32ti PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Hook XXVIII. 



or ashes. A peculiar kind of plaster is also made of it for the 

 cure of inflammatory ulcers, seventy-five denarii of hogs' lard 

 being mixed with one hundred of litharge. 



It is reckoned a very good plan also to anoint ulcers with 

 boars' grease, and, if they are of a serpiginous nature, to add 

 resin to the liniment. The ancients used to employ hogs' lard 

 in particular for greasing the axles of their vehicles, that the 

 wheels might revolve the more easily, and to this, in fact, it owes 

 its name of " axungia," When hogs' lard has been used for this 

 purpose, incorporated as it is with the rust of the iron upon 

 the wheels, it is remarkably useful as an application for dis- 

 eases of the rectum and of the generative organs. The ancient 

 physicians, too, set a high value upon the medicinal properties 

 of hogs' lard in an unmixed state : separating it from the 

 kidneys, and carefully removing the veins, they used to wash 

 and rub it well in rain water, after which they boiled it several 

 times in a new earthen vessel, and then put it by for keeping. 

 It is generally agreed that it is more emollient, calorific, and 

 resolvent, when salted ; and that it is still more useful when 

 it has been rinsed in wine. 



Massurius informs us, that the ancients set the highest 

 value of all upon the fat of the wolf : and that it was for this 

 reason that the newly-wedded bride used to anoint the door- 

 posts of her husband's house with it, in order that no noxious 

 spells might find admittance. 



CHAP. 38. SUET. 



Corresponding with the grease of the swine, is the suet 91 that 

 is found in the ruminating animals, a substance employed in 

 other ways, but no less efficacious in its properties. The pro- 

 per mode of preparing it, in all cases, is to take out the veins 

 and to rinse it in sea or salt-water, after which it is beaten up 

 in a mortar, with a sprinkling of sea-water in it. This done, 

 it is boiled in several waters, until, in fact, it has lost all smell, 

 and is then bleached by continual exposure to the sun '; that of 

 the most esteemed quality being the fat which grows about the 

 kidneys. In case stale suet is required for any medicinal pur- 

 pose, it is recommended to melt it first, and then to wash it in 

 cold water several times ; after which, it must again be melted 

 with a sprinkling of the most aromatic wine that can be pro- 

 91 " Sebum" Suet or tallow. 



