The administration of urine as a curative opens the door to a flood of thought. Medicine, both in theory and practice, even among nations of the highest development and refinement, has not, until within the present century, cleared its skirts of the superstitious hand-prints of the dark ages. With tribes of a lower degree of culture it is still subordinate to the incantations and exorcisms of the “medicine man.” It might not be going a step too far to assert that the science of therapeutics, pure and simple, has not yet taken form among savages; but to shorten discussion and avoid controversy, it will be assumed here that such a science does exist, but in an extremely rude and embryotic state; and to this can be referred all examples of the introduction of urine or ordure in the materia medica, where the aid of the “medicine man” does not seem to have been invoked, as in the method employed for the eradication of dandruff by Mexicans, Eskimo, and others, the Celtiberian dentifrice, etc.[71]
When the compilation and correlation of data bearing upon this subject was first begun, the exceeding importance of the pharmaceutical division was manifest. In the opinion of the author, this part of the investigation should have been assumed by a student possessed of a preliminary training in medicine, and it was not until urged on by friendly correspondents that he concluded, upon resuming his labors, to augment these references by citations from the more prominent writers of ancient and modern times, who have demonstrated the importance of the subject by devoting to its consideration not passing sentences and scant allusions, but pregnant chapters and bulky volumes.
By great good fortune he was enabled to make the fullest use of the library of the Army Medical Museum, which, under the supervision of Surgeon John S. Billings, United States Army, has become the finest special bibliothèque in the world.
From Surgeon Billings, and his able assistants, Doctors Fletcher and Wise, were received, besides the courteous attentions which every student has the right to expect, an intelligent and sympathetic co-operation which cannot be too gratefully acknowledged.
In such an embarrassment of riches as now confronted him, he exercised the right of drawing only upon the authorities which would appeal to all critics as most entitled to prominence; to have followed any other course, and to have attempted to engraft all available material, would have swollen this chapter to hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages.
“Sprengel pense que Asclépiade, surnommé Pharmacion, est le premier qui ait conseillé les excréments humains; mais il est probable qu’il ne fit qu’ériger en préceptes écrits un usage déjà consacré en Orient, particulièrement en Egypte.”—(“Bib. Scat.,” pp. 29, 30.)
The earliest writer whose works have been consulted was Hippocrates, termed the “Father of Medicine,” born 460 B.C. “He was a member of the family of the Asclepiadæ, ... and a descendant of both Esculapius and Hercules. He was born of a family of priest-physicians, and was the first to throw superstition aside, and to base the practice of medicine on the principles of inductive philosophy.”—(“Encyclopædia Britannica.”)
Galen wrote a series of commentaries upon his writings. Medical commentators are not in accord as to how many of the works attributed to him are genuine; but the editions of the accepted and the suspected to be spurious are almost innumerable, and printed in every language of Europe.
In the edition by Francis Adams (Sydenham Society, London, 1849), there is no mention of the use of human or animal excreta in pharmacy. But in another edition can be read that ass’s dung was given to restrain excessive catamenial flow.—(Kuhn’s edition, Leipsig, 1829, vol. i. p. 481.)
Etmuller says that Hippocrates prescribed hawk-dung to aid in the expulsion of the fœtus and as a remedy for sterility (vol. ii. p. 285). The general use of excrementitious material in the medical practice of Hippocrates’ own day must be accepted from evidence deduced from outside sources. For example, Aristophanes, who was his contemporary (born 446 B.C., Encyc. Britan.), stigmatized all the medical fraternity as “excrement-eaters;” and Xenocrates, another practitioner of the same date, of whose writings, however, nothing has come down to us beyond the meagre outline to be found in the commentaries of Galen, made constant employment not only of human and animal excreta, but of all the secretions and excretions as well. According to Appleton’s Encyclopædia, Xenocrates was born 396 B.C.
Schurig relates of Aristophanes that he called doctors “fecivores ... quod quidem adulatores fuerint quin excrementa Magnorum degustare voluerint.” He also says: “Quare de illo non inepte dixit quidam, eum dignum fuisse Xenocrates Medico, qui excrementis variis animalium omnes morbos curare solitus erat.”—(“Chylologia,” p. 82.)
“Xenocrates, who flourished sixty years before Galen, had also a good list of nasty prescriptions, for which the veil of a dead language is required.” (“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. p. xviii.) These included the urine of women and their catamenia.
Aristophanes called the physicians of his time σκατοφάγους, or excrement-eaters. “Ce qui était plus malin que vrai, car les compères en faisaient manger à leurs clients plus qu’ils n’en mangeaient eux-mêmes.”—(“Bibliotheca Scatalogica.”)
Human excrements, under the name of “botryon,” were used by Æschines of Athens, for the cure of quinsy. (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 10.) Æschines lived between 389-317 B.C.
“Serapion of Alexandria flourished B.C. 278, forty years after the date of Alexander the Great, and was one of the chiefs of the empiric school.... He in epilepsy prescribed ... dung of crocodiles.”—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” vol. i. p. xiv.)
The next in chronological order would be Pliny, from whom can be extracted a veritable mine of information on this point; then Dioscorides, who lived in the latter years of the first and the opening ones of the second centuries of the Christian era; and then Galen, born at Pergamos, in Mysia, 130 A.D., “the most celebrated of ancient medical writers,” and “appointed by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the position of medical guardian of his son, the young prince, and later on Emperor, Commodus.”—(Encyc. Brit.)
The classical authorities will conclude with Sextus Placitus, from whose works much of importance has been extracted.
Each author will be allowed to speak in his own words, and the necessary deductions will be made afterwards; only the remarks bearing upon love-philters and child-birth have been assigned to the chapters devoted to the treatment of those subjects, and this merely to reduce the chances of repetition.
The following remedies are taken from Pliny, from the books and chapters given opposite each case:—
“A plant that has been grown upon a dung-heap in a field is a very efficacious remedy, taken in water, for quinsy.”—(Lib. xxiv. c. 110.)
“A plant upon which a dog has watered, torn up by the roots, and not touched with iron, is a very speedy cure for sprains.”—(Idem, c. 111.)
“Camel’s dung, reduced into ashes, and incorporat with oile, doth curle and frizzle the hair of the head, and taken in drinke, as much as a man may comprehend with three fingers, cureth the dysenterie; so doth it also the falling sickness. Camel’s piss, they say, is passing good for Fullers to scour their cloth withall; and the same healeth any running sores which be bathed therein. It is well known that the barbarous nations keep this stale of theirs until it be five years old, and then a draught thereof to the quantity of one hermine is a good laxative potion.”—(Lib. xxviii. c. 8.)
Goat’s dung good for sore eyes.—(Idem, c. 11.)
For “Skals in the Head” the Romans used “Bul’s Urine.” Stale chamber-lye was also considered good. “The gall of buck goats, tempered with Bul’s stale, killeth lice.” Dog-dung and goat-dung also were prescribed.—(Idem, c. 11.)
Wolf’s dung is mentioned as good for cataract.—(Idem, c. 11.)
Hen’s dung, the white part, prescribed for the cure of poisonous mushrooms; also to cure flatulence (but in any living creature it causes flatulence, says Pliny). Ashes of horse-dung fresh made and burned, the urine of a wild boar, the green dung of an ass, are among the medicaments mentioned for ear-ache (idem, c. 11); also “Urine of a Bul or a Goat, or stale chamber lye made hotte;” also “Calfe’s Pisse, Calfe’s dung.” Goat and horse dung were employed to drive away snakes.—(Idem, c. 110.)
Human urine used in curing the bites of mad dogs.—(Idem, c. 18.)
Pliny notices that the Greeks used the scrapings of the bodies of athletes for emmenagogues, for uterine troubles, for sprains, muscular rheumatism, etc. “We find authors of the very highest repute proclaiming aloud that the seminal fluid is a sovereign remedy for the sting of the scorpion. In the case, too, of a woman afflicted with sterility they recommend the application of a pessary made of the fresh excrement voided by an infant at the moment of its birth.... They have even gone so far, too, as to scrape the very filth from off the walls of the gymnasia, and to assert that this is possessed of certain calorific properties.... The urine has been the subject not only of numerous theories with authors, but of various religious observances as well, its properties being classified under several distinctive heads; thus, for instance, the urine of eunuchs, they say, is highly beneficial as a promoter of fruitfulness in females.” He mentions the urine of children as a sovereign remedy for the poisonous secretion of the asp, which “spits its venom into the eyes of human beings.” Human urine was used in eye troubles, “albugo, films, and marks upon the eyes, white specks upon the pupils, and maladies of the eyelids.” It was also used in the cure of burns, suppuration of the ears, as an emmenagogue, for sun-burn, and for taking out ink-spots. “Male urine cured Gout.” Urine cured “eruptions on the bodies of infants, corrosive sores, running ulcers, chaps upon the body, stings inflicted by serpents, ulcers of the head, and cancerous sores of the generative organs.... Every person’s urine is the best for his own case.”—(Lib. xxviii. c. 18.)
The ashes of camel’s dung were administered internally in epilepsy, and also for dysentery.—(Idem, c. 27.)
Camel’s urine applied to running sores; barbarous nations kept it for five years, and then used it as a purgative.—(Idem.)
The dung of the hippopotamus was used in fumigations, “for the cure of a cold ague.”—(Idem, c. 31.)
The urine of the once (ounce) “helpeth the strangury;” it was also taken internally for sore throat.—(Idem.)
Hyena-urine “is said to be useful in diseases of long standing” (idem, c. 27); also given in drink for dysentery; also applied in liniments.—(Idem.)
Crocodile-dung used for eye troubles and for epilepsy; used in form of a pessary, as an emmenagogue.—(Lib. xxviii. c. 29.)
Lynx-urine for strangury and pains in the chest.—(Idem, c. 32.)
Goat-urine an antidote for bites of serpents.—(Idem, c. 42.)
Goat-dung an antidote for bites of serpents.—(Idem.)
Horse-dung, taken from a horse on pasture, an antidote for the bites of serpents.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung for scorpion bites.—(Idem.)
Calves’ dung for scorpion bites.—(Idem.)
She-goat’s dung, bite of mad dog.—(Idem.)
Badger-dung, cuckoo-dung, swallow-dung, taken internally, bite of mad dog.—(Idem.)
Bull-dung, dandruff, applied locally.—(Idem, c. 46.)
Goat’s dung, dandruff.—(Idem.)
Wolf-dung for cataract.—(Idem, c. 47.)
She-goat’s dung for ophthalmia and eye-troubles generally; internally.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar urine, ear-troubles.—(Idem, c. 48.)
Ass-dung, deafness.—(Idem.)
Horse-dung, deafness; also used in liniments.—(Idem.)
Bull’s urine, deafness.—(Idem.)
She-goat’s urine, deafness.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, deafness.—(Idem.)
Calf-urine, deafness.—(Idem.)
Asses’ urine, internally, in elephantiasis.—(Lib. xxviii. c. 30.)
Cat-dung, rubbed on the neck, to remove bones from the throat.—(Idem, c. 51.)
Warm urine, cow-dung, and goat-dung applied to scrofulous sores.—(Idem.)
Goat urine and dung for cricks in neck.—(Idem, c. 52.)
Hare-dung, internally, for cough.—(Idem, c. 53.)
Boar’s dung, swine’s dung, internally, pains in loins.—(Idem, c. 56.)
Cow-dung, externally, sciatica.—(Idem, c. 56.)
Asses’ dung, internally, affections of spleen.—(Idem, c. 57.)
Horse-dung, internally, bowel complaints.—(Idem, c. 58.)
Boar’s or swine’s dung, internally, dysentery.—(Idem, c. 59.)
Hare, ass, horse, or goat dung, internally, dysentery.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, internally, flatulence.—(Idem.)
Hare-dung, internally, hernia.—(Idem.)
Ass-dung, internally, diseases of colon.—(Idem.)
Swine-dung, internally, diseases of colon.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s urine, internally, diseases of bladder; also used internally in treatment of urinary calculi.—(Idem, c. 60.)
Goat-dung, internally, urinary calculi.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, externally, ulcers upon the generative organs.—(Idem.)
Wild-asses’ urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally.—(Idem, c. 61.)
Goat-urine, diseases of the genitalia, externally.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, diseases of the genitalia, externally; also, internally, for gout.—(Idem.)
Cow-dung, internally, gout.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, internally, gout.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, sciatica, externally.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, chaps, corns, callosities.—(Idem, c. 62.)
Asses’ urine, applied to feet galled by travel.—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, burnt, applied to varicose veins.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s urine, drunk, for epilepsy.—(Idem, c. 63.)
Horse’s urine, drunk, for epilepsy; also for delirium.—(Idem.)
Asses’ urine, externally, in paralysis.—(Idem.)
Dung of a new-born ass, internally, yellow jaundice.—(Idem, c. 64.)
Dung of a colt, internally, yellow jaundice.—(Idem.)
Goat-dung, externally, for broken bones.—(Idem, c. 65.)
Cow-dung, burnt, diluted with boys’ urine, was rubbed on the toes of the patient in quartan fevers.—(Idem, c. 66.)
Calf-dung, internally, in melancholia.—(Idem, c. 67.)
Swine’s dung, internally, consumption.—(Idem.)
Wild-boar’s urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem, c. 68.)
Cow-urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem.)
Calf-urine, internally, dropsy.—(Idem.)
Bull-urine, internally, dropsy.[72]—(Idem.)
Calf-dung, cow-dung, swine’s dung, asses’ dung, all applied externally for the cure of erysipelas and purulent eruptions.—(Idem, c. 69.)
Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, calf-dung, goat-dung, cow-dung, externally, for sprains, indurations, and boils.—(Idem, c. 70.)
Wild-boar’s dung, swine’s dung, hare-dung, goat-dung, externally, burns of all kinds.—(Idem, c. 71.)
Goat-dung, wild-boar’s dung, externally, contusions, bruises, etc.—(Idem, c. 72.)
The Emperor Nero, being of scrofulous tendency, drank the ashes of wild-boar dung in water, to refresh himself.—(Idem.)
Asses’ dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages.—(Idem, c. 73.)
Calf’s dung, burnt, externally, hemorrhages.—(Idem.)
Swine’s dung, externally, to ulcers.—(Idem, c. 74.)
Goat-dung, externally, to ulcers.—(Idem.)
Swine’s dung, fresh, externally, to wounds.—(Idem.)
Horse’s dung, cow-dung, fresh, externally, to wounds.—(Idem.)
Asses’ dung, externally, itch.—(Idem, c. 75.)
Cow-dung, externally, itch.—(Idem.)
Cow-dung, she-goat’s dung, applied externally to extract thorns.—(Idem, c. 76.)
Wild-boar’s dung, or swine’s dung, internally, in inflammation of the uterus.—(Idem, c. 77.)
Asses’ dung, in plaster or powder, or as a fumigation, for all uterine troubles.—(Idem.)
Ox-dung as a fumigation, for falling of the womb.—(Idem, lib. xxviii. c. 77.)
Cat’s dung, as a pessary, for uterine ulcerations.—(Idem.)
“She-goat’s urine, taken internally, and the dung applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however much in excess.”—(Idem.)
Swine’s dung, as an injection, used to cure beasts of burden of voiding blood.—(Idem, c. 81.)
“The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said, by swallowing human excrement.”—(Idem.)
Dung of mice and the ashes of sheep-dung prescribed for dandruff. The dung of a peacock stated to be of great value in medicine, but for what not stated.—(Idem, c. 6.)
Sheep-dung, externally, in serpent bites.—(Idem, c. 15.)
“A most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted by the asp,” was for “the person stung to drink his own urine.”—(Idem, c. 18.)
“For the bite of all spiders ... sheep’s-dung, applied in vinegar.”—(Idem, c. 27.)
Poultry-dung, good as an application for the sting of the scorpion.—(Idem, c. 29.)
“The dung of poultry, provided it is of a red color, is very useful, applied with vinegar.” Also for bite of a mad dog.—(Idem, c. 32.)
The urine of a mad dog was believed to be injurious to those people who trod upon it, especially those persons with scrofulous sores.—(Idem.)
“The proper remedy in such cases is to apply horse-dung.”—(Idem.)
“Whoever makes water where a dog has previously watered, will be susceptible of numbness in the loins.”—(Idem, c. 32.)
“Poultry-dung, but the white part only, ... is an excellent antidote to the poison of fungi and mushrooms; it is a cure also for flatulence and suffocations,—a thing the more to be wondered at, seeing that if any living creature only tastes this dung, it is immediately attacked with griping pains and flatulency.”—(Idem, c. 33.)
“The dung of wood pigeons ... an antidote to quicksilver.”—(Idem.)
Sheep-dung, mouse-dung, poultry-dung, applied externally in the treatment of baldness or “alopœcia,” so called from “alopex,” a fox, “an animal very subject to the loss of its hair.”—(Idem, c. 34.)
Mouse-dung, externally, “affections of the eyelids.”—(Idem, c. 37.)
Poultry-dung as a liniment for short-sighted persons.—(Idem, c. 38.)
“Peacocks swallow their dung, it is said, as though they envied man the various uses of it.”—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s dung, externally, fistula.—(Idem.)
Hawk-dung, turtle-dove dung, externally, “albugo.”—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s dung, externally, imposthumes of the parotid gland.—(Lib. 29, 39.)
Mouse-dung, raven’s dung, sparrow-dung. The ashes of these were plugged into carious teeth, and used externally for all tooth troubles.—(Lib. 30, c. 8.)
Mouse-dung, good to impart sweetness to sour breath (idem, c. 9); also prescribed for the stone.—(Idem, c. 8.)
“The dung of lambs before they have begun to graze ... alleviated ... affections of the uvula and pains in the fauces. It should be dried in the shade.”—(Idem, c. 11.)
Pigeon’s dung used as a gargle for sore throat (idem); used internally for quinsy (idem, c. 12); internally for dysentery (idem, c. 19); and externally for the cure of “iliac passion.”—(Idem, c. 20.)
Mouse-dung, rubbed on the abdomen, was considered to be a cure for urinary calculi.—(Idem, c. 21.)
The flesh of a hedge-hog, killed before it had time to discharge its urine upon its body, was a cure for strangury; but, it would cause strangury if able to urinate upon itself before death.—(Idem, c. 21.)
Dove-dung, internally, for urinary calculi.—(Idem.)
Swallow-dung, as a suppository and purgative.—(Idem.)
Dog-dung, externally, fissure in ano.—(Idem, c. 22.)
Mouse-dung.—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s dung, externally, in fissure in ano.—(Idem.)
Mouse-dung and pigeon’s-dung, externally, for tumors.—(Idem.)
Sheep and poultry dung, externally, in gout.—(Idem.)
Ring-dove-dung, liniment for pains in the joints.—(Idem, c. 23.)
The ashes of pigeon’s or of poultry dung, externally, for excoriations of the feet.—(Idem, c. 25.)
Mule-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for corns on feet.—(Idem.)
Dog-urine, sheep and poultry dung, externally, for warts of all kinds.—(Idem.)
Swallow-dung, internally, cure of fevers.—(Idem, c. 30.)
Pigeon’s, poultry, and sheep dung, externally, boils and carbuncles.—(Idem, caps. 33, 34.)
Sheep-dung, externally, burns.—(Idem, c. 35.)
Pigeon’s dung, snuff made of for brain hemorrhage.—(Idem, c. 38.)
Horse-dung, externally, hemorrhages from wounds.—(Idem.)
Sheep-dung, ashes of, externally, carcinoma.—(Idem, c. 39.)
Sheep-dung, externally, wounds and fistulas.—(Idem.)
Mouse-dung, cautery.—(Idem.)
Weasel’s dung, ashes of, cautery.—(Idem.)
Pigeon’s-dung, ashes of, cautery.—(Idem.)
Poultry-dung and pigeon’s dung, externally, old cicatrices.—(Idem, c. 40.)
Sheep’s dung, externally, female complaints.—(Idem, c. 43.)
Mouse-dung, externally, swelled breasts.—(Idem.)
Dioscorides devotes a chapter to the medicinal values of different ordures; a condensation only of the translation need be given, since the original is inserted.
The fresh dung of domestic cattle was considered good for inflamed wounds; for pains at extremity of spine; and, when made into a plaster with oil, it dissolved glandular and scrofulous swellings and tumors. The dung of bulls was a remedy for falling of the womb; when drunk with wine, was frequently given as a remedy in epilepsy; used also in the cure of suppressed menstruation and to expel the fœtus in retarded delivery; administered in menstrual hemorrhages; for the alleviation of gout in the feet, serpent bites, erysipelas, etc. Goat and sheep dung was used for the same purposes.
Dried goat-dung, drunk in wine, checked hemorrhages, as did that of asses and horses. The dung of grass-fed kine taken in wine for scorpion bites.
Dove and poultry dung given to break up the old sores and scrofulous swellings.
Hen-dung believed to be almost a specific against the effects of poisonous mushrooms; it was to be drunk in wine.
Stork-dung was another remedy for epilepsy; it was also to be drunk in wine.
Vulture-dung expelled the fœtus; mouse-dung expelled calculi.
Hen-dung, especially that laid during the dog-days, was good for dysentery.
Fresh human ordure was applied to inflamed wounds, and as a plaster in angina; dog-dung was also used in such cases.
Crocodile-excrement was in high repute as a cosmetic. (See “Cosmetics.”) Purchasers were warned that it was frequently adulterated with the excrement of starlings fed on rice.
The urine of the patient himself should be drunk in cases of serpent bites, poisons from drugs, bites of scorpions, mad dogs, etc. For old ulcers, cicatrices, “lepras,” an excellent application; also for ulcerations in the genitalia, sores in the ears, etc.
The urine of an undefiled boy was highly commended for various purposes, especially when triturated with honey in a brass mortar.
The “sediment of urine” (see “Mangeurs de Blanc”) was regarded as of great value in erysipelas. Bull’s urine was given for the cure of ulcerated ears.
Goat urine expelled stone from the bladder; likewise, beneficial in dropsy, if drunk daily.
Asses’ urine cured mania.
“Dioscoride, lib. ii. cap. 73, et ses commentateurs, P. Andr. Mathicle, fol. 238, et J. Cornarius, comment. cap. 69, fol. m. 134, permettent l’usage des stercoraria pour les paysans, et quand on n’a rien de mieux sous la main, mais ils l’interdisent pour les habitants des villes et les personnages honorati alicujus estimationis. Outre son grand ouvrage, de maître médical on attribue généralement à Dioscoride un traité désigné sous le titre de Euporista, ou des remèdes faciles à procurer.” (This was published at Strasbourg and again at Frankfort in 1565 and 1598, respectively, from the original Greek.) “Dans l’Euporista, Dioscoride cherche à établir que les remèdes indigènes valent souvent mieux que ceux qu’on fait venir à grands frais des pays éloignés, et, à ce titre, il mentionne le stercus comme offrant de curieuses ressources.”—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 74.)
“Stercus bovis armentalis recens impositum, inflammationem ex vulneribus lenit; foliis autem involutum in cineris calentis calefit, atque ita imponuntur. Simili modo fotu applicitum coxendicis cruciatus mitigat. Ex aceto vero cataplasmatis vice impositum duritias, strumas et glandarum tumores discutit. Speciatim vero bovis masculi fimus prolapsum uterum suffitu restituit, accensi quoque nidore culices abiguntur. Cuprarum præsertim in montibus degentium, stercus ex vino bibitum regium morbum emendat, cum aromatibus vero potum menses ciet et fœtus ejiciet.
“Siccum, tritumque et cum turre in velleræ appositum, fluxum muliebrem cohibet aliasque sanguinis eruptiones ex aceto compescit. Ustum ac cum aceto aut oxymelite illitum calvitiei medetur. Cum axungia vero cataplasmata adhibitum podagracis opitulatur. Decoctum in aceto, aut vino imponitur ad serpentiæ morsum, herpetas, erysipelata, parotides. Quin et ischiadicis ustis eorum ope administratur utiliter hunc in modum; in eo cavo, quod est inter pollicem et indicem qua parte pollex committitur, lana oleo imbuta prius substernitur, ac dein singulatim imponuntur fimi caprini ferventes pilulæ, donec sensus per brachium ad coxendicem perveniat doloremque mitiget atque adustis talis arabica appellatur.
“At vero stercus ovillum ex aceto impositum sanat epinyctidas, clavos, verrucas, quæ thymi vocantur, et quæ pensiles sunt.... Aprinum autem aridum in aqua aut vino potum, sanguinis rejectionem sistit ac diuturnum sedat lateris dolorem. Sed ad rapta convulsaque, ex aceto bibitur; luxatis vero exceptum curato rosaceo medetur. Porro tam asinorum quam equorum fimum, sive crudum sive crematum, addito aceto, sanguinis eruptiones cohibet. Armentinorum vero, qui herba pascuntur, siccum stercus vino imbutum et bibitum a scorpione ictis magnopere auxiliatur.
“Columbinum quoniam vehementer calefacit ac urit, farinæ crudæ admiscetur, et ex aceto quidem strumas discutit. Carbunculos vero emarginat cum melle, lini seminæ, et oleo tritum, nec non ambustis quoque medetur. Gallinaceum eadem, sed malignis, præstat. Speciatim tamen contra letales fongos et colicos dolores confert, si ex aceto aut vino bibatur. Ciconæ vero fimium ex aqua potum comitialibus prodesse creditur. Vulturis suffumigatum fœtum excutere traditur. Murium cum aceto tritum illitumque calvitiei medetur, cum turre vero et mulso potum calculos expellit. Sed et subditæ infantibus muscerdæ alvum ad dejectionem lacessunt. Caninum stercus, quod per caniculæ ardores exceptum fuerit, aridum cum vino aut aqua potum, alvum cohibet. Ad humanum recens cataplasmatis vice impositum vulnera ab inflammatione vindicat, simul vero glutinat. Siccum autem cum melle perunctum anginosos auxiliari traditur.
“Stercus crocodilis terrestris mulieribus confert ad colorem facei nitoremque producendum.
“Optimum vero quod candidissimum et friabile amyli modo leve in humore statim eliquiescit, atque dum teritur, subacidum est et fermentum redolet. Sunt qui id vendant adulterant fimo non dissimili sturnorum quos oryza paverunt. Alii amylum aut cimoliam subigunt, et adescito, colore, per rarum cribrum, paullatim percolant et siccant, ut vermiculorum specie loco genuini vendant. Ceterum humanum stercus siccum melle subactum, et gutturi impositum sicut et caninum, anginosis opitulari in arcanis, aut turpibus etiam inveniunt.”—(Dioscorides, “Materia Medica,” Latin-Greek edit. of Kuhn, Leipsig, 1829, vol. i., pp. 222 et seq.)
“Humanam urinam suum cuique bibere prodest contra viperæ morsus et letalia pharmaca, hydropemque incipientem; prodest etiam ea fovere echinorum marinorum scorpionis itidem marini draconisque ictus. Canina rabidi canis morsibus perfundendis idonea est; lepras quoque et pruritus, nitro addito, exterit. Vetus etiam achoras, furfures, scabiem, fervidasque eruptiones potentius extergit, quin et ulcera depascentia, etiam genitalium coarcet. Purulentis quoque auribus infusa pus condensat, et in malicordio cocta animalcula (quæ forte in aures irrepsirent) ejicit. Pueri innocentis absorta urina anhelantibus confert, cocta vero in æreo vaso cum melle cicatrices albugines et caligines emendat.
“Quin etiam ex ea et ære cyprio idoneum auro ferruminando glutea paratur. Sedimentum urinæ erysipelata illita mitigat. Fervefactum cum cyprino appositumque uteri dolorem demulcet ex utero, strangulata levat, palpebras deterget et oculorum cicatrices expurgat. Taurinum lotium cum myrrha tritum et instillatum dolores aurium lenit.
“Aprinum iisdem viribus præditum est sed peculiariter vesicæ calculos potu comminuit et expellit. Caprinum traditur ad hydropem inter cutem cum spica nardi binisque aquæ cyathis quotidie bibiti urinas ducere et alvum instillatum, vero aurium doloribus mederi. Asinino denique ferunt nephreticos sanari.”—(Dioscorides, idem, vol. i. pp. 227 et seq.)
On p. 228 Dioscorides speaks of the use of a medicine known as “lynx urine,” but which he says was a variety of amber.
Galen disapproved of the pharmaceutical use of human ordure on account of its abominable smell, but he assented to the employment of that of domestic cattle, goats, crocodiles, and dogs; he makes known, moreover, that human ordure was taken internally, as a medicine, by very many persons.
“De Copro, Stercore, Copros, sive Copron, sive Apoptema, apellari velis perinde est. Scito autem hanc substantiam vim habere vel maxime digerentem. Verum stercus humanum ob fœtorem abominandum est, at bubulum, caprinum, crocodilorum terrestrium, et canum, ubi in ossibus duntaxat vescuntur neque graviter olet, et multa experientia non tantum nobis, sed et aliis medicis me natu majoribus comprobatum est. Siquidem Asclepiades cui cognomentum erat Pharmaceon, et alia omnia medicamenta collegit, ut multos impleret libros, et stercore ad multos sæpe affectus utitur non modo medicamentis, quæ focis imponuntur commiscens, sed iis quoque quæ intro in os sumuntur.”—(Galeni Claudii, “Opera Omnia,” edit. of Dr. Carl Gottleib Kuhn, Leipsig, 1826, vol. xii., pp. 290, 291.)
Dog-dung, especially of an animal “sola ossa cani edenda exhibens duobus continuo diebus, ex quibus durum, candidum, ac minime fœtorum stercus proveniebat.” Such dog-dung was administered in angina, dysentery, inveterate ulcers, etc., in milk or other convenient menstruum.—(Idem, vol. xii. p. 291.)
The urine of boys was drunk by patients suffering from the plague in Syria, but the year is not given.—(See idem, vol. xii. p. 285.)
Galen did not believe that calculi had the slightest value for effecting a reduction of calculi.—(Idem, lib. xii. p. 290.)
Galen could not bring himself to agree with Xenocrates, who recommended the internal and external employment of sweat, urine, catamenial fluid, and ear-wax in medicine. (Idem, lib. xii. p. 249.) “At potis sudoris aut urinæ aut mensium mulieris abominanda detestandaque est, atque horum in primis stercus, quod tamen scribit Xenocrates, si oris ac gutturis partibus inungatur et in ventrem devoretur, quid præstare valeat.—Scripsit etiam de aurium sordis devorandis. At ego ne has quidem morbo deinceps liber degerem. Atque his etiam magis abominandum puto stercus. Estque probrum gravius homini modesto audire stercorivorum quam fellatorum aut cinædum.”
He shows that it was used by some physicians in “psoras,” and in “lepras,” in the washing of ulcers, affections of the ears and genitalia, as an embrocation and a liniment for scald and scabby head, and by rustics in the alleviation of the pains of sore feet. (Galen, lib. xii. p. 285 et seq.)
Galen instances the ordure of a boy, dried, mixed with Attic honey, given as a cure for consumption. “Stercus pueri siccum cum melle Attico ad lævorem tritum.” (Idem, lib. xii. p. 294.) The boy was to be fed on vegetables and well-cooked bread, leavened, made with a little salt, in a small oven (Clibanus, Dutch oven?). The boy was also to be temperate in drink, using only a small quantity of good wine.—(Idem, lib. xii. p. 294.)
Wolf-dung was given in drink, in the intervals between the paroxysms of colic; the white excrement ejected after eating bones was regarded as the stronger, and especially that which had not touched the ground,—a thing not difficult to find, because he says the wolf has the same disposition as the dog; that is, to eject its urine and ordure upon rocks, stones, thorns, and bushes, whenever possible, etc.—(Galen, “Opera Omnia,” Kuhn’s edition, lib. xii. pp. 295-297.)
Goat-dung was useful in the reduction of inveterate hard tumors and boils. Galen used it with great success when made into a cataplasm with barley meal. “We also use it,” he adds, “in dropsy” (“aquam inter cutem”). It was also employed in “lepras,” “psoras,” and other skin affections. It was applied as a plaster in tumors and other swellings and in abscesses of the ear; also in bites of vipers and other wild beasts (“aliarum bestiarum”). It was drunk in wine as a cure for the yellow jaundice, and applied as a suppository, mixed with incense, in uterine hemorrhages. But Galen thought that the internal employment at least of such disgusting curatives is of questionable expediency, especially when more agreeable remedies may be available. This objection would, of course, apply with special force in cities, although he admits that travellers, country people, and those suffering from poison, must use the first thing within reach (vol. xii. p. 299). Bull-dung was regarded by Galen as of value in the cure of the stings of bees and wasps (see notes on the same subject taken in the State of New Jersey). In Mysia, a country near the Hellespont, physicians ordered it to be smeared on the skins of dropsical patients in the sun. The same treatment was supposed to help consumptive patients, if the dung was that of grass-fed stock; but he repeats that such remedies are better adapted for rustics than for the inhabitants of cities (lib. xii. p. 301).
Sheep-dung was used for all kinds of warty and excrescential growths externally, either raw or burnt, and in the latter case was often mixed with, or superseded by, goat-dung (lib. xii. p. 302).
The dung of wild doves was preferred to the excrement of the domestic pigeon; administered internally, generally mixed with the seed of the nasturtium, in all inveterate pains affecting sides, shoulders, skull, loins, kidneys, in vertigo, head-aches, etc. It was used just as frequently in cities as in rural communities (lib. xii. p. 302).
Mouse-dung seems to have been extensively used in medical practice, although Galen ridicules the fact, and does not mention the purposes of its employment (lib. xii. p. 307).
The dung of barn-yard fowl was used for the same purposes as dove-dung. Some people thought that the dung was more efficacious if dropped by a fowl that had been stuffed with mushrooms. Galen here takes occasion to remark that all animals must differ in the character of their excreta as they do in their food; the same animal, by a change of habitat, and consequent change of food, must cause a perceptible variation in the qualities of its excrement (lib. xii. p. 304). Galen flatly expresses his disbelief in the medicinal value of the excrement of the goose, stork, eagle, or hawk, although he admits that they were used internally by many practitioners of good standing, in difficulties of the respiratory organs; but he says these same authorities are wont to extol the merits, in the treatment of the same diseases, of such absurd remedies as night-owl’s blood, human urine, etc.—(Galen, lib. 12, p. 305.)
Lucian, in his treatise upon remedies for the cure of gout (“tragopodagra”), makes mention in several places of excrementitious remedies,—as, for example, “dung of mountain-goat and man,”
—(Edition of William Tooke, F. R. S., London, 1820, vol. i. p. 741.)
This author is supposed to have lived in the beginning of the fourth century after Christ.
The edition of his work, “De Medicamentis ex Animalibus,” was printed in Lyons, in 1537. The pages are not numbered, and the citations are consequently by chapter.
Goat-urine was given as a drink to dropsical patients (“De Capro”). This urine was also drunk by women to relieve suppression of the menses.
For inflammation of the joints, goat-dung was dried and applied as a fine powder; for colic, a fomentation of hot goat-dung was applied to the abdomen; for serpent bites it was applied as a plaster, and also drunk in some convenient liquor. For tumors goat-dung was to be applied externally.
For ear troubles goat-urine was applied as a lotion. “Ad aures nimus bene audientium, Apri lotium in nitro repositum tepefactum, auribus instillatur audire facit” (“De Apro”).
For burns, whether by water or fire, burnt cow-dung was to be sprinkled on. “Ad combusturam sive ab aqua, sive ab igne factam, Taurinus fimus combustus et aspersus sanat” (“De Tauro”).
“Ad profluvium mulierum, Taurus ibicuncque pastus fuerit folia ulmi arboris de fimo ipsius facias siccari et terre in pollinem tenuissimum, mitte ipsum in carbones in quodam testo, et deponas in vaso et sedeat mulier quæ patitur encatesma diligenter co-operta (well covered up), et sanabitur ut mireris” (“De Tauro”).
Testo means the “lid of a pot;” encatesma means a “sitting-bath;” and the sense seems to be that the woman was to take the dung of a bull which had been eating the leaves of an elm-tree, dry, reduce to fine powder, throw on hot coals on the lid of a pot, and let the woman sit on this, well covered up, and have a steam-bath.
For all kinds of tumors, as well as for every kind of head-ache, the dung of elephants was applied externally. (“De Elephantis.”) He makes no mention of the use of asses’ dung, but strongly recommends the use of the excrement of the horse. “Ad sanguinem e naribus profluentem, equi stercus siccum et aspersum, sanguinem fluentem retinet, maxime naribus suffumigatum.” He also recommends the use of horse-dung externally in the treatment of ear-ache, and for retention of the menses internally. “Ad aurium dolorem, stercus equi siccum et rosaceo succo liquefactum et collatum, auribus instillatur aurium dolorem perfecte tollit.... Ad ventrem non fluentem, nimiumque tumescentem, Equi stercus aqua liquefactum, et percolatum, postea bibitum, mox faciet egressum.”—(“De Equo.”)
Cat-dung was used in the eradication of dandruff and of scald in the head; for excessive after-birth hemorrhages in the form of fumigation or bath. For the relief of a person who had swallowed a bone or thorn, his fauces were rubbed with cat-dung. For the relief of the quartan ague, hang cat-dung and cow horn or hoof to the patient’s arm; after the seventh attack the fever will leave him for good.—(Idem. See under “Witchcraft,” extract from Etmuller, p. 267.)
Vulture-dung, mixed with the white dung of dog, cured dropsy and palsy, especially if from a vulture which had lived on human flesh; to be taken internally.—(“De Vulture.”)
The urine of a virgin boy or girl was an invaluable application for affections of the eyes; also for stings of bees, wasps, and other insects. As a cure for elephantiasis, the urine of boys was to be drunk freely. “Ad elephantiam puerorum, pueri lotium si puer biberit liberaliter.”
The crust from human urine was useful in burns and in bites of mad dogs. (Idem. See notes on the Parisian “Mangeurs du blanc.”) For cancers man’s ordure was burnt and sprinkled over the sore places; for tertian fevers, it had to be that of the patient himself; and to be held in the left hand while burning, then placed in a rag, and tied to his left arm before the hour of the recurrence of the fever. “Ad tertianas, ipsius ægri stercus sinistra manu sublatum comburunt et in sinistro brachio ante horam accessionis suspendunt.”—(“De Puello et Puella Virgine.”)
Hawk-dung, boiled in oil, made an excellent application for sore eyes. (“De Accipitro.”) Crow-dung was given to children to cure coughs, and was placed in carious teeth to cure tooth-ache.—(“De Corvi.”)
Dove-dung was applied externally to tumors.—(“De Columba.”)
In “Saxon Leechdoms,” is arranged the medical lore of the early centuries of the Saxon occupancy and conquest of England.
“Alexander of Tralles (A.D. 550) ... guarantees, of his own experience and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung of a wolf with bits of bone in it” for colic.—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. c. 18.)
“Bull’s dung was good for dropsical men; cow’s dung for women” (vol. i. c. 12, quoting Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 68).
Swine-dung was applied to warts (vol. i. p. 101).
“For bite of any serpent, melt goat’s grease and her turd and wax, and mingle together; work it up, so that a man may swallow it whole” (vol. i. p. 355, quoting Sextus Flacitus).
For dropsy, “Let him drink buck’s mie ... best is the mie.... For sore of ears, apply goat’s mie to the ear.... Against churnels, mingle a goat’s turd with honey ... smear therewith.”
“For thigh pains,” “for sore joints,” “for cancer,” “against swellings,” “tugging of sinews,” “carbuncle,” “smear with goat’s dung” (vol. i. pp. 355, 357).
“For every sore ... let one drink bull’s urine in hot water; soon it healeth.... For a breach or fracture ... lay bull’s dung warm on the breach.... For waters burning or fires, burn bull’s dung and shed thereon.” (Idem, p. 369.) The word “shed” as here employed means to urinate, apparently.
“For swerecothe or quinsy,” the Saxons used an external application of the white “thost” or dung of a dog which had been gnawing a bone before defecation (vol. ii. p. 49).
“Against shoulder pains, mingle a tord of an old swine.”—(Idem, p. 63.)
“If a sinew shrank ... take a she-goat’s tord” (p. 69).
“Against swelling, take goat’s treadles sodden in sharp vinegar” (p. 73).
For a leper, boil in urine hornbeam, elder, and other barks and roots.—(Idem, p. 79.)
“A wound salve for lung diseases,”—of this the dung of goose was an important ingredient (p. 93).
“A salve for every wound.... Collect cow-dung, cow-stale, work up a large kettle full into a batter, as a man worketh soap, then take apple-tree rind” and other rinds mentioned, and make a lotion (p. 99).
For felons, leg diseases, and erysipelas, calf and bullock dungs were applied as a fomentation (p. 101).
“For a dew worm, some take warm, thin ordure of man, they bind it on for the space of a night” (vol. ii. p. 125).
“Against a burn, work a salve; take goate turd,” etc.—(Idem, p. 131.)
“For a horse’s leprosy ... take piss, heat it with stones, wash the horse with the piss so hot.”—(Idem, p. 157.)
“If there be mist before the eyes, take a child’s urine and virgin honey; mingle together.... Smear the eyes therewith on the inside” (vol. ii. p. 309).
“For joint pain ... take dove’s dung and a goat’s turd,” externally (vol. ii. p. 323).
“For warts ... take hound’s mie and a mouse’s blood,” externally.—(Idem, p. 323.)
“Against cancer ... take a man’s dung, dry it thoroughly, rub to dust, apply it. If with this thou were not able to cure him, thou mayst never do it by any means.”—(Idem, p. 329.)
“Si muliebra nimis fluunt ... take a fresh horse’s tord, lay it on hot glades, make it reek strongly between the thighs, up under the raiment, that the woman may sweat much.”—(Idem, pp. 332, 333.)
“A smearing for a penetrating worm” was made with “two buckets of bullock’s mie,” among many other ingredients.—(Idem, p. 333.)
“If a thorn or a reed prick a man in the foot, and will not be gone, let him take a fresh goose tord and green yarrow ... paste them on the wound.”—(Idem, p. 337.)
“Against a penetrating worm ... smear with thy spittle ... and bathe with hot cow-stale” (vol. iii. p. 11).
“Against a warty eruption.... Warm and apply the sharn or dung of a calf or of an old ox.”—(Idem, p. 45.)
“An asses tord was recommended to be applied to weak eyes.”—(Idem, p. 99.)
A careful examination of a Latin edition of “Averrhoes,” Lyons, 1537, discovered nothing in regard to the medicinal use of human or animal egestæ.
But, on the contrary, the works of Avicenna teem with such references; there is hardly a page of the index to his portly volumes that does not contain mention of stercoraceous remedies. Out of all this abundance these selections will show that the Arabian physicians made of such medicaments the same free use as their older brethren of the subverted Roman empire: “Matricem mundant,” “Urina” (vol. i. p. 330, a 38); “Sanguinem sistunt,” “Urina hominis cum cinere vitis” (vol. i. p. 466, a 26); “Scabei,” “Scabiei ulcerosa conferunt,” “Urina” (vol. i. p. 330, a 8); “Sciatica conferunt,” “Stercus vaccarum et Caprarum cum adipe porci” (vol. i. p. 390, a 5); for scrofula “Stercus Caprarum” (vol. i. p. 388, a 11); “Lentiginibus conferunt,” “stercus lupi” (vol. i. p. 387, b 66); “Erysipelati conferunt,” “fex urinæ hominis” (vol. i. p. 330, a 11); while for the same disease, as well as for “excoriationi conferunt” were prescribed “stercus cameli et pecudis” (vol. i. p. 388, a 11); “Urinæ fex,” (idem, vol. i. p. 408, a 39); “Lapidi conferunt,” “Stercus muris cum thure” (vol. i. p. 390, b 2); again (vol. i. p. 361, a 60); “urina porci” (vol. i. p. 408, a 66).
Lizard-dung an ingredient in a collyrium (vol. ii. p. 322, a 34).
“Matricis dolores conferunt,” “urina hominis decocta cum porris” (vol. i. p. 408, b 1). Goat-dung “Matrici fluxui conferunt,” “stercus caprarum siccum” (vol. i. p. 388, a 15, and vol. i. p. 390, a 50).
For epilepsy, one of the remedies was “stercus cameli” (vol. i. p. 338, a 6). Yellow jaundice, “Icteritias conferunt,” “urina mulieris cum aqua mellis” (vol. i. p. 330, a 31); for burns, “Stercus caprarum et ovium cum aceto” (vol. i. p. 389, b 62). Another remedy for burns was, “Stercus columbarum cum melle et semine lini” (vol. i. p. 389, b 65).
“Impetigine conferunt,” “urina” (vol. i. p. 330, a 10); for ulcers, “Stercus cameli et pecudis” (vol. i. p. 388, a 9); also for the same, “stercus canis ab ossibus cum mellis” (vol. i. p. 390, a 2); also “urina asini et hominis” (vol. i. p. 408, a 31); human urine again prescribed for ulcers, in vol. i. p. 231, 646.
“Stercoris muris decoctio” alleviated difficulty in urination (vol. i. p. 361, a 63). “Impetigine conferunt,” “stercus columbarum et turdorum” (vol. i. p. 390, a 1).
As a cure for the wounds of Armenian arrows (9, “De sagittis Armenis”) Avicenna says: “Jam parvenit ad me quod potus stercoris humani est theriaca ad illud” (vol. i. p. 305, a 5). (“Theriaca” means literary a remedy for the bites of serpents and wild beasts, but in the present case it is used to mean a panacea.)
For poisonous bites, “ad morsum viperarum et omnium venenosorum animalium” “et iterum quæ bonæ sunt” (“Medicinæ” understood) “est stercus caprinum commixtum in vino et detur in potu” (vol. ii. p. 227, b 36); “Urina hominis” also prescribed for the same in the same paragraph. The dung of goats, mixed with pepper and cinnamon, a provocative of the menses (vol. i. p. 390, a 49).
The dung of mice prescribed internally for the cure of running from the ears, to aid in the expulsion of the after-birth, calculus, poison of venomous reptiles, etc. (vol. i. pp. 361, a 58).
“Matrici fluxui conferunt,” “stercus caprarum siccum” (vol. i. p. 388, a 15, and vol. i. pp. 390, a 50).
“Spasma conferunt,” “Urina” (vol. i. p. 408, a 40); “Splenis duritiei conferunt,” “Stercus caprarum” (vol. i. p. 30, a 50).
“Ano conferunt,” “Urina infantium lactentium” (vol. i. p. 408, a 55).
“Stercus pecudis adustum cum aceto” was prescribed for the bite of a mad dog (vol. i. pp. 388, a 21); “Urina cum nitro” (idem, vol. i. p. 408, b 7); “Canis stercus pro anginæ curatione” (vol. i. p. 616, a 59).
Marco Polo mentions that in the province of Carazan (Khorassan?), the common sort of people carried poison about their persons, so that if taken prisoners by the Tartars, they might commit suicide; but the Tartars compelled them to swallow dog’s dung as an antidote.—(See Marco Polo, in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 143.)
“In cases of sickness, the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound are not allowed to clean their chambers before sunrise.”—(“The Central Eskimo,” Boas, p. 593.)
The writings of the best medical authorities for the first two centuries after the discovery of the art of printing teem with copious dissertations upon the value of these medicaments in all diseases, and as potent means of frustrating the maleficence of witches; the best of these writings will be selected and arranged in chronological order.