Chap. 21.] REMEDIES FOR UEINAEY CALCULI. 443 



and it will die. 1 Gripings of the bowels are treated also with 

 boiled honey in which the bees have died. 



Colic is most effectually cured by taking a roasted lark with 

 the food. Some recommend, however, that it should be burnt 

 to ashes in a new vessel, feathers and all, and then pounded 

 and taken for four consecutive days, in doses of three spoonfuls, 

 in water. Some say that the heart of this bird should be 

 attached to the thigh, and, according to others, the heart should 

 be swallowed fresh, quite warm, in fact. There is a family 

 of consular dignity, known as the Asprenates, 2 two brothers, 

 members of which, were cured of colic ; the one by eating a 

 lark and wearing its heart in a golden bracelet ; the other, by 

 performing a certain sacrifice in a chapel built of raw bricks, 

 in form of a furnace, and then blocking up the edifice the mo- 

 ment the sacrifice was concluded. The ossifrage has a single 

 intestine only, which has the marvellous property of digesting 

 all that the bird has swallowed : the extremity of this intes- 

 tine, it is well known, worn as an amulet, is an excellent 

 remedy for colic. 



There are certain concealed maladies incident to the intes- 

 tines, in relation to which there are some marvellous statements 

 made. If to the stomach and chest, more particularly, blind 

 puppies are applied, and suckled with milk from the patient's 

 mouth, 3 the virulence of the malady, it is said, will be trans- 

 ferred to them, and in the end they will die : on opening 

 them, too, the causes of the malady will be sure to be dis- 

 covered. In all such cases, however, the puppies must be 

 allowed to die, and must be buried in the earth. According 

 to what the magicians say, if the abdomen is touched with a 

 bat's blood, the person will be proof against colic for a whole 

 year : when a patient, too, is attacked with the pains of colic, 

 if he can bring himself to drink the water in which he has 

 washed his feet, he will experience a cure. 



CHAP. 21. (8.) EEMEDIES FOE URINARY CALCULI AND 

 AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER. 



For the cure of urinary calculi, it is a good plan to rub 



1 See c. 14 of this Book, where a similar notion is mentioned. 



2 There were three consuls of this name, L. Nonius Asprenas, A.D. 7 ; 

 L. Nonius Asprenas, A.D. 29 ; and P. Nonius Asprenas, A.D. 38. They 

 are mentioned also by Suetonius, Tacitus, Dion Cassius, Frontinus, and 

 Seneca. 3 See c. 14 of this Book. 



