CHAP. 27.—REMEDIES FOR LICHENS, AND FOR SPOTS UPON THE
FACE. THE DOLPHIN: NINE REMEDIES. COLUTHIA OR CORYPHIA:
THREE REMEDIES. HALCYONEUM : SEVEN REMEDIES.
THE TUNNY : FIVE REMEDIES.
Lichens and leprous spots are removed by applying the fat
of the sea-calf,
1 ashes of the mæna
2 in combination with three
oboli of honey, liver of the pastinaca
3 boiled in oil, or ashes
of the dolphin or hippocampus
4 mixed with water. After the
parts have been duly excoriated, a cicatrizing treatment ought
to be pursued. Some persons bake dolphin's liver in an
earthen vessel, till a grease flows therefrom like oil
5 in ap-
pearance: this they use by way of ointment for these diseases.
Burnt shells of the murex or purple, applied with honey,
have a detergent effect upon spots on the face in females:
used as an application for seven consecutive days, a fomentation
made of white of eggs being substituted on the eighth,
they efface wrinkles, and plump out the skin. To the genus
" murex" belong the shell-fish known by the Greeks as "coluthia"
or "coryphia," equally turbinated, but considerably
smaller: for all the above purposes they are still more efficacious,
and the use of them tends to preserve the sweetness of
the breath. Fish-glue
6 effaces wrinkles and plumps out the skin;
being boiled for the purpose in water some four hours, and then
pounded and kneaded up till it attains a thin consistency, like
that of honey. After being thus prepared, it is put by in a new
vessel for keeping; and, when wanted for use, is mixed, in
the proportion of four drachmæ, with two drachmæ of sulphur,
two of alkanet, and eight of litharge; the whole being
sprinkled with water and beaten up together. The preparation
is then applied to the face, and is washed off at the end
of four hours. For the cure of freckles and other affections
of the face, calcined bones of cuttle-fish are also used; an
application which is equally good for the removal of fleshy
excrescences and the dispersion of running sores.
(8.) For the cure of itch-scab, a frog is boiled in five semisextarii
of sea-water, the decoction being reduced to the consistency
of honey. There is a sea production called "halcyoneum," composed,
as some think, of the nests
7 of the birds known as the
"halcyon"
8 and "ceyx," or, according to others, of the concretion
of sea-foam, or of some slime of the sea, or a certain
lanuginous inflorescence thrown up by it. Of this halcyoneum
there are four different kinds; the first, of an ashy colour, of a
compact substance, and possessed of a pungent odour; the
second, soft, of a milder nature, and with a smell almost iden-
tical with that of sea-weed; the third, whiter, and with a
variegated surface; the fourth, more like pumice in appearance,
and closely resembling rotten sponge. The best of all is
that which nearly borders upon a purple hue, and is known as
the "Milesian" kind: the whiter it is, the less highly it is
esteemed.
The properties of halcyoneum are ulcerative and detergent:
when required for use, it is parched and applied without oil.
It is quite marvellous how efficiently it removes leprous sores,
lichens, and freckles, used in combination with lupines and
two oboli of sulphur. It is employed, also, for the removal
of marks upon the eyes.
9 Andreas
10 has recommended for the
cure of leprosy ashes of burnt crabs, with oil; and Attalus,
11
fresh fat of tunny.