306 pliny's jcatukal history. [BookXXVIIl. 
for that purpose of charcoal of cabbage root, myrtle root, or 
tamarisk root, quenched in the menstrual discharge ; they say 
that she-asses will be barren for as many years as they have 
eaten barley-corns steeped in this fluid ; and they have enu- 
merated various other monstrous and irreconcileable properties, 
the one telling us, for instance, that fruitfulness may be ensured 
by the very same methods, which, according to the statement 
of the other, are productive of barrenness; to all which stories it 
is the best plan to refuse credit altogether. Eithus of Dyrrha- 
chium informs us that a mirror,^^ which has been tarnished by 
the gaze of a menstruous female, will recover its brightness if 
the same woman looks steadily upon the back of it ; he states, 
also, that all evil influences of this nature will be entirely 
neutralized, if the woman carries the fish known as the sur 
mullet about her person. 
On the other hand, again, many writers say that, baneful as 
it is, there are certain remedial properties in this fluid ; that it 
is a good plan, for instance, to use it as a topical application for 
gout, and that women, while menstruating, can give relief by 
touching scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid 
glands, inflamed tumours, erysipelas, boils, and defluxions of 
the eyes. According to Lais and Salpe, the bite of a mad dog, 
as well as tertian or quartan fevers, may be cured by putting 
some menstruous blood in the wool of a black ram and enclo- 
sing it in a silver bracelet ; and we learn from Diotimus of 
Thebes that the smallest portion will suffice of any kind of 
cloth that has been stained therewith, a thread even, if in- 
serted and worn in a bracelet. The midwife Sotira informs 
us that the most efficient cure for tertian and quartan fevers is 
to rub the soles of the patient's feet therewith, the result being 
still more successful if the operation is performed by the woman 
herself, without the patient being aware of it ; she says, too, 
that this is an excellent method for reviving persons when 
attacked with epilepsy. 
Icetidas the physician pledges his word that quartan fever 
may be cured by sexual intercourse, provided the woman is 
just beginning to menstruate. It is universally agreed, too, that 
when a person has been bitten by a dog and manifests a dread 
of water and of all kinds of drink, it will be quite sufficient 
to put under his cup a strip of cloth that has been dipped in 
See B. vii. c. 13. 
