302 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



closely approach the marvellous nature of prodigies ; to say 

 nothing of still-born infants cut up limb by liinb for the most 

 abominable practices, expiations made with the menstrual dis- 

 charge, and other devices which have been mentioned, not 

 only by midwives but by harlots 24 even as well ! The smell of a 

 woman's hair, burnt, will drive away serpents, and hysterical 

 suffocations, it is said, may be dispelled thereby. The ashes 

 of a woman's hair, burnt in an earthen vessel, or used in 

 combination with litharge, will cure eruptions and prurigo of 

 the eyes : used in combination with honey they will remove 

 warts and ulcers upon infants ; with the addition of honey and 

 frankincense, they will heal wounds upon the head, and fill up 

 all concavities left by corrosive ulcers ; used with hogs' lard, 

 they will cure inflammatory tumours and gout; and applied topi- 

 cally to the part affected, they will arrest erysipelas and hse- 

 morrhage, and remove itching pimples on the body which 

 resemble the stings of ants. 



CHAP. 21. KEMEDIES DERIVED FKOM WOMAN* S MILK. 



As to the uses to which woman's milk has been applied, it 

 is generally agreed that it is the sweetest and the most deli- 

 cate of all, and that it is the best 25 of remedies for chronic 

 fevers and cceliac affections, when the woman has just weaned 

 her infant more particularly. In cases, too, of sickness at 

 stomach, fevers, and gnawing sensations, it has been found by 

 experience to be highly beneficial ; as also, in combination 

 with frankincense, for abscesses of the mamillse. When the 

 eyes are bloodshot from the effects of a blow, or affected with 

 pain or defiuxion, it is a very good plan to inject woman's milk 

 into them, more particularly in combination with honey and 

 juice of daffodil, or else powdered frankincense. In all cases, 

 however, the milk of a woman who has been delivered of a 

 male child is the most efficacious, and still more so if she has 

 had male twins ; provided always she abstains from wine and 

 food of an acrid nature. Mixed with the white of an egg in 

 a liquid state, and applied to the forehead in wool, it arrests 



24 The use of the word "prodidere" shows that treatises had been 

 written on these abominable subjects. Lais, Elephantis, and Salpe were 

 probably the " meretrices" to whom he here alludes. See c. 23, and the 

 end of this Book. 



25 There is probably no foundation for this assertion. 



