300 
pliny's natueal history. [Book XXVIII: 
theories with authors, hut of various religious ohservances as 
well, its properties heing classified under several distinctive 
heads : thus, for instance, the urine of eunuchs, they say, is 
highly beneficial as a promoter of fruitfulness in females. But 
to turn to those remedies which we may be allowed to name 
without impropriety — the urine of children who have not 
arrived at puberty is a sovereign remedy for the poisonous 
secretions of the asp known as the ptyas,"^^ from the fact 
that it spits its venom into the eyes of human beings. It is 
good, too, for the cure of albugo, films and marks upon the 
eyes, white specks^^ upon the pupils, and maladies of the eye- 
lids. In combination with meal of fitches, it is used for the 
cure of burns, and, with a head of bulbed leek, it is boiled 
down to one half, in a new earthen vessel, for the treatment of 
suppurations of the ears, or the extermination of worms breed- 
ing in those organs : the vapour, too, of this decoction acts as 
an emmenagogue. Salpe recommends that the eyes should 
be fomented with it, as a means of strengthening the sight ; 
and that it should be used as a liniment for sun scorches, 
in combination with white of egg, that of the ostrich being 
the most effectual, the application being kept on for a couple 
of hours. 
Urine is also used for taking out ink spots. Male urine 
cures gout, witness the fullers for instance,^^ who, for this 
reason, it is said, are never troubled with that disease. With 
stale urine some mix ashes of calcined oyster-shells, for the 
cure of eruptions on the bodies of infants, and all kinds of 
running ulcers : it is used, too, as a liniment for corrosive sores, 
burns, diseases of the rectum, chaps upon the body, and stings 
inflicted by scorpions. The most celebrated mid wives have 
pronounced that there is no lotion which removes itching sen- 
sations more effectually ; and, with the addition of nitre,^^ they 
prescribe it for the cure of ulcers of the head, porrigo, and 
cancerous sores, those of the generative organs in particular. 
But the fact is, and there is no impropriety in saying so, that 
every person's own urine is the best for his own case, due 
18 From the Greek Trrvw, *' to spit." 
19 t<Argema.'* 
20 "WTio had to use lant, or stale urine, in their business. 
21 At a future period we shall have to discuss the identity of the 
"nitrum of Pliny. See B. xxxi. c. 46. 
