CHAPTER XIII. CURE OF ELEPHAS.
THE remedies ought to be greater than the diseases, for the
relief of them. But what method of cure could be able to
overcome such a malady as elephas? For the illness does not
attack one part or viscus, nor prevail only internally or externally,
but inwardly it possesses the whole person, and outwardly,
covers the whole surface--a spectacle unseemly and
dreadful to behold! for it is the semblance of the wild animal.
And, moreover, there is a danger in living or associating with
it no less than with the plague, for the infection is thereby
communicated by the respiration. Wherefore what sufficient
remedy for it shall we find in medicine? But yet it is proper
to apply every medicine and method of diet, -- even iron
and fire, -- and these, indeed, if you apply to a recent
disease there is hope of a cure. But if fully developed,
and if it has firmly established itself in the inward parts, and,
moreover, has attacked the face, the patient is in a hopeless
condition.
Wherefore we are to open the veins at the elbow, and on
both sides; and also those at the ankles, but not the same
day, for an interval is better both in order to procure a greater
flow of blood, and for the resuscitation of the strength; for it
is necessary to evacuate the blood frequently and copiously, as
being the nutriment of the disease, but the good portion of it
which is the natural nourishment is small. Wherefore while
abstracting the vitiated portion, consisting of melted matters,
we must form an estimate of the suitable part mixed up with
it, until the disease has given way from want of pabulum;
for the new part being incorporated with the body, in the
course of a long time, obliterates the old. Then we are to
give the hiera in a potion not once only, but let everything
be done several times after recovery and recurrence. And let
the other medicinal purgation by the food be practised; and
let the treatment be that which I have described under
Ischiatic disease, and let the patient drink undivided milk--and
that in great quantity--for opening the bowels. Let it
receive the fifth part of water, so that the whole of the milk
may pass through. They are quickly to be treated with
emetics, at first those given when fasting, next, those after
food, then those by radishes. Let all things be done frequently
and continuously; administering the hellebore at all seasons,
but especially in spring and autumn, giving it every alternate
day, and again next year. And if the disease has acquired
strength, we must give whatever liquid medicines any one has
had experience of; for it is a good thing to administer medicines
frequently as a remedy. And I will now describe those
with which I am acquainted. Mix one cyathus of cedria
1
and two of brassica, and give. Another: Of the juice of
sideritis,
2 of trefoil one cyathus, of wine and honey two
cyathi. Another: Of the shavings of an elephant's tooth
one dram with wine, to the amount of two cyathi. But likewise
the flesh of the wild reptiles, the vipers, formed into
pastils,
3 are taken in a draught. From their heads and tail
we must cut off to the extent of four fingers' breadth, and
boil the remainder to the separation of the back-bones; and
having formed the flesh into pastils, they are to be cooled in
the shade; and these are to be given in a draught in like
manner as the squill. The vipers, too, are to be used as a
seasoner of food at supper, and are to be prepared as fishes.
But if the compound medicine from vipers be at hand, it is to
be drunk in preference to all others, for it contains together
the virtues of all the others, so to cleanse the body and
smooth down its asperities. There are many other medicines
. . . . . . of the Celts, which are men called Gauls, those
alkaline substances made into balls, with which they cleanse
their clothes, called soap, with which it is a very excellent
thing to cleanse the body in the bath. And purslain and
houseleek with vinegar, and also the decoction of the roots of
dock with the sulphur vivum proves an excellent detergent.
The compound medicine from levigated alcyonium,
4 natron,
the burnt lees of wine, alum, sulphur vivum, costus, iris,
and pepper, these things are all to be mixed together in
each case according to the power, but in proportionate quantities,
and this compound is to be sprinkled on the body and
rubbed in. For the callous protuberances of the face, we
are to rub in the ashes of vine branches, mixed up with the
suet of some wild animal, as the lion, the panther, the bear;
or if these are not at hand, of the barnacle goose;
5 for like in
the unlike, as the ape to man, is most excellent. Also the
ammoniac perfume with vinegar and the juice of plantain, or
of knot-grass, and hypocistis and lycium.
6 But if the flesh
be in a livid state, scarifications are to be previously made for
the evacuation of the humours. But if you wish to soothe
the parts excoriated by the acrid defluxions, the decoction of
fenugreek, or the juice of ptisan, will form an excellent detergent
application; also the oil of roses or of lentisk. Continued
baths are appropriate for humectating the body, and
for dispelling the depraved humours.
The food should be pure, wholesome, of easy digestion, and
plain; and the regimen every way well adjusted, as regards
sleeping, walking, and places of residence. As to exercises,
running, tumbling, and the exercise with the leather-bag;
7
all
these with well-regulated intensity, but not so as to induce
lassitude. Let vociferation also be produced, as being a seasonable
exercise of the breath (
pneuma). The clothing should
be clean, not only to gratify the sight, but because filthy things
irritate the skin. While fasting, the patients are to drink the
wine of wormwood. Barley-bread is a very excellent thing,
and a sausage in due season, and a little of mallows or cabbage
half-boiled, with soup of cumin. For supper, the root of
parsnip and granulated spelt (
alica), with wine and old honey
adapted for the mixing; and such marine articles as loosen the
bowels--the soups of limpets, oysters, sea-urchins, and such
fishes as inhabit rocky places. And of land animals, such as
are wild, as the hare and the boar. Of winged animals, all
sorts of partridges, wood-pigeons, domestic-pigeons, and the
best which every district produces. Of fruits, those of summer;
sweet wines are preferable to such as are strong. The
natural hot-baths of a sulphureous nature, a protracted residence
in the waters, and a sea-voyage.
Courses of Hellebore:--White hellebore is purgative of the
upper intestines, but the black of the lower; and the white is
not only emetic, but of all purgatives the most powerful, not
from the quantity and variety of the excretion--for this cholera
can accomplish--nor from the retching and violence attending
the vomitings, for in this respect sea-sickness is preferable;
but from a power and quality of no mean description, by
which it restores the sick to health, even with little purging
and small retching. But also of all chronic diseases when
firmly rooted, if all other remedies fail, this is the only cure.
For in power the white hellebore resembles fire; and whatever
fire accomplishes by burning, still more does hellebore effect
by penetrating internally--out of dyspnœa inducing freedom
of breathing; out of paleness, good colour; and out of emaciation,
plumpness of flesh.
