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CHAP. 23. (7.)—REMEDIES FOR ALOPECY, CHANGE OF COLOUR IN THE HAIR, AND ULCERATIONS OF THE HEAD. THE SEA-MOUSE: TWO REMEDIES. THE SEA-SCORPION: TWELVE REMEDIES. THE LEECH: SEVEN REMEDIES. THE MUREX: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE CONCHYLIUM: FIVE REMEDIES.

Ashes of the hippocampus,1 mixed with nitre2 and hog's lard, or else used solely with vinegar, are curative of alopecy; the skin being first prepared for the reception of the necessary medicaments by an application of powdered bone of sæpia.3 Alopecy is cured also with ashes of the sea-mouse,4 mixed with oil; ashes of the sea-urchin, burnt, flesh and all together; the gall of the sea-scorpion;5 or else ashes of three frogs burnt alive in an earthen pot, applied with honey, or what is still better, in combination with tar. Leeches left to putrefy for forty days in red wine stain the hair black. Others, again, recommend one sextarius of leeches to be left to putrefy the same number of days in a leaden vessel, with two sextarii of vinegar, the hair to be well rubbed with the mixture in the sun. According to Sornatius, this preparation is naturally so penetrating, that if females, when they apply it, do not take the precaution of keeping some oil in the mouth, the teeth even will become blackened thereby. Ashes of burnt shells of the murex or purple are used as a liniment, with honey, for ulcerations of the head; the shells, too, of other shell-fish,6 powdered merely, and not calcined, are very useful for the same purpose, applied with water. For the cure of head-ache, castoreum is employed, in combination with peucedanum7 and oil of roses.

1 Probably the Syngnathus hippocampus of Linnæus. See B. ix. c. <*>.

2 As to the Nitrum of the ancients, see B. xxxi. c. 46.

3 Or Cuttlefish. See B. ix. c. 44.

4 See B. ix. c. 35.

5 See c. 17 of the present Book.

6 This seems to be the meaning of "conchyliorum" here, though in most instances Pliny uses it as synonymous with the purple. See B. ix. cc. 60, 61, 64.

7 See B. xxv. c. 70.

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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