CHAP. 10.—REMEDIES FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE.

Wool-grease, mixed with Corsican honey-which by the way is considered the most acrid honey of all-removes spots upon the face. Applied with oil of roses in wool, it causes scurf upon the face to disappear: some persons add butter to it. In cases of morphew, the spots are first pricked with a needle, and then rubbed with dog's gall. For livid spots and bruises on the face, the lights of a ram or sheep are cut fine and applied warm, or else pigeons' dung is used. Goose-grease or poultry-grease is a good preservative of the skin of the face. For lichens a liniment is used, made of mouse-dung in vinegar, or of the ashes of a hedge-hog mixed with oil: but, when these remedies are employed, it is recommended first to foment the face with nitre dissolved in vinegar. Maladies of the face are also removed by employing the ashes of the small, broad, snail that is so commonly found, mixed with honey. Indeed, the ashes of all snails are of an inspissative nature, and are possessed of certain calorific and detersive properties: hence it is that they form an ingredient in caustic applications, and are used in the form of a liniment for itch-scabs, leprous sores, and freckles on the face.

I find it stated that a certain kind of ant known by the name of "Herculanea,"[1] is beaten up, with the addition of a little salt, and used for the cure of these diseases. The buprestis[2] is an insect but rarely found in Italy, and very similar to a scarabæus, with long legs. Concealed among the grass, it is very liable to be swallowed unobserved, by oxen in particular; and the moment it comes in contact with the gall, it causes such a degree of inflammation, that the animal bursts asunder; a circumstance to which the insect owes its name. Applied topically with he-goat suet, it removes lichens on the face, owing to its corrosive properties, as previously[3] stated. A vulture's blood, beaten up with cedar resin and root of white chamæleon—a plant which we have already[4] mentioned—and covered with a cabbage leaf, when applied, is good for the cure of leprosy; the same, too, with the legs of locusts, beaten up with he-goat suet. Pimples are treated with poultry grease, beaten up and kneaded with onions. One very useful substance for the face is honey in which the bees have died; but a sovereign detergent for that part is swans' grease, which has also the property of effacing wrinkles. Brand-marks[5] are removed by using pigeons' dung, diluted in vinegar.

1. Dalechamps thinks that these "Herculean" ants were so called from their great size. Ajasson queries whether they may not be the "grenadier ants" of Dupont de Nemours.

2. See B. xxii. c. 36. Belon takes it to be the Lixus paraplecticus.

3. In B. xxix. c. 30.

4. In B. xxii. c. 21.

5. "Stigmata."