Chap. 18.] REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE URINE. 299 



be tied with a thread of linen or papyrus, and a binding passed 

 round the middle of the thigh. For derangement of the 

 stomach, it is a good plan to press the feet together, or to 

 plunge the hands into hot water. 



In addition to all this, in many cases it is found highly be- 

 neficial to speak but little ; thus, for instance, Maacenas Me- 

 lissus, 14 we are told, enjoined silence on himself for three 

 years, in consequence of spitting blood after a convulsive fit. 

 When a person is thrown from a carriage, or when, while 

 mounting an elevation or lying extended at full length, he 

 is menaced with any accident, or if he receives a blow, it is 

 singularly beneficial to hold the breath ; a discovery for which 

 we are indebted to an animal, as already 15 stated. 



To thrust an iron nail into the spot where a person's head 

 lay at the moment he was seized with a fit of epilepsy, is said 

 to have the effect of curing him of that disease. For pains in 

 the kidneys, loins, or bladder, it is considered highly soothing 

 to void the urine lying on the face at full length in a reclining 

 bath. It is quite surprising how much more speedily wounds 

 will heal if they are bound up and tied with a Hercules' knot : 16 

 indeed, it is said, that if the girdle which we wear every day 

 is tied with a knot of this description, it will be productive of 

 certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been the first to 

 discover the fact. 



Demetrius, in the treatise which he has compiled upon the 

 number Four, alleges certain reasons why drink should never 

 be taken in proportions of four cyathi or sextarii. As a pre- 

 ventive of ophthalmia, it is a good plan to rub the parts be- 

 hind the ears, and, as a cure for watery eyes, to rub the fore- 

 head. As to the presages which are derived from man him- 

 self, there is one to the effect that so long as a person is able 

 to see himself reflected in the pupil of the patient's eye, 

 there need be no apprehension of a fatal termination to the 

 malady. 



CHAP. 18. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE URINE. 



The urine, 17 too, has been the subject not only of numerous 



14 See end of B. vii. 15 In B. viii. c. 58. 



16 A knot tied very hard, and in which no ends were to be seen. 



17 This excretion was, till lately, thought of great importance, as in- 

 dicative of the health of the patient. 



