450 
pltnt's natural history. 
[Cook XXX. 
is attached to a tree that is being felled, the persons hewing 
it will never feel cold, and will fell it all the more easily. For 
so it is, that this is the only one among all the serpents that 
faces the cold, making its appearance the first of all, and even 
before the cuckoo's note is heard. There is another marvellous 
fact also mentioned, with reference to the cuckoo : if, upon the 
spot where a person hears this bird for the first time, he traces 
round the space occupied by his right foot and then digs 
up the earth, it will effectually prevent fleas from breeding, 
wherever it is thrown. 
CHAP. 26. REMEDIES FOR PARALYSIS. 
For persons apprehensive of paralysis the fat of dormice and 
of field-mice, they say, is very useful, boiled : and for patients 
threatened with phthisis, millepedes are good, taken in drink, 
in manner already^^ mentioned for the cure of quinzy. The 
same, too, with a green lizard, boiled down to one cyathus iu 
three sextarii of wine, and taken in doses of one spoonful 
daily, until the patient is perfectly cured ; the ashes also of 
burnt snails, taken in wine. 
CHAP. 27. REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY. 
For the cure of epilepsy wool-grease is used, with a modi- 
cum of myrrh, a piece about the size of a hazel-nut being dis- 
solved and taken after the bath, in two cyathi of wine : a 
ram's testes, also, dried and pounded, and taken in doses of 
half a denarius, in water, or in a semi-sextarius of asses' 
milk; the patient being forbidden wine five days before and 
after using the remedy. Sheep's blood, too, is mightily praised, 
taken in drink ; sheep's gall, also, and lambs' gall in particular, 
mixed with honey ; the flesh of a sucking puppy, taken with 
wine and mjTrh, the head and feet being first removed ; the 
callosities from a mule's legs, taken in three cyathi of oxymel; 
the ashes of a spotted lizard from beyond seas, taken in vine- 
gar; the thin coat of a spotted lizard, which it casts like a 
snake, taken in drink — indeed some persons recommend the 
lizard itself, gutted with a reed and dried and taken in drink ; 
while others, again, are for roasting it on a wooden spit and 
taking it with the food. 
It is worth while knowing how the winter slough of this 
-■^ In c. 12 of tliis Book. Woodiice auG meant. 
