the milk when deficient in nursing women. By rub- 

 bing the breasts of famales with sow's blood they are pre- 

 vented from becoming too large. If pains are felt in the 

 breasts, they will be alleviated by drinking asses' milk ; and the 

 same milk, taken with honey, has considerable efficacy as an 

 emmenagogue. Stale fat, too, from the same animal, heals 

 ulcerations of the uterus : applied as a pessary, in wool, it acts 

 emoUiently upon indurations of that organ ; and, applied fresh 

 by itself, or in water when stale, it has all the virtues of a 

 depilatory. 



An ass's milt, dried and applied in water to the breasts, 

 promotes the secretion of the milk ; and used in the form of a 

 fumigation, it acts as a corrective upon the uterus. A fumi- 

 gation made with a burnt ass's hoof, placed beneath a woman, 

 accelerates parturition, so much so, indeed, as to expel the dead 

 foetus even : hence it is that it should only be employed in cases 

 of miscarriage, it having a fatal effect upon the living foetus. 

 Asses' dung, applied fresh, has a wonderful effect, they say, in 

 arresting discharges of blood in females : the same, too, with 

 the ashes of this dung, which, used as a pessary, are very good 

 for the uterus. If the skin is rubbed with the foam from a 

 horse's mouth for forty days together, before the first hair has 

 made its appearance, it will effectually prevent the growth 

 thereof : a decoction, too, made from deer*s antlers is productive 

 of a similar effect, being all the better if they are used quite 

 fresh. Mares' milk, used as an injection, is highly beneficial 

 to the uterus. 



"Where the foetus is felt to be dead in the uterus, the 

 lichens or excrescences from a horse's legs, taken in fresh 

 water, will act as an expellent : an effect produced also by a 

 fumigation made with the hoofs or dry dung of that animal. 



