410 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book XXIX. 



the snail, it is attached to the patient, the smaller snails being 

 pounded and applied to the forehead. Wool-grease, too, is 

 used for a similar purpose ; the bones of a vulture's head, worn 

 as an amulet ; or the brains of that bird, mixed with oil and 

 cedar resin, and applied to the head and introduced into the 

 nostrils. The brains of a crow or owlet, are boiled and taken 

 with the food : or a cock is put into a coop, and kept without 

 food a day and a night, the patient submitting to a similar 

 abstinence, and attaching to his head some feathers plucked 

 from the neck or the comb of the fowl. The ashes, too, of a 

 weasel are applied in the form of a liniment ; a twig is taken 

 from a kite's nest, and laid beneath the patient's pillow; or a 

 mouse's skin is burnt, and the ashes applied with vinegar : 

 sometimes, also, the small bone is extracted from the head of 

 a snail that has been found between two cart ruts, and after 

 being passed through a gold ring, with a piece of ivory, is 

 attached to the patient in a piece of dog's skin ; a remedy 

 well known to most persons, and always used with success. 84 



For fractures of the cranium, cobwebs are applied, with oil 

 and vinegar ; the application never coming away till a cure 

 has been effected. Cobwebs are good, too, for stopping the 

 bleeding of wounds 85 made in shaving. Discharges of blood 

 from the brain are arrested by applying the blood of a goose 

 or duck, or the grease of those birds with oil of roses. The 

 head of a snail cut off with a reed, while feeding in the 

 morning, at full moon more particularly, is attached to the 

 head in a linen cloth, with an old thrum, for the cure of head- 

 ache ; or else a liniment is made of it, and applied with white 

 wax to the forehead. Dogs' hairs are worn also, attached to 

 the forehead in a cloth. 



CHAP. 37. REMEDIES FOE AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS. 



A crow's brains, taken with the food, they say, will make 

 the eyelashes grow ; or else wool-grease, applied with warmed 

 myrrh, by the aid of a fine probe. A similar result is pro- 

 mised by using the following preparation : burnt flies and 

 ashes of mouse-dung are mixed in equal quantities, to the 

 amount of half a denarius in the whole ; two sixths of a deiaa- 



. 84 He does not appear to state this on hearsay only ! 



b5 Cobwebs are still used for this purpose, as also the fur from articles 

 made of beaver. Ajasson mentions English taffeta. 



