WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Of Medicine, in Eight Books cover

Of Medicine, in Eight Books

Chapter 125: CHAP. XXI. OF PESSARIES.
By Aulus Cornelius Celsus
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Health & MedicineHistory - Ancient

About This Book

It gathers medical knowledge into eight concise books that combine clinical observation, diagnosis, prognosis, and practical treatment. Chapters cover diet and regimen, descriptions of internal diseases and external injuries, medicinal preparations, and operative techniques with instructions for wound care and minor surgery. The text emphasizes careful observation and clear symptom description, pairing theoretical causes with hands-on remedies and measurements. Explanatory notes and technical detail support immediate clinical use, making the collection a practical reference for assessing, managing, and treating a broad range of conditions.

CHAP. XXI. OF PESSARIES.

These three kinds of compositions, that is, malagmas, plaisters, and troches, are extensive and various in their uses. But there are other things also useful: as those, which are applied below to females: the Greeks call them pessi[ EK ]. The manner of them is this: the composition is received in soft wool, and this wool put into the vagina.

1.
Pessary for evacu­at­ing blood.

For evacuating blood, to two of the small kind of figs called cauneæ(52) is added nitre p. i. *. Or the seed of garlick is powdered, and a little myrrh added and mixed with susine ointment(53). Or the pulp of a wild cucumber is diluted in woman’s milk.

2.
For soft­en­ing the womb.

To soften the womb, the yolk of an egg, and fenugreek, and rose oil, and saffron are mixed together. Or of elaterium p. iii. *. as much salt, and stavesacre p. vi. *. are incorporated with honey.

3.
Boethus’s for the same.

There is another invented by Boethus, which contains saffron, turpentine resin, each p. iv. *. myrrh p. iii. *. rose oil p. i. *. veal suet p. iii. *. wax p. ii. *. mixed together.

4.
Numenius’s for an in­flam­ma­tion.

The best composition against an inflammation of the womb, is that of Numenius, which contains saffron p. iii. *. wax p. i. *. butter p. viii. *. goose fat p. xii. *. two boiled yolks of eggs, with less than a cyathus of rose oil.

5.
For expel­ling a dead fœtus.

If a fœtus has died within the womb, that it may be the more easily expelled, the bark of pomegranates must be rubbed down with water, and then made use of.

6.
For hysterick fits.

If a woman from an hysterick disorder is subject to fits, snails together with their shells must be burnt and powdered, and then honey added to them.

7.
For conception.

If a woman does not conceive(54), lions fat must be softened with rose oil.