314 Ulisse Aldrovandi

drives them away. Furthermore, the same author recommends it not only for the bite of vipers but also for the stings of other venomous creatures.

However, there are some who do not shrink from the medical use of human urine but approve only of that produced by small boys and virgins. They prescribe this for those with breathing difficulties, especially those suffering from orthopnea. Likewise, when boiled with honey in a bronze vessel, they use it to improve scars and clear away white spots on the eyes. They even claim that when prescribed with honey-water or chickpea broth, it cures jaundice. On the subject of human urine, Galen writes the following:

"Moreover, the urine of men possesses a cleansing power if ever anything did; this is indicated by many others, but most significantly by the fullers, who use it to purge and wipe away filth from clothes. When physicians observed this virtue, they began using it to clear away scabies and leprosy. They also pour it over ulcers that are either overflowing with moisture and filth or, even more so, those that have become putrid. Furthermore, they treat dandruff and scalp sores by repeatedly bathing the head with it."

I have chosen to quote Galen’s words here to firmly establish what has been said so far regarding the virtues of human urine. Oswald Croll, however, does not use the urine itself but rather the stones ejected through it, from which he composes an artificial salt to treat lithiasis (kidney stones).

Finally, even human feces are conducive to human health. Although it might seem that human excrement should be excluded from all medicines due to its offensive nature and stench, there is no lack of authors who have applied it both internally and externally. Sextius the Philosopher burns this dung and sprinkles the ash on cancerous ulcers. Wecker applies it as a plaster for quinsy. Others have prescribed dried dung with honey or wine for those afflicted by cyclical fevers. Wecker specifically recommends human dung with Attic honey as an excellent remedy for inflammations of the uvula, but he approves only of that produced by a boy who has been fed for two days on lupins and the finest bread; he instructs that the excrement produced on the third day be dried for the aforementioned use. This does not seem to us to be a secret that should be hidden from anyone, as Galen explained it in plain words as follows:

"The boy's dung was dried and ground to a smooth paste with Attic honey. As the man who provided the medicine showed, the boy whose dung was to be taken lived on lupins—specifically those prepared in the usual way for eating—along with bread well-baked in an oven, containing a little salt and leaven. He also gave the boy wine to drink, though in a moderate quantity, so that everything would be perfectly concocted in the stomach. Thus, although he used this diet on the first day, he did not yet collect the dung on the following day, but fed him the same diet again; only on the third day did he take it for use."

Following this, the Chymists learned to sublimate a water from human dung, which Cardan proclaims is outstanding for buboes and diseases of the throat. Others promise that this water heals fistulas, cures difficult ulcers, removes cancers and scalp-mange, whitens scars, and clears away opacities of the eyes. Furthermore, they administer it to epileptics, use it for kidney stones, prescribe it for dropsy, and finally praise it as a miraculous antidote against the bite of a mad dog or other venomous animals. By means of Chymical apparatus, an oil is eventually distilled from the water drawn from human feces, which Euonymus asserted should be used with happy success in treating fistulas and cancers.

Lastly, there have been men who claimed that even human words and chants possess great power in dispelling diseases. We maintain that this is scarcely to be believed, especially as Quintus Serenus—otherwise a distinguished man—wrote the following when discussing how to avoid a daily fever:

"I shall pass over many monstrous words besides; for it is a vain superstition that believes a fever can be driven away by various charms."

Anyone who desires to know more about the nearly infinite medicines harvested from the human body should turn to Quercetanus, Croll, Mylius, Renodeus, the *Clavis Medica*, and other authors of this kind, who have described various master-remedies prepared from human parts through the chymical art.

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