BOOK VI. XXXVIII. 1-4 



XXXVIII. Though, in dealing with other classes Bemedies 

 of animals, I have already described most of the eas3s of '^ 

 medicines which mules require, I will not omit to ^"les. 

 mention certain maladies which are peculiar to these 

 animals, the remedies for which I have here 

 subjoined. If a mule is in heat, raw cabbage is 

 administered ; if it is asthmatic, blood is drawn off 

 and about a hemina of the juice of horehound mixed 

 with a sexiarius of wine and half an ounce of oil of 

 frankincense is poured down its throat. If it is suffer- 2 

 ing from spavin, barley-flour is applied, and then the 

 suppuration is opened with a lancet and dressed 

 with lint, or else a sextarius of the best fish-pickle 

 in a pound of oil is poured through the left nostril ; 

 the whites of three or four eggs from which the 

 yolks have been separated are mixed with this medica- 

 ment. Blood-blisters round the ankles are usually cut 3 

 and sometimes cauterized. When blood flows down 

 into the feet, it is drawn off by the same method as is 

 applied to horses, or, if the herb which the country- 

 folk call veratrum " is available, it is given as fodder. 

 Another remedy is henbane, the seed of which, 

 crushed and administered with wine, cures this 

 malady. 



Emaciation and languor are dispelled by frequent 

 potions containing half an ounce of sulphury a raw 

 egg and a denarius weight of myrrh ; these are beaten 

 up and mixed in wine and then poured down the 

 animal's throat. The same ingredients serve equally 4 

 well as a remedy for a cough and for pain in the 

 stomach. For emaciation nothing is as efficacious as 

 lucerne * ; this herb, when it is green, quickly fattens 

 beasts of burden, and is not slow in doing so even 

 when it is dry and used instead of hay, but it must be 



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