360 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



applied to recent wounds inflicted with edged weapons, the 

 application being removed before the end of three days. Dried 

 goats' milk cheese, applied with vinegar and honey, acts as a 

 detergent upon ulcers ; and goat suet, used in combination 

 with wax, arrests the spread of serpiginous sores : if employed 

 with pitch and sulphur, it will effect a thorough cure. The 

 ashes of a kid's leg, applied with woman's milk, have a similar 

 effect upon malignant ulcers ; for the cure, too, of carbuncles, a 

 sow's brains are roasted and applied. 



CHAP. 75. REMEDIES FOE THE ITCH. 



The itch in man is cured very effectually by using the 

 marrow of an ass, or the urine of that animal, applied with 

 the mud it has formed upon the ground. Butter, too, is very 

 good ; as also in the case of beasts of burden, if applied with 

 warmed resin : bull glue is also used, melted in vinegar, and 

 incorporated with lime ; or goat's gall, mixed with calcined 

 alum. The eruption called " boa," 5 is treated with cow-dung, 

 a fact to which it is indebted for its name. The itch in dogs 

 is cured by an application of fresh cows' blood, which, when 

 quite dry, is renewed a second time, and is rubbed off the next 

 day with strong lie- ashes. 



CLJAP. 76. METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN SUBSTANCES WHICH 



ADHERE TO THE BODY, AND OF RESTORING SCARS TO THEIR 

 NATURAL COLOUR. 



Thorns and similar foreign substances are extracted from the 

 body by using cats' dung, or that of she-goats, with wine ; the 

 rennet also of any kind of animal, that of the hare more parti- 

 cularly, with powdered frankincense and oil, or an equal quan- 

 tity of mistletoe, or else with bee-glue. 6 



Ass suet restores scars of a swarthy hue to their natural 

 colour; and they are equally effaced by using calf's gall made 

 warm. Medical men add myrrh, honey, and saffron, and keep 

 the mixture in a copper box ; some, too, incorporate with it 

 flower of copper. 



CHAP. 77. (19.) REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. 



Menstruation is promoted by using bull's gall, in unwashed 

 v/ool, as a pessary : Olympias of Thebes adds hyssop and nitre. 

 5 See B. xxiv. c. 35. 6 " Propolis." Sec B. xi. c. 6. 



