440 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXX 



for the cure of the spleen." This done, it is enjoined that the 

 railt should be covered up with mortar in the wall of the 

 patient's sleeping- room, and sealed with a ring, a charm 91 being 

 repeated thrice nine times. A dog's milt, removed from the 

 animal while still alive, taken with the food, is a cure for dis- 

 eases of the spleen : some, again, attach it fresh to that part 

 of the patient's body. Others give the patient without his 

 knowing it the inilt of a puppy two days old, to eat, in 

 squill vinegar ; the milt, too, of a hedge-hog is similarly 

 used. Ashes of burnt snails are employed, in combination 

 with linseed, nettle-seed, and honey, the treatment being per- 

 sisted in till the patient is thoroughly cured. 



A green lizard has a remedial effect, suspended alive in an 

 earthen vessel, at the entrance of the sleeping-room of the 

 patient, who, every time he enters or leaves it, must take care 

 to touch it with his hand : the head, too, of a horned owl, re- 

 duced to ashes and incorporated with an unguent ; honey, also, 

 in which the bees have died ; and spiders, the one known as 

 the " lycos" 92 in particular, 



CHAP. 18. KEMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE SIDE AND IN THE LOINS. 



For pains in the side, the heart of a hoopoe is highly es- 

 teemed ; ashes, too, of burnt snails, that have been boiled in 

 a ptisan, snails being sometimes applied in the form of a lini- 

 ment, alone. Potions employed for this purpose have a sprink- 

 ling in them of the ashes of a mad dog's skull. For the cure 

 of lumbago, the spotted lizard 93 from beyond seas is used : 

 the head and intestines being first removed, the body is boiled 

 in wine, with half a denarius of black poppy, and the decoc- 

 tion is taken in drink. Green lizards, also, are taken with 

 the food, the feet and head being first removed ; or else three 

 snails are crushed, shells and all, and boiled with fifteen pepper- 

 corns in wine. The feet of an eagle are wrenched off in a 

 contrary direction to the joint, and the right foot is attached 

 to the right side, the left foot to the left, according as the 

 pains are situate. The millepede, 94 which we have spoken of 



91 "Carmen." Holland says "the aforesaid charm:" hut this does 

 not appear from the context. .From the account, however, given by Marcus 

 Empiricus, we learn that the charm, thus repeated twenty-seven times, is 

 the same as that already given. 



92 Or " wolf." See B. xi. c. 28. 93 See B. xxix. c. 28. 

 M Or woodlouse. See B. xxix. c. 39. 



