Ovis, Sheep
Dioscorides Materia Medica, Mathias, 1563
Thierbuch Das ist ein kurtze beschreybung aller vierfüssigen Thieren, Gesner, 1583Zoological name:
Ovis aries and related species
Uses:
BILE:
1. With Honey for Falling Sickness.
2. Applied (with wool) to a child’s navel to loosen the belly.
3. Also applied to Cancers: it ‘cures the Carcinoma (anointed)’. (Schroder, Salmon)
4. Applied to eye diseases, and dimness of sight (Salmon)
5. dropped into the Ear for running of them. (Schroder)
BLADDER (Ashed):
1. Taken with water and vinegar is good for uncontrollable urination, and incontinence. (Salmon, TCM)
BLOOD:
1. Dried, it is taken for Epilepsy (Wirtzung); Blood and Bile of a lamb can be combined for this purpose. (Magic of Kirani)
BONES (Sweet, warm):
1. Cranium has been used for vertigo and infantile convulsions. (TCM)
2. teeth have been used for childhood epilepsy also.
3. Vertebrae for kidney weakness with backache (ie. similar to the use of Ox-Tail); also failing hearing or deafness as seen in the elderly (from Kidney weakness). The tail bone for is used for Kidney weakness, and to improve eyesight and hearing. (TCM)
4. Patella of the Sheep or Lamb was often worn against the skin as an amulet against cramps, being put under the pillow at night; it was often called ‘Cramp Bone’. (West)
5. The ashes of lambs bones were used externally for hard to heal sores and ulcers. (Schroder, Salmon)
BRAINS, Rams (Slightly poison):
1. The brains of a Ram were used for lethargy and excessive sleep (Schroder, Salmon)
2. Imaginary visions; Madness; Distilled water of Brains was used (Brain and Nerve extracts were used similarly in early 20th century)
3. Rams brains were made into a paste with Honey and rubbed onto children’s gums to promote the growth of teeth. (Schroder, Salmon)
DUNG (Neutral/slightly Cool, Dry. Bitter):
1. Internally for hot diseases including Jaundice, Dropsy, Gravel, Gout, Pleurisy, Spleen pain, and Fevers. Also for Epilepsy and Melancholy (West; similar to Cow dung)
2. decoction was used for Whooping cough.
3. Dysentery, Convulsions, and to promote urine and feces. (TCM)
4. Externally:
-applied to Warts, Corns, Ulcers, Boils, Tumors, Boils in the Ears etc.
-applied to all kinds of swellings, including swellings and tumors of the Breast, and all hard tumors of the skin.
-applied with vinegar to Gout, and to burns (powdered and sprinkled on)
-extract of the burnt dung applied to Baldness and Alopecia. (West, TCM)
FEET (Of a Lamb, made into a Jelly):
1. Used for Weakness of the back and Consumption; also for all fluxes. (Salmon)
HORN, RAMS (Salty, warm):
1. Clears Heat, Stops Spasms:
-Convulsions, Infantile Convulsions, Scarlet Fever, postpartum fever, High Fevers, hemoptysis.
-headache and rheumatic pain.
-improves the Sight
-Alopecia and falling of the hair (TCM)
-in TCM this is used as a substitute for Antelope Horn (for Internal Wind)
2. The ashes stop bleeding. (Salmon)
3. Externally:
-Horn and Hair was burnt to ‘cleanse the air, dissipate pestilential Venom [contagious air], and is good in Epileptic fits’ (Salmon)
-the fumes from the burning horn was used to ‘open the suffocation of the Matrix’. (Magic of Kirani)
-externally for Headaches etc.
KIDNEYS (Lamb is best; Sheep or Ram Kidneys can also be used. Sweet, warm):
1. Warms and Strengthens the Kidneys:
-used as a Yang tonic in TCM, and also used to strengthen the Essence and Marrow; used for Deafness, Enuresis, excess Urination, Incontinence, lower back pain, weakness of the knees and legs, fatigue, weakness, impotence, Sterility
-Aphrodisiac. (TCM, Tibet)
2. Benefits the Qi and Blood:
-nourishes both the Qi and the Blood; used for Fatigue etc.
-also stagnation of the Qi and Blood. (TCM)
LANOLIN (Wool Fat; ‘It mollifies, dissolves, heats, allays pain’: Schroder):
1. Moves the Blood, Softens Hardness:
-relieve strains and bruises, eases pain of them, and relieve the congestion.
2. Soothes and Softens the Skin:
-used as an emollient base for many creams; also used to improve the absorption of a drug through the skin.
LIVER (Bitter, cool):
1. A Liver and Eye Tonic; taken for poor or dim vision, shortsightedness.
2. Epilepsy.
3. ‘Eat the Liver to Clear mucus and Evil from the Stomach’ (Hildegard).
LUNGS (Sweet, warm):
1. Tonifies the Lungs, Stops Cough and Wheezing:
-a good Lung tonic; used for cough, wheezing from Lung weakness
-‘Cough of the Lungs, or pain with breathing’ (Hildegard).
2. Resists Poison:
-‘the Lungs of a Lamb dried and powdered, and given in drink, cure them that are hurt by Poison’ (Magic of Kirani).
-Eating the Lungs was supposed to prevents drunkenness, also. (Magic of Kirani)
3. Thirst and polyuria. (TCM)
4. The ashes of the Lungs of a Lamb was used for Kibes (chapped or ulcerated chilblains). (Salmon)
MARROW (Sweet, warm):
1. Nourishes Sperm and Essence; Sexual stimulant for Men and Women.
2. Blood tonic, and as an emmenagogue (TCM)
3. Marrow of a lamb was used for bladder stones, and blood in the urine. (Salmon)
MEAT (Lamb is best; then ‘Mutton’. Neutral, Moist. Bitter, Sweet:
1. Tonifies the Spleen, Benefits the Qi and Blood:
-‘Extraordinary Good nourishment’ (Salmon). A tonic, strengthening the viscera
-Stomach tonic: good for indigestion and diarrhea from coldness of the Stomach (TCM).
-Increases Strength, Nourish the 7 body Constituents, and increases Appetite (Ayurveda, Tibetan).
2. Nourishes the Kidneys, Benefits the Yin and Yang:
-Kidney deficiency, anemia, impotence; also for Consumption, or thinness and wasting of the body (Salmon)
-‘Those with dry and withered Veins should drink the juice of the flesh in Soup or Broth, and eat the flesh moderately, but once strong, may eat the flesh more regularly’ (Hildegard).
-weakness from excess sweating.
-Aphrodisiac;
-Dysmenorrhea and osteomyelitis.
3. Lamb is moist; it is therefore not good for the Old, or Phlegmatic, but is good for those with Melancholy. (Culpeper)
4. Clear Wind and Phlegm diseases (Tibetan Medicine)
MILK:
‘Most healing in Winter’ (Hildegard).
1. Used similarly to Goats Milk.
2. Used in Tibet to stop Wind disorders. (Excess can cause Palpitations)
3. ‘Of all Milk Sheeps Milk is the very best for the Kidneys’: In Cold-type Incontinence, Sheep Milk is ‘Commended’. (Wirtzung)
PENIS and TESTES (Warm):
1. Strengthen the Yang:
-spermatorrhea, lower back pain etc.
RENNET (of a lamb):
1. Good for Poison and all venomous bites. (Schroder, Salmon)
URINE
1. Urine of a Ram was said to cause barrenness if drunk (Albertus)
WOOL:
1. Boiled in vinegar and applied to the feet in convulsions and cramps (TCM)
2. The smoke from burning wool was used as a fumigant for wounds to prevent Lockjaw (ie Tetanus: from Dr. Chase)
3. It was also used for Bruises.
Main Combinations:
1. Kidney weakness, decoct Sheep Kidneys, pricked full of holes, with Ginger, Long and Black Pepper (Tibetan Medicine)
2. Jaundice, Sheep dung, Celandine, Turmeric, Centaury, Earthworms decocted to form an extract
3. Liver weakness, cook the Liver with Onions and Oatmeal to eat (as in Haggis)
4. Lethargy, decoct Sheep Brains with Cinnamon and Nutmeg (Schroder)
5. Epilepsy, Bile and Blood of a lamb were combined (Magic of Kirani)
6, To cause the hair to grow, beat Radish root with Honey, add powder of a Sheep heart and apply the paste (Gerard)
Cautions:
None noted