364 flint's natural history. [Book XXVIII, 



lent upon the after-birth. For affections of the uterus, it is 

 thought a desirable plan to faraigate it with burnt kids' hair ; 

 and for discharges of blood, kids' rennet is administered in 

 drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According to Osthanes, 

 if a woman's loins are rubbed with blood taken from the ticks 

 upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to 

 sexual intercourse : she will forget, too, her former love, by 

 taking a he-goat's urine in drink, some nard being mixed with 

 it to disguise the loathsome taste. 



CUAP. 78. REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS. 



For infants there is nothing more useful than butter,^" either 

 by itself or in combination with honey ; for dentition more 

 particularly, for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of 

 the mouth. A wolf's tooth, attached to the body, prevents 

 infants from being startled, and acts as a preservative against 

 the maladies attendant upon dentition; an effect equally 

 produced by making use of a wolf's skin. The larger teeth, 

 also, of a wolf, attached to a horse's neck, will render him 

 proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare's rennet, applied 

 to the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhoea in 

 the infant suckled by her. An ass's liver, mixed with a little 

 panax, and dropped into the mouth of an infant, will preserve 

 it from epilepsy and other diseases to which infants are liable; 

 this, however, must be done for forty days, they say. An ass's 

 skin, too, thrown over infants, renders them insensible to fear. 

 The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as an amulet to infants, 

 facilitate dentition, and are better still, when not allowed to 

 touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox's milt is ad- 

 ministered in honey, and applied topically ; and for running- 

 ulcers it is used as an application, with honey. A calf's milt, 

 boiled in wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers 

 of the mouth. 



The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing 

 them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the in- 

 fant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy 

 and other infantile diseases. Goats' dung, attached to in- 

 fants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being rest- 

 less, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of 



^" There is probably some truth in these statements as to the utility of 

 butter and honey for infants. 



