8 Now ulcerated nostrils should be fomented with steam from hot water; that is done either by applying a sponge after squeezing it ou, or by holding the nose over a narrow-mouthed vessel filled with hot water. After this fomentation the ulcerations should be smeared with lead slag, white lad or litharge; with any of these a kind of poultice is compounded, and to this, while it is being pounded up, wine and myrtle oil are added alternately, until it becomes of the consistency of honey. But if these ulcerations involve bone, and have numerous crusts with a foul odour, which kind the Greeks call ozaena, it ought to be understood that it is scarcely possible to afford relief in that disease. The following measures, none the less, can be tried: the head may be shaved to the scalp, rubbed frequently and vigorously, and sluiced with quantities of hot water; then the patient is to take a great deal of
p.245
exercise, and a moderate amount of food, neither sour nor very nutritious. Further, into the nostril itself may be inserted honey to which a very small quantity of turpentine resin has been added (this is done on a probe wrapped round with wool), and this juice is drawn inwards by the breath until it can be tasted in the mouth. For in this way the crusts are loosened, and they should then be blown out by sneezing. The ulcerations having been cleaned are steamed over hot water; then there should be applied either boxthorn-juice diluted with wine or wine lees or omphacium or the juice of mint or horehound or blacking made glowing hot and then pounded, or the interior part of a squill crushed; provided that to any of these honey is added. The honey should be a very small part in all these mixtures, except with the blacking, when there should be just enough to make the mixture liquid, whilst with the squill certainly the honey should form the larger part; a probe should be wrapped round with wool, and dipped into this medicament, and with it the ulcers are filled. And further, a strip of linen is folded into a long roll, smeared with the same medicament, and inserted into the nostril, and is lightly bandaged on below. This should be done in winter and spring twice a day, in summer and autumn three times a day.
Again, inside the nostrils there are sometimes formed little lumps like women's nipples, and these are fixed by their deepest and most fleshy parts. These should be treated by caustics, under which they are completely eaten away. A polypus, in fact, is a lump of this sort, sometimes white, sometimes reddish, which is attached to the bone of the nose, and fills the nostril, being directed
p.247
sometimes towards the lips, sometimes backwards through that passage by which the breath goes from the nose to the throat. In this direction it may grow until it can be seen behind the uvula; it chokes the patient, especially when the south or east wind blows; generally it is soft, rarely hard, and the latter sort hinders breathing more and dilates the nose; it is then generally cancerous, and so should not be touched. But the other kind can generally be removed by the knife; sometimes, however, it dries up, if the following composition is inserted into the nostril on lint or on a feather: minium from Sinope, copper ore, lime, and sandarach 4 grams each, blacking 4 grams.
9 Now in the case of pain in the teeth, which by itself also can be counted among the greatest of torments, wine must be entirely cut off. At first the patient must fast, then take sparingly of soft food, so as not to irritate the teeth when masticating; then externally steam from hot water is to be applied by a sponge, and an ointment put on made from cyprus or iris oil, with a woollen bandage over it, and the head must be wrapped up. For more severe pain a clyster is useful, with a hot poultice upon the cheeks, and hot water containing certain medicaments held in the mouth and frequently changed. For this purpose cinquefoil root may be boiled in diluted wine, and hyoscyamus root either in vinegar and water, or in wine, with the addition of a little salt, also poppy-head skins not too dry and mandragora root in the same condition. But with these three remedies, the patient should carefully avoid swallowing the fluid in the mouth. The bark of white poplar roots boiled in diluted wine may be
p.249
appropriately used for the same purpose, and stag's horn shavings boiled in vinegar, and catmint together with a torch rich in resin and a fig equally rich boiled either in honey wine or in vinegar and honey. When the fig has been boiled down with these, this fluid is strained. Also a prove wrapped round with wool is dipped in hot oil, and the tooth itself fomented with this. Moreover, some applications, like poultices, are smeared on the tooth itself, and for this purpose the inside rind of an unripe dry pomegranate is pounded up with equal parts of oak-galls and pine bark, with which minium is mixed; and these when pounded together are made up with rain-water. Or equal quantities of all-heal, poppy-tears, sulphur wort, and black bryony berries without the seeds are pounded together. Or three parts of galbanum to one of poppy juice. Whatever is applied to the teeth directly, none the less the ointment mentioned above must also be put on the jaws and covered over with wool. Some rub up together myrrh and cardamoms, 4 grams each; saffron chamomile figs and broom 16 grams each; and mustard 32 grams; spread it on lint and apply to the shoulder on the side of the painful tooth; over the shoulder-blade, if it is an upper tooth; on the chest if a lower one; and this relieves the pain, and as soon as it has relieved it, must be at once taken off. When a tooth decays, there is no hurry to extract it, unless it cannot be helped, but rather to the various applications described above, we must add more active compositions for the relief of pain, such as that of heras. This has poppy juice 4 grams; pepper 8 grams; sory 40 grams, pounded, taken up in galbanum, and
p.251
applied round the tooth; or that of Menemachus, especially for molar teeth, containing saffron 0.66 gram, cardamons, frankincense root, figs, broom and pellitory 16 grams each; mustard 32 grams. Again, some mix chamomile, pepper, elaterium and broom 4 grams each; shredded alum, poppy juice, black bryony berries, crude sulphur, bitumen, laurel berries and mustard 8 grams each. But if pain compels its removal, a peppercorn without the tegument, or an ivy berry without the tegument is inserted into the cavity of the tooth, which it splits, and the tooth falls out in bits. Also the tail spine of the flat fish which we call pastinaca, and the Greeks trygon, is roasted, pounded and taken up in resin, and this, when applied around the tooth, loosens it. Also shredded alum and . . . put into the cavity loosens the tooth. However, it is better to insert this wrapped up in a flake of wool, for it thus relieves the pain whilst preserving the tooth. These are the remedies recognized by medical practitioners, but country people have found out by experience that if a tooth aches, catmint should be pulled up with its roots, and put into a pot, and water poured over it, and placed beside the patient as he sits all covered by clothes; then red-hot stones are thrown in so as to be covered by the water; the patient inhales the steam with his mouth open, whilst, as stated above, he is completely covered over. For profuse sweating follows, and also a steady stream of phlegm flows from the mouth, and this ensures good health always for a year, and often for longer.
10 Again, if the tonsils owing to the inflammation
p.253
are swollen but not ulcerated, the head is to be kept covered; externally the painful part should be fomented by steam; the patient is to take walking exercise freely; when in bed his head should be raised repressive gargles should be used. Also that root which they call sweet, crushed and boiled in raisin wine or honey wine, has the same beneficial effect. It is useful to anoint them gently with certain medicaments prepared as follows: the juice is squeezed out of sweet pomegranates, and of this half a litre is boiled over a slow fire until of the consistency of honey; then saffron, myrrh, and shredded alum 8 grams each are pounded together, and to this is added a little at a time 85 cc. of mild wine and 42 cc. of honey; next these latter are mixed with the pomegranate juice aforesaid, and all gently boiled again. Or half a litre of the pomegranate juice is boiled in the same way, and the following after being pounded in like manner are added: nard 0.33 gram; omphacium 4 grams; cinnamon, myrrh and casia 0.33 gram each; these same compositions are also appropriate both for purulent ears and nostrils. Food too in this affection should be bland that it may not irritate. If the inflammation is so severe that breathing is hindered, the patient should keep in bed, abstaining from food, and take nothing else except hot water; the bowels should be moved by a clyster, and the gargle of fig and honey wine used; the tonsils are to be smeared with honey and omphacium; internally steam is to be inhaled somewhat longer until the tonsils suppurate and spontaneously open. If after pus has formed these swellings do not burst, they are to be cut into; then the patient must gargle with warm honeyed wine.
p.255
But if with only moderate swelling there is ulceration as well, the throat is to be gargled with bran gruel to which a little honey should be added; and the ulcers smeared with the following composition: 750 cc. of the sweetest raisin wine are boiled down to one-third, then are added: frankincense 4 grams; garlic 4 grams; saffron and myrrh 0.66 gram each; and all are then gently heated together. When the ulcers have cleaned, the throat is gargled with bran gruel or milk. And here also bland food is necessary, and in addition sweet wine can be taken.
11 Now ulcerations of the mouth if accompanied by inflammation, and if they are foul and reddish, are best treated by the medicaments made from pomegranates mentioned above. And, as a repressant, pearl barley gruel to which a little honey has been added is to be often held in the mouth; the patient must walk and not take acrid food. As soon as the ulcerations begin to clean, a bland liquid, at times even the purest water, is held in the mouth. It is then beneficial to eat a pear of the softer sort, and more food along with sharp vinegar; then the ulcers should be dusted over with split alum, to which about half as much again of unripe oak-galls has been added. If the ulcers are alar encrusted, as happens after cauterization, those compositions are to be applied which the Greeks call antherae: equal portions of galingale, myrrh, sandarach, and alum. Or saffron and myrrh 4 grams each; iris, split alum and sandarach 16 grams each; galingale 32 grams. Or oak-galls and myrrh 4 grams each; split alum 8 grams; rose leaves 16 grams. But some mix saffron 0.66 gram; split alum and myrrh 4 grams each; sandarach 8 grams; galingale 16 grams.
p.257
The first compositions are dried and then dusted on; the last one is smeared on with honey added, and used not only for ulcerations of the mouth, but also of the tonsils.
But by far the most dangerous are those ulcers which the Greeks call aphtae, certainly in children; in them they often cause death, but there is not the same danger for men and women. These ulcers begin from the gums: next they invade the palate and the whole mouth; then they pass downwards to the uvula and throat, and if these are involved, it is not easy for the child to recover. But the disease is even worse in a suckling, for there is then less possibility of its conquest by any remedy. But it is most important that the nurse should be made to take exercise both by walking and by doing work which moves her arms; she should be sent to the bath, and ordered when there to have hot water poured over her breasts; moreover, she should have bland, easily digestible food; and for drink, if the infant is feverish, water; if free from fever, diluted wine. And if the nurse is constipated, her bowels are to be moved by a clyster. If there is clotted phlegm in her mouth, she must vomit. Then the child's ulcers are to be anointed with honey, to which is added sumach, which they call Syrian, or bitter almonds; or a mixture of dried rose leaves, pinecone seeds, mint, young stalks, and honey, or that medicament which is made of mulberries, the juice of which is concentrated in the same way as pomegranate juice to the consistency of honey; similarly too there is mixed with it saffron, myrrh, alum, wine and honey; nothing should be given which can provoke spittle. If it is an older child he should
p.259
generally gargle as described above. If the milder medicaments do little good, the caustic materials which induce crusts upon the ulcers should be applied, such as split alum or copper ore or blacking. Even hunger is beneficial and the greatest possible abstinence is to be ordered. The food ought to be bland; for cleansing the ulcers, however, sometimes cheese with honey is appropriately given.
12 Ulcerations of the tongue need no other treatment than that noted in the first part of the previous chapter. But those which arise at the side of the tongue last the longest; and it should be looked to, whether some tooth opposite the ulcer is too pointed, which often keeps an ulceration in that position from healing, in which case the tooth must be smoothed down.