Chap. 10.] EEMEDIES DERIVED FEOM WOOL- GREASE. 



383 



in the form of a fumigation. Greasy wool, used as a plaster 

 and as a pessary, brings away the dead foetus, and arrests 

 uterine discharges. Bites inflicted by a mad dog are plugged 

 with unwashed wool, the application being removed, at the end 

 of seven days. Applied with cold water, it is a cure for 

 agnails : steeped in a mixture of boiling nitre, sulphur, oil, 

 vinegar, and tar, and applied twice a day, as warm as possible, 

 it allays pains in the loins. By making ligatures with un- 

 washed rams' wool about the extremities of the limbs, bleed- 

 ing is effectually stopped. 



In all cases, the wool most esteemed is that from the neck of 

 the animal j the best kinds of wool being those of Galatia, 

 Tarentum, Attica, and Miletus. For excoriations, blows, 

 bruises, contusions, crushes, galls, falls, pains in the head and 

 other parts, and for inflammation of the stomach, unwashed 

 wool is applied, with a mixture of vinegar and oil of roses. 

 Reduced to ashes, it is applied to contusions, wounds, and 

 burns, and forms an ingredient in ophthalmic compositions. It 

 is employed, also, for fistulas and suppurations of the ears. 

 For this last purpose, some persons take the wool as it is shorn, 

 while others pluck it from the fleece ; they then cut off the 

 ends of it, and after drying and carding it, lay it in pots of 

 ■unbaked earth, steep it well in honey, and burn it. Others, 

 again, arrange it in layers alternately with chips of torch- 

 pine,^ and, after sprinkling it with oil, set fire to it : they 

 then rub the ashes into small vessels with the hands, and let 

 them settle in water there. This operation is repeated and the 

 water changed several times, until at last the ashes are found 

 to be slightly astringent, without the slightest pungency ; upon 

 which, they are put by for use, being possessed of certain 

 caustic properties,^^ and extremely useful as a detergent for 

 the eyelids. 



CHAP. 10. THIETT-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WOOL-GREASE. 



And not only this, but the filthy excretions even of sheep, 

 the sweat adhering to the wool of the flanks and of the 

 axillary concavities — a substance known as *' oesypura"'*^ — are 



68 See B. xvi. c. 19. 



69 " Smectica " is suggested by Gesner, Eist. Anim., as a better reading 

 tban " septica." 



"" " ffisypum" is often mentioned by Ovid as a favourite cosmetic with 

 the Roman ladies. 



