Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 2).djvu/26

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Culpepper quotes from Mizaldus, perhaps sarcastically, a very wonderful property of earthworms, which is that the powder of them put in a hollow tooth makes it drop out. He gives another way of making a tooth drop out, which was to "fill an earthenware crucible full of emmets, ants, or pismires, call them by which name you will, eggs and all, and when you have burnt them keep the ashes, with which if you touch the tooth it will drop out."

The same authority offers a drink cure which looks as if it might be effectual. "Eels being put into wine or beer and suffered to die in it, he that drinks it will never endure that sort of liquor again." He recommends the brain of a hare roasted to help children to breed their teeth; a dead mouse, dried and powdered, one whole one to be taken each morning for three consecutive days, for diabetes; grasshoppers for colic; and hedge-sparrows salted for stone.

Deers' fat strengthened the nerves, and relieved rheumatism and gout. Hares' grease applied outwardly ripened swellings. Rabbits' fat had a dispersing power. The fat of cocks and hens would soften hard swellings. Goose grease was specially good against piles, deafness, and to prevent pitting after the small pox. Bears' grease, still sold nominally, could be had in genuine form in this country a hundred years ago. Bears were at that time fattened and killed in this country for their grease, and until even more recent times they were imported from Russia. The principal use of bears' grease was always to make the hair grow, but it was also used as an emollient for many purposes.

The lion had a high reputation among the Romans for its medicinal value. The fat was used as an