1)

(a)The cure for Beruksi (eye's web) requires an old scorpion of seven colors. After drying it anywhere but in the sun one grinds two parts of blue eye-paint to one part of it, and fills three Mikcheli (of a bird's feather or small but wide wooden spoon) to paint each eye.

(b)If one uses more than three of these tiny containers of it for each eye the eye will drop out.

2)

(a)For night-blindness one takes a rope made of animals' hair, and ties one end to the stricken man's foot and the other end to the foot of a dog. Before one recites the first incantation the children rattle pieces of clay behind him.

(b)

1. ... The seven neighbors place the seven pieces of meat that they have given him in the door-post, and ...

2. ... he eats them by one of the town's trash-heaps.

(c)Before reciting the final incantation he must remember to untie the rope from his foot.

3)

(a)For day-blindness, one takes seven spleens of meat from the inside of a wild animal and roasts them on an earthenware receptacle used by blood-letters to receive the blood.

(b)After he asks his friend for the pieces, he eats them and chants the necessary incantation. He is sitting inside and his friend, outside.

(c)When he has finished eating, he must be careful to break the earthenware receptacle, to prevent the blindness from returning.

4)

(a)For excessive nose-bleeding, the sufferer must find a Kohen whose name is Levi which he must write backwards.

(b)Alternatively, he finds any man and writes an alternative incantation, or the root of a lucerne plant, ropes from an old bed, paper made of fluff and the reddish part of a Lulav which he burns altogether.

(c)Then he takes a shearing of wool that he has prepared, and after spinning it into two threads, which he soaks in vinegar he rolls them in the ashes and places them in his nostril.

(d)Two alternatives remain. Either he straddles a stream that flows from east to west and takes mud in both of his hands in which he rolls the same two threads of wool and places them in his nostril, or he recites an incantation whilst standing under a drainpipe. He takes the mud with his right hand from under his left foot, and with his left hand from under his right foot.

(e)Whilst he is standing with it under the drainpipe they let water pour from the drainpipe on to him, and he says 'The blood should stop flowing from my nose, just as the water stops flowing from the drainpipe'.

5)

(a)Bleeding from the mouth needs to be examined with a straw which determines whether the bleeding comes from the lungs (if the blood sticks to the straw) in which case it can be treated, or from the liver (if it is smooth), in which case it cannot.

(b)When Rav Ashi asks from a Mishnah in Chulin, where we have learned the opposite he is referring to the Mishnah which declares the liver Tereifah only if it has melted completely, but the lung, even if it just has a hole.

(c)We reconcile our Sugya with the Mishnah in Chulin by pointing out that, since the blood came out via the mouth, is appears that the liver melted completely, and was drawn up to the lung via the shaft of the liver from the shaft of the lung.

6)

(a)The cure for blood from the lungs comprises seven fistfuls of sliced beets, seven fistfuls of leek, five fistfuls of a herb called Madirishra, three fistfuls of lentils, one fistful of cumin, one fistful of Chavli and twenty-four fistfuls of entrails of an animal that is the firstborn of its mother which he cooks and eats, and washes it down with strong beer.

(b)The cure for a toothache (of the inner teeth), says Raba bar Rav Huna, is a single garlic, which must be ground with oil and salt and placed on the nail of the thumb of whichever side hurts him.

(c)The border of dough that he makes round it is to prevent it from touching the skin, because direct contact with it causes leprosy.

(d)The cure for quinsy (septic blisters in the throat), says Rebbi Yochanan, comprises the leaves of a herb called pyrethrum (which is as effective as a herb called Mamru), though the roots are even better. To contain the illness one needs to take the volume of a nut.

7)

(a)To induce the pus to accumulate, one requires the thick bran that remains in the sieve when sifting coarse flour, lentils with their own dust, fenugreek and the flowers of hops a nut-volume of which he then imbibes.

(b)In order to get the blisters to burst, his friend takes white mustard-seeds which he blows into his mouth (onto the blisters) by means of a straw.

(c)To restore the sore spot to its former state after the blisters have burst, he takes dust from the shade of stones that were built into a makeshift bathroom in a field which he mixes with honey and eats.

(d)The cure for catarrh comprises the size of an acorn of sal-amoniac, the size of a nut of sweet galbanum, a spoonful of white honey and a quarter of a Log of good, white wine which he takes in the form of a medicine. He will know when the mixture is ready by keeping his eye on the sal-amoniac, which is hard and takes a long time to boil.

8)

(a)If the above cure for catarrh is not possible, he sprinkles a Revi'is of goat's milk on to three cabbage-leaves which he then stirs with a stick of Marmehin wood, cooks (and eats).

(b)A third possible cure comprises the excrement of a white dog, mixed with balsam. One is advised however not to eat any of the dog's excrement, as this will result in sharp pains.

9)

(a)The cure for an illness called Giyra (sharp pains) is Giyra d'Lilis arrow-like icicles that fall with hail.

(b)Before pouring water on it and drinking it he turns it upside-down (with the point upwards and the handle, downwards).

(c)Alternatively, he takes water from which a dog has drunk at night-time taking care that, until he drinks it, it remains in a location where there are no snakes.

(d)The cure for having drunk water that was left in the open is 'Anpaka' of undiluted wine. 'Anpaka' refers both to the vessel in which the wine is placed, and to the amount of a Revi'is (which is the volume that the cup holds).

10)

(a)The cure for boils is an Anpaka of wine with a kind of red soap, and for fits of fainting, (we initially think) three barley-loaves soaked in a preserve made of sour milk which should be not more than forty days old.

(b)After taking it one washes it down with weak wine.

(c)Rav Acha mi'Difti objected to this cure for that particular illness because it tends to weaken a person, and what this particular illness needs is something that makes him stronger, not weaker.

(d)Ravina therefore prescribed it for someone who was hyperactive. For someone who suffers fainting fits, he prescribed three wheat-loaves soaked in honey, washed down with strong wine.

11)

(a)The cure for heart-ache is three egg-volumes of mint, one of cumin and one of sunflower-seeds; for stomach-ache, three hundred long peppers which one takes with wine.

(b)Ravin from Neresh did this for Rav Ashi's daughter using a hundred and fifty local peppers (which presumably, were twice the size of those referred to in the Sugya), and she became cured.

(c)The cure for worms in the stomach consists of an Anpaka of wine and the leaves of a laurel-tree, for white worms, the seed of a rocket-plant, which he soaks in water and drinks. Before soaking the seed, he binds it with a piece of a cotton garment.

(d)When drinking the water, he should take great care not to swallow the seed, because it is liable to puncture his stomach.

12)

(a)The cure for diarrhea is wet pennyroyal plant in water. The cure for constipation is dry pennyroyal plant in water.

(b)The Siman 'Itza Retiva d'Sachar Maya' means that to remember which is which, we should bear in mind that it is a wet 'Itza'-plant that one uses to dam the water (similarly, it is the wet pennyroyal that one uses to stop diarrhea).

(c)The cure for a swollen spleen is seven leeches. One ...

1. ... prepares them by drying them in the shade.

2. ... takes them two or three a day together with wine (either this illness is life-threatening or he only drinks the wine in which the leeches have been placed, but does not eat the leeches themselves).

(d)Alternatively, one takes the spleen of a she-goat that has not given birth, and ...

1. ... dries it in the oven (assuming that he has one), and stands in front of it, whilst reciting the incantation, or ...

2. ... between the rows of bricks of his house (assuming that he does not), and ...

3. ... declares (in the process of doing it) 'Just as this spleen dried up, so should mine'.

(e)And ...

1. ... the corpse of a person who died on Shabbos (which he uses as an alternative cure, if, for some reason, even that is not possible) he takes its hand which he places on his spleen and declares 'Just as this hand contracted, so too, should my spleen.

2. ... the fish that he uses as another alternative he fries in a blacksmith shop, and eats together with the water that is lying there.

3. ... the fresh barrel of wine that he uses as a final alternative to cure his swollen spleen he opens especially for the purpose of healing his swollen spleen (meaning that he should constantly drink lots of good wine).

13)

(a)When they Shechted that goat that used to drink the water from in front of the blacksmith they discovered that its spleen had disintegrated.

(b)Rav Acha Brei d'Rava (who presumably, was a doctor) told Rav Ashi that, if he had a barrel of wine he would never need to come to him for any cure for any sickness (because wine, together with bread for breakfast, is the best cure for all ailments).

(c)The cure for piles is Akukya and aloe-plant, raw silver, litharge (a by-product of silver, which brings-up steam when it is poured), a little bag of silver or gold (that women wear round their necks) containing Pilon-spice and the manure of doves or of chickens. All of these he wraps ...

1. ... in the summer in worn-out linen cloths.

2. ... in the winter in worn-out woolen cloths.

(d)Failing that, he should drink weak beer.

14)

(a)The cure for Shigruna (an ailment of the thigh) is a container full of fish-juice which he waves sixty times round each thigh.

(b)The cure for stones in the Gid (which prevents one from urinating) comprises paraffin, leek-oil, and clear wine, of which one places three drops of each ...

(c)... on the tip of the Gid of a man or on the equivalent spot on a woman's body (should she suffer from the same illness).

15)

(a)Alternatively, one takes the handle of a leather flask, a red thread or two lice. The red thread must have been spun by a woman who both she and her mother, have been suspected of having committed adultery.

(b)All of these, are suspended from the Gid of the man or the breast of the woman.

(c)He should subsequently urinate on to a dry bush ...

(d)... taking care to retain the stone when it emerges because it is the ideal cure for all forms of fever.

16)

(a)The cure for an external fever is three Sa'ah (four hundred and thirty two egg-volumes) of date-stones and three Sa'ah of leaves of an Adra tree which he boils separately, whilst sitting between the two pots.

(b)After placing the two lots into two bowls he puts them on a table, and standing in one of them, he jumps from one to the other, until he is perspiring profusely, after which, he bathes in each of them.

(c)After bathing in the two bowls, he ...

1. ... drinks from the water in which the Adra-leaves were boiled because it is healthy to drink a little of the water in which one has bathed.

2. ... does not drink from the water in which the date-stones were boiled because it will make him barren.

17)

(a)The cure for an internal fever is seven beet leaves from seven different rows of beets which should be cooked in their dust, and which one eats together with leaves from an Adar tree which one washes down with beer.

(b)The alternative is to eat grapes from a vine which is supported by a date-palm.