CHAP. 60. (15.)—-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER,
AND FOR URINARY CALCULI.
Diseases of the bladder, and the torments attendant upon
calculi, are treated with the urine of a wild boar, or the
bladder of that animal taken as food; both of them being still
more efficacious if they have been thoroughly soaked first.
The bladder, when eaten, should be boiled first, and if the
patient is a female, it should be a sow's bladder. There are
found in the liver of the wild boar certain small stones,
1 or
what in hardness resemble small stones, of a white hue, and
resembling those found in the liver of the common swine: if
these stones are pounded and taken in wine, they will expel
calculi, it is said. So oppressed is the wild boar by the burden of his urine,
2 that if he has not first voided it, he is
unable to take to flight, and suffers himself to be taken as
though he were enchained to the spot. This urine, they say,
has a consuming effect upon urinary calculi. The kidneys of
a hare, dried and taken in wine, act as an expellent upon
calculi. We have already
3 mentioned that in the gammon of
the hog there are certain joint-bones; a decoction made from
them is remarkably useful for urinary affections. The kidneys
of an ass, dried and pounded, and administered in undiluted
wine, are a cure for diseases of the bladder. The excrescences
that grow on horses' legs, taken for forty days in ordinary
wine or honied wine, expel urinary calculi. The ashes, too, of
a horse's hoof, taken in wine or water, are considered highly
useful for this purpose; and the same with the dung of a she-goat—if a wild goat, all the better—taken in honied wine:
goats' hair, too, is used, reduced to ashes.
For carbuncles upon the generative organs, the brains and
blood of a wild boar or swine are highly recommended: and
for serpiginous affections of those parts, the liver of those
animals is used, burnt upon juniper wood more particularly,
and mixed with papyrus and arsenic;
4 the ashes, also, of their
dung; ox-gall, kneaded to the consistency of honey, with
Egyptian alum and myrrh, beet-root boiled in wine being laid
upon it; or else beef. Running ulcers of those parts are
treated with veal-suet and marrow, boiled in wine, or with the
gall of a she-goat, mixed with honey and the extracted juice
of the bramble.
5 In cases where these ulcers are serpiginous,
it is recommended to use goats' dung with honey or vinegar,
or else butter by itself. Swellings of the testes are reduced by
using veal-suet with nitre, or the dung of the animal boiled in
vinegar. The bladder of a wild boar, eaten roasted, acts as a
check upon incontinence of urine; a similar effect being produced by the ashes of the feet of a wild boar or swine sprinkled
in the drink; the ashes of a sow's bladder taken in drink; the
bladder or lights of a kid; a hare's brains taken in wine; the
testes of a male hare grilled; the rennet of that animal taken
with goose-grease and polenta;
6 or the kidneys of an ass, beaten
up and taken in undiluted wine.
The magicians tell us, that after taking the ashes of a boar's
genitals in sweet wine, the patient must make water in a dog
kennel, and repeat the following formula—"This I do that I
may not wet my bed as a dog does." On the other hand, a
swine's bladder, attached to the groin, facilitates the discharge
of the urine, provided it has not already touched the ground.