CHAP. 18.—THE SEA-FROG: SIX REMEDIES. THE RIVER-FROG:
FIFTY-TWO REMEDIES. THE BRAMBLE-FROG: ONE REMEDY.
THIRTY-TWO OBSERVATIONS ON THESE ANIMALS.
The broth prepared from sea-frogs,
1 boiled in wine and vinegar, is taken internally as a neutralizer of poisons and of the
venom of the bramble-frog,
2 as also for injuries inflicted by
the salamander.
3 For the cure of injuries caused by the seahare and the various serpents above mentioned, it is a good
plan to eat the flesh of river-frogs, or to drink the liquor in
which they have been boiled: as a neutralizer, too, of the
venom of the scorpion, river-frogs are taken in wine. Democritus assures us that if the tongue is extracted from a live
frog, with no other part of the body adhering to it, and is
then applied—the frog being first replaced in the water—to a
woman while asleep, just at the spot where the heart is felt to
palpitate, she will be sure to give a truthful answer to any
question that may be put to her.
To this the Magi
4 add some other particulars, which, if there
is any truth in them, would lead us to believe that frogs ought
to be considered much more useful to society than laws.
5
They say, for instance, that if a man takes a frog and transfixes it with a reed, entering the body at the sexual parts and
coming out at the mouth, and then dips the reed in the menstrual discharge of his wife, she will be sure to conceive an
aversion for all paramours. That the flesh of frogs, attached
to the kype or hook, as the case may be, makes a most excellent
bait, for purples more particularly, is a well-known fact.
Frogs, they say, have a double
6 liver; and of this liver, when
exposed to the attacks of ants, the part that is most eaten
away is thought to be an effectual antidote to every kind of
poison.
There are some frogs, again, which live only among brakes
and thickets, for which reason they have received the name of
"rubetæ,"
7 or "bramble-frogs," as already
8 stated. The
Greeks call them "phryni:" they are the largest in size of
all the frogs, have two protuberances
9 like horns, and are
full
10 of poison. Authors quite vie with one another in relating
marvellous stories about them; such, for instance, as that
if they are brought into the midst of a concourse of people,
silence will instantly prevail; as also that by throwing into boiling
water a small bone that is found in their right side, the
vessel will immediately cool, and the water refuse to boil again
until it has been removed. This bone, they say, may be
found by exposing a dead bramble-frog to ants, and letting
them eat away the flesh: after which the bones must be put
into the vessel,
11 one by one.
On the other hand, again, in the left side of this reptile
there is another bone, they say, which, thrown into water, has
all the appearance of making it boil, and the name given to
which is "apocynon."
12 This bone, it is said, has the property
of assuaging the fury of dogs, and, if put into the drink,
of conciliating love and ending discord and strife. Worn,
too, as an amulet, it acts as an aphrodisiac, we are told. The
bone, on the contrary, which is taken from the right side, acts
powerfully as a refrigerative upon boiling liquids, it is said:
attached to the patient in a piece of fresh lamb's-skin, it has
the repute of assuaging quartan and other fevers, and of checking
amorous propensities. The spleen of these frogs is used as
an antidote to the various poisons that are prepared from them;
and for all these purposes the liver is considered still more
efficacious.