In the treatment of quartan fevers, clinical medicine is, so to say, pretty nearly powerless; for which reason we shall insert a considerable number of remedies recommended by professors of the magic art, and, first of all, those prescribed to be worn as amulets: the dust, for instance, in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached to the body; the longest tooth of a black dog; or the wasp known by the name of "pseudosphex,"[1] which is always to be seen flying alone, caught with the left hand and attached beneath the patient's chin. Some use for this purpose the first wasp that a person sees in the current year. Other amulets are, a viper's head, severed from the body and wrapped in a linen cloth; a viper's heart, removed from the reptile while still alive; the muzzle[2] of a mouse and the tips of its ears, wrapped in red cloth, the animal being set at liberty after they are removed; the right eye plucked from a living lizard, and enclosed with the head, seperated from the body, in goat's skin; the scarabænus also that forms pellets[3] and rolls them along.

It is on account of this kind of scarabæus that the people of a great part of Egypt worship those insects as divinities; an usage for which Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, as he does, by way of justifying the rites of his nation, that the, insect in its operations pictures the revolution of the sun. There is also another kind of scarabæus, which the magicians recom- mend to be worn as an amulet—the one that has small horns[4] thrown backwards; it must be taken up, when used for this purpose, with the left hand. A third kind also, known by the name of "fullo,"[5] and covered with white spots, they recom- mend to be cut asunder and attached to either arm, the other kinds being worn upon the left arm. Other amulets recom- mended by them, are, the heart of a snake taken from the living animal with the left hand; or four joints of a scorpion's tail. together with the sting,, attached to the body in a piece of black cloth; due care being taken that the patient does not see the scorpion, which is set at liberty after the operation, or the person who has attached the amulet, for the space of three days: after the recurrence, too, of the third paroxysm, he must bury the whole in the ground. Some enclose a caterpillar in a piece of linen with a thread passed three times round it, and tie as many knots, repeating at each knot why it is that the patient performs that operation. A slug is sometimes wrapped in a piece of skin, or the heads of four slugs, cut from the body with a reed: a millepede is rolled up in wool: the small grubs that produce the gadfly,[6] are used before the wings of the insect are developed; or any other kind of hairy grub is employed that is found adhering to prickly shrubs. Some persons attach to the body four of these grubs, enclosed in an empty walnut shell, or else some of the snails that are found without a shell.

In other cases, again, it is the practice to enclose a spotted lizard in a little box, and to place it beneath the pillow, of the patient, taking care to set it at liberty when the fever abates. It is recommended also, that the patient should swallow the heart of a sea-diver, removed from the bird without the aid of iron, it being first dried and then bruised and taken in warm water. The heart of a swallow is also recommended, with honey; and there are persons who say that, just before the paroxysms come on, the patient should take one drachma of swallow's dung in three cyathi of goats' milk or ewes' milk, or of raisin wine: others, again, are of opinion that the birds themselves should be taken, whole. The nations of Parthia, as a remedy for quartan fevers, take the skin of the asp, in doses of one sixth of a denarius, with an equal quantity of pepper. The philosopher Chrysippus has left a statement to the effect, that the phryganion,[7] worn as an amulet, is a remedy for quartan fevers; but what kind of animal this is he has nowhere informed us, nor have I been able to meet with any one who knows. Still, however, I felt myself bound to notice a remedy that was mentioned by an author of such high repute, in case any other person should happen to be more successful in his researches. To eat the flesh of a crow, and to use nitre in the form of a liniment, is considered highly efficacious for the treatment of chronic diseases.

In cases of tertian fever—so true it is that suffering takes delight in prolonging hope by trying every remedy—it may be worth while to make trial whether the web of the spider called "lycos"[8] is of any use, applied, with the insect itself, to the temples and forehead in a compress covered with resin and wax; or the insect itself, attached to the body in a reed, a form in which it is said to be highly beneficial for other fevers. Trial may be made also of a green lizard, enclosed alive in a vessel just large enough to receive it, and worn as an amulet; a method, it is said, by which recurrent fevers are often dispelled.