336 
pltny's natural HISTOEY. [Book XXVIII. 
these salves being steeped in water and applied to the eyes for 
four days successively. Veal suet, with goose- grease and the 
extracted juice of ocimum, is remarkably good for diseases of 
the eye-lids. Veal marrow, with the addition of an equal 
proportion of wax and oil or oil of roses, an egg being added 
to the mixture, is used as a liniment for indurations of the eye- 
lids. Soft goats' milk cheese is used as an application, with 
warm water, to allay defluxions of the eyes ; but when they 
are attended with swelling, honey is used instead of the water. 
In both cases, however, the eyes should be fomented with 
warm whey. In cases of dry ophthalmia, it is found a very 
useful plan to take the muscles lying within a loin of pork, 
and, after reducing them to ashes, to pound and apply them to 
the part affected. 
She-goats, they say, are never affected with ophthalmia, 
from the circumstance that they browse upon certain kinds of 
herbs : the same, too, with the gazelle. Hence it is that we 
find it recommended, at the time of new moon, to swallow the 
dung of these animals, coated with wax. As they are able to 
see, too, by night, it is a general belief that the blood of a he- 
goat is a cure for those persons affected with dimness of sight 
to whom the Greeks have given the name of nyctalopes." 
A similar virtue is attributed to the liver of a she-goat, boiled 
in astringent wine. Some are in the habit of rubbing the eyes 
with the thick gravy which exudes from a she-goat's liver 
roasted, or with the gall of that animal : they recommend the 
flesh also as a diet, and say that the patient should expose 
his eyes to the fumes of it while boiling : it is a general 
opinion, too, that the animal should be of a reddish colour. 
Another prescription is, to fumigate the eyes with the steam 
arising from the liver boiled in an earthen jar, or, according to 
some authorities, roasted. 
Goats' gall is applied for numerous purposes : with honey, 
for films upon the eyes ; with one- third part of white hellebore, 
for cataract ; with wine, for spots upon the eyes, indurations of 
the cornea, films, webs, and argema; with extracted juice 
of cabbage, for diseases of the eyelids, the hairs being first 
pulled out, and the preparation left to dry on the parts affected ; 
38 This is the translation suggested by Dalechamps for "lumbulis.'' 
39 Seers by night." ^ " Sunie.'* 
