Gittin 69b (סט:) — the Talmud in English

And he should drip it onto three cabbage stalks

in a vessel,

and stir it with a marmahin twig

a wooden stick called “marmahin,”

and when the marmahin twig cooks, it cooks everything.

.

And if he cannot do so,

he should

take the excrement of a white dog

,

and knead it with balsam resin

.

And to the extent that it is possible

for him to use another remedy or to endure his illness,

he should not eat the excrement

of dogs,

because it tears apart

his limbs.

For a sharp pain

—

let him take a lilita arrowhead

, a stone shaped like an arrow that falls with hail,

and turn it over

so that its point is below and its handle is above,

and pour water over it and drink

the water.

And if he cannot do so,

he should

take water from which a dog drank at night

and

beware of exposure

, as the water was in a place where snakes are not found, and there is no concern that a snake drank from it and left venom in it.

For exposure

—if he drank exposed water and is concerned that a snake drank from it and left venom in it—he should drink

a quarter-log of undiluted wine

, and this will neutralize the venom.

For an abscess

containing pus, he should drink

a quarter-log of wine mixed with red ahal

, a fragrant plant.

For fainting of the heart

from fear,

let him take three barley loaves

,

and soak them in kutah that has not yet passed forty days

since it was made,

and eat them

.

And afterward he should drink diluted wine

, wine diluted with a great deal of water.

Rav Aḥa of Difti said to Ravina:

If he does so,

all the more so, his heart will faint

, since these things weaken a person and sap his strength.

He said to him,

Ravina:

I

use this remedy

for heaviness of the heart

, when it is beating too forcefully,

he said

:

Yes.

But

for fainting of the heart

from weakness of the heart,

the remedy is:

let him take three wheat loaves, soak them in honey, and eat them

,

and afterward drink undiluted wine

, and then he will grow stronger.

For pain of the heart

,

let him take the measure of three eggs of mint

—some say: spearmint—

and the measure of one egg of cumin

,

and the measure of one egg of sesame

,

and eat them

.

For intestinal pain

—the intestines—

let him take three hundred long peppers

,

and every day drink one hundred of them in wine

.

A deed involving

Ravin of

the place called

Nehardea, who prepared for his daughter

made for his daughter

one hundred and fifty of these,

of our peppers,

and she was cured

.

For a worm

in the intestines, he should drink

a quarter-log of wine with laurel leaves

.

For a white worm

in the intestines,

let him take the seed of the gilgila plant and tie it in a piece of cotton cloth

,

and soak it in water and drink

the water.

And he should beware of the seed

, lest he swallow the seed grain,

because if he does not

take care,

it will perforate his intestines

.

For stopping

diarrhea, he should eat

fresh sisin

, a type of moist mint leaves,

in water

.

For loosening

constipation and causing a bowel movement, he should drink sisin

dried

dry

in water

,

and your mnemonic

so that you do not confuse them—drinking fresh leaves to cause a bowel movement and dried leaves to stop it—is:

“A moist plant that dams a river,”

and by this you will remember that the moist substance blocks, while the dry one opens.

For an enlarged spleen

that has become swollen and large due to illness,

let him take seven water leeches

and take seven water leeches,

and dry them in the shade

,

and every day drink two or three in wine

.

And if he cannot do so,

let him take the spleen of a she-goat that has not given birth

,

and place it in an oven

,

and stand opposite it

,

and say

this incantation:

“Just as this spleen dries out, so may the spleen of so-and-so son of so-and-so dry out.”

.

And if not,

if there is no oven,

he should plaster the spleen between the bricks of a new house

, where it will adhere between the rows of bricks and dry there,

and say thus

the incantation stated above.

And if

he cannot do so,

he should search for a corpse that died on Shabbat

until he becomes knowledgeable enough to know where there is such a corpse,

and take its hand and place it on his spleen

,

and say

this incantation:

“Just as this hand dries out, so may the spleen of so-and-so son of so-and-so dry out.”

.

And if

he does not find a corpse that died on Shabbat,

let him take a fish and roast it on the coals before a blacksmith’s forge

and take a fish and roast it in the coals before the smith’s bellows,

and eat it

and eat it

with the water of the blacksmith’s forge

, the water with which the blacksmith extinguishes hot iron,

and drink from the water of the blacksmith’s forge

.

And the Gemara relates an incident involving

a certain goat that would drink the water of the blacksmith’s forge

.

It was slaughtered, and no spleen was found in it

, because it had shriveled up completely.

And if

he cannot do so,

let him open a barrel of wine for his own sake

, meaning that he should regularly drink a great deal of good wine.

Rav Aḥa, son of Rava, said to Rav Ashi: If he has a barrel of wine

,

he would not come before my Master!

He would not come before him to request a remedy, as the wine itself would already cure him.

Rather, he should accustom himself

to

eating

eating

bread

of

at breakfast, as it benefits his entire body

.

For hemorrhoids

—

let him take

let him take

kakula and aloe

,

mercury and silver dross

, the latter boiling when the silver extracted from the earth is poured,

and a bundle of filon

, a bundle of perfumes that women hang around their necks, made of gold or silver, into which one puts oil mixed with a type of perfume called filon,

and pigeon dung

,

and place all of these in linen rags during the summer, when they are cool, and in cotton rags during the winter, when they are warm,

and apply them to that place.

And if

he cannot do so,

let him drink diluted beer

, beer diluted with a great deal of water.

For shigrona

, a disease of the loins,

let him take a vessel filled with the brine of small fish

,

and roll it sixty times over this thigh and sixty times over that thigh

.

For a urinary stone

—

let him take

let him take

three drops of tar oil

,

three drops of pressed leek juice

, and

three drops of clear, pure wine

,

and apply it

and place it

to a man’s organ and to a woman’s genital area.

And if

he cannot do so,

let him take the ear of a waterskin

and take the ear of a wineskin

and hang it

and hang it

on a man’s organ and on a woman’s breasts.

And if not, let him take a scarlet thread that was spun by Duma, daughter of Duma

, meaning a woman suspected of being the daughter of a woman suspected of witchcraft,

and hang it

and hang it

on a man’s organ and on a woman’s breasts.

And if not, let him take

let him take

a male louse and a female louse, and hang them

and hang them

on a man’s organ and on a woman’s genital area,

and when

and when

he urinates, let him urinate on a dried thorn branch at the door hinge, and carefully preserve the stone that emerges from it

,

for

this stone

is effective for all fevers

.

For external fever

—

let him take three se’a of date pits

and take three seahs of date pits

and three se’a of adar leaves

, leaves from a tree called adar.

And boil each one separately

and boil each one separately,

and sit between them

,

and place them in two basins

and place them in two troughs,

and bring a table and place it over one of them

,

and stand the table over this one and place it over that one

and set the table above this trough and place it above that trough,

and from this one place it over that one

,

until steam rises from it

, so that it becomes very hot,

and bathe with them

.

And when he drinks, let him drink from the water of the adar leaves, but let him not drink from the water of the date pits

and when he drinks—from the water of the adar leaves he should drink, but from the water of the date pits he should not drink,

because they make him sterile

, preventing him from fathering children.

For internal fever

—

let him take seven handfuls of beet greens from seven garden beds

,

and boil them with the soil clinging to their roots and eat them

,

and drink adar leaves in beer

.