Chap. 38.] REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MOSS. 499 



CHAP. 37. METHODS OF PROVIDING AGAINST THE INCONVENIENCE 



OF DRINKING SUSPECTED WATER. 



As persons out at sea often suffer great inconvenience from 

 the want of fresh water, we will here describe some methods 

 of obviating it. Fleeces are spread round the ship, and on 

 becoming moistened with the exhalations arising from the sea, 

 the water is wrung from them, and found to be quite fresh. 

 Hollow balls of wax, also, or empty vessels sealed at the mouth, 

 upon being let down into the sea in a net, become filled with 

 water that is fresh and potable. On shore, too, sea-water may 

 be made fresh, by filtering it through argillaceous earth. 



By swimming in water of any kind, sprains of the limbs in 

 man or beast are reduced 80 with the greatest facility. Persons 

 when travelling, are sometimes apprehensive that the use of 

 water, the quality of which is unknown to them, may prove 

 injurious to their health: as a precaution against this, they 

 should drink the suspected water cold, immediately after leaving 

 the bath. 



CHAP. 38. SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MOSS. REMEDIES 



DERIVED FROM SAND. 



Moss which has grown in water 81 is excellent as a topical 

 application for gout ; and, in combination with oil, it is good 

 for pains and swellings in the ankles. The foam that floats 82 

 upon the surface of the water, used as a friction, causes warts 

 to disappear. The sand, 83 too, of the sea-shore, that more 

 particularly which is very fine and burnt white by the heat of 

 the sun, is used remedially for its desiccative properties, the 

 bodies of dropsical or rheumatic patients being entirely covered 

 with it. 



Thus much with reference to water itself; we will now 

 turn to the aquatic productions, beginning, as in all other 

 instances, with the principal of them, namely, salt and sponge. 



80 The joints being rendered more supple thereby. 



81 He probably means sea-water, alluding to certain kinds of sea-weed. 

 Dioscorides speaks of it, in B. iv. c. 99, as being good for gout. It is, in 

 reality, of some small utility in such cases. 



82 He most probably means sea- water. 



63 The Greeks used sand-baths for the purpose of promoting the per- 

 spiration; the names given to them were TrapoTrr^Ttg and $o 



K K 2 



