284 On the Knowledge of the Ancients 



head-ach was cured by the application of a living 

 torpedo to the part where the pain was feated. 

 The fame remedy was alfo in ufe for the goutj 

 the patient* being direded to place a living tor- 

 pedo under his feet, as he ftood on the fea fhore, 

 and to continue it until he found the numbnefs 

 not only aflfed the whole of the foot, but the 

 leg alfo, as far as the knee. This remedy is faid 

 to have cured Anthero, a freedman of Tiberius 

 Casfar. 



Diofcoridesj- advifes the fame remedy for 

 inveterate pains of the head, and for protrufions 

 of the redumj and Galen J feems to have copied 

 him in recommending the fame remedy for fuch 

 complaints. The fame application for the head- 

 ach is to be found in Paulus iEgineta, || and I 

 believe, feveral other of the later writers on me- 

 dicine. An ingenious and learned Gentleman 

 fuggefted to me, that it was probable, that even 

 the method of drawing down eledlrical fire from 



* Ad utramlibet podagram, torpedinem nigram, vivam, 

 quum accefferit dolor, fubjicere pedibus oportet, Itantibus 

 in litore, non ficco, fed quod alluit mare, donee fentiat 

 torpere pedem toium & tibiam ufque ad genua. • Hoc 

 et in praefenti tollit dolorem, & in futurum remediat : 

 hoc, Anihero Tiberii libertus fupra h?ereditates remediatus 

 eft. Scribon. Larg. cap. XLl. 



t Diofcorid. lib. II. Art. Torpedo. Vide edit Mat- 

 thioli. 1560. 



X Galen. Simpl. Medic, lib. XI. , 



B Pauli iEginet. lib. VII. Art. Nafwu. 



the 



