Verum, quod pace cum Galeni, tum [282] sequentis Sylvii dixerim, recentior medicina ad hos usus mire hanc membranam celebrat. Antonius Guainerius praeparatam miscet medicamento ad confortandum ventriculum: item Leonellus medicamento ad eiusdem dolorem. Praeparatur vero, ut Sylvius ex {Bartolomaeo} <Bartholomeo> annotat, hoc modo: lixivio calido hora una maceratur, ter lavatur, deinde vino ter[1] maceratur, et ter lavatur: iterum lixivio, post vino, et siccatur clibano, ex quo panis extractus est.

In truth, with all the due respect to Galen and his follower Jacques Dubois, the most recent medicine praises exceedingly this membrane - of coilin - for these uses. Antonio Guainerio, after it has been prepared, mixes it with a remedy to strengthen the stomach: likewise Leonello Vittori joins it to a remedy for stomach-ache. As Jacques Dubois writes inferring from Bartolomeo Montagnana, really it is prepared in this way: the membrane must be steeped for one hour in warm lye and is washed three times, and then is steeped three times in wine and three times is washed: again in lye, then in wine, and is dried in an oven from which the bread has been taken out.

Porro Plinius[2] dissolutum stomachum pullos ovorum cum gallae dimidio confirmare ait, ita ut ne ante duas horas cibus sumatur. Sed stomachum in primis roborant, et vires restaurant ova semicocta, ut alibi legimus inter notha Galeno adscripta, ubi pariter ovum crudum sitim prohibere dicitur. Marcellus[3] vero sitire aegrum desinere tradit, si sorbeat ovi vitellum semicoctum, oleoque permixtum. Ad vomitum nimium reprimendum sulphuris vivi pusillum, et ramenti cornu<s> cervi tantumdem in ovo sorbili tritum, et permixtum {bili} <bibi>[4] utile est, authore Marcello, qui hoc etiam saepe expertum esse asseverat, non vomiturum amplius, qui in ovo sorbili cimicem unum contritum ieiunus ignorans biberit. Ovorum vitelli cum vino, et oleo cocti, adiecta polenta mane sumpti medentur his, si Constantino credimus, qui cibos non continent.

Furthermore Pliny says that chicks contained in eggs with half a gallnut strengthen a weakened stomach, so that no food is taken earlier than two hours elapsed. But chiefly soft-boiled eggs strengthen the stomach and restore energies, as we read somewhere in spurious works ascribed to Galen, where it is said that likewise a raw egg holds off thirst. Really Marcellus Empiricus reports that a patient ceases to be thirsty if he drinks the yolk of a half-cooked egg and mixed with oil. According to what Marcellus affirms, in order to choke back an immoderate vomit, a little amount of pure sulphur is useful to be drunk and the same amount of splintered deer horn crushed in a sucking egg, who also assures that often he experimented what follows, that is, he who will drink unaware on empty stomach a bug crushed in a sucking  egg will not vomit any longer. Egg yolks cooked with wine and oil with addition of barley polenta and taken in the morning cure those who don’t succeed in holding the food - in stomach, if we believe Constantinus Africanus.

Quod si autem vomitum promovere medicus velit, stercus Gallinaceum certo vomitum educit: unde etiam contra venena propinatur: quod Guainerius quoque testatur, sed misceri iubet cum lini urticaeve semine cum aqua decocto, aut aqua et butyro: et Villanovanus stercoris Gallinacei pulli drachmas[5] duas dissolutas in multa aqua calida, et {petas} <potas> vomitum proritare memorat. Dolores stomachi lenit ovi vitellus tostus, et in farina comminutus, et cum polenta potus: author est Archigenes apud Galenum[6]. Inter neotericos medicos nunquam satis laudandus Guilhelmus Rondotelius[7] cinerem intestinorum{.} Gallinae ad dolorem, et humectationem ventriculi dari scribit.

But if a physician whishes to rouse the vomit, surely chicken's dung provokes the vomit: hence it is given also against poisons: also Antonio Guainerio affirms this, but he prescribes to mix it with flax or nettle seeds cooked a long time with water, or with water and butter: and Arnaldus from Villanova remembers that two drachmas [around 7 g] of young chicken's dung dissolved in much warm water and drunk, bring on the vomit. The yolk of a roasted egg soothes stomach-ache, either cut up fine in flour, or drunk with barley polenta: Archigenes in Galen testifies this. Among recent physicians, the never sufficiently praised Guillaume Rondelet writes that ash of hen bowels must be given to soothe the pain of stomach and to moisten it.

Amatus Lusitanus pro muliere quadragenaria, quae maximo dolore ab ore stomachi ad imum pectinem cruciabatur, febricitabat, vomebat, nec quicquam alvo reddebat, post caetera remedia ius Galli praescripsit hoc modo. Gallum veterem quatuor ad minimum annorum defatigatum interfice, et exenterato immitte salis gemmae drachmas tres, seminis cnici[8], polypodii de quercu recentis, et contusi ana unciam[9] unam, seminis Dauci, anethi, am<m>eos[10] ana semunciam turbith drachmas tres, misce et in libris duodecim aquae fiat decoctio ad media<s>. Huius decoctionis, inquit, uncias sex ieiuna bibebat, et ex eadem interdum clyster parabatur, quibus alvus secessit, ac dolor, ex toto levatus est. Trallianus etiam cava iecoris Galli veteris iure purgat[11]. Dolore hepatis propter flatus contracto, per diem sanat aegrum, etsi vehementer affectum oleum ovorum.[12]

Amatus Lusitanus - alias João Rodriguez do Castelo Branco - to a forty years old woman worried by a strong pain from stomach’s mouth right down to pubes, who was feverish, vomiting, and didn’t eliminate anything from bowel, after other remedies he prescribed a rooster broth prepared in this way. Kill a rooster at least four years old and worn-out, and after you removed its entrails put inside three drachmas of rock salt [around 10 g], an ounce each [around 27 g] of safflower seeds, of fresh polypody grown near an oak and crushed, a half-ounce of carrot seeds, of dill and of Ammi majus - bishop’s weed or bullwort, three drachmas [around 10 g] of turbith - or Indian jalap, mix, and the cooking has to be made in twelve pounds of water [around 4 liters] until to reduce them to half. He says that on empty stomach she was drinking six ounces of this decoction and that sometimes a clyster was prepared with it, and thanks to these remedies the bowel was emptied and the pain completely removed. Alexander of Tralles cleans up also the gorges of the liver with old rooster broth. The oil extracted from eggs cures in one day a person suffering of liver pain acquired because of flatulence, even if fiercely struck by it.

In icteris sulphur cum ovo sumptum, expurgat, ut legitur in libello de cura icteri, qui Galeno tribuitur. Gallina si sit luteis pedibus, prius aqua purificatis, dein collutis vino quod bibatur, morbo regio, teste Plinio[13] resistit. At in eodem libello Galeno ascripto Galli a cibo ictericorum, nisi moderate carnosi fuerint, excipiuntur. Ornithologus[14] tamen pelliculam interiorem ventriculi Gallinae nigrae quosdam asserit e vulgo adversus eundem morbum bis, aut ter edendam suadere.

In jaundices the sulphur taken with an egg cleans up, as we read in a booklet attributed to Galen on the treatment of jaundice. As Pliny reports, a hen, if yellow legged, previously cleaned up with water and then washed with wine which has to be drunk, is efficacious against jaundice. But still in that pamphlet attributed to Galen the roosters unless enough fleshy are excluded from diet of jaundice patients. However the Ornithologist affirms that some among common people recommend against the same illness to eat twice or thrice the inner membrane of the gizzard of a black hen.

Ad hydropem, si hepatis causa ortum habeat, Hippocrates[15] Galli carnem hoc modo praescribit: Quum autem decem dies praterierint cibos accipiat paucos, et obsonium habeat Galli carnem assatam calidam. {Caeliacis} <Coeliacis> ova decoquuntur in aceto, donec durescant, et vitelli eorum tosti cum pipere esui dantur, quod remedium Marcellus plurimum probat. Serenus[16] eosdem recreari putat pane, inquiens{.}<:>

Quem madido farre efficies, ac mollibus ovis.

Quorum testa fero prius emollescat aceto.

Against dropsy - or anasarca - if caused by liver, Hippocrates prescribes flesh of rooster in this way: When ten days have passed, the patient must take a little food, and as dish he must have roasted warm flesh of rooster. For those suffering from intestinal pains some eggs are cooked in vinegar until they are hard and their yolks are given roasted with pepper, a remedy that Marcellus Empiricus appreciates very much. Serenus Sammonicus thinks that these sick persons are strengthened by bread, when saying:

You will do it with soaked spelt and raw eggs.

Whose shell first has to become soft in very sharp vinegar.

Sed Marcellus, et Serenus forte id remedii ex Plinio[17] transcripserint, qui sic habet. Ova in aceto macerata, ut emolliatur putamen, cum farina in pane subigunt, quibus {caeliaci} <coeliaci> recreantur. Quidam ita resoluta in patinis torreri utilius putant.

But perhaps Marcellus and Serenus transcribed this kind of remedy from Pliny, who has it thus: When making bread they mix with flour eggs soaked in vinegar so that the shell gets soft, and those suffering from intestinal pains are relieved by them. Some think more useful that they are roasted in a pan after they have been thus softened.

Alias vero Marcellus membranam, quae est in ventriculo Gallinae siccatam, tritam, et cum vino austero potui ieiuno datam {caeliaco} <coeliaco> mederi testatur, ita ut ipsa Gallina prius biduo abstineat cibo, et qui potionem accepturus est, ante diem frugi sit, et non caenet. Sed et hoc remedium Plinius[18] habet. Membrana Gallinarum, inquit, tosta et data in oleo, ac sale {caeliacorum} <coeliacorum> dolores mulcet. Abstinere autem frugibus ante et Gallinam, et hominem oportet[19]. Et Constantinus: Pellis interior, inquit, de ventriculo Galli, et cum vino pota ventrem abstringit. Sed Dioscorides totam eam vim ventriculo tribuere videtur, dum ait: Gallorum ventriculus (Marcellus Virgilius[20] interpres addit in senectute, quoniam proxime de veterum Gallinaceorum iure dixerat author) inveteratus, et in umbra siccatus pondere trium unciarum (ὅσον γ’ [21], sic habet codex noster[22] impressus, corrupta ut apparet, ponderis nota, drachmae fortassis, quae designatur alibi in Dioscoride instar maiusculi lambda iacentis, hoc modo <) sumptus praesenti remedio est contra nimias {purgationas} <purgationes>, quae a deijcientibus alvum medicamentis fiunt. Quamprimum enim purgationes eas sistit. In quem usum terendus est, et [283] cum aqua bibendus.

But on the other hand Marcellus assures that the membrane of hen’s gizzard, dried and crushed, given on empty stomach as drink with dry wine him who suffers from intestinal pains, restores to health, but before the hen has to abstain for two days from food, and who is about to receive the potion has to be frugal the day before and to have no dinner. But also Pliny has this remedy. He says: The hens’ membrane roasted and given with oil and salt soothes pains in those suffering from bowel. It is proper that previously both hen and person abstain from cereals. And Constantinus Africanus says: The inner membrane of rooster’s gizzard drunk with wine acts as intestinal astringent. But Dioscorides seems to attribute all that power to gizzard when he says: The assumption of the roosters' gizzard (Marcellus Virgilius, the translator, adds when old aged, since just before the author had spoken about broth of old roosters) aged and dried in the shade and weighting three ounces [around 80 g] (hóson γ’, so has our printed code, as it seems with the corrupted symbol of the weight, perhaps of the drachma, which in Dioscorides elsewhere is represented as a capital horizontal lambda, thus <) is an instantaneous remedy against immoderate evacuations following the remedies which empty the bowel. For it stops in a while such evacuations. For this use it must be crushed and drunk with water.