340 
PLINT's NATUHAL UISTOaY. [BookXXVIIL 
to the she-ass. As to the hippomanes, it is possessed of proper- 
ties so virulent and so truly magical, that if it is only thrown 
into fused metaP^ which is being cast into the resemblance of 
an Olympian mare, it will excite in all stallions that approach 
it a perfect frenzy for copulation. 
Another remedy for diseases of the teeth is joiners' glue, 
boiled in water and applied, care being taken to remove it very 
speedily, and instantly to rinse the teeth with wine in which 
sweet pomegranate-rind has been boiled. It is considered, 
also, a very efficacious remedj^ to wash the teeth with goats' 
milk, or bull's gall. The pastern-bones of a she-goat just 
killed, reduced to ashes, and indeed, to avoid the necessity for 
repetition, of any other four-footed beast reared in the farm- 
yard, are considered to make an excellent^ dentifrice. 
CHAP. 50. (12.) REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FACE. 
It is generally believed that asses' milk effaces wrinkles in 
the face, renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its white- 
ness : and it is a well-known fact, that some women are in the 
habit of washing their face with it seven^^ hundred times daily, 
strictly observing that number. Poppsea, the wife of the 
Emperor Nero, was the first to practise this ; indeed, she had 
sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses* milk, for which pur- 
pose whole troops of she- asses^^ used to attend her on her jour- 
nies.^^ Purulent eruptions on the face are removed by an 
application of butter, but white lead, mixed with the butter, 
is an improvement. Pure butter, alone, is used for serpigi- 
nous eruptions of the face, a layer of barley-meal being pow- 
dered over it. The caul of a cow that has just calved, is 
applied, while still moist, to ulcers of the face. 
The following recipe may seem frivolous, but still, to please 
the women,^^ it must not be omitted ; the pastern-bone of a 
white steer, they say, boiled forty days and forty nights, till it is 
turn usus" given by Sillig. Be it what it may, the meaning of the pas- 
sage is doubtful. 
48 See ^lian, Var. Hist. xiv. 18. 
There surely must be a wrong reading here, or he cannot intend this 
to be understood literally. See B. xi. c. 96. 
51 One of the mistresses of Louis XV. not only did this, but (in a spirit 
of great charity and consideration, of course) gave the milk to the poor 
after she had thus used it. 
*^ " Ad desideria mulierum." 
