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

Surmullets act as an emetic, dried and pounded, and taken in drink. Castoreum, taken fasting, with a small quantity of hammoniacum247 in oxymel, is extremely good for asthma: spasms, too, in the stomach are assuaged by taking a similar potion with warm oxymel. Frogs stewed in their own liquor in the saucepan, the same way in fact that fish are dressed, are good for a cough, it is said. In some cases, also, frogs are suspended by the legs, and after their juices248 have been received in a platter, it is recommended to gut them, and the entrails being first carefully removed, to preserve them for the above purpose. There is a small frog,249 also, which ascends trees, and croaks aloud there: if a person suffering from cough spits into its mouth and then lets it go, he will experience a cure, it is said. For cough attended with spitting of blood, it is recommended to beat up the raw flesh of a snail, and to drink it in hot water.