Chap. 37.] 
THE VAEIOUS USES OE EAT. 
325 
cyathi of wine, some honey being added to the mixture. Old 
lard too, if it has been kept without salt, made up into pills 
and taken internally, is a cure for phthisis : but it is a general 
rule not to use it salted in any cases except where detergents are 
required, or where there are no symptoms of ulceration. For 
the cure of phthisis, some persons boil down three ounces of 
hogs' lard and honied wine, in three cyathi of ordinary wine ; 
and after swathing the sides, chest, and shoulders of the patient 
with compresses steeped in the preparation, administer to him, 
every four days, some tar with an egg : indeed, so potent is 
this composition, that if it is only attached to the knees even, 
the flavour of it will ascend to the mouth, and the patient 
wdll appear to spit it out,^^ as it were. 
The grease of a sow that has never farrowed, is the most 
useful of all cosmetics for the skin of females ; but in all cases, 
hogs' lard is good for the cure of itch- scab, mixed with pitch 
and beef- suet in the proportion of one-third, the whole being 
made lukewarm for the purpose. Fresh hogs' lard, applied as 
a pessary, imparts nutriment to the infant in the womb, and 
prevents abortion. Mixed with white lead or litharge, it re- 
stores scars to their natural colour ; and, in combination with 
sulphur, it rectifies malformed nails. It prevents the hair also 
from falling off ; and, applied with a quarter of a nutgall, it 
heals ulcers upon the head in females. When well smoked, it 
strengthens the eyelashes. Lard is recommended also for phthisis, 
boiled down with old wine, in the proportion of one ounce to a 
semisextarius, till only three ounces are left ; some persons add 
a little honey to the composition. Mixed with lime, it is used 
as a liniment for inflamed tumours, boils, and indurations of 
the mamillse : it is curative also of ruptures, convulsions, 
cramps, and sprains. Used with white hellebore, it is good 
for corns, chaps, and callosities ; and, with pounded earthen- 
ware^^ which has held salted provisions, for imposthumes of 
the parotid glands and scrofulous sores. Employed as a fric- 
tion in the bath, it removes itching sensations and pimples : but 
for the treatment of gout there is another method of preparing 
it, by mixing it with old oil, and adding pounded sarcopha- 
gus^^ stone and cinquefoil bruised in wine, or else with lime 
Hence it was a notion in the sixteenth century, that pitch and hogs* 
lard is a cure for syphilis, by promoting salivation. 
y9 Farina salsamentarisB testae." See B. xxxvi. c, 27. 
