CHAP. 66.—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.
Deer's flesh, as already[1] stated, is a febrifuge. Periodical
and recurrent fevers are cured, if we are to believe what the
magicians tell us, by wearing the right eye of a wolf, salted,
and attached as an amulet. There is one kind of fever generally known as "amphemerine"[2] it is to be cured, they say,
by the patient taking three drops of blood from an ass's ear, and
swallowing them in two semi-sextarii of water. For quartan
fever, the magicians recommend cats' dung to be attached to
the body, with the toe of a horned owl, and, that the fever
may not be recurrent, not to be removed until the seventh
paroxysm is past. Who,[3] pray, could have ever made such a
discovery as this? And what, too, can be the meaning of this
combination? Why, of all things in the world, was the toe
of a horned owl made choice of?
Other adepts in this art, who are more moderate in their
suggestions, recommend for quartan fever, the salted liver of a
cat that has been killed while the moon was on the wane, to be
taken in wine just before the paroxysms come on. The magicians recommend, too, that the toes of the patient should be
rubbed with the ashes of burnt cow-dung, diluted with a boy's
urine, and that a hare's heart should be attached to the hands;
they prescribe, also, hare's rennet, to be taken in drink just
before the paroxysms come on. New goats' milk cheese is
also given with honey, the whey being carefully extracted
first.