Chap. 12.] EEMEDTES FOR SCEOFULA. 435 



mouse boiled with vervain, a thong of dogskin passed three 

 times round the back, and pigeons' dung mixed with wine and 

 oil. For the cure of rigidity of the muscles of the neck, and 

 of opisthotonj", a twig of vitex, taken from a kite's nest, is 

 attached to the body as an amulet. 



(5.) For ulcerated scrofula, a weasel's blood is employed, or 

 the animal itself, boiled in wine ; but not in cases where the 

 tumours have been opened with the knife. It is said, too, 

 that a weasel, eaten with the food, is productive of a similar 

 effect ; sometimes, also, it is burnt upon twigs, and the ashes 

 are applied with axle-grease. In some instances, a green lizard 

 is attached to the body of the patient, a fresh one being sub- 

 stituted at the end of thirty days. Some persons preserve the 

 heart of this animal in a small silver vessel,"^ as a cure for 

 scrofula in females. Old snails, those found adhering to shrubs 

 more particulaiiy, are pounded with the shells on, and applied 

 as a liniment. Asps, too, are similarly employed, reduced to 

 ashes and mixed with bull suet ; snakes' fat also, diluted with 

 oil ; and the ashes of a burnt snake, applied with oil or wax. 

 It is a good plan also, in cases of scrofula, to eat the middle 

 of a snake, the extremities being first removed, or to drink 

 the ashes of the reptile, similarly prepared and burnt in a 

 new earthen vessel : they will be found much more efficacious, 

 however, when the snake has been killed between the ruts 

 made by wheels. It is recommended also, to dig up a cricket 

 with the earth about its hole, and to apply it in the form of a 

 liuiment ; to use pigeons' dung, either by itself, or with barley- 

 meal, or oatmeal and vinegar ; or else to apply the ashes of a 

 burnt mole, mixed with honey. 



Some persons apply the liver of this last animal, crumbled 

 in the hands, due care being taken not to wash it off for three 

 days : it is said, too, that a mole's right foot is a remedy for 

 scrofula. Others, again, cut off the head of a mole, and after 

 kneading it with earth thrown up by those animals, divide 

 it into tablets, and keep it in a pewter box, for the treatment 

 of all kinds of tumours, diseases of the neck, and the affections 

 known as '* apostemes :" in all such cases the use of swine's 



'1 Marcus Empiricus says that the heart must be enclosed in a silver 

 lupine and worn suspended from the neck, being efficacious for scrofula 

 both iu males and females. The silver lupine was probably what we 

 should call a "locket." 



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