Book III OF RABIES 261

therefore important that you should have a thorough know—
ledge of the disease, that you may not be deceived as to the
principle, and may know how far it has progressed. For if the
proper remedies are at once applied to the principle, the whole
malady will be suppressed. If in your opinion the principle
has already made progress and the contagion has become deeply
rooted, you must not cauterise the place, for that will drive the
poison still farther in. Nevertheless I advise you to scarify it,
and lay on plasters that will bring it out and dry it, and let
them be strong enough to raise blisters. Such a plaster is the
following: Galbanum, serapinum,'?? opopanax, each 18 oz.;
euphorbium 1 drachm; iris, xiris, aristolochia, gentian, each 1
drachm; nitre and sulphur each 2 scruples; and wax q. s.
Since all germs of contagions infect and corrupt substance
analogous with themselves, you must take for granted that, in
the ordinary course of the disease, part of the substance is dis—
posed to corruption and part is already corrupted. Hence it
is necessary to proceed with remedies that check putrefaction,
and also with those that procure evacuation. For evacuation
the most suitable of all are hierae,'?! both that of Archigenes
and that called diacolocynth,'?? also hellebore, which is better
than anything else for this complaint, when administered in
whey.'?3 Epithyme also is beneficial, and, generally speaking,
any drugs that purge the melancholic humor. 'The contagion
can be checked by substances that dry thoroughly, and ali
authorities approve for this purpose as being peculiarly anti—
pathetic to the contagion, the ashes of burned river—crabs (cray—
fish?t?4). They also praise gentian root, whether taken alone
or mixed with the above—mentioned ashes in white wine. Some
doctors add incense to this compound, which should be admin—
istered at every stage of the disease. Some recommend also
the herb alyssum, which indeed owes its name'?5 to the fact
that it cures men of rabies. 'The Arabs eall it Al—guascen.'?5
As regards this plant there is great uncertainty among doctors
as to whether, in the first place, it is the same as that called
alyssum by Dioscurides and Pliny, and secondly what plant
they mean by that name. Pliny says the leaves of alyssum are
set in a circle round the stalk and look like the leaves of mad—
der.I?7 / Dioscurides says the leaves are round in shape.  Some
think that Pliny's alyssum is the woodland species of madder,
midway between cultivated madder and aparine,'? which cer—