352 PLINY'S NATUKAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



CHAP. 62. (16.) REMEDIES FOR GOTJT AND FOR DISEASES OF 



THE FEET. 



For the cure of gout, bears' grease is employed, mixed in 

 equal proportions with, bull-suet and wax ; some persons add 

 to the composition, hypocisthis 80 and nut-galls. Others, again, 

 prefer he-goat suet, mixed with the dung of a she-goat and 

 saffron, or else with mustard, or sprigs of ivy pounded and 

 used with perdicium, 81 or with flowers of wild cucumber. Cow- 

 dung is also used, with lees of vinegar. Some persons speak 

 highly in praise of the dung of a calf which has not begun to 

 graze, or else a bull's blood, without any other addition ; a 

 fox, also, boiled alive till only the bones are left ; a wolf boiled 

 alive in oil to the consistency of a cerate ; he- goat suet, with 

 an equal proportion of helxine, 82 and one- third part of mus- 

 tard ; or ashes of goats' dung, mixed with axle-grease. They 

 say, too, that for sciatica, it is an excellent plan to apply this 

 dung boiling 83 hot beneath the great toes ; and that, for diseases 

 of the joints, it is highly efficacious to attach bears' gall or 

 hares' feet to the part affected. Gout, they say, may be allayed 

 by the patient always carrying about with him a hare's foot, 

 cut off from the animal alive. 



Bears' grease is a cure for chilblains and all kinds of chaps 

 upon the feet ; with the addition of alum, it is still more effi- 

 cacious. The same results are produced by using goat-suet ; 

 a horse's teeth powdered ; the gall of a wild boar or hog ; or 

 else the lights of those animals, applied with their grease ; and 

 this, too, where the soles are blistered, or the feet have been 

 crushed by a substance striking against them. In cases where 

 the feet have been frozen, ashes of burnt hare's fur are used ; 

 and for contusions of the feet, the lights of that animal are 

 applied, sliced or reduced to ashes. Blisters occasioned by the 

 sun are most effectually treated by using asses' fat, or else 

 beef- suet, with oil of roses. Corns, chaps, and callosities of 

 the feet are cured by the application of wild boars' dung or 

 swine's dung, used fresh, and removed at the end of a couple 



80 See B. xxvi. c. 31. Bears' grease is of no use whatever for the cure 

 of gout. 



81 See B. xix. c. 31, B. xxi. cc. 62, 104, and B. xxii. cc. 19, 20. 



82 See B. xxi. c. 56. 



83 This mode of cure. Ajasson says, is still employed in the East, where 

 the preparation is known by the name of mow. 



