The Medicine of Pliny and Gargilius Martialis

ib.

Refers to the previous context, likely medicinal sources.
For the heaviness of the ears, fat mixed with ground wormwood absinthium wormwood and infused with oil corrects the condition. Ash of mice instilled with honey suppresses the pain. If any animal has entered the ear, the primary remedy is to instill the gall of mice diluted with vinegar. If water has entered, goose fat mixed with onion juice is applied. Moreover, desperate cases of ear ailments are cured in this way: the skin is pulled from a dormouse glis dormouse, and its intestines are boiled in a new vessel with three heminae units of liquid measure, approx. 0.8 liters of honey until reduced by a third. It is kept in this way, and when needed, the warmed medicine is poured in using a strigil a curved metal tool used for scraping. Earthworms boiled with goose fat and instilled are also highly praised. For ears that have been struck, ground snails, which are commonly eaten, are applied with myrrh and frankincense. Small, broad snails, ground up, are applied to ear fractures. A serpent’s slough shed skin, burned in a heated earthen vessel and ground, is instilled with rose oil for all ear ailments, but especially for foul odors; if the ears are purulent, it is better with vinegar and goat or ox gall. This slough has no potency after a year. Membranes from a chicken’s stomach, which are otherwise discarded, are ground with wine and warm chicken fat and poured in. Cockroaches blattae cockroaches without heads or feet...