Chap. 36.] EEMEDIES TOE HEAD-ACHE.' 
409 
duced to ashes, and then mixed with oil of myrtle, will 
prevent the hair from coming off. For all these purposes 
green lizards are still more efficacious, and the remedy is ren- 
dered most effectual, when salt is added, bears' grease, and 
pounded onions. Some persons boil ten green lizards in ten 
sextarii of oil, and content themselves with rubbing the place 
with the mixture once a month. Alopecy is also cured very 
speedily with the ashes of a viper's skin, or by an application 
of fresh poultry dung. A raven's egg, beaten up in a copper 
vessel and applied to the head, previously shaved, imparts a 
black colour to the hair ; care must be taken, however, to keep 
some oil in the mouth till the application is quite dry, or else 
the teeth will turn black as well. The operation must be per- 
formed also in the shade, and the liniment must not be washed 
off before the end of three days. Some persons employ the 
blood and brains of a raven, in combination with red wine ; 
while others, again, boil down the bird, and put it, at bedtime, 
in a vessel made of lead. With some it is the practice, for 
the cure of alopecy, to apply bruised cantharides with tar, the 
skin being first prepared with an application of nitre : — it 
should be remembered, however, that cantharides are possessed 
of caustic properties, and due care must be taken not to let 
them eat too deep into the skin. For the ulcerations thus pro- 
duced, it is recommended to use applications made of the heads, 
gall, and dung of mice, mixed with hellebore and pepper. 
CHAP. 35. EEMEDIES FOE LICE AND EOE POEEIGO. 
Nits are destroyed by using dogs* fat, eating serpents cooked 
like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink. Porrigo is 
cured by applying sheep's gall with Cimolian chalk, and rub- 
hmg the head with the mixture till dry. 
CHAP. 36. EEMEDIES EOE HE AD- ACHE AND EOE WOUNDS ON 
THE HEAD. 
A good remedy for head-ache are the heads taken from the 
snails which are found without shells, and in an imperfect 
state. In these heads there is found a hard stony substance, 
about as large as a common pebble : on being extracted from 
^2 A recipe well understood in the restaurants of the French provinces, 
Ajasson says, but it is doubtful whether with the object named by our author. 
^ He means slugs probably. 
