Chap. 10.] EEMEDIES DEBITED TROM WOOL-GEEASE. 383 
in the form of a fumigation. Greasy wool, used as a plaster 
and as a pessary, brings away the dead foetus, and arrests 
uterine discharges. Bites inflicted by a mad dog are plugged 
with unwashed wool, the application being removed at the end 
of seven days. Applied with cold water, it is a cure for 
agnails : steeped in a mixture of boiling nitre, sulphur, oil, 
vinegar, and tar, and applied twice a day, as warm as possible, 
it allays pains in the loins. Ey making ligatures with un- 
washed rams' wool about the extremities of the limbs, bleed- 
ing is effectually stopped. 
In all cases, the wool most esteemed is that from the neck of 
the animal ; the best kinds of wool being those of Galatia, 
Tarentum, Attica, and Miletus. Por excoriations, blows, 
bruises, contusions, crushes, galls, falls, pains in the head and 
other parts, and for inflammation of the stomach, unwashed 
wool is applied, with a mixture of vinegar and oil of roses. 
Eeduced to ashes, it is applied to contusions, wounds, and 
burns, and forms an ingredient in ophthalmic compositions. It 
is employed, also, for fistulas and suppurations of the ears. 
Por this last purpose, some persons take the wool as it is shorn, 
while others pluck it from the fleece ; they then cut off the 
ends of it, and after drying and carding it, lay it in pots of 
unbaked earth, steep it well in honey, and burn it. Others, 
again, arrange it in layers alternately with chips of torch- 
pine,^ and, after sprinkling it with oil, set fire to it : they 
then rub the 'ashes into small vessels with the hands, and let 
them settle in water there. This operation is repeated and the 
water changed several times, until at last the ashes are found 
to be slightly astringent, without the slightest pungency ; upon 
which, they are put by for use, being possessed of certain 
caustic properties,^^ and extremely useful as a detergent for 
the eyelids. 
CHAP. 10. THIRTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WOOL-GREASE. 
And not only this, but the filthy excretions even of sheep, 
the sweat adhering to the wool of the flanks and of the 
axillary concavities — a substance known as ^' oesypum""^^- — are 
68 See B. xvi. c. 19. 
6^ *' Smectica" is suggested by Gesner, Hist. Anim., as a better reading 
than "septica." 
(Esypum" is often mentioned by Ovid as a fayourite cosmetic with 
the Pwoman ladies. 
