Chap. 57.] EEMEDIES TOK AFFECTIONS OF THE SPLEEN. 345 
To the above composition they add goats' dung, and recom- 
mend it to be held in the hollow of the hand, as hot as possible, 
a greased linen cloth being placed beneath, and care being 
taken to hold it in the right hand if the pain is on the left 
side, and in the left hand if the pain is on the right. They 
recommend also that the dung employed for this purpose should 
be taken up on the point of a needle made of copper. The 
mode of treatment is, for the patient to hold the mixture in 
his hand till the heat is felt to have penetrated to the loins, 
after which the hand is rubbed with a pounded leek, and the 
loins with the same dung annealed with honey. They prescribe 
also for the same malady the testes of a hare, to be eaten by the 
patient. In cases of sciatica they are for applying cow-dung 
warmed upon hot ashes in leaves : and for pains in the kidneys 
they recommend a hare's kidneys to be swallowed raw, or 
perhaps boiled, but without letting them be touched by the 
teeth. If a person carries about him the pastern- bone of a 
hare, he will never be troubled with pains in the bowels, 
they say. 
CHAP. 57. EEMEDIES FOE AFFEOTIONS OF THE SPLEEN. 
Affections of the spleen are alleviated by taking the gall of 
a wild boar or hog in drink ; ashes of burnt deer's horns in 
vinegar ; or, what is best of all, the dried spleen of an ass, the 
good effects being sure to be felt in the course of three days. 
The first dung voided by an ass's foal — a substance known as 
*^polea"^ by the people of Syria — is administered in oxymel 
for these complaints ; a dried horse tongue, too, is taken in 
wine, a sovereign remedy which, Caecilius Bion tells us, he first 
heard of when living among the barbarous nations. The milt 
of a cow or ox is used in a similar manner ; but when it is 
quite fresh, the practice is to roast or boil it and take it with 
the food. For pains in the liver a topical application is made 
by bruising twenty heads of garlick in one sextarius of vinegar, 
and applying them in a piece of ox bladder. For the same 
malady the magicians recommend a calf's milt, bought at the 
price set upon it and without any haggling, that being an 
important point, and one that should be religiously observed. 
This done, the milt must be cut in two lengthwise, and attached 
^ This would appear to be a Greek word in reality. 
