Talmudic medical recipes (11)

Text
In this Talmudic recipe there is a reference to ‘white honey’ and ‘milk of a white goat’ which are also frequent ingredients in the Akkadian recipes. The ‘excrement of a white dog’ is probably the secret name for a plant, and corresponds to the ‘dog excrement’ zê kalbi in the Akkadian medical texts.

Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69a-69b:
For catarrh he should take about the size of a pistachio of gum-ammoniac and about the size of a nut of sweet galbanum and a spoonful of white honey and a Mahuzan natla of clear wine and boil them up together; when the gum-ammoniac boils, it is all boiled enough. If he cannot manage this, let him take a reviˁith of milk of a white goat and let it drip on three stalks of carob and stir it with a piece of stem of marjoram; when the stem of marjoram is boiled it is all boiled enough. He can also take the excrement of a white dog and knead it with balsam, but if he can possibly avoid it he should not eat the dog’s excrement as it loosens the limbs.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69a-69b

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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