462 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXX. 



application of a mouse split asunder, or of a lizard more par- 

 ticularly, similarly divided, or else the head only of the animal, 

 pounded with salt. The snails, too, that are found in clusters 

 upon leaves, are pounded and applied with their shells on ; as 

 also those that are used as food, the shells being first removed, 

 applied with hare's rennet in particular. The bones of a 

 snake, applied with the rennet of any four-footed animal, will 

 produce a similar effect before the end of two days : cantha- 

 rides, also, bruised and applied with barley-meal, are highly 

 extolled. 



CHAP. 43. (14.) REMEDIES FOR FEMALE COMPLAINTS. 



For diseases incident to females, a ewe's placenta is very 

 useful, as already 56 mentioned by us, when speaking of goats : 

 sheep's dung, too, is equally good. A fumigation of burnt 

 locusts, applied to the lower parts, affords relief to strangury, 

 in females more particularly. If, immediately after concep- 

 tion, a woman eats a cock's testes every now and then, the 

 child of which she is pregnant will become 57 a male, it is said. 

 The ashes of a burnt porcupine, taken in drink, are a preventive 

 of abortion : bitches' milk facilitates delivery : and the after- 

 birth of a bitch, provided it has not touched the ground, will 

 act as an expellent of the foetus. Milk, taken as a drink, 

 strengthens the loins of women when in travail. Mouse-dung, 

 diluted with rain water, reduces the breasts of females, when 

 swollen after delivery. The ashes of a burnt hedge-hog, 

 applied with oil, act as a preventive of abortion. Delivery is 

 facilitated, in cases where the patient has taken, either goose- 

 dung in two cyathi of water, or the liquid that escapes from 

 the uterus of a weasel by its genitals. 



Earth-worms, applied topically, effectually prevent pains in 

 the sinews of the neck and shoulders ; taken in raisin wine, 

 they expel the after-birth, when retarded. Applied by them- 

 selves, earthworms ripen abscesses of the breasts, open them, 

 draw the humours, and make them cicatrize : taken in honied 

 wine, they promote the secretion of the milk. In hay-grass there 

 are small worms found, which, attached to the neck, act as a 

 preventive of premature delivery ; they are removed, however, 

 at the moment of childbirth, as otherwise they would have the 

 effect of impeding delivery ; care must be taken, also, not to put 

 56 In B. xxviii. c. 77. 57 "Fieri." 



