Chap. 36.] REMEDIES FOR HEAD-ACHE. 409 



duced to ashes, and then mixed with oil of myrtle, will 

 prevent the hair from coming off. For all these purposes 

 green lizards are still more efficacious, and the remedy is ren- 

 dered most effectual, when salt is added, bears' grease, and 

 pounded onions. Some persons boil ten green lizards in ten 

 sextarii of oil, and content themselves with rubbing the place 

 with the mixture once a month. Alopecy is also cured very 

 speedily with the ashes of a viper's skin, or by an application 

 of fresh poultry dung. A raven's egg, beaten up in a copper 

 vessel and applied to the head, previously shaved, imparts a 

 black colour to the hair ; care must be taken, however, to keep 

 some oil in the mouth till the application is quite dry, or else 

 the teeth will turn black as well. The operation must be per- 

 formed also in the shade, and the liniment must not be washed 

 off before the end of three days. Some persons employ tlie 

 blood and brains of a raven, in combination with red wine ; 

 while others, again, boil down the bird, and put it, at bedtime, 

 in a vessel made of lead. With some it is the practice, for 

 the cure of alopecy, to apply bruised cantharides with tar, the 

 skin being first prepared with an application of nitre : — it 

 should be remembered, however, that cantharides are possessed 

 of caustic properties, and due care must be taken not to let 

 them eat too deep into the skin. For the ulcerations thus pro- 

 duced, it is recommended to use applications made of the heads, 

 gall, and dung of mice, mixed with hellebore and pepper. 



CHAP. 35. REMEDIES FOR LICE AND FOR PORRIGO. 



Nits are destroyed by using dogs' fat, eating serpents cooked ^ 

 like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink. Porrigo is 

 cured by applying sheep's gall with Cimolian chalk, and rub- 

 bing the head with the mixtui'e till dry. 



CHAP. 36. REMEDIES FOR HEAD-ACHE AND FOR WOUNDS ON 



THE HEAD. 



A good remedy for head- ache are the heads taken from the 

 snails which are found without^^ shells, and in an imperfect 

 state. In these heads there is found a hard stony substance, 

 about as large as a common pebble : on being extracted from 



^2 A recipe well understood in the restaurants of the French provinces, 

 Ajasson says, but it is doubtful whether with the object named by our author. 

 ^ He means slugs probably. 



