CHAP. 34.—-REMEDIES FOR INFLAMED TUMOURS, AND FOR DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. THE SCIÆNA: ONE REMEDY. THE PERCH: FOUR REMEDIES. THE SQUATINA: THREE REMEDIES. THE SMARIS: THREE REMEDIES.
The pickle of the coracinus298 disperses inflammatory tumours; an effect which is equally produced by using the calcined intestines and scales of the sciæna.299 The sea-scorpion,300 too, is used for the same purpose, boiled in wine, and applied as a fomentation to the part affected. Shells of sea-urchins, bruised and applied with water, act as a check upon incipient inflammatory tumours. Ashes of the murex, or of the purple, are employed in either case, whether it is wanted to disperse inflammatory tumours in an incipient state, or to bring them to a head and break them. Some authorities prescribe the following preparation: of wax and frankincense twenty drachmæ, of litharge forty drachmæ, of calcined murex ten drachmæ, and of old oil, one semisextarius. Salt fish, boiled and applied by itself, is highly useful for the above purposes.
River crabs, bruised and applied, disperse pustules on the generative organs: the same, too, with calcined heads of mænæ,301 or the flesh of that fish, boiled and applied. Heads of salted perch,302 reduced to ashes, and applied with honey, are equally useful for the purpose; or else calcined heads of pelamides,303 or skin of the squatina reduced to ashes.304 It is the skin of this fish that is used, as already305 stated, for giving a polish to wood; for the sea even, we find, furnishes its aid to our artificers. For a similar purpose the fishes called “smarides”306 are applied topically; as also ashes of the shell of the murex or of the purple, applied with honey; which last are still more efficacious when the flesh has been burnt with the shell.
Salt fish, boiled with honey, is particularly good for the cure of carbuncles upon the generative organs. For relaxation of the testes, the slime307 of snails is recommended, applied in the form of a liniment.