CHAP. 39.—REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.
Strombi, [Note] left to putrefy in vinegar, act as an excitant upon
lethargic patients by their smell; they are very useful, too,
for the cure of cardiac diseases. For cachectic patients, where
the body is wasting with consumption, tetheæ [Note] are considered
beneficial, mixed with rue and honey. For the cure of
dropsy, dolphin's fat is melted and taken with wine, the repulsive
taste of it being neutralized by first touching the
nostrils with unguent or some other odoriferous substance, or
else by plugging the nostrils in some way or other. The flesh
of strombi, pounded and given in three heminæ of honied
wine and the same quantity of water, or, if there is fever,
in hydromel, is very useful for dropsy: the same, too, with
the juice of river-crabs, administered with honey. Water
frogs, too, are boiled with old wine and spelt, [Note] and taken as
food, the liquor in which they have been boiled being drunk
from the same vessel: or else the feet, head, and tail of a
tortoise are cut off, and the intestines removed, the rest of
the flesh being seasoned in such a manner as to allow of
its being taken without loathing. River-crabs, too, eaten with
their broth, are said to be very good for the cure of phthisis.