CHAP. 46.—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES. THE GLAUCISCUS:
ONE REMEDY.
The milk is increased in females by eating the glauciscus
1
in its own liquor, or else smarides
2 with a ptisan, or boiled
with fennel. Ashes of calcined shells of the murex or purple,
applied with honey, are an effectual cure for affections of the
mamillæ; river-crabs, too, and sea-crabs, applied topically, are
equally good. The meat of the murex, applied to the mamillæ,
removes hairs
3 growing upon those parts. The squatina,
4
applied topically, prevents the mamillæ from becoming too distended.
Lint greased with dolphin's
5 fat, and then ignited,
produces a smoke which acts as an excitant upon females
suffering from hysterical suffocations; the same, too, with
strombi,
6 left to putrefy in vinegar. Heads of perch or of
mænæ,
7 calcined and mixed with salt, oil, and cunila,
8 are
curative of diseases of the uterus: used as a fumigation, they
bring away the afterbirth. Fat,
9 too, of the sea-calf, melted
by the agency of fire, is introduced into the nostrils of females
when swooning from hysterical suffocations; and for a similar
purpose, the rennet of that animal is applied as a pessary, in
wool.
The pulmo marinus,
10 attached to the body as an amulet, is
an excellent promoter of menstruation; an effect which is
equally produced by pounding live sea-urchins, and taking
them in sweet wine. River-crabs,
11 bruised in wine, and taken
internally, arrest menstruation. The silurus,
12 that of Africa
13
more particularly, used as a fumigation, facilitates parturition,
it is said. Crabs, taken in water, arrest menstruation; but
used with hyssop, they act as an emmenagogue, we are told.
In cases, too, where the infant is in danger of suffocation at
the moment of delivery, a similar drink, administered to the
mother, is highly efficacious. Crabs, too, either fresh or dried,
are taken in drink, for the purpose of preventing abortion.
Hippocrates
14 prescribes them as a promoter of menstruation,
and as an expellent of the dead fœtus, beaten up with five
15
roots of lapathum and rue and some soot, and administered
in honied wine. Crabs, boiled and taken in their liquor,
with lapathum
16 and parsley, promote the menstrual discharge,
and increase the milk. In cases of fever, attended
with pains in the head and throbbing of the eyes, crabs are
said to be highly beneficial to females, given in astringent
wine.
Castoreum,
17 taken in honied wine, is useful as a promoter
of menstruation: in cases of hysterical suffocation, it is given
to the patient to smell at with pitch and vinegar, or else it is
made up into tablets and used as a pessary. For the purpose
also of bringing away the afterbirth it is found a useful plan
to employ castoreum with panax,
18 in four cyathi of wine;
and in cases where the patient is suffering from cold, in doses
of three oboli. If, however, a female in a state of pregnancy
should happen to step over castoreum, or over the beaver itself,
abortion, it is said, will be the sure result: so, too, if castoreum
is only held over a pregnant woman's head, there will be
great danger of miscarriage.
There is a very marvellous fact, too, that I find stated in
reference to the torpedo:
19 if it is caught at the time that the
moon is in Libra, and kept in the open air for three days, it
will always facilitate parturition, as often as it is introduced
into the apartment of a woman in labour. The sting, too, of
the pastinaca,
20 attached to the navel, is generally thought to
have the property of facilitating delivery: it must be taken,
however, from the fish while alive; which done, the fish must
be returned to the sea. I find it stated by some authorities that
there is a substance called "ostraceum," which is also spoken
of as "onyx"
21 by others; that, used as a fumigation, it is
wonderfully beneficial for suffocations of the uterus; that in
smell it resembles castoreum, and is still more efficacious, if
burnt with this last substance; and that in a calcined state it
has the property of healing inveterate ulcers, and cancerous
sores of a malignant nature. As to carbuncles and carcinomatous
sores upon the secret parts of females, there is nothing
more efficacious, it is said, than a female crab beaten up, just
after full moon, with flower of salt
22 and applied with water.