440 
PLINT's ISTATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXX. 
for the cure of tlie spleen.'* This done, it is enjoined that the 
rnilt should be covered up with mortar in the wall of the 
patient's sleeping-room, and sealed with a ring, a charm^^ being 
repeated thrice nine times. A dog's milt, removed from the 
animal while still alive, taken with the food, is a cure for dis- 
eases of the spleen : some, again, attach it fresh to that part 
of the patient's body. Others give the patient — without his 
knowing it — the milt of a puppy two days old, to eat, in 
squill vinegar ; the milt, too, of a hedge-hog is similarly 
used. Ashes of burnt snails are employed, in combination 
with linseed, nettle-seed, and honey, the treatment being per- 
sisted in till the patient is thoroughly cured. 
A green lizard has a remedial effect, suspended alive in an 
earthen vessel, at the entrance of the sleeping-room of the 
patient, who, every time he enters or leaves it, must take care 
to touch it with his hand : the head, too, of a horned owl, re- 
duced to ashes and incorporated with an unguent ; honey, also, 
in which the bees have died ; and spiders, the one known as 
the lycos" in particular, 
CHAP. 18. REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE SIDE AND IN THE LOINS. 
Eor pains in the side, the heart of a hoopoe is highly es- 
teemed ; ashes, too, of burnt snails, that have been boiled in 
a ptisan, snails being sometimes applied in the form of a lini- 
ment, alone. Potions employed for this purpose have a sprink- 
ling in them of the ashes of a mad dog's skull. For the cure 
of lumbago, the spotted lizard^^ from beyond seas is used : 
the head and intestines being first removed, the body is boiled 
in wine, with half a denarius of black poppy, and the decoc- 
tion is taken in drink. Green lizards, also, are taken with 
the food, the feet and head being first removed ; or else three 
snails are crushed, shells and all, and boiled with fifteen pepper- 
corns in wine. The feet of an eagle are wrenched off in a 
contrary direction to the joint, and the right foot is attached 
to the right side, the left foot to the left, according as the 
pains are situate. The millepede,^* which we have spoken of 
91 ^'Carmen." Holland says "the aforesaid charm:" but this does 
not appear from the context. From the account, however, given by Marcus 
Empiricus, we learn that the charm, thus repeated twenty-seven times, is 
the same as that already given. 
92 Or " wolf." See B. xi. c. 28. 93 gee B. xxix. c. 28. 
Or woodlouse. See B. xxix. c. 39. 
