CHAP. 34.—REMEDIES FOR BOILS.

For boils the following remedies are prescribed; a spider, applied before mentioning the insect by name, care being taken to remove it at the end of two days; a shrew-mouse, suspended by the neck till it is dead, care being taken not to let it touch the earth when dead, and to pass it three times around the boil, both operator and patient spitting on the floor each time; poultry-dung, that of a red colour in particular, applied fresh with vinegar; the crop of a stork, boiled in wine; flies, an uneven number of them, rubbed upon the patient with the ring[1] finger; the filth from sheep's ears; stale mutton suet, with ashes of women's hair; ram suet also, with ashes of' burnt pumice and an equal quantity of salt.

1. "Digitus medicus"—"The physician's finger," properly. Why the fourth finger, or that next to the little finger, was thus called, it seems impossible to say.