Book 2
1
But the remedies for the stoppage of the melting are the same as those for dropsy. For the thirst there is need of a powerful remedy, for in kind it is the greatest of all sufferings; and when a fluid is drunk, it stimulates the discharge of urine; and sometimes as it flows off it melts and carries away with it the particles of the body. Medicines, then, which cure thirst are required, for the thirst is great with an insatiable desire of drink, so that no amount of fluid would be sufficient to cure the thirst. We must, therefore, by all means strengthen the stomach, which is the fountain of the thirst. When, therefore, you have purged with the hiera, use as epithemes the nard, mastich, dates, and raw quinces; the juice of these with nard and rose-oil is very good for lotions; their pulp, with mastich and dates, form a cataplasm. And the mixture of these with wax and the nard ointment is good; or the juice of acacia and of hypocistis, both for lotions and cataplasms.
