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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 5 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 5 (of 6)

Chapter 564: CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS.
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About This Book

This volume catalogs remedies derived from forest trees and wild plants, presenting systematic entries for dozens of species with prescribed treatments and applications. It enumerates specific uses for resins, barks, leaves, berries, and sap, and gives instructions on preparation, dosage, and testing of potency. The text also records variations among species, regional observations on growth and harvesting, and anecdotes on how certain plants were discovered or associated with animals and human practices. Overall it functions as a practical herbal compendium combining botanical description with medicinal recipes and empirical notes.

CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS.

A crow’s brains, taken with the food, they say, will make the eyelashes grow; or else wool-grease, applied with warmed myrrh, by the aid of a fine probe. A similar result is promised by using the following preparation: burnt flies and ashes of mouse-dung are mixed in equal quantities, to the amount of half a denarius in the whole; two sixths of a denarius of antimony are then added, and the mixture is applied with wool-grease. For the same purpose, also, the young ones of a mouse are beaten up, in old wine, to the consistency of the strengthening preparations known as “acopa.”2638 When eyelashes are plucked out that are productive of inconvenience, they are prevented from growing again by using a hedge-hog’s gall; the liquid portion, also, of a spotted lizard’s eggs; the ashes of a burnt salamander; the gall of a green lizard, mixed with white wine, and left to thicken to the consistency of honey in a copper vessel in the sun; the ashes of a swallow’s young, mixed with the milky juice of tithymalos;2639 or else the slime of snails.