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CHAP. 12.—REMEDIES FOR QUINZY AND SCROFULA.

For quinzy we have very expeditious remedies in goose-gall, mixed with elaterium1 and honey, an owlet's brains, or the ashes of a burnt swallow, taken in warm water; which last remedy we owe2 to the poet Ovid. But of all the remedies spoken of as furnished by the swallow, one of the most efficacious is that derived from the young of the wild swallow, a bird which may be easily recognized by the peculiar conformation of its nest.3 By far the most effectual, however, of them all, are the young of the bank-swallow,4 that being the name given to the kind which builds its nest in holes on the banks of rivers. Many persons recommend the young of any kind of swallow as a food, assuring us that the person who takes it need be in no apprehension of quinzy for the whole of the ensuing year. The young of this bird are sometimes stifled and then burnt in a vessel with the blood, the ashes being administered to the patient with bread or in the drink: some, however, mix with them the ashes of a burnt weasel, in equal proportion. The same remedies are recommended also for scrofula, and they are administered for epilepsy, once a day, in drink. Swallows preserved in salt are taken for quinzy, in (loses of one drachma, in drink: the nest,5 too, of the bird, taken internally, is said to be a cure for the same disease.

Millepedes,6 it is thought, used in the form of a liniment, are peculiarly efficacious for quinzy: some persons, also, administer eleven of them, bruised in one semi-sextarius of hydromel, through a reed, they being of no use whatever if once touched by the teeth. Other remedies mentioned are, the broth of a 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 substituted at the end of thirty days. Some persons preserve the heart of this animal in a small silver vessel,7 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 barleymeal, 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 flesh is forbidden to the patient. "Taurus"8 is the name usually given to an earth-beetle, very similar to a tick in appearance, and which it derives from the diminutive horns with which it is furnished: some persons call it the "earth-louse."9 From the earth thrown up by these insects a liniment is prepared for scrofula and similar diseases, and for gout, the application not being washed off till the end of three days. This last remedy is effectual for a whole year, and all those other properties are attributed to it which we have mentioned10 when speaking of crickets. There are some, again, who make a similar use of the earth thrown up by ants; while others attach to the patient as many earth-worms as there are scrofu- lous tumours, the sores drying as the worms dry up.

Some persons cut off the head and tail of a viper, as already mentioned,11 about the rising of the Dog-star, which done, they

burn the middle, and give a pinch of the ashes in three fingers, for thrice seven days, in drink-such is the plan they use for

the cure of scrofula. Others, again, pass round the scrofulous tumours a linen thread, with which a viper has been suspended by the neck till dead. Millepedes12 are also used, with one fourth part of turpentine; a remedy which is equally recommended for the cure of all kinds of apostemes.

1 See B. xx. c. 2.

2 No very great obligation, apparently.

3 See B. x. c. 49.

4 "Riparia."

5 The only birds' nests that are now taken internally are the soutton bourong, or, edible birds' nests of the Chinese.

6 See B. xxix. c. 39.

7 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 was probably what we should call a "locket."

8 "The bull." Dalechamps takes this to be the stag-beetle or bull-fly; but that, as Ajasson remarks, has four horns, two antenne, and two large mandibules; in addition to which, from its size, it would hardly be called the "earth-louse." He concludes that a lamellicorn is meant; but whether belonging to the Lucanidæ or the Scarabæidæ, it is impossible to say.

9 "Pediculus terræ."

10 In B. xxix. c. 33.

11 In B. xxix. c. 21.

12 He probably speaks of woodlice here. Ettmuller asserts their utility in this form for scrofula. Valisnieri says the same; Spielmann prescribes them for arthrosis; Riviere considers them as a detergent for ulcers, and a resolvent for tumours of the mamillæ; and Baglivi maintains that they are a first-rate diuretic, and unequalled as a lithontriptic. They contain muriate of lime and of potash, which may possibly, in some small degree, give them an aperitive virtue.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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