Chap. 12.] 
EEMEDIES rOE SCROFULA. 
435 
mouse boiled with vervain, a thong of dogskin passed three 
times round the back, and pigeons' dung mixed with wine and 
oil. For the cure of rigidity of the muscles of the neck, and 
of opisthotony, a twig of vitex, taken from a kite's nest, is 
attached to the body as an amulet. 
(5.) For ulcerated scrofula, a weasel's blood is employed, or 
the animal itself, boiled in wine ; but not in cases where the 
tumours have been opened with the knife. It is said, too, 
that a weasel, eaten with the food, is productive of a similar 
effect ; sometimes, also, it is burnt upon twigs, and the ashes 
are applied with axle-grease. In some instances, a green lizard 
is attached to the body of the patient, a fresh one being sub- 
stituted at the end of thirty days* Some persons preserve the 
heart of this animal in a small silver vessel,''^ as a cure for 
scrofula in females. Old snails, those found adhering to shrubs 
more particularly, are pounded with the shells on, and applied 
as a liniment. Asps, too, are similarly employed, reduced to 
ashes and mixed with bull suet ; snakes' fat also, diluted with 
oil ; and the ashes of a burnt snake, applied with oil or wax. 
It is a good plan also, in cases of scrofula, to eat the middle 
of a snake, the extremities being first removed, or to drink 
the ashes of the reptile, similarly prepared and burnt in a 
new earthen vessel : they will be found much more efficacious, 
however, when the snake has been killed between the ruts 
made by wheels. It is recommended also, to dig up a cricket 
with the earth about its hole, and to apply it in the form of a 
liniment ; to use pigeons' dung, either by itself, or with barley- 
meal, or oatmeal and vinegar ; or else to apply the ashes of a 
burnt mole, mixed with honey. 
Some persons apply the liver of this last animal, crumbled 
in the hands, due care being taken not to wash it off for three 
days : it is said, too, that a mole's right foot is a remedy for 
scrofula. Others, again, cut off the head of a mole, and after 
kneading it with earth thrown up by those animals, divide 
it into tablets, and keep it in a pewter box, for the treatment 
of all kinds of tumours, diseases of the neck, and the affections 
known as apostemes in all such cases the use of swine's 
Marcus Empiricus says that the heart must be enclosed in a silver 
lupine and worn suspended from the neck, being efficacious for scrofula 
both in males and females. The silver lupine vras probably what we 
should call a "locket." 
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