432 PLTNY's NATUItAL HISTOIIT. [Book XXX. 



CHAP. 9. (4.) KEMEJDIliS FOR OFFKNSIVE ODOURS AND SOKES OF 



THE MOUTH. 



To impart sweetness to the breath, it is recommended to 

 rub the teeth with ashes of burnt mouse-dung and honey : 

 some persons are in the habit of mixing fennel root. To pick 

 the teeth with a vulture' s feather, is productive of a sour 

 breath ; but to use a porcupine's quill for that purpose, greatly 

 strengthens the teeth. Ulcers of the tongue and lips are cured 

 by taking a decoction of swallows, boiled in honied wine ; and 

 chapped lips are healed by using goose-grease or poultry -grease, 

 wool-grease mixed with nut-galls, white spiders' webs, or the 

 fine cobwebs that are found adhering to the beams of roofs. 

 If the inside of the mouth has been scalded with any hot sub- 

 stance, bitches' milk will afford an immediate cure. 



CHAP. 10. REMEDIES FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE. 



Wool-grease, mixed with Corsican honey — which by the way 

 is considered the most acrid honey of all — removes spots upon 

 the face. Applied with oil of roses in wool, it causes scurf upon 

 the face to disappear : some persons add butter to it. In cases 

 of morphew, the spots are first pricked with a needle, and then 

 rubbed with dog's gall. For livid spots and bruises on the 

 face, the lights of a ram or sheep are cut fine and applied 

 warm, or else pigeons' dung is used. Goose-grease or poultry- 

 grease is a good preservative of the skin of the face. For 

 lichens a liniment is used, made of mouse-dung in vinegar, or 

 of the ashes of a hedge-hog mixed with oil : but, when these 

 remedies are employed, it is recommended first to foment the 

 face with nitre dissolved in vinegar. Maladies of the face are also 

 removed by employing the ashes of the small, broad, snail that 

 is so commonly found, mixed with honey. Indeed, the ashes 

 of all snails are of an inspissative nature, and are possessed of 

 certain calorific and detersive properties : hence it is that they 

 form an ingredient in caustic applications, and are used in the 

 form of a liniment for itch-scabs, leprous sores, and freckles on 

 tlie face. 



I find it stated that a certain kind of ant known by the name 

 of '* Herculanea," ^^ is beaten up, with the addition of a little 



^8 Dalechamps thinks that these " Herculean " ants were so called from 

 their j^reat size. Ajasson queries whether they may not be the "grenadier 

 ants " of Dui)0ut de Nemours. 



