364 
pltnt's katueal history. [Book XXVIII, 
lent upon the after-birtli. For affections of the uterus, it is 
thought a desirable plan to fumigate it with burnt kids' hair ; 
and for discharges of blood, kids' rennet is administered in 
drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According to Osthanes, 
if a woman's loins are rubbed with blood taken from the ticks 
upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to 
sexual intercourse : she will forget, too, her former love, by- 
taking a he-goat's urine in drink, some nard being mixed with 
it to disguise the loathsome taste. 
CHAP. 78. — ^EEMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OE INEAKTS. 
For infants there is nothing more useful than, butter, either 
by itself or in combination with honey ; for dentition more 
particularly, for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of 
the mouth. A wolf's tooth, attached to the body, prevents 
infants from being startled, and acts as a preservative against 
the maladies attendant upon dentition; an effect equally 
produced by making use of a wolf's skin. The larger teeth, 
also, of a wolf, attached to a horse's neck, will render him 
proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare's rennet, applied 
to the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhoea in 
the infant suckled by her. An ass's liver, mixed with a little 
panax, and dropped into the mouth of an infant, will preserve 
it from epilepsy and other diseases to which infants are liable ; 
this, however, must be done for forty days, they say. An ass's 
skin, too, thrown over infants, renders them insensible to fear. 
The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as an amulet to infants, 
facilitate dentition, and are better still, when not allowed to 
touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox's milt is ad- 
ministered in honey, and applied topically ; and for running 
ulcers it is used as an application, with honey. A calf's milt, 
boiled in wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers 
of the mouth. 
The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing 
them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the in- 
fant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy 
and other infantile diseases. Goats' dung, attached to in- 
fants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being -rest- 
less, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of 
^0 There is probably some truth in these statements as to the utility of 
butter and honey for infants. 
