364 PLTNT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



lent upon the after-birth. For affections of the uterus, it is 

 thought a desirable plan to fumigate it with burnt kids' hair ; 

 and for discharges of blood, kids' rennet is administered in 

 drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According to Osthanes, 

 if a woman's loins are rubbed with blood taken from the ticks 

 upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to 

 sexual intercourse : she will forget, too, her former love, by 

 taking a he-goat's urine in drink, some nard being mixed with 

 it to disguise the loathsome taste. 



CHAP. 78.- REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS. 



For infants there is nothing more useful than butter, 10 either 

 by itself oy in combination with honey ; for dentition more 

 particularly, for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of 

 the mouth. A wolf's tooth, attached to the body, prevents 

 infants from being startled, and acts as a preservative against 

 the maladies attendant upon dentition; an effect equally 

 produced by making use of a wolf's skin. The larger teeth, 

 also, of a wolf, attached to a horse's neck, will render him 

 proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare's rennet, applied 

 to the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhoea in 

 the infant suckled by her. An ass's liver, mixed with a little 

 panax, and dropped into the mouth of an infant, will preserve 

 it from epilepsy and other diseases to which infants are liable ; 

 this, however, must be done for forty days, they say. An ass's 

 skin, too, thrown over infants, renders them insensible to fear. 

 The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as an amulet to infants, 

 facilitate dentition, and are better still, when not allowed to 

 touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox's milt is ad- 

 ministered in honey, and applied topically ; and for running 

 ulcers it is used as an application, with honey. A calf's milt, 

 boiled in wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers 

 of the mouth. 



The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing 

 them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the in- 

 fant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy 

 and other infantile diseases. Goats' dung, attached to in- 

 fants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being rest- 

 less, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of 



10 There is probably some truth in these statements as to the utility of 

 butter and honey for infants. 



