Chap. 11.] REMEDIES DEBITED FROM EGGS. 
387 
ing a disordered stomach, being eaten with half a nut-gall, 
and no other food taken for the next two hours. They are 
given also for dysentery, boiled in the egg with one semi-sexta- 
rius of astringent wine, and an equal quantity of oKve oil and 
polenta. The pellicle that lines the shell is used, either raw 
or boiled, for the cure of cracked lips ; and the shell itself, 
reduced to ashes, is taken in wine for discharges of blood : care 
must be taken, however, to burn it without the pellicle. In 
the same way, too, a dentifrice is prepared. The ashes of the 
shell, applied topically with myrrh, arrest menstruation when 
in excess. So remarkably strong is the shell of an egg, that 
if it is set upright, no force or weight can break it, unless a 
slight inclination be made to one side or other of the circum- 
ference. Eggs taken whole in wine, with rue, dill, and cum- 
min, facilitate parturition. Used with oil and cedar-resin, 
they remove itch and prurigo, and, applied in combination with 
cyclaminos,"^^ they are remedial for running ulcers of the head. 
Por purulent expectorations and spitting of blood, a raw egg 
is taken, warmed with juice of cut-leek and an equal quantity 
of Greek honey. For coughs, eggs are administered, boiled 
and beaten up with honey, or else raw, with raisin wine and an 
equal quantity of olive oil. Eor diseases of the male organs, 
an injection is made, of an egg, three cyathi of raisin wine, 
and half an ounce of amylum,"^^ the mixture being used imme- 
diately after the bath. Where injuries have been inflicted by 
serpents, boiled eggs are used as a liniment, beaten up with 
nasturtium. 
In what various ways eggs are used as food is well known 
to all, passing downwards, however swollen the throat may 
be, and warming the parts as they pass. Eggs, too, are the 
only diet which, while it affords nutriment in sickness, does 
not load the stomach, possessing at the same moment all the 
advantages both of food and drink. We have already'^''' stated, 
that the shell of an egg becomes soft when steeped in vinegar : 
it is by the aid of eggs thus prepared, and kneaded up with 
meal into bread, that patients suffering from the coeliac flux 
are often restored to strength. Some, however, think it a better 
plan to roast the eggs, when thus softened, in a shallow pan ; 
a method, by the aid of which, they arrest not only looseness of 
7^ Or Sowbread. See B. xxv. c. 67. 
See B. xviii. c. It ^'^ In B. x. c, 80. 
c c 2 
