434 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXX. 



poses the snails of Astypalsea 63 are the most efficacious, and 

 they give the preference to the detersive preparation 64 made 

 from them. The parts affected are sometimes rubbed with 

 a cricket, and affections of the tonsillary glands are alleviated 

 by being rubbed with the hands of a person who has bruised a 

 cricket. 



CHAP. 12. REMEDIES FOR QUINZY AND SCROFULA.. 



For quinzy we have very expeditious remedies in goose-gall, 

 mixed with elateriurn 85 and honey, an owlet's brains, or the 

 ashes of a burnt swallow, taken in warm water ; which last 

 remedy we owe 66 to the poet Ovid. But of all the remedies 

 spoken of as furnished by the swallow, one of the most effica- 

 cious is that derived from the young of the wild swallow, a 

 bird which may be easily recognized by the peculiar conforma- 

 tion of its nest. 67 By far the most effectual, however, of them 

 all, are the young of the bank- swallow, 68 that being the name 

 given to the kind which builds its nest in holes on the banks of 

 rivers. Many persons recommend the young of any kind of 

 swallow as a food, assuring us that the person who takes it 

 need be in no apprehension of quinzy for the whole of the 

 ensuing year. The young of this bird are sometimes stifled 

 and then burnt in a vessel with the blood, the ashes being 

 administered to the patient with bread or in the drink : some, 

 however, mix with them the ashes of a burnt weasel, in equal 

 proportion. The same remedies are recommended also for 

 scrofula, and they are administered for epilepsy, once a day, in 

 drink. Swallows preserved in salt are taken for quinzy, in 

 doses of one drachma, in drink : the nest, 69 too, of the bird, 

 taken internally, is said to be a cure for the same disease. 



Millepedes, 70 it is thought, used in the form of a liniment, are 

 peculiarly efficacious for quinzy : some persons, also, administer 

 eleven of them, bruised in one semi-sextarius of hydromel, 

 through a reed, they being of no us.e whatever if once touched 

 by the teeth. Other remedies mentioned are, the broth of a 



63 See B. iv. c. 23, B. viii. c. 59, and cc. 15 and 43 of the present Book. 



6i " Smegma." 65 See B. xx. c. 2. 



66 No very great obligation, apparently. 



B7 See B. x. c. 49. 68 " Riparia." 



69 The only birds' nests that are now taken internally are the soutton 

 bmrong, or, edible birds' nests, of the Chinese. 



70 See B. xxix. c. 39. 



