94 THE MASTER OF GAME 



is said. Sometime cometh to the hounds sickness 

 in their eyes, for there cometh a web upon them, 

 and growing flesh which cometh into that one side 

 of the eye, and is called a nail, 1 and so they grow 

 blind unless a man take care thereof. Some men 

 put about their necks a collar of an elm tree both 

 of leaves and of bark, and seeth that when that 

 shall be dry the nail shall fall away, but that is 

 but a little help. But the true help that may be 

 thereto is this, take ye the juice of a herb that men 

 call Selidoyn (Celandine) 2 powder of ginger and 

 of pepper, and put all together thrice in the day 

 within the eye, and let him not claw nor rub it 

 a long while, and that customarily by nine days 



1 Pterygium, name for the "sickness" in the eyes of hounds 

 which our MS. describes as a "web coming upon them." It 

 is called pterygium from its resemblance to an insect's wing ; 

 is an hypertrophy of the conjunctiva or lining membrane of the 

 eye, due to irritation ; it extends from the inner angle to the 

 cornea, which it may cover : the treatment is excision. The 

 cure for "the nail" mentioned in our MS. of hanging a collar 

 of elm leaves round the dog is taken by G. de F. (p. 92) from 

 Roy Modus xliv., where it is given without the saving clause 

 " Mes cela est bien petit remède." 



2 Celandine, Chalidonium Majus, from x f ^ooi>, a swallow. 

 The name was derived from the tradition that swallows used 

 it to open the eyes of their young or to restore their sight. Has 

 a yellow flower and an acrid, bitter, orange juice. Internally 

 an irritant poison. Infusions in wine used by Galen and 

 Bioscorides for jaundice, probably from the colour of the juice 

 and flowers. Externally the juice was much used for wounds, 

 ulcers, ophthalmic cases, and for the removal of warts. The 

 Old French name for this plant was herbe d^arondelles {hiron- 

 delles). 



