General discussion about the rules of treatment for bites

Know that the greatest law in the treatment of a sting is to strengthen the innate warmth and stimulate it to fight back, as Teryak and Laba Barbaria do, in order to set the poison in motion and expel it outward, and we must mean strengthening the insides. Then the poison should be expelled and its effect destroyed by drinking medicines or ointments that are capable of doing this due to a certain special or natural property, as we will talk about this below. Often our goals also include something else, namely a food regimen that reduces moisture in the body, because it is more difficult for poison to penetrate the main organs when they are dry than to penetrate the moisture if it finds them and sits on them. These types of measures include bloodletting, relaxation, and the like. The best time for bloodletting is especially in a person with a congested body - when you know that the poison has already spread throughout the body and bloodletting will not attract it. Often this also includes another method, namely, reversing the movement of juices in the other direction, so that they are not directed to the dominant organs.

Drinking remedies against poisons are either teriyaks and badzahrs - general or specific for a given poison, or medicines that are opposite to poison in nature, such as asafoetida, which is opposite in its properties to scorpion venom. Or are they the essence of medicines that direct the poison outward, moving juices outward, such as diaphoretic drugs, or   substances that deflect juices from the direction of movement of the poison, so that the poison, as we have already said, does not find a carrier for itself - such are laxatives and emetics, and also diuretics for stings, or, finally, medicines that drive matter away from the dominant organs, so that it repels the poison moving towards them; this is how the same laxatives, emetics and diuretics act.

Medicines used against bites in the form of ointments serve specific purposes. One of them is to prevent the penetration of poison into the body, which is achieved with the help of bandages, blocking the paths for the poison and prohibiting the patient from sleeping, so that the natural heat moves outward and drives away the poison - this also includes cutting off the stung member - or with the help of cauterizing drugs and traction devices. Astringents are harmful here, and there is nothing more useful than a medicine that draws the poison out and prevents it from penetrating inside, especially if the poison has not yet spread. Cupping also belongs to the same category, and an incision is often necessary if the poison has already deepened and penetrated. The addition of leeches, if possible, relieves this and, while the poison is still in the skin, from sucking, but sometimes sucking is not enough, and the sucker should not fast on the contrary, let him first eat and wash his mouth, and his teeth should not be corroded. First, he should rinse his mouth with fragrant wine and drink a little of it, and let him keep rose oil or violet oil in his mouth. If there is damage in his mouth, he is removed and replaced by someone else. Whatever the sucker sucks out, he must spit out.

As for medications, for example, diaphoretic medications are used in the form of a drink, or medications that cause redness and stretching are used in the form of an ointment. Galen says Medicines that draw out poison draw it out either by their warming power, or due to homogeneity, attracting what is akin to them. This is how crocodile fat acts against a crocodile bite, and the meat of a viper, from which both ends have been cut off, draws out its poison. Some medicines useful for poisons are even poisons themselves, but they are weaker and seem to stand in the middle between the nature of the body and the nature of the poison. This statement is one of those that a natural philosopher must examine in order to find out that they are not reliable; as for the doctor, there is no harm in not knowing this.

Many traction irrigations cause ulcers and blisters and must be forced to drain their contents. This is one of the conditions imposed on medicines in the form of an ointment, and the other condition is that the medicine undergoes one of the following changes in the nature of the poison, either - solidification, as does mandrake root, or burning, as cauterization works with fire, olive oil or zift and especially with boiling zift, as the inhabitants of Egypt do, either because of its opposite property, or its quality in relation to heat and cold, which is the opposite of poison.

If at first they used something pulling or did something that we mentioned, and this did not help, and the matter became dangerous, then the area around the bite is cut and all the meat is taken out to the bone; if the danger is greater than this, then the organ is cut off and done cauterization.

One of the necessary qualities of all medicines for poisons, and especially ointments, is that they soothe the pain and prevent hidden phenomena following the bite, for example, kalkatar is introduced into ointments for bites to stop the blood if it flows profusely after a sting. Among the instructions regarding stings and bites that must be observed is that the healing of the wound should be prevented until the patient recovers from the harm of the poison.