1) Roman medicine offered many amazing treatments - perhaps this thread can help find a cure for your nagging ailments?
Firstly, to ensure the health of small infants they should be washed in the urine of someone who has been living on a diet of cabbage. (Cato, On Farming, 157)
Firstly, to ensure the health of small infants they should be washed in the urine of someone who has been living on a diet of cabbage. (Cato, On Farming, 157)
2) In fact “the medicinal value of the cabbage surpasses all other vegetables.” It is an excellent laxative, prevents hangovers, cures fever, cleanses wounds, relieves ulcers, improves joints, and cures any internal organ which is suffering. (Cato, On Farming, 156)
3) To cure a headache, apply to the painful area the head of a snail that you have cut off with a reed, preferably on a full moon. If not this, then use dog hairs. (Pliny, Natural History 36)
4) The wonder-herb Silphium cures all manner of ailments, including growths of the anus and the bites of feral dogs - simply rub into the affected area - though never ever use this to cure a tooth cavity, after a man who tried this threw himself off a cliff. (Pliny)
5) Stop persistent hiccups by kissing the nostrils of a mule. (Pliny, Natural History, 28.57)
6) To prevent blisters on a long journey on horseback, put a spring of wormwood in your rectum before you set off. (Cato, On Farming, 159)
7) If you have a fractured skull, apply cobwebs with oil and vinegar. Cobwebs are also good for stopping the bleeding from shaving cuts. (Pliny, Natural History, 36)
8) Epileptics may treat their condition by drinking the blood of gladiators, absorbing their warm blood while they are still breathing as though it were a draught of life. (Pliny, Natural History 28.4)
9) Treat acne with crocodile meat mixed with cyprus oil. The dung of a crocodile will also make your skin "pale and brilliant". You can then smooth your skin with crushed oyster shells. (Ovid, Ars amatoria, 3.269 )
10) To reduce sexual desire use a man's urine in which a lizard has been drowned. To increase your sexual desire wear as an amulet a rooster's right testicle. (Pliny, Natural History, 30.141)
11) To improve the growth of your eyelashes, mix some crow’s brain in with your food. Similar results can be achieved by a mixture of burnt flies, mouse-dung and kohl. (Pliny)
12) Treat warts with swan's fat or burnt mouse droppings. (Pliny, Natural History, 22)
13) Finally the body parts of the hyena can be used to treat a large number of ailments - hyena teeth will relieve nightmares and fear of ghosts. Ground hyena jawbone will cure shivering fits and the first vertebrae of a hyena will cure epilepsy. (Pliny, Natural History, 27.147)
