"Some physicians," says Matthiolus, "use the ashes of
scorpions, burnt alive, for retention caused by either renal or vesical
calculi. But I have myself thoroughly experienced the utility of an oil
I make myself, whereof scorpions form a very large portion of the
ingredients. If only the region of the heart and all the pulses of the
body be anointed with it, it will free the patients from the effects of
all kinds of poisons taken by the mouth, corrosive ones excepted."
Decoctions of Egyptian mummies were much commended, and often prescribed
with due academical solemnity; and the bones of the human skull,
pulverized and administered with oil, were used as a specific in cases
of renal calculus. (See Petri Andreae Matthioli "Opera," 1574.)
These remarks were made to me by a medical gentleman to whom I mentioned
the Chinese doctor's prescription of scorpion tea, and they seem to me
so curious that I insert them for comparison's sake.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Bu._ This coin is generally called by foreigners "ichibu,"
which means "one bu." To talk of "_a hundred ichibus_" is as though a
Japanese were to say "_a hundred one shillings_." Four bus make a
_riyo_, or ounce; and any sum above three bus is spoken of as so many
riyos and bus--as 101 riyos and three bus equal 407 bus. The bu is worth
about 1_s._ 4_d._]
[Footnote 2: Inari Sama is the title under which was deified a certain
mythical personage, called Uga, to whom tradition attributes the honour
of having first discovered and cultivated the rice-plant.
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