Book 1
4
But if the cause be seated in the middle parts, and if these induce the disease (this, however, very rarely happens, for, as in a mighty ailment, the middle parts of the body rather sympathise with the head, which is the origin of the disease), but however it may be, we must open the vein at the elbow in these cases also; for the flow by it is from the viscera. But such patients, more than the others, are to be purged with the hiera, cneoron,The rock-rose, or Daphne cneorum, L. and the granum cnidium,Seed of the Daphne cnidium. See Paulus Ægineta, t. iii. p. 179. for these are phlegmagogues. But the most suitable remedy in these cases is cupping. Of epithemes and cataplasms the components are well known, and it would be superfluous to describe them on all occasions, except in so far as to know the powers of them; namely, that by such means we must attenuate, promote exhalation, and render the secretions and perspirations healthy. We are also to use digestive, heating, desiccant, and diuretic articles, both in food and in medicine. But the best of all things is castor, taken frequently during the month in honeyed-water, and the compound medicines which possess the same powers, as the compound medicine from vipers, and the still more complex one of Mithridates, and also that of Vestinus; for these things promote digestion, form healthy juices, and are diuretic; for whatever simple medicines you could describe are contained in these powerful compositions — cinnamon. cassia, the leaves of melabathrum, pepper, and all the varieties of seseli; and which of the most potent medicines will you not find in them? It is told, that the brain of a vulture, and the heart of a raw cormorant, and the domestic weasel, when eaten, remove the disease; but I have never tried these things. However, I have seen persons holding a cup below the wound of a man recently slaughtered, and drinking a draught of the blood! O the present, the mighty necessity, which compels one to remedy the evil by such a wicked abomination! And whether even they recovered by this means no one could tell me for certain. There is another story of the liver of a man having been eaten. However, I leave these things to be described by those who would bear to try such means.
