Chap. 11.] REMEDIES DERIVED FROil EGGS. 387 



ing a disordered stomach, being eaten with half a nut-gall, 

 and no other food taken for the next two hours. They are 

 given also for dysentery, boiled in the egg with one semi-sexta- 

 rius of astringent wine, and an equal quantity of olive oil and 

 polenta. The pellicle that lines the shell is used, either raw 

 or boiled, for the cure of cracked lips ; and the shell itselt^ 

 reduced to ashes, is taken in wine for discharges of blood : care 

 must be taken, however, to burn it without the pellicle. In 

 the same way, too, a dentifrice is prepared. The ashes of the 

 shell, applied topically with myrrh, arrest menstruation when 

 in excess. So remarkably strong is the shell of an egg, that 

 if it is set upright, no force or weight can break it, unless a 

 slight inclination be made to one side or other of the circum- 

 ference. Eggs taken whole in wine, with rue, dill, and cum- 

 min, facilitate parturition. Used with oil and cedar-resin, 

 they remove itch and prurigo, and, applied in combination with 

 cyclaminos,'^^ they are remedial for running ulcers of the head. 

 For purulent expectorations and spitting of blood, a raw egg 

 is taken, warmed with juice of cut-leek and an equal quantity 

 of Greek honey. Tor coughs, eggs are administered, boiled 

 and beaten up with honey, or else raw, with raisin wine and an 

 equal quantity of olive oil. For diseases of the male organs, 

 an injection is made, of an egg, three cyathi of raisin wine, 

 and half an ounce of amylum,''^ the mixture being used imme- 

 diately after the bath. Where injuries have been inflicted by 

 serpents, boiled eggs are used as a liniment, beaten up with 

 nasturtium. 



In what various ways eggs are used as food is well known 

 to all, passing downwards, however swollen the throat may 

 be, and warming the parts as they pass. Eggs, too, are the 

 only diet which, while it affords nutriment in sickness, does 

 not load the stomach, possessing at the same moment all the 

 advantages both of food and drink. We have already" stated, 

 that the shell of an egg becomes soft when steeped in vinegar : 

 it is by the aid of eggs thus prepared, and kneaded up with 

 meal into bread, that patients suffering from the coeliac flux 

 are often restored to strength. Some, however, think it a better 

 plan to roast the eggs, when thus softened, in a shallow pan ; 

 a method, by the aid of which, they arrest not only looseness of 



*^ Or Sowbread. See B. xxv. c. 67. 



'5 See B. XYiii. c. 17. " In B. x. c. 80. 



C C 2. 



