202 
Pliny's natural histoet. [Book XXVIII. 
the woman has conceived, unties his girdle, and, after tying it 
round her, unties it, adding at the same time this formula, I 
have tied it, and I will untie it," and then taking his de- 
parture, 
CHAP. 10. KEMEDIES DEKIVED EKOM THE HUMAN BLOOD, THE 
SEXUAL CONGHESS, ETC. 
The blood of the human body, come from what part it may, 
is most efficacious, according to Orpheus and Archelaiis, as an 
application for quinzy : they say, too, that if it is applied to 
the mouth of a person who has fallen down in a fit of epilepsy, 
he will come to himself immediately. Some say that, for 
epilepsy, the great toes should be pricked, and the drops of 
blood that exude therefrom applied to the face ; or else, that a 
virgin should touch the patient with her right thumb — a cir- 
cumstance that has led to the belief that persons suffering from 
epilepsy should eat the flesh of animals in a virgin state, 
^schines of Athens used to cure quinzy, carcinoma, and affec- 
tions of the tonsillary glands and uvula, with the ashes of 
burnt excrements, a medicament to which he gave the name 
of botryon."®^ 
There are many kinds of diseases which disappear entirely 
after the first sexual congress,^^ or, in the case of females, at the 
first appearance of menstruation ; indeed, if such is not the 
case, they are apt to become chronic, epilepsy in particular. 
Even more than this — a man, it is said, who has been stung 
by a serpent or scorpion, experiences relief from the sexual 
congress ; but the woman, on the other hand, is sensible of 
detriment. We are assured, too, that if persons, when washing 
their feet, touch the eyes three times with the water, they will 
never be subject to ophthalmia or other diseases of the eyes. 
CHAP. 11. EEMEDIES DERIVED EEOM THE DEAD. 
Scrofula, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and throat 
diseases, they say, may be cured by the contact of the hand of 
a person who has been carried off by an early death : indeed 
there are some who assert that any dead body will produce the 
same effect, provided it is of the same sex as the patient, and 
Properly meaning "a cluster of grapes." 
^ Ajasson remarks that there is a considerable degree of truth in this 
assertion. He gives a long list of French works on the subject. 
