342 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOET. [Book XXVIII. 



efficacious, used in combination with gith, sulphur, and iris; this 

 mixture being also employed, with goose-grease, stag's marrow, 

 resin, and lime, for the cure of cracked lips. I find it stated 

 by certain authors, that persons who have freckles on the skin 

 are looked upon as disqualified from taking any part in the 

 sacrifices prescribed by the magic art. 



CHAP. 51. REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE TONSILLARY GLANDS, 



AND FOR SCROFULA. 



Cow's milk or goat's milk is good for ulcerations of the 

 tonsillary glands and of the trachea. It is used in the form of 

 a gargle, warm from the udder or heated, goat's milk being 

 the best, boiled with mallows and a little salt. A broth made 

 from tripe is an excellent gargle for ulcerations of the tongue and 

 trachea; and for diseases of the tonsillary glands, the kidneys of a 

 fox are considered a sovereign remedy^, dried and beaten up with 

 honey, and applied externally. For quinzy, bull's gall or goat's 

 gall is used, mixed with honey. A badger's liver, taken in 

 water, is good for offensive breath, and butter has a healing 

 effect upon ulcerations of the mouth. When a pointed or 

 other substance has stuck in the throat, by rubbing it exter- 

 nally with cats' dung, the substance, they say, will either come 

 up again or pass downwards into the stomach. 



Scrofulous sores are dispersed by applying the gall of a wild 

 boar or of an ox, warmed for the purpose : but it is only when the 

 sores are ulcerated that hare's rennet is used, applied in a linen 

 cloth with wine. The ashes of the burnt hoof of an ass or 

 horse, applied with oil or water, is good for dispersing scrofu- 

 lous sores ; warmed urine also ; the ashes of an ox's hoof, 

 taken in water ; cow-dung, applied hot with vinegar ; goat- 

 suet with lime ; goats' dung, boiled in vinegar ; or the testes 

 of a fox. Soap, 54 too, is very useful for this purpose, an 

 invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish 58 tint to the hair. 

 This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes 

 for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm : there 

 are two kinds of it, the hard soap and the liquid, both of them 

 much used by the people of Germany, the men, in particular, 

 more than the women. 



54 See Beckraann's Hist. Inv. II. 92-3, Bohris Ed., where this sub- 

 ject is treated at considerable length. 



55 " Rutilandis capillis." 



