Senam etiam quandoque se miscuisse ait, atque ita atram bilem eduxisse: alias denique turbit pro pituita detrahenda, alias mirabolanos citrinos pro bile [278] flava: quod penultimum authoritate Mesues[1] fecisse videri potest, qui non turbit tantum pro educenda pituita, sed {enicum} <cnicum>[2] Gallinaceo iuri miscet, ac ob id arthriticis doloribus ex hac natis conferre scribit: melanc<h>oliam vero {eum} <cum> epithymo, et polypodio, et cum iisdem, atque thymo<,> hyssopo, anetho, et sale gemmae arthriticos iuvare. Serenus[3] febribus chronicis prodesse dixit hoc versu.

Febribus aut longis Galli nova iura vetusti

Subveniunt<,>[4] etiam tremulis medicantia membris.

Antonio Brasavola says that sometimes - with broth of old rooster - he also mixed sena - or senna – and that in this way he drew out the black bile: finally other times he mixed turbit - the Indian jalap - to get out the cold, other times lemon-coloured cherry plums to draw out the yellow bile: it seems that he has done the second-last mixture relying upon Mesue the Young - or Pseudo Mesue, who mixes with rooster's broth not so much the turbit to eliminate the cold but the safflower, and he writes that because of this it is useful for arthritic pains that sprang from the cold: for with the addition of flowers of thyme, of polipody, it is good for black humor, and with the addition of the same ingredients besides thyme, hyssop, dill and rock salt it is good for arthritics. Serenus Sammonicus said that it is effective in the chronic fevers by these verses:

Just made broths of old rooster are helpful in even though long-lasting fevers, and treat also trembling limbs.

Sed Plinius[5], ex quo Serenus videtur mutuatus fuisse, prae caeteris iuris Gallinacei encomia ita egregie prosequitur statim ubi pennas, et cerebrum adversus serpentium venena valere dixisset: Ius quoque ex his potum, inquit, praeclare medetur et in multis aliis usibus mirabile. Pantherae, leonesque non attingunt perunctos eo, praecipue si allium fuerit incoctum: alvum solvit, validius e veteri Gallinaceo. Prodest et contra longinquas febres, et torpentibus membris (stupori, tremori, quoniam pituitam educit) tremulisque et articulariis morbis et capitis doloribus, epiphoris, inflationibus, fastidiis, incipienti tenesmo, {iocinori} <iocineri>, renibus, vesicae: contra cruditates, suspiria. Itaque etiam faciendi eius extant praecepta. {Efficatius} <Efficacius> enim coc{t}i cum olere marino, aut cybio, aut cappari, aut apio, aut herba mercuriali, aut polypodio, aut anetho. {Utilissima} <Utilissime> autem in congiis tribus aquae ad tres heminas[6] cum supradictis herbis, et refrigeratum sub dio dari tempestivi<u>s antecedente vomitione. Hactenus Plinius.

But Pliny, from whom Serenus seems to have taken information, before everything else strikingly praises the chicken's broth in the following way, soon after he said that feathers and brain are helpful against poisons of snakes. Also to have drunk their broth, he says, is very effective and it is also extraordinary in many other uses. Panthers and lions don’t attack those who smeared it all over themselves, especially if garlic has been cooked with it: it frees the bowel, more effectively if gotten from an old rooster. It is also good against lasting fevers and for stiffened and trembling limbs (against numbness, tremor, since it draws out the chill) and for illnesses of articulations and headaches, for lachrymations, flatulences, inappetences, incipient intestinal stabbing pains, for liver, kidneys, bladder: against indigestions and breathlessness. And therefore are also extant prescriptions for making it. For it is more effective if cooked with sea kale, or with a slice of salty tuna, or with capers, or with celery, or with annual Mercury herb, or with polipody, or with dill. In truth it is made very profitably in three congii of water [3.27 liters x 3] with the aforesaid herbs until to reduce it to three heminae [750 ml] cooled in the open air, if a rather short time before vomit has been provoked. Thus far Pliny.

Quae eius iuris parandi praecepta ex Dioscoride transcripsisse videtur, uti etiam Avicenna, et Mesues, sicuti doctissimus Io. Costaeus Laudensis[7] in hoc almo nostro archigymnasio Bononiensi medicinae theoricae professor primarius, mihique amicissimus luculenter quoque demonstrat, licet interim uterque Galenum citet, quando tamen in Galeni, quae extant monumentis, de hac re nihil legere liceat. Dioscorides[8] vero ius Gallinaceum hunc in modum praeparat. Abiectis, inquit, interaneis, salem conijci oportet, et consuto ventre decoqui in viginti sextariis aquae, donec ad tres heminas rediga<n>tur, totum id refrigeratum sub dio datur. Aliqui incoquunt olus marinum, mercurialem, cnicum, aut filiculam. At circa hanc praeparationem, illud in primis scitu dignum est, an integro Galli corpore, ut iam ex Dioscoride diximus, an, ut alii volunt, decerptas in frusta carnes praestet usurpare: tum etiam si integrum illud sumendum sit, qualenam sal inijciendum, crassumne, an tenue: an item statim ubi repletum est sale, igni committi debeat, an potius tantisper desistendum, ut in intimas carnes sal penetret. Et rursum an ea aquae mensura, quam praescribit Dioscorides oportuna sit, an vero potius {cotilae} <cotylae – cotulae> viginti satisfaciant, ut iubet secundo loco Avicenna, vel non tam certo servato pondere, ut ait Mesue: tandemque quis coctioni praescribendus sit modus, an ut ad tres {cotilas} <cotylas – cotulas> aqua absumatur, quod illi praecipiunt, an ut ad tertias, quod Mesue, an quid aliud. Itaque cum luculenter, et docte admodum praefatus Io. Costaeus super eiuscemodi quaestionibus disputet, benevolum lectorem ad doctissima eius in Mesuem commentaria remitto[9]. Illud interim obnixe precabor, ut omnino ea {legant} <legat>: quia egregie eiusmodi controversias conciliat: Illud etiam obiter admonens, Marcellum Virgilium[10] ad Dioscoridis verba de iure suspicari sextariorum, et heminarum numeros, pro rei necessitate maiores, vitiumque in eorum notis fortassis esse.

It seems that he transcribed from Dioscorides these instructions for preparing such a broth, as well as Avicenna and Mesue the Young did, as also the learned Giovanni Costeo is outstandingly showing, leading professor of theoretical medicine in this our illustrious arcrhigymnasium of Bologna and my big friend, since both are quoting Galen although meanwhile in Galen’s works we have available, one can read nothing about this subject. In truth Dioscorides prepares the chicken's broth in this way. He says: After the bowels have been removed it is necessary to put salt inside and after the abdomen has been sewed up we have to cook in 20 sextarii of water [10 liters] until they are reduced to three heminae [750 ml], and all this quantity after cooled must be given in open air. Some cook together sea kale, annual Mercury herb, safflower or polipody. But regarding this recipe, first of all it is suitable to know whether it is better to use the entire body of the rooster, as we already said deducing it from Dioscorides, or, as others think, its fleshes cut up into bits: moreover if it is necessary to use it intact, what kind of salt to put inside, whether thick or light: and likewise whether as soon as it has been filled with salt it must be put on fire, or on the contrary it is necessary to wait for some time so that the salt can penetrate inside the flesh. And then whether that quantity of water Dioscorides prescribes is proper, or on the contrary they are sufficient twenty heminae [5 liters], as Avicenna is advising in second instance, or without observing such a precise quantity, as Mesue the Young says: and finally what entity must be established for cooking, or if water must be consumed up to become three heminae [750 ml], a thing that they prescribe, or up to a third, a thing that Mesue the Young prescribes, or what else. Therefore since the above-mentioned Giovanni Costeo disserts brilliantly and quite learnedly about such matters, I send the benevolent reader to his learned commentaries on Mesue the Young. In the meantime I will beg earnestly so that absolutely he reads them since he settles very excellently such controversies. Also remembering in the meantime that Marcellus Virgilius, as far as the words of Dioscorides about the broth is concerned, he thinks that necessarily the number of sextarii and heminae are rather great, and that perhaps there is an error in their transcription.

Mesue ad eiusmodi ius purgatorium praeparandum Gallos eligit ruf{f}os potissimum, qui ad motum sint alacres, ad coitum ardentes, ad dimicandum fortes, inter obesos, et {macilentes} <macilentos> medios, et quo vetustiores, eo magis esse medicamentosos asserit. Quantum autem ad solvendum alvum ex hoc iure exhibendum sit, ex proprio periculo ita docet Antonius Musa Brasavolus: Veteris Galli iure usi sunt frequenter prisci pro medicamento alvum molliente, et ad ichores[11] educendos. Alvum mire proritat, si satis copiose sumatur, hoc est ad tres, vel quatuor communes pateras (nam una patera nihil efficit, alibi etiam a libra[12] una ad duas bibi iubet) in qua copia potum etiam Capi ius ventrem emollit. Gallinacei vero pulli ius, etiamsi multo copiosius hauriatur, nihil omnino educet.

Mesue to prepare this laxative broth chiefly chooses reddish roosters active in the movements, very longing to mate, strong in fighting, and those who are something in between fat and thin, and he affirms that the older they are the more are therapeutic. But the quantity of this broth that must be given for freeing the bowel is so prescribed at his risk by Antonio Musa Brasavola: The ancients has often used the broth of an old rooster as a medicine able to soften the bowel and to bring forth the liquids contained in the blood. It stimulates in marvelous way the bowel if it is swallowed in enough abundant quantity, that is, up to three or four usual cups (for only a cup gets nothing, in another point he also prescribes to drink from one to two pounds of it) and also the broth of capon drunk in such a quantity softens the faeces. In truth the broth of a young chicken, even if assumed in more abundant quantity, won’t evacuate nothing at all.

Sed tempestivum est, ut reliqua, quae medico praestat hoc Gallinaceum genus, remedia prosequamur. Rasis cerebrum Gallinarum adversus cerebri tremorem commendavit. Idem ingenium, memoriamque iuvat adeo, ut nonnullos, qui iam delirare coeperant, resipiscere fecerit. Epilepsiam ex venenati animalis morsu contingere praeclarissimi quique medicorum unanimiter tradunt. In quo casu quamcunque avem, sed Gallinam maxime, 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 imponatur anus loco morsus, et attrahet ad se, aegerque sanabitur.

But it is the moment of relating the rest of the remedies which this gallinaceous genus offers to the physician. Razi recommended hen's brain against trembling head. Still the brain is helpful to the mind and the memory to such an extent that it brought some people to their senses who by then had begun to ramble. Unanimously all the most illustrious physicians report that the epilepsy follows the bite of a poisonous animal. In that case you will have to split right down the middle at the back whatever bird, but above all a hen, a chicken or a pigeon or a dove, and you will have to place it still warm upon the point of the bite. For by its heat it attracts the poison to itself, or else with the same purpose you can pluck around the anus a rooster or a hen and apply the anus in the place of the bite, and it will attract the poison to itself, and the patient will recover.

Sextus[13] Philosophus Platonicus epilepticis eiusmodi quoque remedium praescribit: Galli, inquit, testiculos contritos cum aqua ieiuno dabis potandos: abstineant autem a vino diebus decem: debebunt autem testiculi sicci servari, et cum fuerint necessarii, continuo sumantur.

The Platonic philosopher Sextus Placitus Papyriensis prescribes also the following remedy to epileptics. He says: Give to drink on an empty stomach the testicles of a rooster ground up in water: the patients have to abstain from wine for ten days: and the testicles must be preserved dried, and when there is need of them, they must be taken at once.