Scatalogic Rites of All Nations

XLI Ordure and Urine in Medicine

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.)

Extracts From the Writings of Dioscorides

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.

The Views of Galen

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,”

“And Bones, and Skin, and Fat, and Blood, and Dung,
Marrow, Milk, Urine, to the fight are brought.”

—(Edition of William Tooke, F. R. S., London, 1820, vol. i. p. 741.)

Sextus Placitus

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.”)

“SAXON LEECHDOMS.”

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.)

Avicenna

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).

Miscellaneous

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.

“A dram of a shepe’s tyrdle,
And good Saint Francis gyrdle,
With the hamlet of a hyrdle,
  Are wholsom for the pyppe.”

(Brand, “Pop. Ant.” vol. iii. p. 311,
art. “Rural Charms,” quoting Bale,
“Interlude concerning the Laws of
Nature, Moses, and Christ.”
4to. 1562.)

“An oyle drawne out of the excrements of Chyldren” and “An Oyle drawne out of Manne’s Ordure,” described as medicines in the “Newe Jewell of Health,” by George Baker, Chirurgeon, London, 1576 (Black Letter), pp. 171, 172, was prescribed for fistula and several other ailments.

“Water distilled from Manne’s Ordure” was given internally for the falling sickness, dropsy, etc.... There was also an “Oyle drawne out of the Excrements of Chyldren,” as well as one from “Manne’s Ordure” (see “Doctor Gesnerus, faithfully Englished,” p. 76). In the same work we read of “Water of Doue’s dung... which helpeth the stone” when taken internally.—(Idem p. 77.)

Paracelsus seems to be entitled to more credit than is generally accorded him; he was a chemist, in the early stages of that science, groping in the dark, but he was not the mere quack so many are anxious to make him out to have been. He condemns the old practice of medicine:—“The olde Physitians made very many medicines of most filthy things, as of the filth of the eares, sweat of the body, of women’s menstrues (and that which it is horrible to be spoken), of the Dung of man and other beastes, spittle, urine, flies, mice, the ashes of an owle’s head, etc.... Truly, when I consider with myself the pride of these fooles which disdaine this metalline part of Physicke (which after their manner, contumeliously they call Chymerican, and therefore can neither helpe their owne nor many other diseases), I call to mind a storie... of Herachio Ephesio, which being sick of a leprosie, despising the help of Physitians, anoynting himself over with cow-dung, set himselfe in the sun to drie, and falling asleepe was torn to pieces by dogges.”—(Paracelsus, “Experiments,” translation of 1596, p. 59.)

This last statement should be compared with the description of the suicides of the East Indian fanatics, given under “Ordeals and Punishments.”

Dr. Fletcher, United States Army, states that in old medical practice in England, from the time of Queen Elizabeth down to comparatively modern days, consumptive patients were directed to inhale the fumes of ordure. “Some physicians say that the smell of a jakes is good against the plague.”—(“Ajax,” p. 74.)

Urine was one of the ingredients from which Paracelsus prepared his “Crocus or Tincture of Metals.”—(See “Archidoxes,” English translation, London, 1661, p. 59.)

Further on he says, “The salt of man’s urine hath an excellent quality to cleanse; it is made thus,” etc. (p. 74). He also says: “Man’s dung, or excrement, hath very great virtues, because it contains in it all the noble essences, viz.: of the Food and Drink, concerning which wonderful things might be written.”—(“Archidoxes,” lib. v. p. 74.)

“To distill Oyle of a Man’s Excrements,... Take the Doung of a young, sanguine child, or man, as much as you will.... This helpeth the Canker and mollifieth fistulas; comforteth those that are troubled with Alopecea.”—(“The Secrets of Physicke,” London, 1633, p. 98.)

“For any manner of Ache... a plaister of Pigeon’s dung” (see “A Rich Storehouse or Treasurie for the Diseased,” Ralph Blower, London, 1616, black letter, p. 3); also, “Hen’s Dung” (idem, p. 4); to provoke urine, a plaster of Horse dung was applied to the patient (p. 25.)

“For spitting of blood... the dung of mice was drunk in wine” (idem, p. 29); for sore breasts of women, a plaster of Goose dung (p. 33); “for Burns and Scalds... a Plaster of Sheepe’s doung,” (p. 38); also, “the Doung of Geese” (p. 39).

“For deafe ears... the pisse of a pale Goat” was poured into them (p. 67); horse-dung was used as a face-lotion (p. 106); for the bloody flux soak the feet in water in which “Doue’s Doung has been seethed” (p. 119). For the gout, “Stale pisse” was an ingredient in a composition for external application (p. 119). For stitch in the side and back “Pigeon’s Doung” was used externally (p. 172); for sciatica, “Oxe-Doung and Pigeon’s Doung” in equal parts, were applied as a plaster (p. 173). Cow-dung was used internally in hydrocele (“The Chyrurgeon’s Closet,” London, 1632, p. 38); the urine of boys was used as an application to ulcers in the legs (idem, p. 24); again, the urine of immaculate boys was employed for the cure of all inveterate ulcers (p. 27); goat-dung was applied externally for the cure of auricular abscesses and for ulcers (pp. 35 and 42); cow-dung and dove-dung were used in the same manner (idem p. 42); dove-dung was also used externally in the treatment of sciatica (p. 48), and for “Shingles” (idem p. 51). Goat-dung, externally, for tumors (p. 49); goose-dung, externally, for canker in the breasts of women (p. 50); swallow-dung, externally, for angina; chicken-dung for the same (p. 58); cow-dung, externally, for tumors in the feet (p. 56); cow and goat dung, externally, in dropsy (p. 222); and many others throughout the volume.

In a black letter copy of “The Englishman’s Treasure,” London, 1641, is given a cure for wounds, in which it is directed “To wash the wounde very cleane with urine.”—(In Toner Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.)

To restrain excessive menstrual flow, apply hot plasters of horse-dung, between the navel and the privy parts.—(See “The Englishman’s Treasure,” by Thomas Vicary, Surgeon to King Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth; London, 1641, p. 184; this little volume contains nothing else of value to this work.)

Horse-dung was used internally for pleurisy (“Secrets in Physicke,” by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, pp. 26, 27); goose-dung, internally, for yellow jaundice (idem, p. 37); “Hound’s Turd,” externally, “to cure the bleeding of a Wound” (idem, p. 46); peacock’s dung, internally, for the falling sickness or convulsions (idem, p. 56); “The patient’s own water,” externally, for pains in the breast (p. 64); pigeon’s dung, both internally and externally, in child-birth pains (p. 68); goose-dung, externally, for burns (p. 96); hen’s dung, externally, for burns (p. 152); and for sore eyes (p. 174); “stale urine,” externally, for sore feet (p. 163).

“The stale of a cow and the furring of a chamber-pot” to be given, applied locally and externally, for scald head (“Most excellent and most approved Remedies,” London, 1652, p. 80). “The Urine of him that is sick,” externally, for stitch in the side (p. 115); goose dung, externally, for canker in woman’s breast (p. 129); “Urin of a Man Child (he beeing not aboue 3 years of age)” was a component in a salve for the king’s evil (p. 132). For patients sick of the plague, “Let them drink twice a day a draught of their own urin” (p. 143).

“A certain countryman at Antwerp was an example of this, who, when he came into a shop of sweet smells, he began to faint, but one presently clapt some fresh smoking horse-dung under his nose and fetched him to again.”—(Levinus Lemnius, “The Secret Miracles of Nature,” Eng. translation, London, 1658, p. 107, speaking of the effects of sweet and nasty smells upon different persons.)

“The urine of a Lizard,... the dung of an elephant,” were in medical use, according to Montaigne (“Essays,” Hazlitt’s translation, New York, 1859, vol. iii. p. 23; art. “On the Resemblance of Children to their Parents”). Also, “the excrement of rats beaten to powder” (idem). The above remedies were for the stone.

Doctor Garrett mentions “water of amber made by Paracelsus out of cow-dung,” and gives the recipe for its distillation, as well as for that of its near relative, “water of dung,” the formula for which begins with the words, “Take any kind of dung you please.”73

The work of Daniel Beckherius, “Medicus Microcosmus,” published in London, in 1660, is full of the value of excrementitious remedial agents.

Urine alone was applied to eradicate lice from the human head; but a secondary application of dove’s dung was then plastered on (p. 62). Urine was drunk as a remedy for epilepsy, used as an eye-wash, and various other ocular affections, and dropped into the ears for various abscesses and for deafness (pp. 63, 64).

A lotion of one’s own urine was good for the palsy; but where this had been occasioned by venery, excessive drinking, or mercury, the urine of a boy was preferable (p. 64). A drink of one’s own urine, taken while fasting, was commended in obstructions of the liver and spleen, and in dropsy and yellow jaundice (idem); but some preferred the urine of a young boy (p. 65). For jaundice the remedy should be drunk every morning, and the treatment continued for some time (idem).

For retention of urine the remedy was to drink the urine of a young girl (p. 66). Urine was drunk as a remedy for long-continued constipation (idem); for falling of the womb stale urine was applied as a fomentation (idem); for hysteria human ordure and stale urine were applied to the nostrils (idem); the urine of the patient was drunk as a cure for worms (idem); urine was used as a wash for chapped hands, also for all cutaneous disorders (idem); also for “ficus ani” (p. 67). For gout in the feet the patient should bathe them in his own urine, also for travel sores, as he would then be able to resume his journey next day (idem).

One’s own urine was drunk as a preservative from the plague. Beckherius says he knew of his own knowledge that it had been used with wonderful success between 1620 and 1630 for this purpose.

Urine was recommended as a drink in lues veneris; while a sufferer from cancer was bathed in his own urine and Roman vitriol; ulcers were likewise bathed with the patient’s own urine (p. 68). Urine was applied as a lotion to wounds, bruises, and contusions (p. 69). Beckherius recites the case of a laborer who was buried under a falling mass of earth, in 1522, but, being protected by some obstruction, nourished himself for seven days on his own urine. Besides being used alone in the above cases, urine entered as an ingredient into medicines for old sores (p. 72); against the growth of “wild hairs,” ocular affections, throat troubles as gargle (p. 73), affections of the spleen (p. 74). The urine of a boy was to be employed in paralysis and in erysipelas (idem); the urine of a boy was also prescribed in suppression of the menses, and the urine of a man in podagra (75). The urine of undefiled boys entered into the composition of aqua ophthalmica, and was used externally in rheumatism of the legs (p. 74).

The urine of boys was used as an ointment in some fevers; also as a fomentation in tympanitis, as a plaster in dropsy, for gangrene and podagra, in various clysters, in the cure of calculi and cachexy (pp. 78, 79); in some of the plasters cow and dove dung also entered. For the treatment of anasarca there was a “spagyric preparation of urine.” To make the spirit of urine by distillation, some took the urine of a healthy man, some that of a wine-drinking boy of twelve years (pp. 81, 82). This spirit was administered in lung troubles, in dropsy, suppression of the menses, all kinds of fevers, retention of urine, calculus, etc. (p. 85); also in eye troubles, strangury, diabetes, podagra, catarrh, melancholia, phrensy, cardialgia, syncope, dysentery, plague, malignant fevers (p. 86).

The “spirit of urine” was again distilled with vitriol to make an anti-podagric remedy (85).

Salt of urine was made by distilling the urine of a boy and collecting the saline residuum; it was administered in cardiac troubles and to aid in the expulsion of the dead fœtus; from it were made various empirical remedies,—moon salt, the salt of Jove, salt of Mercury, spirit of Orion, mercurius microcosmicus, which were used for all kinds of physical infirmities (p. 87). The quintessence of urine was distilled from the urine of a strong, healthy, chaste man of thirty years, who had drunk heavily of wine for the occasion; by another authority it is recommended that this happen while the sun and Jupiter may be in “Piscibus.” This was used in calculi of the kidneys and bladder and in all ulcerations of those parts; externally, as a lotion in gonorrhæa and external ulcers of the private parts, for wounds and lesions of all sorts, urinary troubles, worms, putrid fevers, and as a preservative against the plague, for hard tumors, etc. (p. 97).

An “anti-epileptic spirit” had the urine of boys as its main component (p. 95); there was an “anti-epileptic extract of the moon” (p. 96); an “anti-podagric medicament” of the same components almost. A “panacea solaris” had for its principal ingredient the urine of a boy who had been drinking freely of wine (p. 97).

Human Ordure

Beckherius cites a case where its use for three days cured a man of yellow jaundice; dried, powdered, and drunk in wine, it cured febrile paroxysms (p. 112); it was recommended to be that of a boy fed for some time on bread and beans.

To smell human ordure in the morning, fasting, protected from plague (pp. 112, 113).

He also gives the mode of preparing “zibethum,” or “occidental sulphur” (p. 116).

As a cure for angina a mixture was prescribed containing the white dung of dogs; also human ordure, swallow-dung, licorice, and candy (p. 113). In cancer, human ordure was applied as a plaster, mixed with turpentine, tobacco, antimony, powdered litharge, powdered crabs, etc. (pp. 113, 114).

He also gives the formulas for preparing aqua and oleum ex stercore humano (p. 114). In other places the use of ordure and urine in medicine is mentioned as a matter of course.—(See p. 274; also under the headings of “Ass,” “Mouse,” “Horse,” etc.; again, pp. 114, 192 et seq.)

Beckherius gives a list of a number of preparations which to our more enlightened view of such things must appear trivial, and need not be repeated here in detail,—such as one for “extracting the vitriol of metals,” etc. Into the preparation of all these human urine entered.

Potable gold was made with a menstruum of spirits of wine and human urine, half and half (pp. 100-102); there was an “oil of sulphur” prepared from human urine (103); there was a “precipitate of mercury and urine” (idem); there was finally a ludum urinæ, the residuum after the distillation of the aqua or the spiritus respectively, which was prescribed medicinally in the same way as these were (pp. 109, 110).

Von Helmont called the salt obtained by the distillation of human urine “duelech.” (See “Oritrike, or Physicke Refined,” John Baptist von Helmont, English translation, London, 1662, pp. 847-849.) This was the name generally given by Paracelsus to the stone in the bladder. Von Helmont instances a cure of tympanitis or dropsy by a belly-plaster of hot cow-dung, and adds, “Neither, therefore, doth Paracelsus vainly commend dungs, seeing that they are the salts of putrefied meats” (p. 520).

Petræus (Henricus) Nosolog. Harmon. lib. i. dissertat. 13, p. 252, et Joh. Schæderas, pharmacop. med. chym. lib. v. p. 829, “stercus siccatum tritum et cum melle illitum ad anguinam curandam magni usus esse dicunt.”—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 84.)

The ponderous tomes of Michael Etmuller contain all that was known or believed in on this subject at the time of their publication, A.D. 1690. He gives reasons for the employment of each excrement, solid or liquid, human or animal, which need not be detailed at this moment.

Human urine. “Urina calif. exsiccat, resolvit, abstergit, discutit, mundificat, putredini resistit, ideoque usus est præcipue intrinsecus in obstructione epatis, lienis, vesicæ, biliaræ, pestis preservatione, hydrope, ictero.... Exstrinsecus siccat scabiem, resolvit tumores, mundificat vulnera etiam venenata, arcet gangrænam, solvit alvum (in clysmata) abstergit furfures capitis.... compescit febriles insullus (pulsui applicata) exulceratas aures sanat (instillata pueri urina) oculorum tubedine subvenit (instillata) artuum tremorem tollit (lotione) uvulæ tumorem discutit (gargas), lienis dolores sedat (cum cinere cataplasmata).”

From the urine of a wine-drinking boy, “urina pueri (ann. 12) vinum bibentis,” distilled over human ordure, was made “spiritus urinæ” of great value in the expulsion of calculi, although it stunk abominably, “sed valde fœtet.” This was employed in the treatment of gout, asthma, calculi, and diseases of the bladder. (Etmuller, “Schroderi Diluc.,” vol. ii. p. 265.) There are several other methods given of obtaining this “spiritus urinæ per distillationem.”

Then there was a “spiritus urinæ per putrefactionem.” To make this, the urine of a boy twelve years old, who had been drinking wine, was placed in a receptacle, surrounded by horse-dung for forty days, allowed to putrefy, then decanted upon human ordure, and distilled in an alembic, etc. There were other methods for making this also, but this one will suffice. The resulting fluid was looked upon as a great “anodyne” for all sorts of pains, and given both internally and externally, as well as in scurvy, hypochondria, cachexy, yellow and black jaundice, calculi of the kidneys and bladder, epilepsy, and mania.

“Potable gold” was made from this spirit. “Idem spiritus optime purificatus (scil. aliquoties) in aqua pluvia solvendo et distillando cumque spiritus vini analytice unitus solvit aurum, unde aurum potabile” (vol ii. p. 266).

A urine bath was good for gout in the feet. A drink of one’s own urine was highly praised as a preservative from the plague. “Urinæ: Potus urinæ propriæ laudatur in preservanda et curanda peste.” Such a draught was also used by women in labor. “Urinæ hausta a mulieribus parturientibus partum facilitat.” Clysters of urine were administered in tympanites, or dropsy of the belly. Urine was applied in ulcerations of the ears.

Saltpetre was formerly made from earth, lime, etc., saturated with human urine, ordure, etc.

The “spiritus urinæ” obtained by the distillation of urine, removed obstructions from the bladder, meatus, etc., expelled calculi, and was a diaphoretic and an anti-scorbutic; it was likewise used in the cure of hypochondria, cachexy, chlorosis, etc., taken internally.

From the distillation of vitriol and urine an anti-epileptic medicine was obtained.—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 271.)

From the above-mentioned “spiritus urinæ per distillationem” was prepared “magisterium urinæ seu microcosmi,” useful in cases of atrophy; it also prevented the pains of the stone, if taken monthly before the new moon.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 266.)

Human ordure. “Stercus (carbon humanum Paracelsi, aliis sulph. occiden.) emollit, maturat, anodynum est. Ea propter magni usus ad mitigandum dolores incantatione introductos (impositum) ad anthraces pestilentiales maturandos, ad phlegmonem, v. g. gutturis seu anginam curandam (siccatum, tritum et cum melle illitum) ad inflammationem vulnerum arcendam. Quin et intrinsecus a nonnullis adhibetur in angina (crematum et potui datum), in febribus ad paroxysmos profligandos (eodem modo propinatum dos. 32), in epilepsia, quam stercus primum infantuli siccatum et pulverisatum, et ad complures dies exhibitum, radicitus evellere aiunt” (vol. ii. p. 266).

He alludes to the “aqua” and the “oleum” “ex stercore distillatum,” both used in ophthalmic diseases, as cosmetics to restore color to the face, to restore and produce hair, to cure tumors and fistulas, and remove cicatrices, and for the cure of epilepsy. “Interne prodesse aiunt comitialibus et hydropicis, lapidemque renum et vesicæ pellere, morsibusque canis rabidi, venenatorumque animalium subvenire.” The “oleum ex stercore” had to be prepared from the ordure of a young man, not a boy, “juvenis, non pueri” (vol. ii. p. 266).

Etmuller tells the same story we have already had from so many other sources, in regard to the medicinal properties ascribed to human ordure. It was looked upon as a valuable remedy, applied as a poultice for all inflammations and suppurations, carbuncles and pest buboes, administered for the cure of bites of serpents, and all venomous animals. It should be taken raw, dried, or in drink. It was the only specific against the bites of the serpents of India, especially the “napellus,” whose bite kills in four hours unless the patient adopts this method of cure. It was considered a specific against the plague, and of great use in effecting “magico-magnetic” or “sympathetic or transplantation” cures. It was also in high repute for baffling the efforts of witches.

“Water distilled from ordure was good for sore eyes, especially if the man whose ordure was used had been fed only on bread and wine. This was administered internally for dropsy, calculus, epilepsy, bites of mad dogs, carbuncles, etc.” (vol. ii. p. 272).

“Zibetta occidentalis nihil est aliud quam stercus mediante digestione ad suavolentiam redactum, qua Zibettam mentitur; vid. Agricola,” vol. ii. p. 266.

Of the value of this “zibethum” Etmuller quotes from an older authority: “Rosencranzerus in Astron. inferior (p. 232), dicit quod zibethum humanum... si illinatur parti genitali mulieris fœmina attrahat fœtum et precaveatur abortus” (vol. ii. p. 272).

Human ordure, containing as it does “an anodyne sulphur,... destructive of acids,” was supposed to be beneficial in burns, inflammations, and as a plaster for the dispersal of plague buboes.... “In insulis Botiis dictis, gens quoddam serpentis repiriri, cujus morsum mors sequatur, nisi stercus proprium demorsi mox assumatur. Tandem aqua stercoris humani cosmetica, ab aliis ophthalmatica censetur sic ut et ejusdem oleum contra cancrum mammarum specifice commendatur” (vol. ii. p. 171).

“In stercoribus animalium magna latet vis medica, ratione scilicet salis volatilis; in specie stercus porcinum omnes hæmorrhagias ad miraculum sistit, sive in forma pulveris ad ʒ i., sive in forma electuarii adhibens; annus est quo rustica quædam post abortum insigne patiebatur mensium profluvium cui cum meo suasu maritus inscie propinasset stercus suillum, fluxus cessavit et mulier pristinæ reddita sanitati. Stercus equinum summum est remedium in passione hysterica, et doloribus colicis, si succus expressus cum cerevisia vel vino propinetur; sic quoque conducit in variolis et morbilis infantum, propinatus cum cerevisia calida, qui optime per sudorem expellit ut taceam de effectu quem præstat in pleuritide laudando.

“Ut ita licet volatilia in uno puncto convenire videantur, diversis tamen, ratione diversæ et specificæ cujuslibet craseus medeantur morbos.” (vol. ii. sect. 3, “Pyrotechnia Rationalis,”—“de Animalibus,” Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” xx.)

“Animalium omnium participant de natura salis ammoniaci constant quippe (are certainly known) ex acido et alcali oleoso volatili indeque, auræ beneficio alterantur in nitro, præsertim avium excrementa quicquid igitur præstant, operantur ex vi salis ammoniacali” (vol. ii. p. 171).

The use of animal dungs was noted, but not unqualifiedly commended by Etmuller, in the following cases: dog-dung, mixed with honey, for inflammation of the throat; wolf-dung, in form of powder, as an anti-colic.

Dog-dung (album Græcum officinalis) was regarded as useful in dysentery, epilepsy, colic; was applied externally in angina, malignant ulcers, hard tumors, warty growths, etc. Especial value was attached to such dung gathered in the month of July, from a bone-fed dog, because it was whiter, purer, and less fetid. Dog-urine was employed as a lotion for warty growths, ulcers on the head, etc. (vol. ii. p. 253).

“Dicitur in officinis semper album Græcum, nunquam stercus.” The dog “debite nutriatur cum ossibus solis, cum nullo vel pauco potu” (vol. ii. p. 254).

Goat-dung was used in hard tumors of the spleen and other parts of the body; in buboes, ear-abscesses, inveterate ulcers, dropsy, scabby head, lichen, etc. (p. 254). In all these its use was external, but for other troubles of the spleen, yellow jaundice, retention of the menses, and similar ailments, it was given internally. Goat-urine was given internally in removal of calculi, urinary troubles, and (after distillation) for dropsy. The egestæ of the wild goat were used for almost identically the same disorders (vol. ii. p. 254).

The juice of horse-dung was used by the English in colic, pleurisy, and hysteria.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 254.)

Pig-dung, dried, snuffed up into the nostrils, cured nasal hemorrhages. Compare this with the use made of the dried excrement of the Grand Lama as a sternutatory and general curative.

Hyena-dung was used in medicine, but the diseases are not mentioned.

Sparrow-dung and mouse-dung, if made into pills, and taken to the number of nine, would bring on the menses of women.

Cow-dung was recommended as a fomentation in gout.

The use of cow-dung, internally, was highly commended for expelling calculi and for the cure of retention of urine, on account of the “volatile nitrous salts which ascended in the alembic, and which had a good effect upon the kidneys.”

The common people drank the juice expressed from this dung in all cases of colic and pleurisy, for which they found it a beneficial medicine. “Ulterius valde convenit ad pellendum calculum et ciendam urinam propter sal. vol. nitrosum qui ascendit per alembicam unde ad nephritidem et ciendam urinam valde commendatur a poterio.... Plebii in colico dolore succum ex stercore propinant, quod verum est, non solum in colico sed etiam in pleuritide præsentaneum remedium” (vol. ii. pp. 249, 250).

The juice of young geese, gathered in the month of March, was used in jaundice and cachexy.... Hen-dung was sometimes employed as a substitute for goose-dung. Peacock-dung was employed in all cases of vertigo.... Swallow-dung was used in cases of angina and inflammation of the tonsils (vol. ii. p. 171).

Hawk-dung was used for sore eyes. Duck-dung “fimus morsui venenatorum animalium imponitur” (vol. ii. p. 286).

Goat-dung, drunk in cases of hemorrhage.... Goat-urine considered a specific for the expulsion of calculi of the bladder. Asses’ urine drunk for diseases of the kidneys, atrophy, paralysis, consumption, etc. Asses’ dung taken internally in form of powder or potion, and applied also externally in all cases of hemorrhage, excessive uterine flow, and troubles of that nature (vol. ii. p. 247). It was thought by some to be best when gathered in the month of May; others thought that dog-dung should be substituted. Cow-urine was a beneficial application to sore eyes.

Cow-dung was used in all cases of burns, inflammations, rheumatism, etc., “apum ac vesparum morsibus.” (We have already seen that it has been used for bee stings in the State of New Jersey.) “Suffitu reprimit uterum prolapsum.” Finally, it was used as a plaster in dropsy.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 248.)

Dove-dung was applied generally in cataplasms and rubefacient plasters for the cure of rheumatism, headache, vertigo, colic pains, apoplexy; also in boils, scorbutic swellings, etc., and drunk as a cure for dropsy.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 287.)

Quail-dung, “fimum in vino potum, dysenteriam sanare tradit Kynarides” (vol. ii. p. 288).

Fresh calf-dung was rubbed on the skin for the cure of erysipelas.

Fox-dung was applied externally for the cure of all cutaneous disorders (vol. ii. pp. 283-285).

Kid-dung (Capreolus or Chevreuil) was drunk as a cure for yellow jaundice (vol. ii. p. 257).

Cat-dung was applied as a poultice to scab in the head and to gout in the feet (vol. ii. p. 259).

Horse-dung, fresh or burnt to ashes, was applied externally as a styptic, used as a fumigation to aid in the expulsion of the fœtus and after-birth; also drunk as a potion for colic pains, strangulation of the uterus, expulsion of the fœtus and after-birth, and for pleurisy. “Stercus equinum est medicina magni et multi usus.... Interne succus ex stercore recenti expressus.” For the certain cure of pleurisy, it should be the dung of a young stallion, especially if oat-fed. “In Angina certe stercus equinum non cedit stercori hirundinum... et canis” (vol. ii. p. 263).

Lion-dung, taken internally, was an anti-epileptic.

Hare-dung was administered internally in calculus and dysentery, and externally for burns.

Hare-urine was applied in ear troubles.

Wolf-dung was found efficacious, taken internally, in colic.

Musk was frequently given, mixed with zibethum, as a carminative; also as a nervine and a cardiac.

Mouse-dung found its advocates as a remedy, given internally, in the constipation of children, calculi, used in enemata.

The internal administration of rat-dung removed catamenial obstructions.

Mouse-dung was styled “album nigrum;” dog-dung, “album Græcum.”

Sheep-dung was administered internally in yellow jaundice; “maximi usus in aurigine, sumptum cum petroselino” (rock-parsley),—while, externally, it was applied to hard tumors, swellings, boils, burns, etc.

The urine of red or black sheep was given internally in dropsy. “Urina (nigræ vel rubræ ovis) sumpta, aquam inter cutem abigit.” The dose was from five to six ounces.

Hog-dung, externally, in cutaneous disorders, bites of venomous animals, nasal hemorrhage,—for the cure of this last even the odor was sufficient; “sufficit etiam odor.”

Michaelus Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” “Schroderi dilucidati Zoölogia,” Lyons, 1690, vol. ii. pp. 263-279, inclusive.

Quail-dung was administered for epilepsy when the bird had been fed on hellebore.—(Etmuller, “Opera Omnia,” “Schrod. Diluc. Zoöl.” vol. ii. p. 288.)

Cuckoo-dung, taken in drink, cured the bites of mad dogs.—(Idem.)

White hen-dung was preferred for medicinal purposes. It was employed for the same ailments as dove-dung, but was not believed to be so efficacious. It was especially valuable in colic and uterine pains, in yellow jaundice, calculus, abscesses in the side, suppression of urine, etc. (vol. ii. p. 289).

There was another cure for the bites of mad dogs,—the dung of the swallow taken internally. It was also considered to be a cure for colic pains and kidney troubles, and was made into a suppository in cases of irritation of the rectum (vol. ii. p. 290).

Kite-dung was sometimes applied externally in pains of the joints (vol. ii. p. 291).

As a purgative, starling dung is enumerated in this strange list of filthy medicaments (vol. ii. p. 292).

The egestæ of wild oxen was used for the same therapeutical purposes as the excrement of the domesticated bovines (vol. ii. p. 252).

Peacock-dung. “Stercus proprietate vertiginem et epilepsiam sanat (in dies multos exhibitum).” It should be administered in wine, and the treatment was to be persisted in from the new until the full moon, or longer. “Continuando a novilunio usque ad plenilunium, aut amplius.... In epilepsiam est specificum magno usu expertum.” It was likewise considered of great value in the cure of vertigo, but the dung of the cock should be given to men; that of the hen, to women. Etmuller, however, did not think this distinction to be necessary (vol. ii. pp. 292, 293).

The dung of geese, old or young, was employed in the treatment of yellow jaundice, for which it was believed to be a specific. The dose was one scruple. The geese should have been fed on “herba chelidonii.” Next to the yellow jaundice, it was of special value in scurvy, taken either in the form of a powder or a decoction. For the cure of dropsy it was the main ingredient in several of the remedies prescribed. It was also the principal component in the manufacture of “aqua ophthalmica Imperatoris Maximiliani,” to prepare which, the dung of young geese was gathered in the months of April and May (vol. ii. p. 287).

Stork-dung, stercus ciconiæ. Believed to be potential in epilepsy and diseases of the same type. “Stercus, si ex aqua hauritur, comitialibus aliisque morbis capitis prodesse credunt.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 287.)

The laxative properties of mouse-dung were extolled by Dr. Jacob Augustine Hunerwolf, in “Ephemeridum Physico-Medicarum,” Leipzig, 1694, vol. i. p. 189.

Rosinus Lentilius relates that there was a certain old hypochondriac, of fifty or more, who, in order to ease himself of an obstinate constipation, for more than a month drank copious draughts of his own urine, fresh and hot, but with the worst results, “Per mensem circiter urinam suam statim a mictu calentem ipsa matuta hauriret.”—(In “Ephem. Physico-Medicarum,” Leipzig, 1694, vol. ii. p. 169.)

On the page just cited and those immediately following, can be found some ten or twelve pages of fine print, quarto, elucidative of the uses of the human excreta, medicinally, and as a matter of morbid appetite.

To the Ephemeridum, Dr. Lentilius also contributed a careful résumé of all that was at that time known of the medicinal or other form of the internal employment of the human excreta; he premised his remarks by saying that while some persons sent to foreign countries and ransacked their woods and forests for medicines, there were others who sought their remedies nearer home, and did not disdain the employment of the vilest excrements. “I am not speaking now,” he remarks, “of the excrements of animals, but of human ordure and human urine. We know,” he continues, “that horse-dung is used for the cure of colic, pig-dung for checking internal hemorrhages, dog-dung or album Græcum for angina, goose-dung for yellow jaundice, peacock-dung for vertigo, and goat-dung, in Courland beer, for malignant fevers.” The Mexicans used human ordure as an antidote against serpent bites in two-scruple doses, drunk in some convenient liquor: “De homerda contra venenatos Mexicano—serpentis ictus—ad ʒ ii. in convenienti liquore hausta” (p. 170). The same mixture was drunk by the Japanese, as a remedy against the wounds made by poisoned weapons: “De eadem mixtura sed e stercore proprio confusa contra telorum venena Japonensibus pota.” Observe that in this last case the ordure had to be that of the wounded man himself.

Etmuller recommends its use in expelling from the system the virus of “napelli” whatever that may have been. To cure the plague, the patient was to consume a quantity equal in size to a filbert. To frustrate the effects of incantation and witchcraft, it had to be drunk in oil. Used in the same manner, it was supposed to be of use in expelling worms: “De eadem mixtura, sed a stercore proprio,” etc., as already quoted. “De stercore humano, seu recente seu arido, adsunto ad expugnandum napelli virus, etiam a nostratibus commendato, de quo vid. Etmuller, etc.... In peste fuganda mane ad avellanas quantitatem devorando,... ad morbos e fascino ex aceto propinato... ad expellendos vermes eodem modo usurpato.” He alludes also to “Oletum” and the medicines made with it, as an ingredient; but says he will leave “Zibethum” and “Occidental Sulphur” to Paracelsus and the members of his school. He quotes Galen as recommending the drinking of the urine of a stout, healthy boy, as a preventive of the plague. “Urina pueri sani bibita... preservans a peste,” quoting Galen, lib. x. “De Simp. Med. Fac.” A draught of her husband’s urine was of great assistance to a woman in uterine troubles: “Sic, in δυσοχία urinæ maritalis haustum concelebrant alii.” The urine of a chaste boy was much commended by many writers for internal use in dropsy, splenic inflammation, etc. “Sic urinam impolluti pueri quotidie potum, esse medicamentum laudabile et præsentaneum, ad lienis morbos et hydropem.” It would be useless to quote further in the words of the original. Lentilius goes on to say that a potion of one’s own urine was extolled in the treatment of the bites of snakes, wounds by deadly weapons, incipient dropsy and consumption.

To drink one’s own urine for the space of three days was a sure cure for the yellow jaundice, also in preserving from the plague. But Von Helmont was of the opinion that in this last case its virtues were derived from the fact that it was a stimulant and served to keep up the spirits. By Etmuller, its use was strongly recommended in the treatment of the yellow jaundice, etc. (citing Etmuller). It was likewise highly extolled by Avicenna.

We are next treated to a feast of big words, in which we learn that on account of its “nitrosity” and “volatility,” it was regarded as a “detersive,” and “penetrative,” while, on account of the alkali it contained, it was a neutralizer of the “fermenting acids,” and therefore applicable in cardialgia, anorexia, gout, toothache, colic, yellow jaundice, and intermittent fevers, either the urine “of the patient himself or that of a wine-drinking boy.”

Boyle, the eminent philosopher, is quoted as saying that, in his opinion, the virtues of human urine, as a medicine, internally and externally, would require a volume by themselves. Boyle is also credited with having published a tract on this subject, in Leipzig, 1692, over the signature “B.”

Lentilius devotes a number of pages of close, logical reasoning to demonstrate the fallacy of supposing that human excreta can be of any possible utility in therapeutics. According to his opinion, Nature voided them from the body because the body had no further use for them; therefore, their re-absorption could scarcely be other than deleterious; this was all the more true in disease, because the patient being in a morbid state, that which he ejected could by no process of correct reasoning be regarded as healthy. This argument, although of great interest and value, is very long and pertains rather to the history of medicine proper than to this essay.

Lentilius concludes by saying that no more cruel threat could be made than that of Sennacherib against the Jews that he would make them eat their own excrement and drink the water which bathed his feet: “Quam futurum esse, ut quisquis sua stercora voraturus, et aquam pedum suorum bibiturus sit.” Esa. 36, ver. 12. “Væ miseris ægrotis, quo rumores ad urinæ potum rediit.”—(In “Ephem. Phys. Medic.” Leipzig, 1694, vol. ii. pp. 169 to 176, inclusive; the pages are quarto, the number of words to the page about 375.)

Lentilius has either stolen bodily from Paullini, or anticipated him; he has all of Paullini’s facts, but seems, in addition, to have been much of a philosopher, which Paullini was not.

Christian Franz Paullini’s “Filth Pharmacy,” Frankfort, 1696, is better known than any other of the works cited, being in German, of small size, and confining itself almost exclusively to a recapitulation of diseases, with the appropriate excrementitious curative opposite each.

Six different editions are contained in the Library of the U. S. Army Medical Museum, in Washington; of these, that of Frankfort, 1696 (268 pages, duodecimo), was selected, and the work of translation entrusted to Messrs. Smith and Pratz; being perfectly familiar with English and German, their interpretation, made slowly and carefully, may be relied on as minutely correct.

Paullini has done nothing beyond collecting his ample list of cases in which the human and animal excreta were employed in the treatment of diseases; he has in no instance ventured upon an explanation of the reason for such use, such as Etmuller supplied.

He treats of the employment of human ordure and urine, and animal excreta, in the following diseases: headache, insomnia, vertigo, dementia, melancholia, mania, gout, convulsions, palsy, epilepsy, sore eyes, cataract, ophthalmia, ear troubles, bleeding of the nose, nasal polypi, carious teeth, dropsy of the head, wens, asthmatic troubles, coughs, spitting of blood, consumption, pleurisy, fainting spells, diseases of the mammary glands, tumors, colic, abnormal appetite, worms, hernia, sciatica, ulceration of the bowels, constipation, diarrhœa, dysentery, obstructions of the liver, dropsy, jaundice, kidney troubles, gravel, stone, retention of urine, excessive flow of urine, impaired virility, swelling of the testicles, uterine displacements, menstrual troubles, sterility, accidents to pregnant women, miscarriages, difficult labor, pains after childbirth, gout of feet, rheumatism, fevers of all kinds, poisons, plague, syphilitic and venereal diseases, abscesses, sprains, contusions, bruises, wounds, ring-worm, felons, itch, freckles, as a cosmetic, for rash, tetter, loss of hair, lice, gangrene, colds, warts, fissure of the rectum, fistulas, corns, bunions, love-potions, and to baffle witchcraft.

For headache, pigeon-dung was used internally, and the dung of a red cow and of the peacock, externally.

Insomnia, donkey-dung, internally; gout and pigeon dung, externally. Human urine was also used for the same purpose (pp. 28, 29).

Vertigo. Pigeon, peacock, and squirrel dung, all used internally.

Dementia. Donkey-dung, externally.

Melancholia. Calf or ox dung, internally; owl-dung, externally.

Mania. Human ordure, internally; boy’s urine, internally, and also owl’s and chicken’s dung, internally.

Gout. Boy’s urine, externally, and owl’s, jenny’s, horse’s, cow’s, deer’s, and sow’s dung, externally.

Convulsions. Peacock and horse dung, externally.

Palsy. Let the patient wash with his own urine or that of a young boy (pp. 28, 29); administer peacock’s or horse’s dung internally.

For the cure of the dread disease, epilepsy, human ordure and the urine of boys were administered internally, and there were likewise internal applications of the dung of horses, peacocks, mice, dogs, black cows, lions, storks, and wild hogs; no external applications are noted for this disease (pp. 28, 29, 42, 43).

Another remedy for epilepsy was to take the excrements of a fine, healthy youth, dry them, and extract the oil by means of heat; rectify this oil and take inwardly (pp. 42, 43).

For inflamed and running eyes make a collyrium of the warm urine of young boys, mingled with other ingredients. Make an external application of boys’ urine, or of the dung of swallows, pigeons, cows, goats, prairie hens, horses, lizards, doves. There was no internal administration of any of the above suggested.

For ophthalmic troubles, the same treatment as the above.

Cataract. Make an external application of human ordure, of boy’s urine, or of the dung of wolves, green lizards, or geese.

Earache or ringing in the ear, or abscesses. Apply the urine of young boys mixed with honey, or apply fresh human urine.

Other ear troubles. External application of boy’s urine or of the patient’s own urine; external application of the dung of the white goat, or pigeon’s, cat’s, deer’s, rabbit’s, jenny’s, wild hog’s or wolf’s dung.

Bleeding at the nose. External application of dog’s urine, of horse urine, or of the dung of calf, donkey, hog, cow, horse, camel, or rabbit.

Nasal polypi. Dung of dog or donkey, externally.

Toothache or carious teeth. One’s own ordure, or the dung of wolf, dog, raven, mouse, or horse, in all cases externally (pp. 52, 53).

Toothache. Apply a poultice of human excrement, mixed with camomile-flowers, to the cheek.

Dropsy of the head. Take boy’s urine internally.

Croup and throat troubles generally. Boy’s urine, both internally and externally; a gargle and a potion of one’s own urine; and both internal and external applications of the white dung of dogs, gathered in July; or the dung of geese, pigeons, eagles, goats, owls, hens, or wolves.

Asthmatic troubles. Salts of urine or pigeon’s dung, externally.

Coughs. The dung of dogs, internally, or the dung of geese; the dung of ravens, deer, or sparrows, externally.

Spitting of blood. The excreta of wild sows, doves, sheep, cows, horses, mice, dogs, or peacocks, internally.

Consumption. The patient’s ordure, internally; his own or a boy’s urine, or mice-dung, internally (pp. 74, 75).

Another remedy for consumption was to let the patient drink a mixture of his own urine beaten up with fresh egg; repeat for several successive mornings; also, let him eat his own excrement (pp. 74, 76).

For pleurisy, we read that there was an external application of the patient’s own urine, or that the dung of donkeys, horses, stallions, mares, hens, pigeons, and dogs was given internally.

Fainting-spells. Human ordure, externally; one’s own urine, internally; cow-urine or the dung of horses, sheep, or birds, externally.

Diseases of the mammary glands. The dung of cows or mice, internally, and also an external application of that of oxen, goats, hogs, dogs, cows, or pigeons.

Cancer of the breast. The patient’s own ordure internally, with external applications of the dung of geese, cows, goats, or rabbits.

Wens. External applications of the dung of cows, rats, mice, goats, sheep, geese, pigeons, or jennies.

Colic. Human ordure, internally; “Eau de Millefleurs,” internally (we know that “Eau de Millefleurs” was itself a composition of cow-dung); take bees internally (the only instance recorded of such a use of this insect), or the dung of horses, cats, swallows, or chickens, externally.

A youth in Leyden fell madly in love with a young girl, but could not get the consent of his parents to marry her. He was seized with a violent fever and constipation. In this desperate condition he imagined that a drink of fresh urine from his beloved would benefit him; he accordingly wrote to her, begging her to satisfy his longing, which she accordingly granted, and after drinking of the beverage to his heart’s content, he found immediate relief (whether from the constipation or the passion Paullini neglects to state).—(Paullini, pp. 106, 107.)

Abnormal appetite. The same remedies as are enumerated for colic, q. v.

Worms. The patient’s own urine, internally; the dung of horses or cows or hogs, internally.

Hernia. Rabbit-dung, internally.

Sciatica. External application of the dung of goats, pigeons, horses, or chickens.

Constipation. Human ordure, internally; human urine, internally; or the excreta of sows, mice, chickens, geese, sparrows, magpies, or pigeons internally.

Diarrhœa. Dog-dung, internally; sow, donkey, or cow dung, externally.

Dysentery. The patient’s own ordure or that of a boy, internally; human urine, internally; or the excreta of dogs, horses, hogs, crows, rabbits, donkeys, mules, or elephants, internally.

Obstructions of the liver. Salts of urine, internally; or the dung of geese, swallows, or deer, internally.

Dropsy. Human ordure, internally; the patient’s own urine or that of a boy, internally; or external applications of dung of geese, chickens, goats, donkeys, dogs, deer, horses, or sheep, internally.

Kidney troubles. Human urine, both internally and externally; goose-dung, internally; sheep-dung, externally; donkey or deer dung, internally.

Kidney diseases, stone in the bladder. Take internally human urine or water, distilled over human ordure, or the dried catamenia of women, or the scrapings of chamber-pots taken in brandy.—(Paullini, pp. 142, 143.)

Gravel. The patient’s own urine, internally; or the dung of pigeons, rats, chickens, mice, wild hogs, or donkeys, both internally and externally.

Excessive urination. The dung of goats, mice, or wild hog, internally.

Difficult urination. The urine of a girl, internally; the urine of the patient, both internally and externally; the dung of sparrows, internally; or the dung of donkeys, goats, chickens, geese, roosters, or pigeons, externally.

Impaired virility and swelling of the testicles. The dung of prairie hens, or that of sparrows, internally; or the dung of rabbits, bulls, cows, or goats, externally.

Uterine displacements. Human ordure, internally; the dung of falcons, horses, or bulls, internally, or the dung of sows, donkeys, or sheep. Human excrement was applied outwardly in treatment of falling of the womb; this was also considered a good method of treating inflammation of the vagina; stale urine and the steam of old socks, and asses’ dung, was applied outwardly. The scrapings of chamber vessels was taken inwardly, mixed with other ingredients (pp. 154, 155).

For menstrual troubles menstrual blood was administered internally; the urine of boys, internally; the excreta of donkeys and rabbits, both internally and externally; and those of hogs, rats, and horses, externally.

For cessation of the menses. Take internally pulverized menses dried, and wear a chemise smeared with human blood (most probably the chemise of a woman who had been more fortunate in her purgation); or boil boys’ urine and garlic together, and inhale the steam (p. 158).

Gout, rheumatism. The patient’s own urine, both internally and externally; the urine of boys, externally; the dung of mice or rabbits, internally; the excreta of cows, bulls, calves, donkeys, pigeons, peacocks, storks, dogs, goats, or wild hogs, externally.

Another remedy for gout and rheumatism was the excreta of chickens, dogs, or cocks, internally.

Tertiary fever. Human ordure and urine, internally; the excreta of sows, donkeys, chickens, and swallows, and the white dung of dogs, internally.

Quaternary fever. The ordure of infants, internally; the urine of an old woman, mixed with donkey-dung, externally; the dung of geese gathered in May, of dogs, of sparrows, chickens, and sheep, internally; and cat-dung, externally.

Malignant fevers. The urine of the patient, internally; the urine of a jenny, internally; the dung of a red cow, of a reindeer, horse, sheep, or goat, internally; no external applications in this case.

Antidotes for poisons. Human ordure internally, and human urine both internally and externally; the excreta of hogs, ducks, swallows, goats, calves, or chickens, internally; of pigeons, cows, sheep, donkeys, and horses, externally.

Plague. Human ordure and urine, internally; bull-dung, internally; the dung of cows, chickens, or pigeons, externally.

Syphilis and venereal diseases. Human urine, internally, also externally; and the excreta of horses and dogs, externally.

Abscesses and sprains. The urine of boys, externally; the excreta of cows, goats, dogs, pigeons, chickens, camels, geese, externally; or of the wild hog, both internally and externally.

Boils. Human ordure and urine, externally; the dung of chickens, pigeons, goats, dogs, cows, bulls, sheep, or foxes, externally.

Wounds. Human ordure and urine, externally; the excreta of dogs and goats, internally; or of cows, pigeons, chickens, donkeys, and sheep, externally.

Ring-worm, felons. Human ordure, externally; menstrual blood, externally; the excreta of geese, cows, sows, cats, sheep, goats, or chickens, externally.

Itch, freckles, rash, tetter, etc. Geese-dung, internally; the excreta of donkeys, dogs, chickens, crocodiles, foxes, or pigeons, externally.

Loss of hair, lice. Human urine, externally; the excreta of pigeons, cats, rats, mice, swallows, geese, rabbits, or goats, externally.

Gangrene. The urine of a virgin, externally; the white dung of chickens, or horse-dung, externally.

Colds. Human ordure and urine, externally; the excreta of sheep, cows, bulls, chickens, hogs, pigeons, or horses, externally.

Warts. The patient’s own urine, externally; the excreta of dogs, sheep, camels, goats, cows, calves, or of a black dog, externally.

Fissure of the rectum, bunions, corns. The excreta of dogs, hogs, sheep, pigeons, chickens, goats, mice, or of cows, gathered in May, externally.

Fistula. Human ordure, externally; the dung of dogs and mice, internally.

Yellow jaundice. Take internally the oil of human excrements, or drink human urine for nine days (pp. 132, 133).

Bloody flux. Human excrements dried, taken internally, are of great benefit (pp. 108, 109).

Insomnia. Take the “Spiritus Urinæ” internally.

Fits or spasms. Take the urine of young boys internally (pp. 28 and 29.)

“Take an old rusty piece of iron, be it a horse-shoe or anything else; lay it on the fire until it be red-hot; then take it out of the fire and let the patient make water upon it and take the fume thereof at his nose and mouth, using this three days together, and it will cure him (of yellow jaundice).”—(“The Poor Man’s Physician,” John Moncrief, Edinburgh, 1716, p. 174.)

“For running ulcers of the head... bathe the whole head with old urine.”—(Idem, p. 66.)

“To provoke flow of urine... neat’s dung, mixt with honey, made hot, applied to the share bone.”—(Idem, p. 133.)

For stone in bladder, “mouce-dung drunk.”—(Idem, p. 134.)

“The dung, flesh, and haire of a hare drunk.”—(Idem, p. 131.)

“Goat’s-dung drunk... for the space of three days.” (Jaundice.)—(Idem, p. 116.)

“Goat’s-dung, if drunk, brought back the catamenia.”—(Idem, p. 141.)

“Goose and hen dung, drunk with the best wine, miraculously cureth sudden suffocations of the mother.”—(Idem, p. 144.)

“For a perverse or froward mother (i. e., womb), apply stinking smells to the privities, and sweet smells to the nose.”—(Idem, pp. 144, 151.)

“For the squinsy... take the dung of a hog, newly made and as hot as you can get it,... apply to the place, and it cureth.”—(Idem, p. 172.)

“For all imposthemes... the dung of a goose which had first fasted three days, and then fed on an eel before being killed,” was applied externally.—(Idem, p. 180.)

“For swellings behind the ears,... goat-dung, boiled,” was applied as a plaster.—(Idem, p. 84.)

For boils, carbuncles, etc., “an emplaister made of the dung of a peacock cureth faithfully.”—(Idem, p. 163.)

“For the cure of fistula, ‘man’s-dung and pepper’ were to be applied externally; goat’s-dung externally; dove’s-dung was to be drunk in goat’s-milk; the juice of cow-dung, in wine, was to be cast into the fistula, and a plaster of the same was to be applied.”—(Idem, pp. 165, 166.)

“Qui mane jejune, per novem dies, bibit propriam urinam non patietur epilepsiam, paralysim, nec colicam, et qui bibit propriam urinam sanabitur a sumpto veneno.”—(Idem, pp. 169, 170.)

“D’après le témoignage de Charles Lancilotti, l’acqua di sterco humano pigliata in una calante por lo spation di nuove giorni sana quelli che patiscono il male caduco.” (Voyez Guida alla Chimica.)—(“Bib. Scatalogica,” p. 29.)

Schurig’s “Chylologia,” published in Dresden, 1725, contains citations from nearly seven hundred authorities. As these are nearly all of very ancient date, and only in a few cases accessible to scholars restricted to American libraries, this learned work of Schurig becomes all the more valuable to such as desire to study intelligently and profoundly this subject of the use of human and animal excreta in religious rites or in religious medicine.

Some of the writers quoted by Schurig favor, others oppose the medical employment of the human excretions. Among those in favor of it, according to him, may be seen the names of Galen and Dioscorides. In Schurig’s day there seems to have been much opposition developing, especially when other remedies were available; although Schurig says that the Dutch soldiers returning from the Indies spoke in praise of what they had seen there of the use of such medicaments. Among European practitioners, human ordure was employed alone, mixed with water or other ingredients, or a water and an oil were distilled from it.

It would be a useless task to repeat the names of all the authorities mentioned by this learned German, or to give in detail all the prescriptions in which the alvine dejecta figure as components. Their insertion here would add nothing to the value of these notes, as they are strictly pharmaceutical in their spirit; it may, however, be of some interest to the student to learn just what diseases were supposed to be amenable to this course of treatment, and just how the curatives were to be administered.

For angina pectoris, the ordure passed by a young boy after eating lupines, to be taken internally (p. 758). For the same disease there were other recipes for ordure in pills, plasters, and decoctions, as well as for electuaries of ordure, to be blended with honey (p. 756).

For bringing boils, ulcers, etc., to a head, for sprains, luxations, etc., a poultice of human ordure, applied hot, was considered the best specific (p. 757).

For rheumatic gout, a hot poultice of human ordure was considered of value (p. 757).

Renal calculi. “Aqua ex stercore distillata” was given internally (p. 757). For cancers and malign ulcers, human ordure was used as a local poultice; also given internally, in pills or powders. Pope Benedict was cured of a cancer by this treatment (pp. 758, 759).

Epilepsy. Peacock-dung was used internally in conjunction with human ordure (p. 762).

Erysipelas was treated with a poultice of human ordure (p. 762). “Oleum ex stercore distillatum” was also given internally (p. 762).

Cicatrices, small-pox pustules. Bathe with “aqua ex stercore distillata” (p. 760).

Gangrene, cured by application of warm ordure and urine (p. 763).

Dropsy; use “aqua ex stercore distillata” internally (p. 764).

Yellow jaundice, by human ordure drunk in wine (p. 764). Here he quotes Paullini, and others with whom we are already familiar.

Piles. Plaster of human ordure (p. 766). The same method of treatment for tumors (p. 777).

Ring-worm and other skin diseases. Use “oleum ex stercore” internally (p. 766).

Inflammation of the breasts of young mothers; local application of human ordure (p. 767).

Burns and scalds. “Aqua ex stercore” locally (p. 760). Inflammations, ditto (p. 766).

Dysentery. “Aqua ex stercore” internally (p. 761), quoting Paullini.

Empyematis. “Oleum ex stercore,” internally (p. 761).

Epilepsy. “Cured and prevented by excrement. infantis,” internally (p. 761).

For all fevers. Ordure, mixed with honey, internally, quoting Paullini (pp. 762, 763).

Fistula in ano or in lachryma. Local application of human ordure (p. 763).

Birth-marks were effaced by a plaster of human ordure, or of meconium (p. 771).

Ophthalmia, cataract, etc. Human ordure, applied as a plaster. Also, “aqua ex stercore distillata,” internally (p. 771).

Toothache. Plaster of human ordure, mixed with powdered chamomile flowers, quoting Paullini (p. 772).

Œdema. Plaster of human ordure and of cow-dung (p. 772).

Felons. Plaster of human ordure. Also, one of the same, mixed with assafœtida, quoting Paullini (p. 772).

Hysteria. Human ordure, drunk in wine (p. 773).

Bites of mad dogs, serpents, and all wild animals. Ordure, or “oleum ex stercore distillatum,” or “aqua ex stercore distillata,” internally (pp. 767, 768).

In the island of Manilla, human ordure was held in such high estimation as a remedy for the cure of the bites of all venomous animals, that it was carried fresh, or dessicated, in little pyxes or pouches suspended from the neck, ready for instant use. An example is given, on the authority of a Franciscan friar, for years a missionary in that country, of a man so bitten, and so near death that he could not open his mouth, whose teeth were pried asunder, and this remedy inserted. He recovered immediately.

Human ordure was also used internally, in Mexico, for the cure of serpent bites, as we have learned previously from other sources. (p. 767.)

For worms in the head. “Oleum ex stercore distillatum,” applied locally (p. 777).

Poisons. Human ordure, internally (pp. 777, 778).

For wounds occasioned by poisoned weapons, in the island of Macassar, human ordure was administered internally, until vomiting was induced. The same treatment was observed in Armenia, while in Celebes it was the recognized antidote against vegetable poisons, quoting Paullini (pp. 778, 779).

Plague. Human ordure and human urine were mixed together, and taken internally, to cure or prevent the plague. Human ordure was also taken alone, in the form of pills, and applied to plague buboes as a plaster. Schurig says he personally knew a certain clergyman in Dresden, in 1680, who took such pills with good effect (p. 775).

Scabs and tetter, local applications of “oleum ex stercore distil.” (p. 776).

Pleurisy, “Ol. ex sterc. dist.,” internally (p. 774).

Gout. Human ordure as a plaster, and also internally (p. 775); here he again cites Paullini, among others not known to us.

Schurig’s Ideas Regarding the Use in Medicine of the Egestæ of Animals

Schurig devotes the fourteenth chapter of his work to a treatise “De Stercoribus Brutorum.” It is unnecessary to enter much into detail upon this point; it will be sufficient to give only a small number of the recipes, with notes upon the manner of administering, and, where possible, the opinions expressed in regard to their efficacy.

From these we may be enabled to form some idea of the line of medical thought of the ancient practitioners.

Beginning with goose-dung, we find it commended as warm and drying in its effects; an aperient and endowed with power over the menses; also over the after-birth and urine; and hence of value in jaundice, scurvy, and dropsy. It was also employed in many other diseases, principally in fevers, in whooping-cough, in cachexy, liver troubles, and when applied externally as a plaster, was of such value in the treatment of sore eyes that the Emperor Maximilian resorted to its use with the greatest advantage; again, applied as a plaster, it was used in angina and in mammary cancer. The dung of young geese was regarded as the best, and it should be gathered when possible in the early spring, preferably in the month of March, while still “green,” on the meadows; most of the old prescriptions insist upon this, as will be seen from the sample given in this paragraph.

The dose of the dried powder was from half a dram to a full dram, and it was administered in wine, or mixed with cinnamon and sugar. It was frequently combined with hen-dung, or diluted with the urine of she-goats or he-calves. Some practitioners doubted whether it was superior to dove-dung for the same diseases. When used in whooping-cough or throat swellings, it was placed under the tongue of the patient. The following are the words with which Schurig begins his panegyric upon its virtues:—

“Calefacit et siccat vehementer; incidit, aperit; menses, secundinas, et urinas potenter movet; hinc maximi usus est in morbo regio, scorbuto, et hydrope.”

℞:

Stercor. Anserin. vern. temp. collect. et in Sole exsic.

Pull. Gallinæ.—ana. ʒi.

Absinth. ℈ii.

Cinnamoni. ℈i.

Sacchar. ℥i½. —M. ft. Pulv. subtiliss.

Asses’ dung was considered by Schurig to be an especially good remedy in all diseases of hemorrhage. “Singulare remedium contra quamvis hæmorrhagias” (p. 800); but it had to be collected in the month of May; “Stercus asininum in Majo collectum.” It was to be taken in doses of one or more drachms, or only the juice squeezed from it into some medicinal water.

Dried in the sun, or in a warm place, it was good for bleeding at the nose; “ad solem vel in loco calido exsiccetur et fiat pulvis qui per nares attractus subito illarum hæmorrhagias compescit.” It was regarded as an infallible remedy for restraining an excessive menstrual flow. “Infallibile remedium ad constringendum fluxum menstruum esse stercus asininum... asserit Johannes Petrus Albrechtus.”

This dung was also in great vogue in all cases of uterine inflammation, applied locally as a plaster. It was administered both internally and externally for gout of the feet, and used as a component of a plaster for dropsy. It was given internally for colic. Collected in the month of May, it was administered internally to dissolve calculi. “Stercus bubulum mense Majo collectum miram præbet aquam adversus Calculos, quos solvit et una urinam movet, quam nigram prima die pellit, calculis vehementer attritis. Hæc aqua in officinis vocatur omnium florum.” This water, known officinally as “water of all-flowers,” was used in attacks of plague, and in cases of gangrene, inflammation, rheumatism, etc.; also in dropsy and in cancerous ulcers (p. 800 et seq.).

Schurig devotes considerable space to the dung of dogs, called by some “Flowers of Melampius,” and by others by the “more honest name of album Græcum.” “Stercus caninum, quod nonnulli flores Melampi, pharmacopœi autem honestiore nomine album Græcum vocant (to differentiate it from the black, which was the dung of mice), ad differentiam nigri, quod est muscerda” (p. 803).

He believed that it was in its effects “drying, cleansing, solvent, an aperient, a dissipater of swellings, such as carbuncles, a solver of ulcers,—hence useful in dysentery, in epilepsy, colic, and such complaints, as well as in angina, guttæ, malignant ulcers, hard tumors, dropsy, warts, etc.” “Siccat, abstergit, discutit, aperit, apostemata rumpit, exulceratione abstergit, hinc utile est in Dysenteria, quin etiam in Epilepsia, dolore colico, et similibus;” also “in anginæ, gutturi, ulceribus malignis, tumores duros, hydropicas, verrucas, etc.” Also in fistulas, inflammation of the tonsils, etc. It was applied externally to malignant ulcers by being sprinkled upon them, or as a plaster; applied also as a plaster in dropsy. It was used in combination with the dung of swallows (“stercus hirundinum”), or of owls (“noctuæ”). Used as a gargle in throat trouble (pp. 803-807).

“Album Græcum” was considered best when obtained from “white” dogs, as they were supposed to have the soundest constitutions. This was especially the case in the treatment of epilepsy (p. 80). Here we have a very decided trace of “Color Symbolism.”

“Album Græcum” was taken, preferentially, from dogs which, for at least three days previously, had been nourished on hard bones, with the least possible amount of water to drink; such dung was hard, white, and of faint odor, “durum, album, nec graviter olet.” Some of the prescriptions call for the dung of a fasting dog; “stercum canis per jejunium emaciati” (p. 806).

Schurig tells us that the dung of the goat was used both internally and externally in medicine. It was believed to be efficacious in the expulsion of calculi, in the reduction of hard tumors, in the dissipation of tetter, ring-worm, scald, leprosy, abscesses behind the ears, bites of serpents and other wild animals, in the restriction of excessive catamenial flow, etc. It was applied as a plaster in the treatment of tumors in the limbs, swellings of the testicles, in gout, œdema, cancer, inflammatory rheumatism, carbuncles, atrophy of the muscles, tumors in the mammæ, etc. But when made into a plaster, was frequently mixed with the patient’s own urine (p. 809).

Schurig pronounces it a rubefacient; it was of use in alleviating rheumatic pains, headache, vertigo, pains in side, shoulders, brain, and loins, colic, apoplexy, lethargy; it was supposed to be able to dissolve scrofulous and all other tumors, and was beneficial in the treatment of gout; used internally, it expelled dropsical water through the urine and also dissolved calculi; as a plaster, it was used in the cure of the bites of mad dogs; likewise for scald head; internally, the Austrian midwives employed it in the treatment of hysteria; while, throughout Germany, it was administered in cases of suppression of the menses (p. 809 et seq.).

As to horse-dung, Schurig has to say that either it or the juice extracted from it was drunk to aid in easing the pains of colic, to assist in the expulsion of the placenta, or of a dead fœtus, or in cases of strangulation of the uterus; externally, it was believed to be serviceable in restraining eruptions of the blood. To be of the greatest medicinal value, this dung should be taken from a stallion fed on oats. It was regarded as of great value in developing small-pox pustules upon women and children (p. 812 et seq.).

A rustic remedy which seems to have had a wide dissemination, for the alleviation of the cramp-colic, was composed of the juice expressed from horse-dung, mixed with warm beer, taken internally, while at the same time there was applied to the region of the umbilicus a plaster of warm horse-dung and hot ashes; such a plaster was employed in the cure of pleurisy among the English. In the same disease a mixture of warm horse-dung and beer was taken both internally and externally.

Cat-dung, in wine, formed the remedy in cases of vertigo and epilepsy. While its use was recommended principally in external applications, there were not wanting those who relied upon it mainly in internal application. It was reputed to possess especial efficacy in loss of hair, and supposed to be serviceable in preventing baldness, applied as an unguent. Administered internally, it suppressed immoderate menstrual flow. For the cure of felons, which so many in those days believed to be occasioned by a small worm, it was of certain efficacy, if bound round the afflicted thumb or finger. Paullini is quoted as having had personal experience with felons thus cured. But Paullini himself was of opinion that the dung of the goose was of equal value with that of the cat in this case (p. 815).

Hen-dung was recommended for use in burns. It was regarded as beneficial against magic philters, “in specie ex sanguine menstruo fœmineo.” It was considered good for all those ailments for which dove-dung was prescribed, but was not quite so efficacious. It was excellent for colic, for uterine pangs, yellow jaundice, calculus, suppression of urine, for all pains in the bowels, for strangling of the womb and pains therein, for poison, witchcraft, for seat-worms, etc. Externally, it was applied for all sores in the eyes, ulcers, warts, cicatrices, piles, pains in the feet and arms (pp. 816, 817).

Swallow-dung is mentioned as of internal and external application. It was regarded of great efficacy in the treatment of mad-dog bites, quaternary fevers, colic, inflammation of the kidneys, etc. It was applied as a plaster in cases of headache, angina, inflammation of the tonsils, and as a suppository in relaxation of the rectum. Its efficacy was conceded in dyeing the hair, being invaluable when used frequently as an unguent. Etmuller is quoted as expressing the opinion that they owe their action to the presence of “Armoniacal” salts. The swallow’s nest, with all its contents, was also sometimes ground up into a plaster, and swallow-dung itself was occasionally substituted for “album Græcum” (pp. 817 et seq.).

Lion-dung exerted its potency in cases of difficult labor, and it was the panacea against epilepsy and apoplexy. One of the Grand Dukes of Austria was cured of epilepsy by its use. Preference was given to the excrement of a female lion, except where she had just brought forth young. An anti-epileptic remedy of great repute was composed of burnt crow’s-nest, burnt tortoise, burnt human skulls, linden-tree bark, and lion-dung, made into an infusion by long digestion in spirits of wine (pp. 819, 820).

Leopard’s dung dissolved calculi; was taken as a potion for the cure of dysentery; applied as a plaster for the cure of burns; hernia was cured by a bolus composed of leopard’s dung, human mummy, burnt worms, syrup, and other ingredients. The ashes of the dung, skin, and hair of the leopard, in combination, expelled calculi. This remedy should be drunk, dissolved in wine; it was also a sure remedy for the most obstinate cases of colic. It was applied externally in sciatica, also in constriction of the vulva, and was employed to facilitate conception. In the last-named instance pastilles (trochisci) were likewise made and the parts fumigated. Or a pessary was inserted and kept in place for three days and nights; “et quamvis antea sterilis fuerit, deinceps tamen concipiet.” To prevent falling out of eye-lashes and eye-brows, an ointment was prepared of which the dung of the leopard was an ingredient. Finally, it was in esteem as an aphrodisiac, and to expel wind from the womb (p. 820).

Wolf-dung, drunk in wine, or taken as a powder, in doses of one scruple or more, was used in the treatment of the colic. Paullini is quoted as recommending its use in fevers. The dung of wolves, as of dogs, should, if possible, be that which is white in color, dejected by animals which have been feeding upon bones, and deposited upon rocks, thorns, bushes, or the lower branches of trees, but not on the ground. It was employed internally in pains in the limbs, and administered, also internally, in form of powder, in attacks of vertigo. Desiccated, it was blown into eyes afflicted with cataract. The cavities of carious teeth were filled with wolf-dung, to ease the pains of tooth-ache. For nasal hemorrhage, the smoke of burning wolf-dung was snuffed up into the nostrils; but another prescription was to drink an infusion of wolf-dung in red wine. If sheep detected the odor of wolf-dung about their paddocks, or folds, they would behave as if bewitched, running from side to side, bleating and showing as much terror as if their arch-enemy, the wolf, was himself at hand. Knowing this fact, rascally mountebanks were wont to perpetrate tricks upon the ignorant and unsuspecting rustics, by secreting some of this dung in the stable with the ewes and lambs, frightening them out of their wits, and then persuading their masters that their flocks were suffering from some hidden ailment for the cure of which they would demand a big fee in money or fat sheep.

Schurig recommends the use of mouse-dung, both internally and externally, for various disorders, for constipation in children, for scald head, and dandruff, in which cases it was applied as an ointment, for the elimination of calculi in kidneys and bladder, for all swellings in the fundament, piles, warts, tumors in ano, hemorrhages of the lungs, for the suppression of the menses, and even to excite the growth of the beard. When taken internally, it was administered in broth, milk, or panada; externally, it was made into a plaster with butter and such ingredients. It was at times mixed with the dung of sparrows (p. 823 et seq.).

Sheep-dung figures in medicinal preparations, to be used either internally or externally. Internally, as a decoction, in yellow jaundice, obstructions and constipation of the bowels, and in small pox. Also as a specific in the cure of gonorrhœa, when given in form of pills. For pains in the intestines, for swellings, burns, and ingrowing toe-nails, it was applied as a plaster (p. 826 et seq.).

Peacock-dung, the great specific in all cases of epilepsy and vertigo, was administered in doses of one dram, and in France was held in high repute for such purposes. It should be used from the new to the full moon, and be taken in white wine (p. 828).

This paragraph about the medicinal value of the droppings of the peacock deserves more than a cursory glance; in it we have a strong suggestion of the former association of this bird with moon worship. The peacock, we know, was the bird that drew the car of Juno, and that goddess was as much a lunar deity as Diana.

Pig-dung or swine-dung appears as one of the remedies, of both internal and external application, for nasal hemorrhage, and uterine flux. For nasal hemorrhages, it was dried and reduced to powder, and drawn up into the nostrils as a sort of snuff. Applied, externally, warm, to the vulva, it was regarded as an aid in hemorrhage of the uterus; it was also given internally for the same purpose. It was not used exclusively for such hemorrhages, but had a great repute as a styptic in general, and was applied to wounds of all descriptions. It was therefore used both externally and internally for the suppression of excessive menstrual flow, and taken internally to restrain spitting of blood. It was of general use in the treatment of felons, and was also regarded as an invaluable febrifuge.

For nasal hemorrhage, it was occasionally bound round the temples. Oddly enough, it was believed to be a remedy for fetor of breath. “Alii miscent stercus porcinum exsiccatum, cum pulvere rosarum pro corrigendo fœtore” (p. 830 et seq.).

As an external application for tumors of all kinds, cow-dung had a host of advocates, who likewise extended its use to the cure of scrofulous sores. For scrofulous wens, there was a cataplasm made of a composition of various dungs,—those of the cow, goat, and doves, among others. This was also to be taken internally, in white wine.

A plaster of cow-dung was used in gout of the feet. The dung of grass-fed cows was considered excellent for tumors, etc.; but its efficacy was increased when mixed with cow-urine or the urine of the patient himself; this was also in request for the treatment of œdema. For the stings of bees and wasps, a plaster of cow-dung was frequently used: “Contra apum et vesparum ictus, stercus vaccinum cum aceto utiliter adhibetur” (p. 837). The dung of a black cow, burned and given in scruple doses to a newly born child, preserved it from epilepsy and consumption; it was also employed to mitigate the pains of dentition. The dung of bulls and cows, collected in the month of May, distilled with water, made a panacea for kidney diseases; it also expelled calculi and induced a flow of urine.

“Hæc aqua vocatur aqua omnium florum,” was employed both internally and externally in gangrene, inflammations, rheumatism, spasms, dropsy, suppression of urine, etc., and was used externally to remove freckles and as a general cosmetic.—(“Chylologia,” p. 835 et seq.)

In the “Complete English Physician,” London, 1730, there are recipes which include the dung of geese, dogs, doves, horses, peacocks, hogs, and cows.

In the “Complete English Dispensatory” of John Quincy, London, 1730, p. 307, under the head “Distillation of Urine,” it is alleged that the salts obtained from the urine “of a sound young man, newly made,” was beneficial in rheumatism and arthritis. “Urina hominis,—urine of a man. Some have got a notion of this being good for the scurvy, and drink their own water for that end, but I cannot see with what reason. Some commend it boiled into the consistence of honey, for rheumatic pain, rubbing it onto the part affected; in which case it may do good, because it cannot but be very penetrating.... Urina vaccæ,—cow piss. Some drink this as a purge. It will operate violently, but it is practised only among the ordinary people, and has nothing in its virtues to prefer it to more convenient and cleanly medicines, any more than the former” (pp. 248, 249).

Father Du Halde says of camel’s dung: “When it is dried and reduced to a powder, it will stop bleeding of the nose by being blown into it.”—(Chinese recipes given in Du Halde’s “History of China,” London, 1736, vol. iv. p. 34.)

“The dung (of sheep) is a prevalent medicine against the jaundice, dropsy, cholick, pleurisy, spleen, stone, gravel, scurvy, etc., taken either in powder, tincture, or decoction. The dung, made into a cataplasm with camphire, sal armoniack, and a little wine, opens, digests, attenuates and eases pain. It is excellent in abscesses about the ears and other emunctories, swellings in women’s breasts, pain of the spleen, and gout.”—(Pomet, “History of Drugs,” English translation, London, 1738, p. 256.)

The rare and erudite pamphlet of Samuel Augustus Flemming, “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” Erfurt, 1738, although containing not more than thirty-two pages, is filled with a mass of curious information upon subjects generally disregarded. Flemming remarks that those who could use urine, calculi, and things of that kind in medical practice, should not shrink from the employment of ordure as well. “And it is truly wonderful,” he says, “that a substance, the very aspect and odor of which are sufficient to induce an inevitable nausea, should be regarded not merely as a matter of curiosity and study, but held in the highest repute as a unique and most precious treasure for the preservation of health.”

Yet Paracelsus, and others of his school, knowing the natural repugnance to the acceptance of such medicines, prepared it under the name of “Zibethum Occidentalis,” and administered it in doses of from one to two drams, given in honey or wine, to ward off attacks of fever; by others, it was employed as a plaster in cases of throat-inflammation, being then called “Aureum.” Others again were of the opinion, from an examination of its chemical nature, that it was fairly entitled to a place in the Materia Medica. An oil and water were distilled from it, and used in ocular sores, corrosive ulcers, and all sorts of fistulas; for affections of the scalp, for the ulcers of erysipelas, for ring-worm and tetter, and especially the pains of gout. Finally, it was believed by many to be of exceptional efficacy in the cure of the plague, being taken internally.

“Qui urina, calculi et aliis delectantur, non a stercore ipso abhorrebunt,” etc. The full citation in Latin need not be repeated, as it is expressed in much the same manner as the views of Schurig, Paullini, Etmuller, Beckherius, and others on the same subject. He cites Zacutus Lusitanus Poterus and Johannes Anglicanus, neither of whose writings are to be found in America.

Speaking of human urine, Flemming says that physicians boasted not only of their ability to diagnose disease from urine, but to use the fluid itself in the treatment of disease. It was employed in two ways: either in the raw state, as emitted from the person in due course of nature, or in chemical preparations extracted from it. It was often administered with beneficial results in dropsy as an enema. In difficult labor, a draught of the husband’s urine taken warm brought easy and safe delivery.

A drink of the patient’s own urine was highly commended in hysteria. As an external application for the eradication of dandruff, scab, and other scalp troubles, it was held in high esteem among the common people.

A salt and a spirit were prepared from urine by distillation, and highly spoken of in the treatment of frenzy, mania, and kindred mental infirmities of a grave type.

Flemming quotes from Beckherius, whose writings have already been presented, and from Quercetanus, in “Pharmac. dogmat.,” p. 119.

(“De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” Samuel Augustus Flemming, Erfurt, p. 24 et seq.)

In the “Physiological Memoirs of Surgeon-General Hammond, U. S. Army,” New York, 1863, a chapter is devoted to uræmic intoxication, or the exhilaration produced by the entrance into the blood of urine, either injected or abnormally absorbed. This part of the subject should be carefully scrutinized by medical experts, whose determinations may make known whether or not the drunken frenzy of the Zuñi dancers could be attributed to the unnatural beverage exclusively or to that in combination with other intoxicants.

Dunglison says: “Human urine was at one time considered aperient; and was given in jaundice in the dose of one or two ounces. Cow’s urine, urina vaccæ, all-flower water, was once used, warm from the cow, as a purge.”—(“Dunglison’s Medical Dictionary,” Philadelphia, Pa., 1860, article “Urine.”)

In the “Lancet,” October, 1880, p. 56, Mr. G. F. Masterman draws attention to the chemical analysis of beef tea, and shows that it is analogous to urine, excepting that it contains less urea and uric acid. “Many writers have endeavored to impress the public and the profession with the true value of beef tea, viz., that it is not a nutrient but a stimulant, and that it mainly contains excrementitious materials.”—(“Beef Tea, Liebig’s Extract, Extractum Carnis, and Urine,” Richard Neale, M. D., in the “Practitioner,” London, November, 1881, p. 343 et seq.)

“In South America urine is a common vehicle for medicine, and the urine of little boys is spoken highly of as a stimulant in malignant small-pox. Among the Chinese and Malays of Batavia urine is very freely used. One of the worst cases of epistaxis ceased after a pint of fresh urine was drunk, although it had for thirty-six hours or more resisted every form of European medicine. This was by no means an unusual result of the use of urine, as I was informed by many of the natives.... As a stimulant and general pick-up, I have frequently seen a glass of child’s or a young girl’s urine tossed off with great gusto and apparent benefit. The use of urate of ammonia and guano was noticed by Bauer in 1852, who found their external use of value in phthisis, lepra, morphoæ, and other obstinate skin diseases. Dr. Hasting’s report of the value of the excreta of reptiles in 1862, in the treatment of phthisis, will also be fresh in the recollection of the older members of the profession.”—(Idem.)

Some of the tribes of Central Africa use human urine as an invigorant during the fever season, much as Europeans employ quinine.—(Rev. Mr. Chatelain, missionary in Angola, Africa.)

“The people of Angola apply fresh urine to all cuts and bruises.”—(“Muhongo,” African boy from Angola, West Africa, in personal interview with Captain Bourke, translated by Rev. Mr. Chatelain, missionary.)

Ordure and Urine in Folk-Medicine

Excrementitious remedies are still to be met with in the folk-medicine of various countries; indeed, the problem would be to determine in what country of the world at the present day the more ignorant classes do not still use them. The extracts to be now given will show that folk-medicine still retains a hold upon medicaments the use of which is generally believed to have passed away with the centuries.

“I never had an opportunity of seeing the following deed, but it was many times asserted to me by serious persons: In our province, Brittany, when somebody in the peasantry has a cheek swollen by the effects of toothache, a very good remedy is to apply upon the swollen cheek, as a poultice, freshly expelled cow-dung, and even human dung, just expelled and still smoking, which is considered as much more efficient.”—(Personal letter from Captain Henri Jouan, French Navy, Cherbourg, France, July 29, 1888.)

“Dans nos pays, on ne connaît pas, contre les piqûres, de guêpes et autres insectes, venimeux, et contre les brûlures caustiques, de l’Urtica Ureus, de meilleur remède que l’application de l’urine.”—(Personal letter from Dr. Bernard, Cannes, France, August, 1888.)

In describing the medicine of the Samoans, Turner says: “On some occasions mud and even the most unmentionable filth was mixed up and taken as an emetic draught.”—(London, 1884, p. 139, “Samoa.”)

“Maw-wallop. A filthy composition, sufficient to provoke vomiting.”—(Grose, “Dict. of Buckish Slang,” London, 1811.)

“In Fayette County an emetic for croup is made by mixing urine and goose-grease, and administering internally, and also rubbing some of the mixture over the throat and breast.”—(“Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania Germans,” Hoffman, in “Journal of American Folk-Lore,” Cambridge, Mass., January-March, 1889, p. 28.)

For incised wounds use human urine as a lotion; for lacerated wounds apply human excrement.—(Sagen-Märchen, Volksaberglauben, aus Schwaben, Freiburg, 1861, p. 487.)

“Horse-dung and beer” are mentioned as the remedy used in England and France for the cure of “exceeding faintness.”—(See Black, “Folk-Medicine,” London, 1883, pp. 152, 153, quoting Floyer and De La Pryne.)

Among the many quaint recipes preserved in the Materia Medica of English physicians down almost to our own day we find that pigeon’s dung was used “to make a cataplasm against scrophulous and other like hard tumors;... for an ointment against baldness;... for a cataplasm to ripen a plague sore;... to make a powder against the stone.”—(John Mathews Eaton, “Treatise on Breeding Pigeons,” London, pp. 39, 40, quoting Dr. Salmon.)

Wolf-dung recommended in the treatment of colic.—(Black, “Folk-Medicine,” p. 54.)

“A decoction of sheep’s dung and water was used in recent times in Scotland for whooping-cough and in cases of jaundice.”—(Idem, p. 167.)

On the same page Black shows that the same remedy was extensively employed in Ireland in the treatment of the measles.

“In the south of Hampshire a plaster of warm cow-dung is applied to open wounds.”—(Idem, p. 161.)

“Water of cow-dung,” collected in May and June, used as a purge by people in England.—(Southey, “Commonplace Book,” p. 554.)

On the same page he says that “man’s excrement which had been some days discharged, thinned with so much ale,” was given to horses with the blind staggers,—“a common experiment.”—(Idem.)

A poultice of pigeon’s dung and pounded rose-leaves was in use for a stitch in the side.—(Southey, “The Doctor,” London, 1848, p. 59.)

Swine’s dung as a remedy for dysentery in Ireland, alluded to in terms of high approval by Borlase, quoted by Southey in “Commonplace Book,” p. 149.

Hon. E. W. P. Smith, secretary of the United States Legation in the Republic of Colombia, South America, states that among the San Blas Indians of that country, and the lower classes generally, the patient’s own urine is applied warm for sore eyes.

Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Mass., has for some years devoted time and intelligent study to the acquisition of data bearing upon the superstitions connected with the human saliva. While making this valuable and curious collection she has also been fortunate enough to encounter much relating to kindred superstitions, and has very generously placed at the disposal of the author of this volume all that related to the employment of human and animal egestæ.

Urine a cure for chapped hands, on Deer Isle.

Urinate into your shoe to keep it from squeaking, on Deer Isle.

Sheep-dung tea, a cure for measles, is extensively used on Deer Isle.

Boys urinate on their legs to prevent cramp. This practice was common in eastern Maine twenty to thirty years ago.

Water standing in the depressions of cow-dung was formerly recommended as a certain cure for pulmonary consumption, in New York.

Oil tried from the penis of the hog and applied to the loins of a child suffering from weakness of kidneys or bladder cured such diseases, in northern parts of the United States and in parts of Nova Scotia.

One’s own urine was administered for gravel in Staffordshire, England, within the past ten years.

A woman in England was given her own urine to drink, after a severe illness, to prevent “fits,” in the present generation. A poultice of fresh, warm cow-dung cured a man of rheumatism in New York. Measles were cured by giving the patient a decoction of lamb’s excrements (locally called “nanny-beads”), in Brunswick, N. Y., about 1825. A newly born child was given a spoonful of woman’s urine as a laxative, in 1814, in St. Albans, Vt. The white, limy part of hen-manure was used for canker-sores in mouth, in Abingdon, Ill. Cow-manure was used for swelled breasts in County Cork, Ireland. Sheep-manure tea was used for measles in County Cork, Ireland, and by the negroes of Chestertown, Md. Sheep-dung tea for measles all over New England, Ohio, and Cape Breton. Cow-dung, as fresh as possible, plastered on inflamed breasts, commonly known as “bealed” breasts, within the last twenty-five years, on Cape Breton.

Similar excrementitious remedies are in use among the Pennsylvania Germans. Cow-dung poultices are applied in the treatment of diphtheria, or as lenitives in cases of sore or gathered breasts. “Tea made of sheep-cherries (Gen. et spec.?) is given for measles.”—(“Folk-Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans,” in “Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc.,” 1889.)

For reasons not ascertained, the use of these revolting medicaments has nearly always been veiled under the language of euphemism. Sheep-dung is rarely called by its own name, but always, as has been shown in the preceding remarks, “sheep-nanny tea,” etc. In the same manner, the use of human excreta was veiled under the high-sounding designations of “zibethum,” “oriental sulphur,” etc.

This use of sheep-dung in the treatment of measles must be very ancient and wide-spread. Surgeon Washington Matthews notes its existence among the Navajoes, who learned it from the Spaniards.

“Slight wounds are cured” by the application of dirt to the part affected.—(“Nat. trib. of S. Australia,” p. 284, received through the kindness of the Roy. Soc. Sydney, N. S. Wales, T. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)

Mr. Chrisfield, of the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., states that urine was a remedy for earache among people on eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia; while for the cure of jaundice, in New England, “the spider, and even a more disagreeable remedy, is administered in a spoonful of molasses.”—(“Folk-Medicine,” Black, London, 1883, p. 61, quoting Napier, “Folk-Lore,” p. 95, and “Folk-Lore Record,” vol. i. p. 45.)

“I am impressed to tell you of a custom that prevailed to some extent among the people of this State (Iowa); this was the use of sheep-dung for measles. The dung was made into what the old women denominated ‘tea,’ and was familiarly known as ‘sheep-nanny tea.’ It was believed to be singularly efficacious in bringing out the eruption. The mixture was sweetened with sugar, and thus disguised was given to children. This practice was kept up among certain classes until about twenty years ago; I have not heard of it, at least in recent years. I can trace the custom through the origin of the families in which it was practised here to Indiana and North Carolina.”—(Personal letter from Prof. S. B. Evans, Ottumwa, Iowa, to Captain Bourke, April 16, 1888.)

“I was told by an old person, now dead, that some fifty years since the urine of a cow was given internally as a remedy for chlorosis, in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.”—(Personal letter from Prof. Frank Rede Fowke to Captain Bourke, dated London, England, June 18, 1888.)

“In the country where I was born I have seen several times, when a cow or an ox had one of its horns knocked away by a shock or any other cause, people pissing into the horn before putting it again over its root. This was supposed necessary to cause the horn to stick firmly against the root.”—(Personal letter from Captain Henri Jouan, French Navy, Cherbourg, July 29, 1888.)

“The presence of ammonia in the secretions (whose power of neutralizing acids may have been accidentally discovered) may have had something to do with the repute of the excretions of the kidneys. I remember to have been told as a little boy of the virtues of urine as a relief to chapped hands, also as a counter-irritant for inflamed eyes. In the former case the ammonia would soften as an alkali; in the latter, the salts present would act to reduce congestion, like common salt, by endosmosis.”—(Personal letter from Prof. E. N. Horsford, Harvard University, to Captain Bourke, April 19, 1888.)

“I have been recently informed, by a man who is acquainted with the peculiarities of Parisian life, that there are men who are in the habit of swallowing the scum which they obtain from the street urinals, and that they are known as ‘Les mangeurs du blanc.’” (Prof. Frank Rede Fowke.) According to Parent du Chatelet, a “mangeur du blanc” meant in Paris, until 1810, “a man who lived off the earnings of a strumpet.” The name has since been changed to “paillasson.” (See “La Prostitution,” Paris, 1857, vol. i. p. 138.)

“When I was a boy we had in my father’s house a gang of cats, and I remember that frequently the people of Cherbourg came and asked permission to search in our garrets for cat’s dung, which, they said, mixed and infused in white wine, produced a very efficient drink against periodical fits of fever.”—(Captain Henri Jouan, French Navy.)

“Lye-tea, made of human urine and lime-water, was used for colds by the ‘old people’ in the rural parts of Central New York.”—(Conversation with Colonel Pierce, Dr. Pangborn, and Lieutenant W. G. Elliott, U. S. Army, at San Carlos Agency, Arizona.)

The savages of Australia apply to wounds the resin of the eucalyptus, and also the bark of the same tree, previously steeped in human urine. (Personal letter from John Mathew, Esq., M. A., to Captain Bourke, dated “The Manse,” Coburg, Victoria, November, 1889.) The same thing is referred to in “The Australian Race,” E. M. Curr, Melbourne, 1886, vol. i. p. 256. In regard to the uses of the crust of latrines, in connection with “mangeurs du blanc,” see other pages of this volume.

“Philos.; hermet.; urine du vin, le vinaigre. Urine des jeunes colériques Le Mercure Philosophe.” Dict. National, par M. Bescherelle, aîné, Paris, 1857, sub voc. Urine (p. 1573).

We have already been informed from Marco Polo that the prisoners taken by the Tartars often poisoned themselves; “for which reason the great lords haue dogs’ dung ready, which they force them to swallow, and that forceth them to vomit the poyson” (in Purchas, vol. i. p. 92); and we have also learned, from many sources,—Etmuller, Schurig, Levinus Lemnius, Flemming, Paullini, Beckherius, Lentilius,—of the antidotal powers of the excreta. The existence of the very same belief was detected among the natives of America.

Padre Inamma, whose interesting researches upon rattlesnake bites and their remedies (made in Lower California, some time before the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1767) are published in Clavigero,74 says that the most usual and most efficacious antidote was human ordure, fresh and dissolved in water, drunk by the person bitten.

Along the Isthmus of Darien the belief was prevalent among the aborigines that the most efficacious remedy for poisoned arrows was that which required the wounded man to swallow pills of his own excrement.75

So in Peru, “when sucking infants were taken ill, especially if their ailment was of a feverish nature, they washed them in urine in the mornings, and when they could get some of the urine of the child, they gave it a drink.”76

Occult Influences Ascribed to Ordure and Urine

In Canada, human urine was drunk as a medicine. Father Sagard witnessed a dance of the Hurons in which the young men, women, and girls danced naked around a sick woman, into whose mouth one of the young men urinated, she swallowing the disgusting draught in the hope of being cured.77

Analogous medicaments may be hinted at in Smith’s account of the Araucanians of Chili: “Their remedies are principally if not entirely, vegetable matter, though they administer many disgusting compounds of animal matter, which they pretend are endowed with miraculous powers.”—(Smith, “Araucanians,” New York, 1855, p. 234.)

Brand enumerates obsolete recipes, one of which (disease not mentioned) directed the patient to take “five spoonfuls of knave child urine of an innocent.”—(Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” London, 1849, vol. iii. p. 282.)

The Crees apply the dung of animals lately killed to sprains.—(See “Mackenzie’s Voyages,” etc., to the Arctic Circle, London, 1800, introd. p. 106.)

Henry M. Stanley says that, for the cure of certain ulcers due to fly-blow, from which his men suffered, “Safeni, my coxswain on the Victoria Nyanza,... adopted a very singular treatment, which I must confess was also wonderfully successful.... This medicine consisted of a powder of copper and child’s urine, painted over the wound with a feather twice a day.”—(“Through the Dark Continent,” New York, 1878, vol. ii. p. 369.)

“It appeared that the dung of the donkey, rubbed on the skin, was supposed to be a cure for rheumatism, and that this rare specific was brought from a distant country in the East, where such animals exist.”—(“The Albert Nyanza,” Sir Samuel Baker, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 372.)

“The Mandingoes of Africa dress abscesses with cow’s dung.”—(See Mungo Park’s “Travels in Africa,” in Pinkerton, vol. xvii. p. 877. See, also, the edition of his works, “Travels in Africa,” New York, etc.)

The author has seen cow-manure plastered with soothing effect upon bee-stings in New Jersey.

“Pro remedio, in pluribus morbis urina fœminæ externe applicata, in eximia estimatione habetur.”—(“The Native Tribes of South Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, introduction, xvi. See, also, Eyre, “Expedition into Central Australia,” London, 1845, ii. 300.)

“Pilgrim’s Salve. A Sir-Reverence; human excrement.”—(Grose, “Dictionary of Buckish Slang,” London, 1811.)

“The medicine-men of the Ove-herero, who live south of Angola (which is on the west coast of Africa), urinate over the sick, in order to cure them.”—(“Muhongo,” interpretation by Rev. Mr. Chatelain.)

The Inuit medicine-man asperses the sick with human urine, “le goupillonne avec de vieilles urines, à l’instar des docteurs à poison bochimans... les Cambodgiens aspergent également le démon de la petite-vérole avec de l’urine, mais cette urine est celle d’un cheval blanc.”—(Réclus, “Les Primitifs,” p. 98.)

“There are few complaints that the natives do not attempt to cure, either by charms or by specific applications. Of the latter, a very singular one is the application personally of the urine from a female,—a very general remedy, and considered a sovereign one for most disorders.”—(Eyre, “Expedition into Central Australia,” London, 1845, vol. ii. p. 300; contributed by Prof. H. C. Henshaw, Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.)

(See previous references to the therapeutics of the native Australians in this volume.)

“Plasters of mixed grass, butter, and cow-dung were placed on the wounds” of sore-backed animals in Abyssinia.—(“A Visit to Abyssinia,” W. Winstanley, London, 1881, vol. ii. p. 3.)

Cameron employed a native medicine-man, near Lake Tanganyika, to treat one of his men who had injured his eye. “His treatment consisted of a plaster of mud and dirt, and his fee was forty strings of beads.”—(“Across Africa,” London, 1877, vol. i. p. 322. The word “dirt,” as used by Cameron in the above sentence, no doubt means ordure.)

Mr. Stewart Culin, of Philadelphia, Penn., who has been making careful investigations into the Chinese materia medica, states that “frequent directions for the use of urine” are to be seen “among the official remedies in the herbal.” Only a few pages back, reference was had to the use by the Chinese in Batavia of all kinds of excrementitious remedies.78

The Reverend Maurice J. Bywater writes from Nassau, Bahamas, that during the seven years he was on missionary duty in the island of Borneo, he witnessed several very curious and remarkable instances of the restorative and stimulating effects of human urine, as used by the Chinese immigrants in cases of accident.

The Coreans use the same system of medicine as the Chinese. Both employ plasters of human excrement for bites, erysipelas, inflammations, etc. They use the urine of a healthy boy as a tonic.—(Dr. H. T. Allen, Secretary of Legation, Corean Embassy, Washington, D. C., 1888.)79

Our knowledge of the Thibetans is still so limited that we must not attach too much importance to the little we have so far gained; there is still much to be learned concerning that singular, isolated race.

The strange veneration accorded the excrement of the Grand Lama has been fully discussed, but their sacred books do not show that the employment of stercoraceous medicaments is carried any farther.

According to the translation of the “Pratimoksha Sutra” made by Mr. W. W. Rockhill, sick Buddhist monks were ordered to employ the following remedies: “Le beurre fondu, l’huile, la mélasse, le miel, l’écume de mélasse.”—(“Asiatic Society,” Paris, 1885, p. 22.)

Dr. Francis Parkman, in his “Jesuits in North America,” Boston, 1867, introduction, p. xl., speaks of the “revolting remedies” employed by the Huron, Iroquois, and Algonquin tribes.

The following are among many of the curious recipes given in the “Tragedy of the Gout,” written by Blambeauseant, in 1600:—

“Ther’s the odorous sheep’s dung, given always on the sly.”

“A little blue ointment, mixed with man’s ordure.”

“Virgin’s urine, as a cure for all the men in town.”

(“Medicine in the Middle Ages,” Minor, p. 88.)

Further references can be found in the following list, taken from the “Bibliotheca Scatalogica,” which likewise contains several of those from which citations have already been made.

“Cet emploi des stercora, et en particulier, de ceux de l’homme, pour les usages pharmaceutiques, est très réel. On nommait médecins stercoraires ceux qui les prescrivaient, et on dissimulait l’origine de la substance sous diverses dénominations bizarres ou ridicules (carbon humanum, oletum, sulphur occidentale). Suivant Paracelse, les excréments humains pouvaient par une certaine préparation, acquérir l’odeur du musc et de la civette; de là le nom qu’on leur donnait de civette ou musc occidental.”—(“Bib. Scat.,” p. 29.)

Ganin, De Simplic. Medicament. facultat. lib. x. fol. m. 75, seq. “An stercoris usus licitur? Conceditur.”—(No. 200 of the “Bib. Scat.,” p. 77.)

“202. Gufer, Joh. Medicin. domest. tab. 3, p. 11, et Joh. phil. Gieswein, De Mater. Medic. p. 292, imprimis laudant stercus hominis qui lupinos comedit.”—(Idem, p. 78.)

“203. Helvetius, Joh. Freder, Diribitor. med. p. 112, seq., recommande le stercus humanum recens et adhuc calidum.”—(Idem.)

Hérodote, lib. ii.; Hésïode, “Opera et Dies.”

Sheep-dung, boiled in milk, recommended for the cure of the whooping cough by the Swedish physician Hjoort, as well as by the French doctor Baumer.—(“Bib. Scat.” p. 78.)

Hoffmann, Fred. annot. in Petr. poter, Pharmacop. Spagyric (lib. i. p. 445), dit que excrementa alvina magnam vim possident.

Homère, Odyssée, lib. vi.—(“Bib. Scat.” p. 78.)

Kircher, Podronus Ægypticus, cap. ult.

Laerce (Diogène) in Pythagor.

Langius (Christ.), Oper. Medic., “regarde les médicaments stercoraux ut res indigna et execrabilis, cependant il en permet l’usage contra desperatissimos morbos” (p. 79).

Lotichus, Johan. De casei nequitiæ, Francof. 1640, “sordidi medicastri et σκατοφάγοι excrementis frui solent; sed homo vero cordatus et bonæ mentis se abstinet” (p. 81).

“M. Gustave Brunet a inséré dans sa traduction des propos de table de Martin Luther” (Paris, 1844, p. 377), “quelques pensées du célèbre réformateur qui appartiennent à notre sujet. L’une roule sur la transformation des excréments en nouveaux aliments; l’autre sur les propriétés de la fiente,” etc. (p. 81).

Macrobii Saturnal. lib. iii.; Martialis, Epigrammata, iv. 88; vii. 18; xii. 40, 77, et ailleurs (p. 81).

Mayern, Theodor. de Prax. Medic. syntagm. alter mêle le stercus à la poudre d’œillets (gilly-flowers).

Menangiana. Paris, 1715, 4 vols. in 12 On trouve dans ce livre divers passages relatifs à notre sujet. Voy. t. 1, pp. 9, 180, 222; t. 2, p. 198; t. 3, p. 239.

Clemens d’Alexandrie, Recogn. lib. v. p. 71.

Denne, Ludovic. Pharmac. dissert. l. p. m. 411, seq. “Il blâme l’usage médical des excréments humains” (p. 73).

Diodore de Sicile, lib. i. cap. 8, p. 73.

Damian, P. Opuscula, c. 2, p. 73.

“Praterius, Praxis, lib. iii. p. 330, recommande surtout l’huile et l’eau extraite de stercore humano. Suivant Belleste, Chirurg. d’hôpital, part 3, p. 248, chap. 4, le sel extrait des excréments du malade atteint de dysenterie le guérit.”

Plutarque, Apoph. Laconic., p. 232. Petrus Pharmacop. Spagiric. p. m. 445, regarde le stercus comme pouvant fournir rara et perfecta remedia. Reference is had to the thirteenth chapter of Rabelais “sur les anisterges.” Rivinus (Augustus Quirinus) Censur. Medicament. officinal. cap. 2, p. 10, et seq. et 15 et seq., “strenue contra stercorum usum pugnat.” There are other old medical authorities cited, some fully, others only partially in favor of the medicinal use of the excreta; and one or two in antagonism thereto.—(“Bib. Scat.” p. 38 et seq.).

“On a appelé album nigrum les crottes des souris et des rats, jadis employés comme purgatif par les médecins stercoraires. Merde du diable, stercus diaboli, c’est l’assafœtida, espèce de gomme.” (“Bib. Scat.” p. 128. See also Grose, Dict. of Buckish Slang, Lond. 1811, Assafœt.) On the principle of “lucus a non lucendo,” the works of Swieten, “Commentariorum,” etc., Lyons, 1776, are worthy of special mention; careful examination fails to discover any allusion to the use of excreta, human or animal, in pharmacy or therapeutics, and no mention is made of witchcraft. Therefore the works of this author mark a new stage in the development of scientific and religious thought.

In Warner’s “Topographical Remarks relating to the southwestern parts of Hampshire,” 1793 (vol. ii. p. 131), speaking of the old register of Christ Church, that author tells us, “The same register affords, also, several very curious receipts, or modes of cure in some singular cases of indisposition; they are, apparently, of the beginning of the seventeenth century, and couched in the uncouth phraseology of that time.” I forbear, however, to insert them, from motives of delicacy.—(Brand, “Pop. Ant.” vol. iii. p. 306, article “Physical Charms.”)

“A new-born babe was not considered fully prepared for life’s journey until its stomach had been filled and emptied by a potation of molasses diluted with the vesical secretions of the first youngster that could be secured for the purpose.”—(“Professional Reminiscences,” Benjamin Eddy Cutting, M. D., Curator of the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., 1888, p. 40.)

Other Excrementitious Remedies

It was not enough that the urine and ordure of men and animals should be employed in pharmacy; everything that could be taken from the bodies of men or animals, wild or domesticated, living or dead, was enlisted to swell the dread list of filth remedies.

Etmuller supplies the following list of remedies; “sumuntur ex corpore vivente:” Hair, nails, saliva, ear-wax, sweat, milk, menses, after-birth, urine, ordure, semen, blood, calculi, worms, lice, caul (of infant),... and these “ex partibus corporis demortui.”... The whole corpse, flesh, skin, fat, bones, skull, moss growing on a skull, brain, gall, heart. Gall of animals has been used by the Indians of North America as a stimulant. (See Etmuller, Michaelus, “Opera Omnia,” vol. ii. p. 265, Schrod. “Dil. Zoöl.”)

He also recites that the following parts of domestic kine were used in medical practice: horns, bile, liver, spleen, blood, marrow, tallow, fat, hoofs, urine, ordure, testicles, milk, butter, cheese, phallus, and bones.—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 248 et seq.)

Hair

“The first hair cut from an infant’s head will modify the attacks of gout.... The hair of a man torn down from the cross is good for quartan fevers.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 7.)

“The smell of a woman’s hair, burnt, will drive away serpents, and hysterical suffocations, it is said, may be dispelled thereby. The ashes of a woman’s hair, burnt in an earthen vessel, will cure eruptions and porrigo of the eyes... warts and ulcers upon infants... wounds upon the head... corrosive ulcers... inflammatory tumors and gout... erysipelas and hemorrhages, and itching pimples.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 20.)

Schurig commends the use of human hair in cases of baldness, applied externally in salve, chopped fine or in ashes; for the cure of yellow jaundice, it was powdered and drunk in some suitable menstruum; it was employed in luxation of the joints, for hemorrhage from wounds: “Ad canis morsuum, infantis capilli cum aceto impositu morsum sine tumore sanant et capitis ulcera emendant.”—(Sextus Placitus, art. “De Puello et Puella Virgine.”)

Flemming advised that it be powdered and drunk in wine as a cure for yellow jaundice; woman’s hair, powdered and made into a salve, with lard, was of general efficacy; men’s hair was burned under the nostrils of those suffering from lethargy; and was drunk for “suffocation of the womb.”—(“De Remediis,” etc. p. 8.)

A medicinal oil was distilled from the hair of a full beard, and an ointment made from the same. Powdered human hair was drunk as a potion in a cure for yellow jaundice; the ashes of burnt hair were made into an unguent with mutton tallow, and applied to the nostrils of people in a state of lethargy; in “suffocation of the uterus,” this ointment was applied to the pudenda. The hair of a patient was frequently used in affecting “sympathetic cures,” or in what were called “Cures by Transplantation,” but the names of the diseases are not given by Flemming (p. 21). (But see under “Cures by Transplantation” in this volume.)

In China, the shavings of the hair, which must amount to a considerable quantity, since hundreds of millions of people shave the head close daily, are preserved for manuring the land.—(See “Bingham’s Exped. to China,” London, 1842, vol. ii. p. 7.)

In China, everything connected with the tilling of the fields is still a religious rite. Probably no country in the world of equal advancement has adhered with more tenacity to old usages in all that pertains to the turning-up of the soil; there are ceremonies in which the Emperor himself must lead with a plough. How much all this may have to do with the utilization of a refuse which has been so generally regarded as possessed of “magical” or “medicinal” properties, is, in all likelihood, never to be ascertained; but attention should be attracted to the fact, in the same manner that it was found worth while to make an examination into the history of latrines.

“Among ourselves, it is a Devonshire belief that you can give a neighbor ague by burying a dead man’s hair under his threshold.”—(“Folk-Medicine,” Black, p. 27.)

“In Devonshire and in Scotland alike, when a child has whooping-cough, a hair is taken from its head, put between slices of bread and butter, and given to a dog, and if in eating it the dog cough, as naturally he will, the whooping-cough will be transferred to the animal, and the child will go free.” The same method of cure is practised in Ireland, but the animal selected is an ass.—(Idem, p. 35.)

“Certain oak-trees at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, were long famous for the cure of ague. The transference was simple, but painful. A lock of hair was pegged into an oak, and then, by a sudden wrench, transferred from the head of the patient to the tree.”—(Idem, p. 39.)

Clippings of hair and rags are offered to holy wells in Ireland, Borneo, Malabar, etc., not merely as offerings to deities, but in order to effect a “transference” of diseases to the people who may take hold of them.—(Idem, pp. 39, 40; quoting from Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” vol. ii., and others.)

“In New England, to cure a child of the rickets, a lock of its hair is buried at cross-roads, and if at full moon, so much the better.”—(Idem, p. 56.)

It is believed in parts of England that the hairs from a donkey’s back, wrapped up in bread, and given to a sick child, will cure the whooping-cough; another remedy of the same kind is to take clippings from the child’s own head, mix them in butter, and give to a dog, which will take the disease from the child; still another was to mount the sufferer upon the back of an ass, and lead him nine times round an oak-tree.—(See Brand, “Pop. Ant.” vol. iii. p. 288, art. “Physical Charms.”)

The Romans attached certain omens to the manner, time, and place of cutting the nails and hair.—(See Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 5.)

The ancients believed that “no person in a ship must pare his nails, or cut his hair except in a storm.”—(Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. iii. p. 239, art. “Omens Among Sailors,” quoting Petronius Arbiter.)

“When a man has his hair cut, he is careful to burn it, or bury it secretly, lest falling into the hands of some one who has an evil eye, or is a witch, it should be used as a charm to afflict him with a headache.”—(Livingston, “Zambesi,” London, 1865, p. 47.)

Etmuller relates that in his time women suffering from retention of the menses were in the habit of plucking the hair growing on the pubis, which would promptly cause their reappearance, but whether by the irritation or by taking the hair internally, is not clear:—“Mulieres suffocatæ ex utero soleant vellicare in pilis pubis, ut citius et felicius ad se redeant.” Finger-nail clippings were drunk as an emetic, especially by soldiers while on campaign:—“Ungues infusi in vinum vel potum cum vehementia cient vomitum et purgant per fecessum... propinavit pro vomitorio et purgante militibus ungues proprios infusos per noctem in vinum calidum.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 269.)

“The hair and nails are cut at the full moon.”—(Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” Stallybrass, London, 1882, vol. ii, p. 712 et seq.)

The Patagonians “all believe that the witches and wizards can injure whom they choose, even to deprivation of life, if they can possess themselves of some part of their intended victim’s body, or that which has proceeded thence, such as hair, pieces of nails, etc.... And this superstition is the more curious from its exact accordance with that so prevalent in Polynesia.”—(“Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle,” London, 1839, vol. ii. p. 163, quoting the Jesuit Faulkner.)

“Which is the most deadly deed whereby a man increases most the baleful strength of the Dævas, as he would by offering them a sacrifice?”

“Ahura Mazda answered:—‘It is when a man here below combing his hair or shaving it off, or paring off his nails, drops them in a hole or in a crack.’”—(Fargard XVII. Avendidad, Zendavesta, Oxford, 1880, p. 186.)

Beckherius states that the clippings of the finger-nails made an excellent emetic. “Vomitorium non inelegans ex iis paratur.”—(“Med. Mic.”)

Flemming goes more into detail; he says that the finely ground clippings of the hoof of the elk, stag, goat, hull, etc., were employed as a vomitory, but in their absence, human finger-nails were substituted; “istam ungulorum speciem quæ ab homine desumitur, substitui.” Human finger-nail clippings were also recommended in “sympathetic” cures.—(Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 21.)

“He who trims his nails and buries the parings is a pious man; he who burns them is a righteous man; but he who throws them away is a wicked man, for mischance might follow should a female step over them.”—(Paul Isaac Hershon, “Talmudic Miscellany,” Boston, 1880, p. 49; footnote to above, “The orthodox Jews in Poland are to this day careful to bury away or burn their nail-parings.”)

On a fragment of a Chaldean tablet occurs this curious passage:—

“A son to his mother,
(if) he has said to her, Thou art not my mother
His hair and nails shall be cut off,
In the town he shall be banished from land and water.”

(“Chaldean Magic,” François Lenormant, London, 1873, p. 382.)

In the province of Moray, Scotland, “In hectic fevers and consumptive diseases they pare the nails of the fingers and toes of the patient, put these in a bag made of a rag from his clothes,... then wave their hand with the rag thrice round his head, crying ‘Deas Soil,’ after which they bury the rag in some unknown place.” Pliny, in his Natural History, mentions it as practised by the magicians or Druids of his time.—(Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. iii. p. 286, art. “Physical Charms.”)

Superstitions Connected With the Human Saliva

The most recent work on this subject is the extended monograph of Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now in press, and to the pages of which the author of this volume has contributed his own collection of data.

Reference may also be had, with advantage, to Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Reginald Scot’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” Black’s “Folk-Medicine,” Samuel Augustus Flemming’s “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” Lenormant’s “La Magie chez les Chaldéens,” and to the works of Pliny, Galen, “Saxon Leechdoms,” Levinus Lemnius, Beckherius, Etmuller, and many others.

John Graham Dalyell, “Superstitions of Scotland,” Edinburgh, 1834, has a chapter on the occult influences attributed to human saliva. When the Khonds of Orissa were about to sacrifice a human victim, they were wont to solicit the favor of having him spit in their faces; “sollicitent un crachat qu’ils s’étendront soigneusement.”—(“Les Primitifs,” Réclus, p. 368.)

In the ritual of the Hill Tribes of the Nilgherris, it is related:—

“Mada a craché dans les fontaines.”

(Quoted in “Les Primitifs,” p. 244.)

Frommann, in his “Tractatus de Fascinatione,” Nuremburg, 1675, speaks of the anointing of eyes with saliva, to cure blindness; this he compares to the use made by our Saviour of the same (p. 196).

“The Kirghis tribes apply to their sorcerers, or Baksy, to chase away demons, and thus to cure the diseases they are supposed to produce. To this end they whip the invalid until the blood comes, and then spit in his face.”—(“Chaldean Magic,” François Lenormant, London, 1873, p. 212.)

Many interesting practices connected with the human saliva, are given in Lady Wilde’s “Ancient Legends and Superstitions of Ireland,” Boston, 1888. See also “The Golden Bough,” James G. Frazer, M.A., London, 1890, vol. i. pp. 385, 386.

Cerumen or Ear-Wax

Pliny speaks of its use in medicine (lib. xxviii. cap. 7); Galen does also. Flemming recommended its internal use in colic and cramps; and externally as an application to wounds.—(“De Remediis,” etc., p. 22.)

Paullini was of the opinion that a good salve for sore eyes could be prepared from cerumen (pp. 42, 43).

“The excrement of the ears, like unto a yellow oyntment, is a great comfort in the pricking of the sinews.”—(Von Helmont, “Oritrika,” English translation, London, 1662, p. 247.)

Galen thought that ear-wax was efficacious in the cure of whit-nails; the other “sordes” were also employed, but he would not write about them, on account of the difficulty of obtaining them,—such as the perspiration flowing in the bath, or scraped from the body after severe exercise; and, finally, the fatty matter of wool was of medicinal value, and seemed to have the same properties as butter.—(Galen, “Opera Omnia,” lib. xii. p. 309, Kuhn’s edition, Leipzig, 1829.)

Woman’s Milk

Woman’s milk mitigated redness of eyes and inflammation of the lachrymal glands; it should be used with vitriol. For “gutta serena” it was applied as an ointment; in cases of atrophy it was regarded by many as of commendable utility, especially if drawn from the woman’s breast; the same treatment was a specific in obstinate hiccough.

A butter prepared from woman’s milk was used in diseases of children, especially colic, and in ocular affections. (See Flemming, “De Remediis,” etc., p. 18.) Its remedial efficacy forms the basis of Pliny’s c. 21, lib. xxviii.; if possible, it should be that of a woman who had just borne male twins. “If a person is rubbed at the same time with the milk of both mother and daughter, he will be proof for all the rest of his life against all affections of the eyes.... Mixed with the urine of a youth who has not yet arrived at puberty, it removes ringing in the ears.”—(Idem.)

“Matricis vulneribus confert... lac mulieris.”—(Avicenna, vol. i. p. 337, a 36.)

The Empress of China took the milk of sixty wet nurses to keep herself alive, according to Mr. Frank G. Carpenter.

Woman’s milk is still used in the rude trephining of the African Kabyles as a dressing.—(See “Prehistoric Trephining,” by Dr. Robert Fletcher, in vol. v. “Contributions to North American Ethnology,” Washington, D. C., 1882.)

Human Sweat

Human perspiration was believed to be valuable not only as a means of prognosis in some diseases, but its appearance was dreaded in others. If the perspiration of a fever-stricken patient was mixed with dough, baked into bread, and given to a dog, the dog would catch the fever, and the man recover. It was efficacious in driving away scrofulous wens, and in rendering philters abortive. It was narrated that if a man, who under the influence of a philter, was forced to love a girl against his will, would put on a pair of new shoes, and wear them out by walking in them, and then drink wine out of the right shoe, where it could mingle with the perspiration already there, he would promptly be cured of his love, and hate take its place.

This corresponds closely to the urine case already noted; and it is proper to repeat Flemming’s own words on the matter: “Narrant quod, si quis philtro fascinatus era fuerit, ad amandam præter voluntatem virginem, ut is noves induat calces, miliareque unum obambulando conficiat, quo sudor animadvertatur postque vinum e calceo dextri pedis sudore madido, hauriat, sic ab illicito amore liberari amoremque in odium converti dicunt.”—(“De Remediis,” p. 19.)

See Etmuller, who used it in scrofula, lib. ii. p. 265; Pliny, lib. 28; Galen and Avicenna (sweat of gladiators), vol. i. p. 398, a 17, and elsewhere.

Superstitions Connected With the Catamenial Fluid

For the opinions entertained by the ancients regarding its occult powers, read Pliny (Bohn’s edition), lib. xxviii. cap. 23, and again lib. viii. cap. 13. “On the approach of a woman in this state, must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts wither away, garden-plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits;... a swarm of bees if looked upon by her will die immediately, brass and iron will immediately become rusty.... Dogs tasting the catamenial fluid will go mad.... In addition to this, the bitumen which is found at certain periods of the year floating on the Lake of Judea, known as Asphaltites,—a substance which is peculiarly tenacious, and adheres to everything it touches,—can only be divided into separate pieces by a thread which has been dipped into this virulent matter.” (Lib. vii. cap. 13, and again lib. xxviii. cap. 23.) In a footnote it is stated that both Josephus (“Bell. Jud.,” lib. iv. cap. 9) and Tacitus (lib. v. cap. 6) give an account of this supposed action of this fluid on the bitumen of Lake Asphaltites. “Hail-storms, they say, whirl-winds, and lightning even, will be scared away by a woman uncovering her body merely, even though menstruating at the time.” (Lib. xxviii. cap. 23.) Menstruating women, in Cappadocia, perambulated the fields of grain to preserve them from worms and caterpillars. (Idem.) “Young vines, too, it is said, are injured irremediably by the touch of a woman in this state; and both rue and ivy plants, possessed of highly medicinal virtues, will die instantly upon being touched by her.... The edge of a razor will become blunted on coming in contact with her.”—(Idem.)

“All plants will turn pale upon the approach of a woman who has the menstrual discharge upon her.” (Pliny, lib. xix. cap. 57.) The same opinion prevailed in France down to our own times. (Idem, footnote.)

“Expiations were made with the menstrual discharge,... not only by midwives, but even by harlots as well” (lib. xxviii. cap. 20).

Frommann cites Aristotle and Pliny in reference to the maleficent effects of the menses and of the uncanniness of a menstruating woman. Aristotle said her glance took the polish out of a mirror, and the next person looking into it would be bewitched. Frommann quotes a man who said he saw a tree in Goa which had withered because a catamenial napkin had been hung in it.—(“Tractatus de Fascinatione,” Nuremburg, 1675, pp. 17, 18.)

“Stains upon a garment made with the catamenial fluid can only be removed by the agency of the urine of the same female.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. cap. 24.)

“An Australian black fellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his blanket at her menstrual period, killed her, and died of terror himself within a fortnight. Hence Australian women at these times are forbidden under pain of death to touch anything that men use.” (“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, vol. i. p. 170. He supplies other examples from the Eskimo and the Indians of North America. “Tinneh,” etc., p. 170.) In the following example we are not certain that the young women selected were undergoing purgation, but there is some reason for believing that such was the case, especially in view of the general dissemination of the ideas connected with the catamenia. “In a district of Transylvania, when the ground is parched with drought, some girls strip themselves naked, and, led by an older woman, who is also naked, they steal a harrow and carry it across the field to a brook, where they set it afloat. Next they sit on the harrow, and keep a tiny flame burning on each corner of it for an hour; then they leave the harrow and go home. A similar rain-charm is resorted to in India; naked women drag a plough across the field by night.”—(“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, vol. i. p. 17.)

For all bites of centipedes the people of Angola, Portuguese and negroes, apply the catamenial fluid. This remedy is implicitly believed in by all concerned.—(Rev. Mr. Chatelain, missionary to Angola, Africa.)

For the Inuit, see “Les Primitifs,” Réclus, Paris, 1885.

The dread felt by the American Indians on this subject is too well known to need much attention in these pages; it corresponds in every respect to the particulars recited by Pliny. Squaws, at the time of menstrual purgation, are obliged to seclude themselves; in most tribes they are compelled to occupy isolated lodges; and in all are forbidden to prepare food for any one but themselves.

It is believed that were a menstruating woman to step astride of a rifle or a bow or a lance, the weapon would have no further utility. Medicine-men are in the habit of making a saving clause, whenever they proceed to make “medicine;” this is to the effect that the “medicine” will be all right provided no woman in this peculiar condition be allowed to approach the tent or lodge of the officiating charlatan.

Among the Navajoes of Arizona it is customary for the women to wear a strip of sheep-skin, called a “chogan;” when the necessity for its use has disappeared, the woman goes outside of the village and conceals it in the forks of one of the cedar or juniper trees so numerous in the mountains. The author once found one of these; but the people with him were impressed with the idea that no good would come from being near it. At another time he knew of a young boy who had been hit by a “chogan” which had been dislodged by a wind-storm. He was almost frantic with terror, and devoted three or four days to singing and to washing in a “sweat-bath.”

The Ostiaks of Siberia would seem to have the same ideas on this subject as the Apaches and Navajoes have.—(See Pallas, “Voyages,” vol. iv. p. 95.)

Danielus Beckherius informs his readers that menstrual blood was used in medicine (pp. 23 et seq.); philters were prepared from it (idem, p. 341). “Zenith juvencarum sc. sanguines menstruum” were given for epilepsy,—that is, the first menses of a girl (idem, p. 42). The lint of the napkin itself was thus given also (idem),—“litura pannorum menstruorum datur patienti sanari morbum comitialium.” The first napkin used by a healthy virgin was preserved for use in cases of plague, malignant carbuncles, etc., dampened with water and laid on the part affected; also used in erysipelas (idem, p. 43, “Med. Microcosmus”). Dried catamenia were given internally for calculi, epilepsy, etc., and externally for podagra; they were also used in treatment of the plague, for carbuncles, aposthumes, being placed thereon with a rag wet with rosewater or oil, into which menstrual fluid had been poured; it was good as a cosmetic to drive away pimples (p. 265).

To restrain an immoderate flow of the menses a napkin was saturated with menstrual blood, and then kept for a certain time in an aperture made in the bark of a cherry-tree. “Ad immodicum menstruorum fluxum cohibendum sunt qui pannum menstruum sanguine imbutum certo tempore cerasi radice in cortice apertæ indunt, incisuramque iterum operiunt.”—(Etmuller, “Op. Omnia;” Schrod. “Dil. Zoöl.,” vol. ii. p. 265.)

Paullini prescribes the “dried catamenia of women” for the cure of kidney diseases (pp. 142, 143), also for ring-worm, felons, menstrual troubles. Frommann gives the same cure for immoderate menses, by placing the napkin in a cherry-tree.—(See “Tract. de Fascinatione,” p. 1006.)

“Excoriationi conferunt... sanguis menstruus.”—(Avicenna, vol. i. p. 388.)

According to Flemming, menstrual blood was believed to be so powerful that the mere touch of a menstruating woman would render vines and all kinds of fruit-trees sterile (herein he seems to be following Pliny). It was believed to be valuable medicinally in relieving obstructions to the menstrual flow of other women; even the soiled smock of a woman who had menstruated happily was efficacious in assisting another woman whose menses for any cause were retarded. A small portion of the menses, dried and taken internally, mitigated the ailment known as dysmenorrhœa. Flemming states that, while in his time this remedy had been gradually superseded, its use was still kept up among the poor and ignorant, in erysipelas, face-blotches, and as an ingredient in an ointment for podagra or gout.—(“De Remediis,” pp. 16, 17.)

The Laplanders “say that they can stop a vessel in the middle of its course, and that the only remedy against the power of this charm is the sprinkling of female purgations, the odor of which is insupportable to evil spirits.”—(“Regnard’s Journey to Lapland,” in Pinkerton, vol. i. p. 180.)

“To cure a young woman of consumption she was given monthly discharges to drink.”—(“Dutchess County, New York,” 1832, Mr. Joseph Y. Bergen, Jr., Cambridge, Mass.)

Isaiah compareth our justice “panno menstruatæ.”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 24.)

“Crines fœminæ menstruosæ, the haires of a menstruous woman are turned into serpents within short space.”—(Scot, “Discoverie,” p. 221.)

“Men have a special objection to see the blood of women at certain times; they say that if they were to see it they would not be able to fight against their enemies and would be killed.” (Mrs. James Smith, “The Roandik Tribes,” p. 5.) Hence, although bleeding is a common Australian cure among men, women are not allowed to be bled. (Angas, vol. i. p. 3.) “This aversion is perhaps the explanation of that seclusion of women at puberty, childbirth, etc., which has assumed different forms in many parts of the world.”—(“Totemism,” Frazer, p. 54, footnote.)

Old women were suspected of using the first menstrual flow of a young girl in love-philters.—(Samuel Augustus Flemming, “De Remediis.”)

“For colic take the scrapings of the nails of a catamenial virgin, mix with water, and take.”—(Sagen-Märchen, Volksaberglauben aus Schwaben, Freiburg, 1861, p. 487.)

There were many curious ideas prevalent in olden times as to the manner in which the basilisk or cockatrice could be engendered. “Si l’on place dans une gourde de verre du sang menstruel, et si l’on fait putréfier celui-ci dans le ventre d’un cheval, il en naît un basilic.”—(“Mélusine,” Paris, January-February, 1890, p. 19.)

Although the Israelites had many notions in common with the American Indians on the subject of the catamenial fluid, and the seclusion of women undergoing purgation, there does not seem to have been any effort made to preserve or to hide the cloths used on such occasions. Thus the Prophet Isaiah (lxiv. 6) says of the idols of the Gentiles that they must be cast aside as the napkins soiled with the menses. “Hoc est disperges ea (de idolis loquitur) sicut immunditionem menstruatæ.”—(Contributed by Doctor Robert Fletcher.)

References to use of the catamenial fluid in witchcraft will be found in Beckherius, quoting Josephus:

“Hiawatha, wise and thoughtful,
You shall bless to-night the corn-fields,
Draw a magic circle round them,
To protect them from destruction.

“Rise up from your bed in silence,
Lay aside your garments wholly,
Walk around the fields you planted,

“Covered with your tresses only,
Robed with darkness as a garment.”

(“Hiawatha,” Longfellow, canto xiii., “Blessing the Corn-Fields.”)

Menstruating women were excluded from the Jewish synagogues and from the communion table of the early Christian Church: “Menstruatæ mulieres superstitiose exclusæ ab ecclesia.”—(Baronius, “Annales,” Lucca, 1758, tome 3, 266, xi.)

After-Birth and Lochiæ

Both of these were used medicinally; the lochiæ were useful in restraining uterine hemorrhages; after-birth, dried and powdered, deprived love-philters of their power; it was used as an anti-epileptic, to relieve retention of the menses, etc. (See Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 17.) Secundines were used in the treatment of epilepsy.—(See Etmuller, vol ii. p. 265).

Human Semen

Etmuller knew nothing of the remedial value of human semen beyond the fact that Paracelsus had recommended its use in some cases (vol. ii. p. 272).

Pliny mentions the use of human semen as a medicine (lib. xxviii. c. 10).

The savage Australians have “a last and most disgusting remedy... deemed infallible in the most extreme cases.... ‘Mulierem ob juventutem firmitatemque corporis lectam sex vel plures viri in locum haud procul a castris remotum deducant. Ibique omnes deinceps in illa libidinem explent. Tum mulier ad pedes surgere jubetur quo facilius id quod maribus excepit effluere possit. Quod in vase collectum ægrotanti ebibendum præbent.’ The aborigines have unbounded faith in this truly horrible dose, and enumerate many, many instances where it has effected marvellous cures. We, however, have known of its having been administered in several cases without the remotest revivifying result. It may be that this fluid is—in fact some savants positively assert that it is so—the very essence of life, as well as containing the germs thereof, and that administering a draught thereof to a patient slowly but surely dying from exhaustion, consequent upon a long fit of illness (the illness itself having died out or been cured) might have the wonderful effect detailed so positively by the natives; but this is a question for physicians to decide.”—(“The Abor. of Victoria and Riverina,” Melbourne, 1889, p. 55, P. Beveridge, received through the kindness of the Royal Soc., Sydney, N. S. Wales, F. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)

“Impetigine conferunt... sperma.”—(Avicenna, vol. i. p. 330, a 10.)

For gout Avicenna prescribed “Sanguis menstruus,” “Sperma hominis” (vol. i. p. 330, a 12; idem, a 13); “Sanguis menstruus calidus” (vol. i. p. 388, b 9); also “Stercus caprarum” (vol. i. p. 390, a 13). Consult also what has been said of this secretion under “Love-philters.”

Human Blood

The medicinal employment of human blood is described by Pliny (lib. xxviii. cap. 105).

Beckherius says that human blood was employed in the treatment of epilepsy. Faustina, the wife of the philosophical emperor, Marcus Antoninus, anxious to have a child, drank the warm blood of a dying gladiator, and then shared her husband’s bed, and at once became pregnant, and brought forth the cruel Commodus. Human blood was also used in effecting “sympathetic cures.”—(“Medic. Microcos.” pp. 122, 128.)

But it was essential that the human blood so employed should be pure and undefiled; lovers who wished to increase the affection of their mistresses, were recommended to try an infusion of their own blood into the loved one’s veins. The blood of man and also that of some animals, notably the dog, sheep, etc., were employed in mania, delirium, cancer, etc. The method of transfusion was preferred. Epileptics would sometimes drink a draught of the warm blood caught gushing from the neck of a decapitated criminal; the blood of a man, just decapitated, drunk warm, cured epilepsy and restrained uterine hemorrhage.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 272.)

Grimm alludes to the fact that the blood of innocent maids and boys was used as a remedy for leprosy; that of malefactors, in epilepsy.—(“Teut. Mythol.” vol. iii. p. 1173.)

See the discussion of this matter under the caption of “Human Skulls.” Consult the work “Blood-Covenant,” by Dr. H. C. Trumbull.

In regard to the conduct of the empress Faustina, see “History of the Inquisition,” Henry C. Lea, N. Y. 1889, vol. iii. p. 391.

Human Skin, Flesh, and Tallow

Girdles of human skin were regarded as efficacious in helping women in labor; Etmuller, in his “Comment. Ludovic.” disapproves of their use, but, in another part of his works, describes how and for what purposes they were to be employed.

“Corium humanum et ex inde paratum cingulum magni est usu in suffocatione uterina arcenda, uti etiam in pellendo fœto mortuo, item in partu difficile” (vol. ii. p. 272).

References to such girdles or belts, called “cingulæ” or “chirothecæ” are to be found in the writings of Samuel Augustus Flemming and others.

Human flesh, of corpses, was administered under the name of “Mummy.” (See Beckherius, “Med. Microcos.” p. 263 et seq.) He enumerates no less than fifty prescriptions for all sorts of ailments. The “mummy” should be from a malefactor, hanged on a gibbet, never buried, and the age should have been between 25 and 40, of good constitution, without organic or other diseases, and gathered in clear weather.

Human flesh occurs in recipes in “The Chyrurgeon’s Closet,” London, 1632, pp. 6, 53.

Andrew Lang refers to the use of “mummy powder” by the physicians of the Court of Charles II.—(“Myth,” etc. vol. i. p. 96.)

Human tallow was employed in medicine, rendered from the skin and other parts. It was regarded as efficacious in eradicating small-pox pustules, while an “oleum Philosophorum” was distilled from it and held in high repute for tumors, catarrhal troubles, affections of the ear, etc.—(Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 9.)

Human flesh “mumia,” was recommended in the preparation of the best “Paracelsus salve.... Recommended for cure of bruises and against congealed blood.... Most excellent and most approved medicines.”

Human Skull — Brain — Moss Growing on Human Skull — Moss Growing on Statue — Lice

Democritus thought, in his Memoirs, quoted by Pliny, that “the skull of a malefactor is most efficacious.... While, for the treatment of others, that of one who has been a friend or guest is required.” (Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 2.)... “Skull of a man who has been slain,” and “whose body remains unburnt.... Skull of a man who has been hanged.”—(Idem.)

“Xenocrates, who, says Galen, flourished two generations or sixty years before him, writes with an air of confidence on the good effects to be obtained by eating of the human brain, flesh, or liver; by swallowing in drink the burnt or unburnt bones of the head, shin, or fingers of a man, or the blood.”—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. p. 18.)

“Against a boring worm... burn to ashes a man’s head-bone or skull; put it on with a pipe.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 127, article “Leech Book.”)

Paracelsus gives the recipe for distilling “The Oyle of the Skull of a Man.... Take the skull of a man that was never buried, and beate it into powder.” (“The Secrets of Physicke,” Theophrastus Paracelsus, Eng. transl. London, 1633, p. 97.) “The dose is three grains against the falling sickness.”—(Idem.)

Schurig notes that the human skull is a remedy for the falling sickness.—(See “Chylologia.”)

The skull of a man was used for diseases of men; that of a woman, for diseases of women.—(See “Rare Secrets in Physicke,” collected by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, p. 3.)

Beckherius prescribed it in cephalic affections, epilepsy, paralysis, apoplexy, vertigo, etc., taken in powder, or raw, simply or in combination.—(“Medicus Microcosmus,” p. 199 et seq.)

But the skull was, preferentially, “Cranii humani nunquam sepulti” (p. 217); or, “Cranii humani violenter mortui” (p. 266). Moss from such a skull was also used medicinally (idem, p. 237). If possible, it should be that of a man who had been executed on a scaffold, “patibula.”

“Powder of a man’s bones, burnt, chiefly of the skull that is found in the earth, given, cureth the epilepsy. The bones of a man cureth a man, the bones of a woman, cureth a woman.” But the patient had to abstain from wine for nine days.—(“The Poor Man’s Physician,” John Moncrief, Edin. 1716, p. 70.)

“Os hominis adustum,” a cure for epilepsy (Avicenna, vol. i. p. 330 a 18); “Mumia” (idem, vol. i. p. 357, a 55); “Ossa hominis in potu data” (idem, vol. i. p. 371, a 6).

Epilepsie. “Take pilles made of the skull of one that is hanged.”—(Reg. Scot. “Discoverie,” p. 175.)

The skulls of ancestors were used as drinking cups by the Tibetans, according to Rubruquis, in Purchas (vol. i. p. 23).

“Among primitive people the head is peculiarly sacred.”—(“The Golden Bough,” Frazer, vol. i. p. 187.)

Dr. Bernard Schaff gives the following formula for the cure of fevers: “Take a human skull from among those not enclosed in tombs, and calcine it in a crucible or in the open fire; administer in doses of from one scruple to half a dram an hour or two before the paroxysm of the fever.” He adds that among the common people the belief prevailed that the skull should be obtained at the early dawn of day, about the time of the winter solstice, and with the ceremonies (sacris) peculiar to that season, that it should be picked up in silence; but for his part he does not believe in such things.

“Recipitur cranium humanum ex ipsis quoque sepulchrorum claustris depromptum (vulgus addit tempore matutino ante Solis ortum sub sacris angeronæ, hoc est, ore tacito, aufferatur, quod tamen, cum aliquam sapere videatur superstitionem, imitari nolui) et vel igne aperto, vel in crucibulo, calcinatur, usquedem colorem acquirat cineritium pulverisatum hocce cranium adhibetur a ℈ i. ad ʒ; i. vel ii. horas ante paroxysmi principio.”—(“Ephem. Phys. Medic.,” Leipzig, 1694, vol. ii. p. 93.)

The skull of a malefactor who had died on the scaffold or wheel, and which had been exposed in the open air long enough to make it perfectly dry and white, was considered a specific in epilepsy, being much superior for that purpose to the skulls obtained from graveyards.

Soldiers thought that if they drank from a human skull before going into battle they would secure immunity from the weapons of the enemy. This belief undoubtedly came into Europe with the Scythians.

“Milites putant, si quis ex cranio humano hauriat potum fore ut sit immunis ab insultis armorum.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 268, 269.)

Etmuller also shows that these skulls were ground up and administered to epileptic patients, many modes of preparation and administration being given.

Flemming wrote that human skull was considered a potent remedy in all ailments for which practitioners would administer human brain,—that is, in nerve troubles and in epilepsy. Preferably, the skull should be taken from a corpse which had died a violent death,—“Quæ e cadavere violenta morte extincto est desumta.” It was an ingredient in many preparations bearing the high-sounding titles of “majesterium epilepticum,” “specificum cephalicum,” etc. As a powder, ground raw or calcined, it was sometimes administered as a febrifuge and in paralysis.—(“De Remediis,” p. 10.)

Mr. W. W. Rockhill states that the Lamas of Thibet use skulls in their religious ceremonies, but reject those which smell like human urine. “Blood of a dead man’s skull” used to check hemorrhage.—(Pettigrew, “Med. Superst.,” p. 113.)

“There is a divination-bowl,—an uncanny object, made of the inverted cranium of a Buddhist priest.”—(“Tidbits from Tibet,” in the “Evening Star,” Washington, D. C., Nov. 3, 1888, describing the W. W. Rockhill collection in the National Museum.)

Before the coming of the whites the savages of Australia employed human skulls as drinking-vessels,—“human skulls with the sutures stopped up with a resinous gum.”—(“Native Tribes of S. Australia,” Adelaide, 1879, received through the kindness of the Royal Society, Sydney, New South Wales, F. B. Kyngdon, Secretary.)

“The powder of a man’s bones, and particularly that made from a skull found in the earth, was esteemed in Scotland as a cure for epilepsy. As usual, the form runs that the bones of a man will cure a man, and the bones of a woman will cure a woman. Grose notes the merits of the moss found growing upon a human skull, if dried and powdered and taken as snuff, in cases of headache.” (Black, “Folk-Medicine,” p. 96.) He also informs us that the same beliefs and the same remedy obtained in England and Ireland.

“Among the articles which may be regarded more as household furniture... are the dried human skulls, which are found wrapped in banana-leaves in the habitation of nearly every well-regulated Dyak family. They are hung up on the wall, or depend from the roof. The lower jaw is always wanting, as the Dyak finds it more convenient to decapitate his victim below the occiput, leaving the lower jaw attached to his body.”—(“Head-Hunters of Borneo,” Carl Bock, London, 1881, p. 199.)

The careful manner in which the Mandans preserved the skulls of their dead, as narrated by Catlin, is recalled to mind.

Moss Growing on Human Skulls

The medicinal use of the moss growing on the skulls of those who had died violent deaths is mentioned by Von Helmont.—(“Oritrika,” p. 768.)

Etmuller speaks of the usnea, or moss, growing on the skull of a malefactor, which was given in cases of epilepsy (vol. ii. p. 273).

Flemming regarded such moss, if taken from the skull of a malefactor, who had been hanged or broken on the wheel, as of great efficacy in epilepsy, in brain troubles, and as a styptic for hemorrhages (p. 11).

“Such a moss, if dried, powdered, and taken as snuff, will cure the headache.”—(Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii. p. 277, article “Physical Charms,” quoting Grose. The same reference is given by Pettigrew, “Medical Superstitions,” p. 86.)

Human Brain

The human brain, dissolved or distilled in spirits of wine, was employed in nerve troubles and as an anti-epileptic.—(Flemming, “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” p. 10.)

Lice

One might infer that habits of personal cleanliness did not prevail in England two centuries ago, judging from the terms of the following prescription, which seemingly takes as a matter of course that the patient could at any time obtain the insects needed:—

“For the cure of sore eyes... take two or three lice out of one’s head; put them under the lid.”—(“Rare Secrets in Physicke,” collected by the Comtesse of Kent, London, 1654, p. 75.)

The author of this work knows, from disagreeable personal experience and observation, that the Indians of North America very generally were addicted to the disgusting practice of cleaning each other’s heads and putting all captured prey in their mouths. Such an office was considered a very delicate attention to be paid by a woman to her husband or lover, or from male friend to male friend, while on a campaign. No instance was noted of the use in a medical sense of these troublesome parasites.

Moss Growing on the Head of a Statue

“It is asserted that a plant growing on the head of a statue gathered in the lappet of any one of the garments, and then attached with a red string to the neck, is an instantaneous cure for the headache.” (Pliny, lib. xxiv. c. 106.) This would seem to be germane to the idea of moss growing on the human skull.

Wool

“The ancient Romans attributed to wool a degree of religious importance even; and it was in this spirit that they enjoined that the bride should touch the door-posts of her husband’s house with wool.”—(Pliny, lib. xxix. cap. 10.)

In Cumberland, England, a reputed cure for earache is the application of a bit of wool from a black sheep, moistened in cow’s urine. Possibly it is a modified form of this latter notion that is found at Mount Desert, where it is said that the wool must be wet in new milk; while in Vermont, to be efficacious, it is thought that the wool must be gathered from the left side of the neck of a perfectly black sheep. In other localities, negro’s wool is a reputed cure for the same pain.

It seems almost incredible, whatever their origin, that remedies of so offensive a character as many of those above given can still retain a place even in the rudest traditional pharmacopœia; but there seems to be in the uneducated human mind a sort of reverence for or faith in that which is in itself disagreeable or repulsive. This idea apparently rules instead of rational judgment in the selection of many popular remedies in the shape of oils of the most loathsome description, such as “skunk-oil,” “angle-worm oil” (made by slowly rendering earth-worms in the sun), “snake-oil” of various kinds, etc.—(“Animal and Plant Lore,” Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, in “Popular Science Monthly,” New York, September, 1888, p. 658.)

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In the application of human blood and human skulls just presented, one feature must be patent to the most superficial student; in the treatment of epilepsy, the blood or the skull was, preferentially, to be that of a dying gladiator or a criminal. There was evidently a reason for this, beyond mere expediency.

Gladiatorial games were instituted as sacred games, in which the victims to be offered in sacrifice were determined by the destiny of the combat. Long after man’s better reason and better nature had revolted against the loathsome rites of human sacrifice, religion and custom still held him in their clutches. He would not offer up his own progeny, as of yore, but he still continued to immolate captives taken in war, as so many gladiators had been, or offenders against the laws.

The victim generally shared with the sacrificing priest the honor of representing the deity in whose name his life was to be taken. Consequently he became holy; everything belonging to him became “medicine,” and in no disease could it be administered more efficaciously than in epilepsy,—the essentially “sacred disease” (morbus sacer) sent direct from the gods.

Moreover, criminals executed for violations of the laws of conquering nations, or for infractions of the discipline, or contempt of the doctrines of a triumphant religion, might, by the conquered rustics, who still cherished a half-concealed veneration for the old rulers and supplanted rites, be looked upon as martyrs, whose bones, blood, and crania would relieve disease and drive away misfortune.

The idea of sanctity, too, attached to “innocent maids and boys,” whose undefiled blood might rectify the polluted fluid that coursed languidly through the veins of the leper.

The belief that the gods are to be gratified and propitiated by the spectacle of human suffering, especially when self-inflicted, has been current from the first ages of the world, and will most probably last, in one form or another, as long as the world shall last. It has cropped out in every shape, from the rigorous abstinence of the ascetic to the brutal flagellation of the fanatical devotee, and from that to the emasculation of the Galli, the Khlysthi, and the Hottentot, and the self-immolation of the servant of Juggernath. Maurice enumerates five different kinds of meritorious suicide yet recognized in Hindostan, and we have no reason for refusing to believe that our own ancestors were saturated with the same false notions, which, retaining their hold upon the minds of an illiterate peasantry, would surround with the mystery of holiness any act of self-destruction attributable to mania or other impulse supposed to be from on high.

Bones and Teeth — Marrow

“If a circle is traced round an ulcer with a human bone, it will be effectually prevented from spreading.”—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 11.)

Etmuller believed that by the use of an unbroken human bone it was possible to induce as copious a purgation as might be desired. “Beneficio ossis humani integri potest fieri purgatio artificialis tanta quantum volumus,” etc.—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 273.)

“‘Holy oyle of dead men’s bones,’ good for the ‘falling sickness.’”—(“The Newe Jewell of Health,” George Baker, Chirurgeon, London, 1576, black letter, p. 170.)

Beckherius prescribed human bones in medicine.—(See “Med. Microcos.,” p. 252 et seq.)

Etmuller, not content with prescribing the bones ground into powder, also directed the administration of human marrow (vol. ii. p. 268).

Human Teeth

“A tooth taken from a body before burial,” worn as an amulet, cured toothache.—(Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 12.)

“The first tooth that a child has shed,” worn as an amulet, protects from pain in the uterus.—(Idem, lib. xxviii. c. 7.)

Pounded dead men’s teeth were used in fumigating the genitalia of persons “ligated” by witchcraft.—(See Frommann, “Tract. de Fascin.,” p. 965.)

Etmuller taught that the teeth were similar to the bones, and used in the alleviation of the same infirmities. Those drawn from the jaws of a man who had died a violent death were highly commended for all sickness brought on by witchcraft, as well as for loss of virility. “Ossibus similes sunt dentes, qui ipsi ex homine imprimis violenta morte interempto commendatur ad morbos per veneficium, si nimium et illis fiat suffitus; item in impotentia” (vol. ii. p. 273).

“Si dentes pueri, imprimis cum cadunt, suspendantur antequam ad terram deveniant et ponantur in lamina argenti et suspendantur supra mulieres eas prohibent impregnari et parere” (idem, p. 263).

Teeth are worn as amulets by pregnant women or ground into powder, and taken in a potion; in both forms, believed to be useful in averting the plague. Powdered teeth, drunk in wine, cured epilepsy, and restored impaired virility.—(Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 13.)

“Knock a tooth that is pulled out into the bark of a young tree.”—(Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” vol. iii. p. 1173.)

Human teeth, bones, and other parts of dead bodies are still used by the negroes in our Southern States in their “voudoo” ceremonies, and as charms, in the old-time belief that their possession secures a man invisibility. See an article on this subject in the “Evening Star,” of Washington, D. C., January 1, 1889.

“In North Hants, a tooth taken from the mouth of a corpse is often enveloped in a little bag and worn around the neck to secure the wearer against headache.... In the northeast of Scotland, the sufferer was required to pull with his own teeth a tooth from the skull.”—(“Folk-Medicine,” Black, p. 98.)

The use of human teeth and fingers as “charms,” “amulets,” and “medicine,” will be treated of in another work, at greater length. At present it will be sufficient to call attention to the great potency associated in the minds of the American aborigines with such relics. The author obtained, in one of General Crook’s campaigns, in a battle with the Northern Cheyennes, in northern Wyoming, in the winter of 1876, a necklace of human fingers, the prized adornment and “medicine” of the chief medicine-man. This curious link between the savagery of America and the superstitions of Europe is now in the National Museum, Washington, D. C.

Flemming prescribed the ground bones of criminals (raw or burnt), as an internal medicine for gout, dysentery, etc.; but he did not limit himself to human bones, as he expressly states that, as a substitute, the bones of horses, asses, or other beasts could be employed. (“De Remediis,” p. 12.)

Tartar Impurities From the Teeth

Paullini goes so far as to recommend the use of the tartar impurities from the teeth, and the dirt from soiled stockings, as a remedy for nose-bleed. (Paullini, p. 52.)

In this he most probably follows an ancient line of practice, of which other authors have neglected to give a detailed account. Galen and others have shown that the scrapings from the body, and all other “sordes” were used medicinally, and there was no reason why dental tartar should not be added to the materia medica.

Renal and Biliary Calculi — Human Bile

Calculi were used in the treatment of calculary troubles and in childbirth.—(Pliny, lib. xxvii. cap. 9. See also Galen.)

Prescribed for stone in the bladder or kidneys by Beckherius.—(“Med. Microcosmus,” pp. 167-170.)

Flemming advocates the same use of them.—(“De Remediis,” p. 23.)

“A man’s stone, drunk fasting, is most powerful of any to break the stone and expel it with the urine.”—(“The Poor Man’s Physician,” Moncrief, p. 131.)

Flemming also used biliary calculi in the cure of yellow jaundice.—(“De Remediis,” p. 14.)

Human bile was used internally in epilepsy, and externally in deafness and ulcerations of the ear.—(Idem.)

Bezoar Stones — Lyncurius

From the most ancient times there were used in the medical practice of Europe certain stones, known as belemnites, thunder-stones, lyncurius, etc., believed to be efficacious in treatment of stone in the bladder. This lyncurius was regarded as the coagulated urine of the lynx, and under that phase of the case properly comes within the scope of this volume.—(See “Pomet on Drugs,” English translation, London, 1738, p. 408.)

The “bezoar” stone, so frequently alluded to by old writers, was simply excrementitious matter hardened in an animal’s stomach.

Cosmetics

Pigeon’s dung was applied externally for all spots and blemishes on the face. (Pliny, lib. xxx. cap. 9.) Mouse-dung, externally, for lichens. (Idem.) “Brand Marks” (stigmata) were removed by using pigeon’s dung diluted in vinegar. (Idem, lib. xxx. cap 10.) Crocodile-dung, or “crocodilea,” removed blemishes from the face. (Idem, lib. xxxviii. caps. 29, 50.) It also removed freckles.

“An application of bull-dung, they say, will impart a rosy tint to the cheeks, and not even crocodilea is better for the purpose.”—(Idem, lib. xxviii. cap. 50.)

Galen alludes to the extensive use as a cosmetic, by the Greek and Roman ladies, of the dung of the crocodile; in the same manner, the dung of starlings that had been fed on rice alone was employed.—(Galen, “Opera Omnia,” Kuhn’s edition, lib. xxx. p. 308.)

Dioscorides prescribed crocodile-dung as a beautifier of the faces of women.—(“Mat. Med.,” vol. i. p. 222 et seq.)

Bull-dung was used by women as a cosmetic to remove all facial blemishes.—(Sextus Placitus, “De Med. ex Animal.,” article “De Tauro.”)

The urine of a boy took away freckles from a face washed with it. “Ad profluvium mulieris, si locum sæpe lotio viri laverit.” For birthmarks on children take the crust which gathers on urine standing in chamber-pots, break up and bake; place the child in the bath, and rub the marks well. “Ad maculas infantium, matellæ quæ crustem ex lotio duxerint, fractæ et coctæ, in balneo infantem, si ex eo unxeris omnia supra-scripta emendat.”—(Idem, “De Puello et Puella Virgine.”)

Beckherius approved of the use of the meconium of infants to erase birthmarks.—(“Med. Microcos.,” p. 113.)

Etmuller states that from cow-dung, as well as from human ordure, by repeated digestion and distillation and sublimation, was prepared “Zibethum Occidentale,” so named by Paracelsus. From this was distilled the “water of all flowers,” so termed because the cattle had eaten so many flowers in their pasturage. This was passing good as a cosmetic to remove pimples and all kinds of blotches.

Human ordure itself was made use of for the same purpose (vol. ii. p. 171).

“’Tis stale to have a coxcomb kiss your hands
While yet the chamber-lye is scarce wiped off.”

(“Ram Alley,” Ludowick Barry, London, 1611, edition of London, 1825.)

Dog-urine was prescribed to restore the color of the hair.—(Avicenna, vol. ii. p. 333, a 50.)

“Alopecia” (baldness) was cured by mouse-dung (idem, vol. i. p. 360, b 50), and by “stercus caprarum.”—(Idem, vol. i. p. 389, b 53.)

“Urina canis putrefacta conservat nigredinem capillorum.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 333, a 50.)

Réclus says that even now, in Paris, many people who have within reach the best of toilet waters prefer to use urine as a detersive.—(See “Les Primitifs,” p. 72, “Les Inoits Occidentaux.”)

The Ove-herero, living south of Angola, West Africa, rub their bodies with dry cow-dung to impart lustre.—(“Muhongo,” interpreted by Rev. Mr. Chatelain.)

“Aqua omnium florum” was distilled from the dung of cows dropped in the month of May. “Verno seu Maiali tempore... ex stercore recenti vaccæ herbas depascentis.” (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 249.) “Ex hoc ipso stercore, eodem modo atque ex stercore humano per digestionem et sublimationem, repetitam potest preparari Zibethum Occidentale, sic dictum a Paracelso, quoniam suavem spirat instar Zibethi. Destillatur aqua ex hoc stercore quæ vocatur aqua omnium florum, quia bos innumeris floribus vescitur; hæc aqua omnium florum est singulare cosmeticum applicatum externe delendis nævis et maculis in facie.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. pp. 249, 250.)

Some people added to this a “water distilled from the sperm of frogs.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 171, 172.)

Catamenial blood was supposed to be a remedy for pimples on the face. (Idem, p. 265.) In portions of Northern Mexico the women apply it to their faces as a beautifier.

Cow-dung was very generally relied upon in this sense. The dung of a black cow entered into the composition of the celebrated “Eau de Mille Fleurs.” The ordure of small lizards was also used to smooth out the wrinkles from the faces of old women.

Fox-dung and the dung of sparrows and starlings were in use for softening the hands. Arabian women use as a cosmetic a mixture of saffron and chicken-dung. Cow-dung is sometimes as aromatic as musk. It used to be employed to restore the odor to old and faded musk, or to hang the latter in a privy, where it would re-acquire its former strength; but would not retain it long (see under “Latrines”).

To improve the complexion Paullini recommended a water distilled from human excrements; also the worms that grow therein distilled to a water. The cosmetic of country wenches is their own urine.

Human excrements have peculiar salts more strengthening and useful than soap. A young girl improved her complexion wonderfully by washing her face in cow-dung and drinking her brother’s urine fresh and warm, while fasting (pp. 263, 264).

Other cosmetics commended by Paullini were human ordure, externally; the ordure of a young boy, internally; “Eau de Millefleurs,” the excreta of lizards, crocodiles, foxes, sparrows, starlings, chickens, or of cows gathered in May, externally.

See also pages 172, 207.

For the eradication of freckles Paullini also recommended the external application of the excrement of donkeys, dogs, chickens, crocodiles, foxes, or pigeons.

Schurig was a champion of “Aqua ex stercore distillata,” for all facial embellishment.—(“Chylologia,” p. 762.)

“Il y a plus; les femmes les plus belles s’en sont barbouillé le visage, et Saint Jérome le reproche durement aux dames de son temps.” In a footnote is added this explanation: “On a employé des excrémens de quelques lézards d’Egypte comme cosmétique, à cause de leur odeur musquée.” (“Bib. Scat.,” p. 21.) “Merde de Lézard c’est le cordilea, excrément du stellion du Levant, employé comme cosmétique.”—(Idem, p. 123.)

“Wash the face with the diaper on which a new-born babe has urinated for the first time, it will remove freckles.”—(Cape Breton, Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass.)

This belief in the cosmetic power of the first renal discharge of a child is generally diffused all over the United States.

“Enfin, les nourrices entre nous, ont l’habitude de frotter la figure de leurs nourrissons avec les langes imbibés de leur urine. Cela les fait venir beau, disent-elles, cela combat en tout cas, certaines efflorescences cutanées chez les enfants, par l’ammoniaque.”—(Personal letter from Doctor Bernard, Cannes, France.)

Prof. Patrice de Janon states that the ladies of his native place, Carthagena, South America, to his personal knowledge, were in the habit of using their own urine as a face lotion, and to beautify and soften the skin.

Horse-dung was another face lotion.—(“A Rich Storehouse or Treasurie for the Diseased,” Ralph Blower, London, 1616, p. 106.)

Goose-dung is in repute in the State of Indiana for removing pimples.—(Mrs. Bergen.)

Mr. Sylvester Baxter says that young women in Massachusetts, at least until very recently, have employed human urine as a wash for the preservation of the complexion.

“Water that stands in the concavity of a patch of cow-dung” is the belief in Walden, Mass., according to Mrs. Bergen, who thus shows a transplantation of the same belief which has lingered in Europe from remote ages.