Error, loss, and change in the generation of therapies

Hippocratic therapies employing animal excrement are gender-specific, appearing almost exclusively in the gynaecological treatises, and reflecting Greek conceptions of women, as von Staden observed. These texts also contain the only early references to the use, likewise by women only, of another symbolic substance--human milk. Both therapies are recommended for both sexes in works that arise in Roman contexts. This paper argues that both therapies reflect a misunderstanding of magico-religious ritual under circumstances that may also account for their early gender-specificity. Different conceptions of gender account for their application to both sexes in later texts.