Conrad Gessner
Historiae animalium liber III qui est de Avium natura - 1555
De Gallo Gallinaceo
transcribed by Fernando Civardi - translated by Elio Corti
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¶ Dissectae
gallinae (gallinarum pulli, Aegineta) et adhuc calentes appositae,
serpentium morsibus auxiliantur. sed identidem alias sufficere oportet (deinde
folia olivae viridia trita cum oleo et sale supponere vulneri, Kiranides)
Dioscor. Et alibi[1],
Dissecti gallinarum pulli, cum maxime tepent, percusso loco applicentur.
Nec desunt qui hisce tanquam discordia quadam naturali pugnantibus
utantur. verum huius rationem inire facillimum fuerit. Gallinae enim
calida natura praeditae sunt: argumento, quod devoratum insigne virus
conficiunt, et aridissima quaeque semina consumunt. item nonnunquam
arenas lapillosque ingluvie sua devoratos, dissolvunt. Itaque animantis
admoti calore adiutus spiritus, ab icta parte impetum capessens
exiliensque secum venenum exigit. Carnes gallinae noviter occisae, si
morsibus imponantur, obsistunt omnibus venenosis et curant, praeter
aspidis morsum, Galenus Euporiston 2. 143. Vivum gallinaceum pullum per
medium dividere, et protinus calidum super vulnus (a serpente inflictum)
imponere oportet, sic ut pars interior corpori iungatur, Celsus[2].
facit id etiam hoedus agnusve discissus, etc. Idem. Ad morsus venenatos:
Optime auxiliantur si statim post cucurbitas plagae imponantur animalia
parva discerpta, etc. vide in Hoedo G.
Carnibus gallinaceorum, ita ut tepeant, appositis, venena serpentium
domantur, Plinius[3].
Ad viperae morsum: Primum scarificato: aut gallinam dissecato, et
interne adhuc calentem morsui imponito, atque hoc frequenter repetito,
Aetius. Obscurus quidam adversus virulentos morsus in viro gallum
discerptum calentemque adhuc imponi iubet, in muliere gallinam: et
statim cor (cerebrum potius) e vino bibi. Epilepsia quandoque contingit
ex morsu animalis venenosi. in quo casu quamvis avem, ut gallinam,
pullum, aut pipionem columbamve, per dorsum scindes, et loco morsus
calidam impones. nam sua caliditate venenum ad se trahit. Vel sic,
Gallus gallinave deplumetur circa anum, et ponatur anus supra locum
morsionis, et attrahet ad se, Leonellus Faventinus.
|
¶
The hens (the young of hen, Paul of Aegina)
quartered and applied still warm are effective against the bites of
snakes. But they have to be replaced time after time with others (and
then to apply on the wound green leaves of olive minced with oil and
salt, Kiranides),
Dioscorides.
And in another point: The quartered young chickens of hen must be
applied to the stricken part when they are still very warm. And there is
no lack of those people using these subjects - young chickens - as if
they were fighting because of some kind of natural antagonism. In truth
it would be very easy to understand the reason of this. In fact the hens
are endowed with a warm nature: and it is a proof of this the fact that
they destroy the special poison they swallowed, and they devour any kind
of seed as dry as it is. Likewise sometimes they dissolve with their
stomach the grains of sand and the pebbles they swallowed. And therefore
the vital strength helped by the heat of the applied animal, taking rush
from the struck part of the body, and jumping out, makes the poison to
come out with itself. The fleshes of a just killed hen if applied on
bites are acting as barrier to all the poisonous substances and make to
recover not only from the bite of a viper, Galen
in Euporista - of Oribasius
- 2nd,143. An alive chicken has to be halved and suddenly
applied still warm on a wound (provoked by a snake) so that the inner
part of its body is well adherent, Celsus.
With the same outcome is acting a halved kid or lamb, etc, still Celsus.
For the poisonous bites: It is a very good help if small quartered
animals are applied on wound soon after the pumpkins, etc., see apropos
of the kid paragraph G. The poisons of snakes are made harmless by the
flesh of chicken applied warm, Pliny. Against the bite of the viper: In
first place you have to make an incision: or better, quarter a hen and
apply her on the bite when she is still warm inside, and repeat often
this treatment, Aetius of Amida.
An unknown fellow against the poisonous bites prescribes to apply in the
man a quartered and still warm rooster, in the woman a hen: and to drink
immediately its heart (better the brain) prepared with wine. The
epilepsy sometimes occurs for the bite of a poisonous animal. In this
case you will halve alongside the back whatever bird as a hen, a young
chicken or a pigeon or a dove, and you will apply it warm in the place
of the bite. In fact with its warmth it recalls the poison to itself. Or
as follows: A rooster or a hen have to be plucked around the anus and
the anus must be applied on the site of the bite, and it will attract
the poison to itself, Leonello Vittori from Faenza. |
¶ Si bubo
ortus sit in peste, gallus depiletur circa anum, et apponatur loco per
horam, et in alia hora apponatur alter, et sic fiat per totum diem. Sic
venenum attrahitur a corde galli, et gallus subito moritur, Petrus de
Tusignano, sed locum prius scarificari iubet.[4] |
¶
If during plague a bubo grew up, a rooster has to be plucked around the
anus and to apply it locally for a hour, and in the following hour
another has to be placed, and thus has to be done for the whole day. In
this way the poison is attracted by the heart of the rooster and the
rooster immediately dies, Pietro from Tossignano,
but he prescribes that the site of the bubo must first be lanced. |
¶ Amatus
Lusitanus catulum vel columbum vivum dissectum per spinam supra caput
mulieris melancholicae vel desipientis imponi consulit. Similiter ego
quosdam gallinam nigram dissectam in eodem casu admovere audio. |
¶
Amatus Lusitanus
- alias João Rodriguez do Castelo Branco - advises to apply on the head
of a melancholic or screwball woman a doggy or an alive dove sectioned
along the backbone. Similarly I hear that some people in the same
pathology apply a quartered black hen. |
¶ Attactio
dicitur, cum nervus pedis anterioris in iumento, a posteriore crure (ut
fit aliquando prae festinatione) laeditur. Hoc malum si recens sit,
prima vel secunda die iunctura et locus scarificetur, ut per
scarificationem sanguis exeat: postea gallus per medium scissus
superponatur calidus cum omnibus intestinis, Rusius[5]. |
¶
They say attactio when a tendon of the anterior leg in a draught
animal is injured by the back leg (as sometimes it happens because of
the fast walk). If this illness is recent, the first or the second day
the articulation and the injured zone must be lanced so that through the
cut some blood comes out: afterward a still warm rooster has to be
applied, halved and with all its entrails, Lorenzo Rusio. |
¶ Sunt qui
scribant sanguinem galli et gallinae ad meningum, id est membranarum
cerebri sanguinis profluvium prodesse. quem ego cum nihil egregium
praestiturum sperarem, experimentum de eo sumere nolui, ne vel curiosus
vel stolidus esse indicarer, si multis probatisque remediis ad hunc usum
neglectis, maiorem e sanguine istarum alitum non compertam hactenus
utilitatem expectare, praesertim cum sanguinis ab hac parte profluvium
valde periculosum sit. Est enim omnino experientia huiusmodi periculosa,
et a solis regibus circa facinorosos homines usurpanda, Galenus lib. 10.
de simplicibus. Atqui Dioscorides et alii hoc remedium e gallinae
cerebro, ut infra dicetur, non e sanguine prodiderunt. Sanguis galli
leucomata oculorum et cicatrices cum aqua inunctus sanat, Constantinus.
Paucus gallinae sanguis cum oleo ex ovis permixtus, scabiem cholericam
curat, Arnoldus Villanov. Sanguis gallinarum nigrarum aufert maculas
foetidas, et lentigines a facie et huiusmodi, maxime si misceatur ei
lapis vaccinus tritus cum baurach rubeo. et reddit faciem formosam,
abstergit, et bonum colorem facit, Rasis. Galli sanguis erysipelata et
chimet<h>la[6]
sanat, et iis qui marinum leporem comederint auxiliatur. Si quis allium
contriverit, et biberit calidum sanguinem cum vino, nullum reptile
timebit. pultibus vero aspersus, et sumptus ad magnitudinem nucis
circiter dies decem in cibo ab his qui sursum (per arteriam forte)
educunt sanguinem, prodest, Kiranides. Pullinum (sed hoc remedium forte
potius ex sanguine pulli equini accipiendum est, etsi nihil tale inter
remedia ex equo proditum inveniam) sanguinem tepidum in eam aurem quae
obtusior erit vel dolebit, infundes, Marcellus. |
¶
Some write that the blood of rooster and hen are helpful in case of
meningeal bleeding, that is, of the membranes winding round the brain.
Since I didn't have any hope of vouching for somewhat uncommon, I didn't
want to undertake an experiment on this matter, with the purpose of not
to be branded as curious or foolish if, after having put aside the many
and proven remedies for this use, I was expecting a greater utility
until now undiscovered from the blood of these birds, above all because
the bleeding in this district is rather dangerous. In fact such a
testing is extremely risky and must be carried out in criminals only by
important people, Galen book 10th of De simplicium
medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus. But Dioscorides and
other students reported that this remedy is prepared with brain of hen,
as it will be said more ahead, not from the blood. The blood of the
rooster applied with water makes the leucomas and ocular scars to
recover, Constantinus Africanus.
Little blood of hen with oil mixed to eggs makes the itch from
cholostatic jaundice to end, Arnaldo from Villanova.
The blood of black hens makes the pimples and freckles and lesions of
this kind to disappear from the face, above all if a bezoar
of cow is mixed with it crushed with reddish borax.
And makes the face beautiful, polishes up and gives it a beautiful
complexion, Razi.
The blood of rooster recovers erysipelas and chilblains and is good for
those who ate the hare of sea.
If a person will crush some garlic and will drink the warm blood with
wine, he has not to fear any reptile. It is useful sprinkled on polenta
of wheat and feeding on it with mouthfuls as big as a walnut for about
ten days by those are spurting blood aloft (perhaps through an artery),
Kiranides. The lukewarm blood of a young chicken (but this remedy must
perhaps be gotten from the blood of a colt, nevertheless I don't succeed
in finding any quotation of something similar among the remedies
obtainable from the horse) you will instill it in that ear by which you
are less hearing or which is giving pain, Marcellus Empiricus. |
¶
Gallinaceum adipem intra corpus empyicis[7]
tantum dari legimus, apud Marcellum Empiricum[8],
cuius haec sunt verba: Anethi sicci veteris pulverem, et resinae
pityinae[9]
pulverem, cum adipe vetere anserino aut gallinaceo, edendum mane ieiuno
empyico coclearia tria, et vespere tantundem dabis, mire subvenies.
Adeps galli cum adipe turturis si detur in cibo alicui pondere
quadrantis drachmae, infestabitur a tinea, (achoribus[10],
puto,) Rasis. |
¶
In Marcellus Empiricus I read that the fat of chickens is given
by internal way only to those suffering from suppuration, and his words
are as follows: In the morning on empty stomach and likewise in the
evening you will give to eat to a patient suffering from suppuration
three spoons of powder of dry aged dill
and of powder of resin of pine with aged fat of goose or of chicken, and
you will help him marvelously. The fat of rooster along with fat of
turtle dove if is given to someone as food in dose of ¼ of drachma [g
3.41/4] he will be infested by lice (I think by cradle caps), Razi. |
¶ De
facultatibus eiusdem extra corpus. Gallinaceus adeps ad quae prosit, et
quomodo curetur, leges in Anserino ex Dioscoride: et ibidem quomodo
odoribus imbui soleant, et qua ratione etiam incurati a putredine
praeserventur. In Anate quoque ex Nicolao Myrepso, quomodo reponendi
sint adipes anatinus, anserinus et gallinaceus recitavimus. |
¶
The properties of the fat for
external use. What is the use of the fat of chicken and how to
cure yourselves by it, you can read apropos of that of goose, drawn from
Dioscorides: and in the same chapter you will read as these fats become
usually imbued of smells and why, even if neglected, don't run into
putrefaction. Also in the chapter of the duck, drawing from Nicolaus
Myrepsus,
I said how the fat of duck, goose and chicken has to be preserved. |
¶
Gallinaceus adeps medius est inter anserinum et suillum. anserinus ex
his valentior est. Substituuntur aliquando gallinaceus, anserinus,
suillus, caprinus adipes, quivis in alterius absentis vicem. |
¶
The fat of chicken is in between that of goose and pig. The best among
them is that of goose. Sometimes the fat of chicken, goose, pig and goat
replace indifferently the fat is lacking. |
[1] La notizia è contenuta in VI,40 nel capitolo intitolato Communis curatio in omnes ictus virulentos del Commentarii in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De Materia Medica, 1554, pag. 690 di Pierandrea Mattioli.
[2] De medicina V,27,3: Si neque qui exsugat neque cucurbitula est, sorbere oportet ius anserinum vel ovillum vel vitulinum et vomere, vivum autem gallinaceum pullum per medium dividere et protinus calidum super volnus imponere, sic ut pars interior corpori iungatur. Facit id etiam haedus agnusve discissus, et calida eius caro statim super volnus inposita.
[3] Naturalis historia XXIX,78: Carnibus gallinaceorum ita, ut tepebunt avulsae, adpositis venena serpentium domantur, item cerebro in vino poto.
[4] Si può presumere che questa ricetta sia presente nel Consilium pro peste evitanda.
[5] Liber Marescalciae Equorum. - Vedi maniscalco.
[6] Il sostantivo greco neutro chímethlon usato da Aristotele significa gelone. Dioscoride usa invece il sostantivo femminile chimétlë.
[7] L’aggettivo greco empyïkós significa purulento, sofferente si suppurazione.
[8] De medicamentis empiricis, physicis ac rationalibus liber.
[9] L’aggettivo greco pitýinos significa di pino, ricavato dal pino.
[10] Il sostantivo greco neutro ἄκαρι significa acaro, vermicello – Il sostantivo latino maschile achor, achoris – derivato dal greco ἄχωρ, cioè pustoletta – indica la crosta lattea o lattame o eczema seborroico del lattante, che compare prima al volto per diffondersi poi al cuoio capelluto.