Chap. 59."J 
TvEMEBIES FOR WOimDS. 
459 
burnt barley and verdigrease, in equal quantities ; a prepa- 
ration whicli is good, too, for carcinomata and spreading sores. 
It cauterizes the flesh also around the margins of ulcers, and 
reduces and makes level fungous excrescences form.ed by sores. 
Ashes, too, of burnt sheep's dung, mixed with nitre, are of great 
efficacy for the cure of carcinomata ; as also those of lambs' 
thigh-bones, in cases more particularly where ulcers refuse to 
cicatrize. Yery considerable, too, is the efficacy of lights, 
ram's lights in particular, which are of the greatest utility for 
reducing and making level the fleshy excrescences formed by 
ulcerous sores. "With sheep's dung, warmed beneath an 
earthen pan and kneaded, the swellings attendant upon wounds 
are reduced, and fistulous sores and epinyctis are cleansed and 
made to heal. 
But it is in the ashes of a burnt dog's head that the ^ 
greatest efficacy is found ; as it quite equals spodium^^ in 
its property of cauterizing all kinds of fleshy excrescences, 
and causing sores to heal. Mouse-dung, too, is used as a 
cautery, and weasels' dung, burnt to ashes. Pounded mille- 
pedes, mixed with turpentine and earth of Sinope,'^^ are used 
for penetrating carcinomata and fleshy indurations in deep- 
seated sores ; and the same substances are remarkably useful 
for the treatment of ulcers threatened with maggots. 
Indeed the several varieties of worms themselves are pos- 
sessed of marvellously useful properties. The worms,^' for 
instance, that breed in wood are curative of all kinds of ulcers : 
reduced to ashes, with an equal quantity of anise, and applied 
with oil, they heal cancerous sores. Earthworms are so remark- 
ably healing for wounds recently inflicted, that it is a very 
general belief that by the end of seven days they will unite 
sinews even that have been cut asunder : hence it is that it is re- 
commended to keep them preserved in honey. Ashes of burnt 
earth-worms, in combination with tar or Simblian honey, cau- 
terize the indurated margins of ulcerous sores. Some persons dry 
earthworms in the sun, and apply them to wounds with vinegar, 
the application not being removed till the end of a couple of days. 
The earth also that adheres to snails is useful, similarly em- 
45 See B. xxxiv. c. 34. 
*6 See B. XXXV. cc. 12, 13. ^7 "Cosses." 
Dioscorides speaks of this koney as the produce of Sicily. 
