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

Depilatories are prepared from the blood, gall, and liver of the tunny, either fresh or preserved; as also from pounded liver of the same fish, preserved with cedar resin396 in a leaden box; a recipe which we find given by the midwife Salpe397 for disguising the age of boys on sale for slaves. A similar property belongs to the pulmo marinus,398 to the blood and gall of the sea-hare, and to the sea-hare itself, stifled in oil. The same, too, with ashes of burnt crabs or sea scolopendræ,399 mixed with oil; sea-nettles,400 bruised in squill vinegar; and brains of the torpedo401 applied with alum on the sixteenth day of the moon. The thick matter emitted by the small frogs, which we have described when treating402 of eye-diseases, is a most efficient depilatory, if applied fresh: the same, too, with the frog itself, dried and pounded, and then boiled down to one-third in three heminæ of water, or else boiled in a copper vessel with oil in a like proportion. Others, again, prepare a depilatory from fifteen frogs, in manner already403 stated under the head of remedies for the eyes. Leeches, also, grilled in an earthen vessel, and applied with vinegar, have the same property as a depilatory; the very odour, too, which attaches to the persons who thus burn them is singularly efficacious for killing bugs.404 Cases are to be found, too, where persons have used castoreum with honey, for many days together, as a depilatory. In the case, however, of every depilatory, the hairs should always be removed before it is applied.