Chap. 32.] EEMEDIES FOE THE BITE OF THE MAD DOG. 4Gb 



leprosy and lichens. It is said, too, that they act as an em- 

 menagogue and diuretic, for which last reason Hippocrates 

 used to prescribe them for dropsy, Cato of Utica was re- 

 proached with selling poison, because, Avhen disposing of a 

 royal property by auction,^'' he sold a quantity of cantharides, 

 at the price of sixty thousand sesterces. (5.) We may here 

 remark, too, that it was on the same occasion that some ostrich 

 fat was sold, at the price of thirty thousand sesterces, a sub- 

 stance which is preferable to goose-grease in every respect. 



CHAP. 31. VAKIOIJS COrNTEE-POISONS. 



We have already ^^ spoken of various kinds of poisonous 

 honey : the antidote employed for it is honey in which the 

 bees have been stifled. This honey, too, taken in wine, is a 

 remedy for indispositions caused by eating fish. 



CHAP. 32. — REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE MAD DOG. 



WHien a person has been bitten by a mad dog, he may be 

 preserved from hydrophobia by applying the ashes of a dog's 

 head to the wound. All ashes of this description, we may 

 here remark once for all, are prepared in the same method ; 

 the substance being placed in a new earthen vessel well covered 

 with potter's clay, and put into a furnace. These ashes, too, 

 are very good, taken in drink, and hence some recommend the 

 head itself to be eaten in such cases. Others, again, attach to the 

 body of the patient a maggot, taken from the carcase of a dead 

 dog ; or else place the menstruous blood of a bitch, in a linen 

 cloth, beneath his cup, or insert in the wound ashes of hairs 

 from the tail of the dog that inflicted the bite. Dogs will fly 

 from any one who has a dog's heart about him, and they will 

 never bark at a person who carries a dog's tongue in his shoe, 

 beneath the great toe, or the tail of a weasel which has been 

 set at liberty after being deprived of it. There is beneath the 

 tongue of a mad dog a certain slimy spittle, which, taken in 

 drink, is a preventive of hydrophobia : but much the most 

 useful plan is, to take the liver of the dog that has inflicted 

 the injury, and eat it raw, if possible; should that not be the 

 case, it must be cooked in some way or other, or else a broth 

 must be taken, prepared from the flesh. 



«'' At the sale, uuder his supervision, of the property of Ptolemy, king 

 of Cyprus. ^^ In B. xxi. c. 34. 



