Cliap. 18.] EEMEDIES DERIYED FROM THE UEINE. 
299 
be tied with a thread of linen or papyrus, and a binding passed 
round the middle of the thigh. For derangement of the 
stomach, it is a good plan to press the feet together, or to 
plunge the hands into hot water. 
In addition to all this, in many cases it is found highly be- 
neficial to speak but little ; thus, for instance, Maecenas Me- 
lissus,^* we are told, enjoined silence on himself for three 
years, in consequence of spitting blood after a convulsive fit. 
When a person is thrown from a carriage, or when, while 
mounting an elevation or lying extended at full length, he 
is menaced with any accident, or if he receives a blow, it is 
singularly beneficial to hold the breath ; a discovery for which 
we are indebted to an animal, as already^^ stated. 
To thrust an iron nail into the spot where a person's head 
lay at the moment he was seized with a fit of epilepsy, is said 
to have the efi'ect of curing him of that disease. Por pains in 
the kidneys, loins, or bladder, it is considered highly soothing 
to void the urine lying on the face at full length in a reclining 
bath. It is quite surprising how much more speedily wounds 
will heal if they are bound up and tied with a Hercules' knot 
indeed, it is said, that if the girdle which we wear every day 
is tied with a knot of this description, it will be productive of 
certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been the first to 
discover the fact. 
Demetrius, in the treatise which he has compiled upon the 
number Four, alleges certain reasons why drink should never 
be taken in proportions of four cyathi or sextarii. As a pre- 
ventive of ophthalmia, it is a good plan to rub the parts be- 
hind the ears, and, as a cure for watery eyes, to rub the fore- 
head. As to the presages which are derived from man him- 
self, there is one to the effect that so long as a person is able 
to see himself reflected in the pupil of the patient's eye, 
there need be no apprehension of a fatal termination to the 
malady. 
CHAP. 18. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE URINE. 
The urine, too, has been the subject not only of numerous 
1* See end of B. vii. is in B. viii. c. 58. 
A knot tied very hard, and in which no ends were to be seen. 
'^'^ This excretion was, till lately, thought of great importance, as in- 
dicative of the health of the patient. 
