CHAP. 71.—REMEDIES FOR BURNS. THE METHOD OF TESTING BULL-GLUE; SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.
For the treatment of burns, bears’ grease is used, with lily roots; dried wild boars’ dung also, or swine’s dung; the ashes of burnt bristles, extracted from plasterers’ brushes, beaten up with grease; the pastern-bone of an ox, reduced to ashes, and mixed with wax and bull’s marrow or deer’s marrow; or the dung of a hare. The dung, too, of a she-goat, they say, will effect a cure without leaving any scars.
The best glue is that prepared from the ears and genitals of the bull, and there is no better cure in existence for burns. There is nothing, however, that is more extensively adulterated; which is done by boiling up all kinds of old skins, and shoes even, for the purpose. The Rhodian glue is the purest of all, and it is this that painters and physicians mostly use. The whiter it is, the more highly glue is esteemed: that, on the other hand, which is black and brittle like wood, is looked upon as good for nothing.