[287] Haud interim iverim inficias ambusta ab albuminibus citius tutiusque sanari. Nam et Serenus[1] ait:

At vero ambustum flammis, qui candidus ovi

Succus inest, penna inductus sanare valebit.

Uteris vero ovis cum lana[2]. Sunt qui lardum, et adipem Gallinaceum adhibitum candelae lumini super aquam liquent, et collectum ex aquae superficie pingue inungant: Ornithologus ex innominato[3].

Meanwhile I cannot deny that the burns are more quickly and certainly healed by albumens. For Serenus Sammonicus also says:

But in truth a burn from flames will be healed by that candid liquid of the egg which is inside, smeared by a feather.

But you can use eggs with wool. Some are melting lard and chicken's fat on water putting them to the flame of a candle, and they smear the fat picked up from water's surface: the Ornithologist reports this according to an author whose name is unknown.

Scabiem omnem cutis sanari tradunt aqua ex vitellis ovorum destillata, sed longe efficacius esse oleum eorundem. Arnoldus ad scabiem dependentem ex bile[4], eiuscemodi oleo parum sanguinis Gallinae admiscet. Galenus[5] ad scabiem pruritumque eiuscemodi remedium recenset: Ova Gallinae integra in acetum acerrimum demitte per diem, noctemque quae si tria fuerint, ipsis cum putaminibus in eodem aceto contritis adijce sulphuris ignem non experti, arsenici scissilis, uvae taminiae, (credo intelligere vitis nigrae fructus. Ea enim nobis hodie adhuc, etsi corrupte tannia dicitur, quasi taminia) cerussae, spumae argenti, nerii succi, singulorum unciam unam, olei veteris quantum satis est, omnibus contritis obline in balneo. Sed Plinius[6] scabiem, ac pruritum oleo, et cedria cum ovo mixtis tolli putat. Aetius[7] ex Gallo Vulturino vivo remedium ad elephantiasim praescribit: qualis autem hic Gallus sit, non docet: idem quidem remedium ex Vulture fieri ait: quod cum in Vulturis historia posuerimus[8], hic repetere supervacaneum iudicamus.

They report that the water dripped from egg yolks gets out whatever itchiness of the skin, but that their oil is much more effective. Arnaldo from Villanova mixes such an oil with a little hen’s blood against itchiness due to cholestasis. Galen prescribes the following remedy against scratching and itch. Place  unbroken hen’s eggs into the sharpest vinegar for a day and a night, and if they will be three, after you crushed them jointly with shells in the same vinegar, add to them one ounce each [around 27 g] of sulphur which didn’t know the fire – sulphur’s milk, split arsenic, taminia grape - black bryony or Tamus communis - (I think he means the fruits of black vine; for by us even if incorrectly it is said tannia even today, as if it were taminia), white lead, litharge, oleander juice, as much old oil is enough, and after you crushed them you have to apply them by a bath. But Pliny thinks that scabies and itch are removed by olive oil and cedar oil mixed with egg. Aetius of Amida prescribes a remedy against the elephantiasis using a live vulture-like rooster: but what this rooster is he doesn’t specify: he says however that the same remedy can be obtained from a vulture: since I placed this in the chapter regarding the vulture, I judge superfluous to repeat it here.

Sextus furunculos[9] a Galli stercore ruf{f}o imposito rumpi prodidit, et dolorem tolli. Est autem furunculus, (ut id obiter dicamus) abscessus cum tumore, quem copiose Cornelius Celsus[10] describit, et nascitur passim, ut tradit Plinius[11], in quacunque parte, ac maximo incommodo mortiferum aliquando malum confectis corporibus. Huic eidem malo eundem fimum Plinius[12], sed recentem, et ex aceto illitum ait mederi. Serenus[13] fimum in hoc casu ex albo Gallo eligit:

Praetereaque fimum ex Gallo, quod legeris albo

Imbribus ex acidis fidens appone dolenti.

Sextus Placitus Papyriensis handed down that the boils open up through rooster’s reddish dung applied on them and that pain is removed. Actually the pimple (saying this incidentally) is a collection of pus accompanied by swelling as Cornelius Celsus describes in detail, and it takes place here and there, as Pliny reports, everywhere, and with big trouble, sometimes a deadly illness for worn out bodies. Pliny for this same illness says that the same kind of dung, but fresh and smeared with vinegar, is healing. Serenus Sammonicus in this case chooses dung of a white rooster:

And furthermore apply confidently on the patient the dung you picked up from a white rooster and dissolved in acid waters.

Plinius[14] rursus alibi eisdem furunculis {miricae} <myricae> semen cum altilium pingui imponi tradidit. Sunt qui ad ossa fracta, sex, aut septem albumina cum thure albo permisceant, et emplastrum inde paratum eis imponant. Nicolaus Myrepsus[15] ad eminentias expertum medicamentum eiuscemodi recitat: Ovum elixato, donec durum fiat, et repurgato, quod in eo testaceum est, abijcito: interiorem autem eius partem cum albo ipsius in carbones conijcito, et tantisper assato, donec totum albescat: dein vitellum eius conijce in mortarium plumbeum cum cerussa, et oleo rosaceo sufficienti, et omnia simul diligenter subigito, quoad glutinis crassitiem nanciscantur. Dein chamaemelum coquito in aqua ad tertias, et locum cum spongia saepius foveto. Post unctiones desuper cum penna illinito, et sic curato bis die, assiduo observando.

Furthermore Pliny handed down elsewhere that still for pimples we have to apply tamarisk seeds with domestic fowls’ fat. Some are mixing six or seven egg whites with white incense for broken bones and they put on them a so prepared poultice. Nicolaus Myrepsus declaims the following proven remedy against swellings: Cook an egg until it became hard, and polish up it, throw away what there is of shell: and place on embers its inner part with its own albumen and toast a little bit until it becomes entirely white: then place its yolk in a lead mortar with white lead and a sufficient amount of rose oil and knead carefully everything together until a texture of glue is acquired. Then cook chamomile in water up to reduce it to one third and pack, as often as not, the interested area using a sponge. Subsequently smear on with a feather the ointments and do this treatment twice a day, checking frequently.

Ulcera humida in capite ova cyclamino admixta, Plinio[16] teste, tollunt. Ornithologus[17] pulverem e testis ovorum ustis ad ulcus antiquum in crure siccandum componebat, qui talis est: Cortices ovorum, et soleas calceamentorum veterum ure, quibus addes fimum bubulum de Maio mense arefactum, et tritum. De his mixtis pulverem insperge ulceri, et lanuginem typhae superinsperge. Oleum ovorum Arnoldus adversus fistulas, et ulcera melanc<h>olica plurimum commendat. Medici, inquit Plinius[18], liquida resina raro utuntur, et in ovo fere e larice, propter tussim, ulceraque viscerum. Eadem ratione sunt, qui etiam catapotia ex ovo sorbili deglutiant, quod ita facile, commodeque devorentur. Sed hic ovum nihil aliud confert: ad tussim vero ulceraque viscerum ipsum quoque per se nonnihil iuvat. Avicenna ova laudat ad apostemata circa anum, et pectinem, supponit autem cum licinio infuso in eis, et in oleo rosarum: Et alias emplastris apostemata prohibentibus ova miscet: item clysteribus propter ulcera, et apostemata, et erysipelata eisdem utiliter illinuntur cum oleo. Cur vero ova eiusmodi remediis permisceantur docet Petrus Aponensis[19] dum ait: Ova confracta contusa super tumores apostematum, prohibent ea augeri, et oleum rosarum cum eis mixtum. Rasis vero stercus Galli citrinum cataplasmatis instar impositum cum ovi vitello, et exiguo croco quemvis abscessum purulentum author est aperire. In libro quodam manuscripto Ornithologus[20] reperisse sese memorat pelliculam e ventriculo Capi tritam fistulis prius mortificatis utiliter inspergi.

As Pliny reports, eggs mixed with cyclamen remove humid ulcers appearing on head. The Ornithologist made a powder from burned eggshells for drying up a long-lasting ulcer on a leg, gotten in this way. Burn eggshells and soles of old shoes, to which you will add cow’s dung collected in the month of May, dried and crushed. Sprinkle upon the ulcer the powder gotten from these things mixed together and sprinkle on top some down of broadleaf cattail. Arnaldo from Villanova highly recommends egg's oil against fistulae and ulcers caused by black bile. Pliny says that physicians seldom use liquid resin, and usually that of larch put in the egg, for cough and ulcers of inner organs. Those who also swallow pills with a sucking egg are agreeing with this, since in this way they are easily assumed and without difficulty. But so far the egg is of no other use: for even by itself it fairly helps in case of cough and ulcers of inner organs. Avicenna extols eggs against around anus and pubic abscesses, for he applies them with a bandage soaked in them and in rose oil: and on the other hand he mixes eggs with poultices which make the abscesses to regress: similarly with clysters against ulcerations and abscesses, and erysipelas are successfully smeared using them with oil. But Pietro d’Abano is teaching why eggs are mixed with such remedies when he says: Eggs broken and beaten, also mixing rose oil, when applied on swellings of abscesses prevent them from increasing. But Razi reports that yellowish rooster’s dung applied as cataplasm jointly with egg yolk and a small quantity of saffron breaks open any purulent abscess. The Ornithologist remembers that he found in a manuscript book that the crushed membrane of a capon’s gizzard is successfully applied on fistulae previously subdued.

Albuminis ovi in vulneribus glutinandis usum esse cum nemo non nesciat, itaque nec ego hic repetere velim, illud tantummodo obiter addens, albumen ad purganda vulnera, et constringenda quae laxa sunt prodesse[21]. In omnibus[22] quoque sanguinis eruptionibus cinis putaminis ovi in vino potus, tradente Plinio, confert. Cicatrices foedas a vulneribus relictas, aliarumque noxarum cutis vestigia emendat frequenti illitu liquor chymicis instrumentis ab albumine [288] ovorum destillatus. In eodem fere casu ovorum oleum commendatur quibusdam.

Since everybody knows that egg white is used to heal wounds, therefore neither I would like to repeat this here, except to add in passing that egg white is useful for cleaning wounds and reducing the breadth of too much open ones. According to Pliny, also in any haemorrhage the ash of eggshell is useful drunk with wine. The liquid gotten from distillation of egg albumen by chemistry tools when frequently applied is bettering ugly scars left by wounds and the relics of other skin diseases. By some people the oil of eggs is recommended in more or less identical cases.