Chap. 24.] REMEDIES DERIVED FliOM THE ELEPHANT. 307 
this fluid; the result being that the hydrophobia will, immedi- 
ately disappear. This arises, no doubt, from that powerful 
sympathy which has been so much spoken of by the Greeks, 
and the existence of which is proved by the fact,^^ already men- 
tioned, that dogs become mad upon tasting this fluid. It is a well- 
known fact, too, that the menstruous discharge, reduced to ashes, 
and applied with furnace soot and wax, is a cure for ulcers upon 
all kinds of beasts of burden; and that stains made upon a gar- 
ment with it can only be removed by the agency of the urine 
of the same female. Equally certain it is, too, that this fluid, re- 
duced to ashes and mixed with oil of roses, is very useful, applied 
to the forehead, for allaying head-ache, in women more parti- 
cularly ; as also that the nature of the discharge is most viru- 
lent in females whose virginity has been destroyed solely by 
the lapse of time. 
Another thing universally acknowledged and one which I 
am ready to believe with the greatest pleasure, is the fact, that 
if the door-posts are only touched with the menstruous fluid 
all spells of the magicians will be neutralized — a set of men 
the most lying in existence, as any one may ascertain. I will 
give an example of one of the most reasonable of their pre- 
scriptions — Take the parings of the toe-nails and finger-nails 
of a sick person, and mix them up with wax, the party saying 
that he is seeking a remedy for a tertian, quartan, or quotidian 
fever, as the case may be ; then stick this wax, before sunrise, 
upon the door of another person — such is the prescription they 
give for these diseases ! What deceitful persons they must be 
if there is no truth in it ! And how highly criminal, if they 
really do thus transfer diseases from one person to another ! 
Some of them, again, whose practices are of a less guilty 
nature, recommend that the parings of all the finger-nails 
should be thrown at the entrance of ant-holes, the first ant to be 
taken which attempts to draw one into the hole; this, they say, 
must be attached to the neck of the patient, and he will ex- 
perience a speedy cure. 
CHAP. 24. (8.) REMEDIES DERIVED FROM FOREIGN ANIMALS : 
THE ELEPHANT, EIGHT REMEDIES. 
Such then are the remedies from human beings which may 
with any degree of propriety be described, and many of those 
only with the leave and good -will of the reader. The rest are 
40 See B. vii. c. 13. X 2 
