LEECH BOOK. I. 



101 



dregs of beer, aud soap, and the white of an egg, and 

 old groats, lay tliis on against erysipelatous swellings. 

 Against bursting of erysipelatous inflammations, let 

 the man sit in cold water till the sore becometh 

 numbed, then get him up, then strike four scarifying 

 slashes about the pocks on the outside, and let the 

 lymph run as it will. Work thyself a salve thus : 

 take brown"v^'ovt, and marsh gall, or marsh gentian, 

 and red nettle, boil in butter, and smear and bathe 

 with the same worts. 



3. For the same, take an earthworm,' rub it tho- 

 roughly fine, add vinegar to it, bind it on and smear 

 therewith. For the same, take savine, rub to dust, and 

 mingle with honey and smear therewith. For the same, 

 take roasted eggs, mingle with oil, lay on, and foment 

 freely witli leaves of beet. Again, take a calfs sharn, 

 that is clung, or an old bullocks, still warm, and lay 

 it on. Again for this same, take harts shavings, shaven 

 off the fell or skin with pumice, and wash, that is 

 maceraie, with vinegar and smear therewith. Again, 

 take a boars gall, if thou have not that, take gall of 

 another swine, rub and smear with that where it is 

 sore. For that ilk, take a swallows nest, break it 

 away altogether, and burn it with its dung and all, 

 and rub it to dust, mingle witli vinegar and smear there- 

 with. For tlie same, heat cold water with a hot iron, 

 and bathe frequently with that. For hot er3^sipelatous 

 humours, take betony, and wormwood, and fennel, 

 rub them into ale, and radish ivith tJt.em, give the 

 mixture to the sick man to drink. For hot erysipe- 

 latous humours, take fen ompre, that is ivater dock, 

 and the small clote, that is, cleavers, boil in goats 

 milk and sup. Against hot erysipelatous humours, 



Book I. 

 Cli. xxxix. 



' Bjorn Haldorson mentions this 

 treatment : the earthworm is called 

 A'mumadkr (read ma'Skr), because 

 erysipelas is usually cured by it ; 



" his lumbricis probari et curari 

 " soleat, cum applicati marcescant 

 " et moriantur." (On A'mumadkr.) 

 A'ma is the Ome of the text. 



