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An explanation of the
Temperaments of the Herbs ALL medicines simply considered in themselves are either hot, cold, moist, dry, or temperate. The qualities of medicines are considered in respect of man, not of themselves; for those simples (herbs) are called hot, which heat our bodies ; those cold, which cool them ; and those temperate which work no change at all in them, in respect of either heat, cold, dryness, or moisture. And these may be temperate, as being neither hot nor cold ; yet, may be moist or dry ; or being neither moist nor dry, yet may he hot or cold ; or, lastly, being neither hot, cold, moist, nor dry.
II. In temperature there is no degree of difference; the differences of the other qualities are divided into four degrees, beginning at temperature ; so that a medicine may he said to be hot, cold, moist, or dry, in the first, second, third, or fourth degree. The use of temperate medicines is in those cases where there is no apparent excess of the first qualities, to preserve the body temperate, to conserve strength, and to repair decayed nature. And observe, that those medicines which we call cold, are not so called because that they are really cold in themselves, but because the degree of their heat falls below the heat of our bodies, and so only in respect of our temperature are said to be cold, while they are in themselves really hot; for without heat there could he no vegetation, springing, for life.
III. Such as are hot medicines in the first degree, are of equal heat with our bodies, and they only add a natural heat thereto, if it be cooled by nature or by accident, thereby cherishing the natural heat when weak, and restoring it when it is wanting.
Their use is,
1. to make the offending humours thin, that they may he expelled by sweat or perspiration.
2. By outward application to abate inflammations and fevers by opening the pores of the skin.
3. To help concoction (substance made ready for use by body - formerly food), and keep the blood in its just temperature.
IV. Such as are hot in the second degree, as much exceed the first, as our natural heat exceeds a temperature. Their use is, to open the pores, and take away obstructions, by cutting tough humours through, and by their own essential force and strength, when nature cannot do it.
V. Such as are hot in the third degree are more powerful in heating, they being able to inflame and cause fevers. Their use is to provoke sweat or perspiration extremely, and cut tough humours; and therefore all of them resist poison.
VI. Such as are hot in the fourth degree do burn the body if outwardly applied. Their use is to cause inflammations, raise blisters, and corrode the skin.
VIl. Such as are cold medicines in the first degree, fall as much on the one side of temperature as hot doth on the other. Their use is,
1. To qualify the heat of the stomach, and cause digestion.
2. To abate the heat in fevers; and,
3. To refresh the spirits, being suffocated.
VIll. Such as are cold in the third degree are such as have a repercussive force. And their use is,
1. To drive back the matter, and stop deductions;
2. To make the humours thick; and
3. To limit the violence of choler, repress perspiration, and keep the spirits from fainting.
IX. Such as are cold in the fourth degree are such as stupefy the senses. They are used,
1. In violent pains ; and
2. In extreme watchings, and the like cases, where life is despaired of.
X. Drying medicines consume the humours, stop fluxes, stiffen the parts, and strengthen nature. But if the humidity be exhausted already, then those consume the natural strength.
XII. Such as are dry in the first degree strengthen ; in the second degree bind ; in the third, stop fluxes, but spoil the nourishment, and bring consumptions; in the fourth, dry up the radical moisture, which being exhausted, the body must needs perish.
XIII. Moist medicines are opposed to drying, they are lenitive, and make slippery. These cannot exceed the third degree for all things are either hot or cold. Now heat dries up, and cold congeals, both which destroy moisture.
XIV. Such as are moist in the first degree, ease coughs, and help the roughness of the windpipe; in the second, loosen the belly; in the third, make the whole habit of body watery and phlegmatic; filling it with dropsies, lethargies, and such like diseases.
XV. Thus medicines alter according to their temperature, whose active qualities are heat and cold, and whose passive are dryness and moisture.
XVI. The active qualities eradicate diseases, the passive are subservient to nature.
So hot medicines may cure the dropsy, by opening obstructions; and the same may also cure the yellow jaundice, by its attractive quality in sympathizing with the humour abounding : and contrariwise cold medicines may compress or abate a fever, by condensing the hot vapours, and the same may stop any defluxion or looseness. Of gathering, drying, and keeping simples, and their juices.
Of Leaves, of Herbs, or Trees. 1. Of leaves, choose such only as are green, and full of juice; pick them carefully, and cast away such as are any way declining, for they will putrefy the rest. So shall one handful be worth ten of those you buy in any of the shops.
2. Note what places they most delight to grow in, and gather them there: for betony that grows in the shade is far better than that which grows in the sun, because it delights in the shade; so also such herbs as delight to grow near the water, should he gathered near it, though haply you may find some of them upon dry ground : the treatise will inform You where every herb delights to grow.
3. The leaves of such herbs, as run up to seed, are not so good when they are in flower as before, (some few excepted, the leaves of which are seldom or never used) in such cases, if through negligence forgotten, you had better take the top and the flowers than the leaf.
4. Dry them well in the sun, and not in the shade, as the saying of physicians is; for if the sun draw away the virtues of the herb, it must needs do the like by hay, by the same rule, which the experience of every country farmer will explode for a notable piece of nonsense.
5. Such as are artists in astrology, (and indeed none else are fit to make physicians) such I advise: let the planet that governs the herb be angular, and the stronger the better; if they can, in herbs of Saturn, let Saturn be in the ascendant ; in the herbs of Mars, let Mars be in the mid heaven, for in those houses they delight; let the moon apply to them by good aspect, and let her not be in the houses of her enemies; if you cannot well stay till she apply to them, let her apply to a planet of the same triplicity; if you cannot wait that time neither, let her be with a fixed star of their nature.
6. Having well dried them, put them up in brown paper., sewing the paper up like a sack, and press them not too hard together, and keep them in a dry place near the fire.
7. As for the duration of dried herbs, a just time cannot he given, let authors prate their pleasure; for 1-stly. Such as grow upon dry grounds will keep better than such as grow on moist. 2-dly. Such herbs as are full of juice will not keep so long as such as are dryer. 3-dly. Such herbs as are well dried will keep longer than such as are slack dried. 'Yet you may know when they are corrupted, by their loss of colour, or smell, or both; and if they be corrupted, reason will tell you that they must corrupt the bodies of those people that take them.
8. Gather all leaves in the hour of that planet that governs them. See the table of the planetary hours at the end of this book. Of Flowers.
1. The flower, which is the beauty of the plant, and of none of the least use in physic, groweth yearly, and is to be gathered when it is in its prime.
2. As for the time of gathering them, let the planetary hour and the plant they come of he observed, as we showed you in the foregoing chapter; as for the time of the day, let it be when the sun shines upon them, so that they may be dry; for if you gather either flowers or herbs when they are wet or dewy, they will not keep.
3. Dry them well in the sun, and keep them in papers near the fire, as I showed you in the foregoing chapter..
4. So long as they retain their colour and smell, they are good; either being gone, so is their virtue also.
Of Seeds.
1. The seed is that part of the plant which is endowed with a vital faculty to bring forth its like, and it contains potentially the whole plant in it.
2. As for the place, let them he gathered from the place where they delight to grow.
3. Let them be full ripe when they are gathered; and forget not the celestial harmony, before mentioned; for I have found by experience that their virtues are twice as great at such times as at others. There is an appointed time for every thing under the sun."
4. When you have gathered them, dry them a little, and but a little, in the sun, before you lay them up.
5. You need not be so careful of keeping them so near the fire, as the other before-mentioned, because they are fuller of spirit, and therefore not so subject to corrupt.
6. As for the time of their duration, it is palpable they will keep a good many years; yet they are the best the first year, and this I make appear by a good argument. They will grow soonest the first year they are set, therefore then they are in their prime; and it is an easy matter to renew them yearly. Of Roots.
1. Of roots, choose such as are neither rotten nor worm-eaten, but proper in their taste, colour, and smell, such as exceed neither in softness nor hardness.
2. Give me leave to be a little critical against the vulgar received opinion, which is, that the sap falls down into the roots in the Autumn, and rises up again in spring, as men go to bed at night, and rise in the morning ; and this idle talk of untruth is so grounded in the heads, not only of the vulgar, but also of the learned, that a man cannot drive it out by reason. I pray, let such sap-mongers answer me this argument; if the sap falls into the roots in the fall of the leaf, and lies there all the winter, then must the root grow only in the winter. But the root grows not at all in the winter, as experience teacheth, but only in the Summer; therefore if you set an apple kernel in the Spring, you shall find the root grow to a pretty, bigness in the Summer, and be not a whit bigger next Spring.
What doth the sap do in the root all this while? Pick straws? 'Tis rotten as a rotten post. The truth is, when the sun declines from the tropic of Cancer, the sap begins to congeal both in root and branch; when he touches the tropic of Capricorn, and ascends to us-ward (or the other way around in the Southern hemisphere), it begins to wax thin again, and by degrees it is uncongealed. But to proceed...
3. The drier time you gather the roots in, the better they are, for they have less excrementitious moisture in them.
4. Such roots as are soft, your best way is to dry them in the sun, or else hang their in the chimney corner upon a string; as for such as are hard, you may dry them anywhere.
5. Such roots as are great, will keep longer than such as are small; yet most of them will keep all the year.
6. Such roots as are soft, it is your best way to keep them always near the fire, and take this general rule for it. If in winter time you find any of your herbs, roots, or flower, begin to be moist, as many times you shall, (for it is your best way to look to them once a month) dry them by a very gentle fire, or if you can with conveniency keep them near the fire, you may safe yourself the labour.
7. It is in vain to dry roots that may commonly be had, as Parsley, Fennel, Plantain, &c. but gather them only for present need. Of Barks
1. Barks, which physicians use in medicine are of these sorts : of fruits, of roots, of boughs.
2. The barks of fruits are to he taken when the fruit is full ripe, as Oranges, Lemons, &c. but because I have nothing to do with exotics here, I pass them without any mere words.
3. The barks of trees are best gathered in the Spring, if of oaks or such great trees: because then they come easier off, and so you may dry them if you please ; but indeed the best way is to gather all barks only for present use.
4. As for the bark of roots, 'tis thus to be gotten : Take the roots of such herbs as have a pith in them, as parsley, fennel, &c. slit them in the middle, and when you have taken out the pith (which you may easily do) that which remains is called (though improperly so) the bark, and indeed is only to be used. Of Juices.
1. Juices are to he pressed out of herb, when they are young and tender, out of some stalks, and tender tops of herbs and plants, and also out of some flowers.
2. Having gathered the herb, you should preserve the juice of it: when it is very dry, (for otherwise the juice will not be worth a button) bruise it well in a stone mortar, with a wooden pestle, then, having put it in a canvas bag, press it hard in a press, then take the juice and clarify it.
3. The manner of clarifying it is this: Put it into a pipkin or skillet, or some such thing, and set it over the fire ; and when the scum ariseth, take it out, and let it stand over the fire till no more scum arise - when you have your juice clarified, cast away the scum as a thing of no use.
4. When you have thus clarified it, you have two ways to preserve it all the year: (1.) When it is cold put it into a glass, and put so much oil on it as will cover it to tilt. thickness of two fingers; the oil will swim on the top, and so keep the air from coming to putrefy it. When you intend to use it, pour it into a porringer, and if any oil come out with it, you may easily scum it off with a spoon, and put the juice you use not into the glass again, it will quickly sink under the oil. This is the first way.
(2.) The second way is a little more difficult, and the juice of fruits is usually preserved this way. When you have clarified it, boil it over the fire, till (being cold) it be of the thickness of honey: this is most commonly used for diseases of the mouth, and is called Roba and Saba. And thus much for the first section; the 2nd follows. The way of making and keeping all necessary compounds
Of Distilled Waters
Hitherto we have spoken of medicines which consist in their own nature, which authors vulgarly call simples, though somewhat improperly, for in truth, nothing is simple but pure elements ; all things else are compounded of them. We come now to treat of artificial medicines, in the form of which (because we must begin somewhere) we shall place distilled waters: in which consider,
1. Waters are distilled of herbs, flowers, fruits and roots.
2. We treat not of strong waters, but of cold, as being to act Galen's part, and not Paracelsus'.
3. The herbs ought to he distilled when they are in the greatest vigour, and so ought the flowers also.
4. The vulgar way of distillation which people use, because they know no better, is a pewter still ; and although distilled waters are the weakest of artificial medicines, and good for little, but mixtures of other medicines, yet they are weaker by many degrees, than they would be, were they distilled in sand. If I thought it not impossible to teach you the way of distilling in sand, I would attempt it.
5. When you have distilled your water, put it into a glass, covered over with a paper pricked full of holes, so that the excrementitious and fiery vapours may exhale, which cause that settling in distilled waters, called the mother, which corrupt them, then cover it, close, and keep it for use.
6. Stopping distilled waters with a cork, makes them musty, and so does paper if it but touch the water; it is best to stop them with a bladder, being first put in water, and bound over the top of the glass. Such cold waters as are distilled in a pewter still (if well kept) will endure a year; such as are distilled in sand, as they are twice as strong, so they endure twice as long. | |
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Of Syrups
1. A Syrup is a medicine of a liquid form, composed of infusion, decoction, and juice. And 1. For the more grateful taste: 2. for the better keeping of it; with a certain quantity of honey or sugar, hereafter mentioned, boiled to the thickness of new honey. 2. You see at the first view, That this aphorism divides itself into three branches, which deserve severally to be treated of, viz.
1. Syrups made by infusion.
2. Syrups made by decoction.
3. Syrups made by juice.
Of each of these (for our own instructions' sake, kind countrymen and women) I speak a word or two apart. 1-st. Syrups made by infusion, as are usually made of flowers, and of such flowers as soon lose their colour and strength by boiling, as roses, violets, peach-flowers, &c. They are thus made: Having picked your flowers clean, to every pound of them add three pounds or three pints, which you will (for it is all one) of spring water, made boiling hot; first put your flowers into a pewter pot, with a cover, and pour the water on them ; then shutting the pot, let it stand by the fire to keep hot twelve hours, and strain it out ; (in such syrups as purge, as damask rose, peach flowers, &c. the usual, and indeed the best way, is to repeat this infusion, adding fresh flowers to the same liquor, divers times, so that it may be the stronger) having strained it out, put the infusion into a pewter basin, or an earthen one well glazed, and to every pint of it add two pounds of sugar, which being only melted over the fire, without boiling and scummed, will produce you the syrup you desire. 2-dly. Syrups made by decoction are usually made of compounds, yet may any simple herb be thus converted into syrup: Take the herb, root, or flowers, you would make into a syrup, and bruise a little; then boil it in a convenient quantity of spring water; the more water you boil it in, the weaker it will be; a handful of the herb or root is a convenient quantity for a pint of water; boil it till half the water be consumed, then let it stand till it be almost cold, and strain it through a woollen cloth, letting it run out at leisure, without pressing: To every pint of this decoction add one pound of sugar, and boil it over the fire till it come to, a syrup, which you may know, if you now and then cool a little of it with a spoon: scum it all the while it boils, and when it is sufficiently boiled, whilst it is hot, strain it again through a woollen cloth, but press it not. Thus you have the syrup perfected.
3-dly. Syrups, made of juice, are usually made of such herbs as are full of juice, and indeed they are better made into a syrup this way than any other; the operation is thus - Having beaten the herb in a stone mortar, with a wooden pestle, press out the juice and clarify it, as you are taught before in the juices; then let the juice boil away till about a quarter of it be consumed: to a pint of this add a pound of sugar, and boil it to a syrup, always scumming it, and when it is boiled enough, strain it through a woollen cloth, as , I've taught you before, and keep it for your use.
3. If you make a syrup of roots that are any thing hard, as Parsley, Fennel, and Grass-roots, &c. when you have bruised them, lay them in steep some time in that water which you intend to boil them in, hot, so will the virtue the better come out.
4. Keep your syrups either in glasses or stone pots, and stop them not with cork or bladder, unless you would have the glass break, and the syrup lost; only bind paper about the mouth.
5. All syrups, if well made, continue a year with some advantage; yet such as are made by infusion keep shortest.
Of Juleps.
Juleps were first invented, as I suppose, in Arabia; and my reason is, because the word Julep is an Arabic word. It signifies only a pleasant potion, as is vulgarly used by such as are sick, and want help, or such as are in health, and want no money to quench thirst. Now-a-day it is commonly used,
1. To prepare the body for purgation.
2. To open obstruction and the pores.
3. To digest tough humours.
4. To qualify hot distempers, &c.
Simple Juleps (for I have nothing to say to compounds here) are thus made. Take a pint of such distilled water as conduces to the cure of your distemper, which this treatise will plentifully furnish you with, to which add two ounces of syrup, conducting to the same effect; (I shall give you rules for it in the next chapter) mix them together, and drink a draught of it at your pleasure. If you love tart things, add ten drops of oil of vitriol to your pint, and shake it together, and it will have a fine grateful taste.
All Juleps are made for present use, and therefore it is in vain to speak of their duration. Of Decoctions.
All the difference between decoctions, and syrups made by decoction, is this : Syrups are made to keep, decoctions only for present use; for you can hardly keep a decoction a week at any time; if the weather be hot, not half so long. Decoctions are made of leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, fruits, or barks, conducting to the cure of the disease you make them for; are made in the same manner as we showed you in syrups. Decoctions made with wine last longer than such as are made with water.. and if you. take your decoction to cleanse the passage of the urine, or open obstructions, your best way is to make it with white wine instead of water,. because this is penetrating. Decoctions are of most use in such diseases as lie in the passages of the body, as the stomach, bowels, kidneys, passages of urine and bladder, because decoctions pass quicker to those places than any other form of medicine.
If you will sweeten your decoction with sugar or any syrup fit for the occasion you take it for, which is better, you may, and no harm. If, in a decoction, you boil both roots, herbs, flowers, and seed together, let the roots boil a good while first, because they retain their virtue longest; then the next in order by the same rule,
viz. 1. The barks. 2. The herbs. 3. The seeds. 4. The flowers. 5. The spices, if you put any in, because their virtues come soonest out.
Such things as by boiling cause sliminess to a decoction, as figs, quince-seed, linseed, &c. your best way is, after you have bruised them, to tie them up in a linen rag, as you tie up calf's brains, and so boil them.
Keep all decoctions in a glass close stopped ; and in the cooler place you keep them, the longer they will last ere they be sour. Lastly, The usual dose to be given at one time is usually 2, 3, 4, or 5 ounces, according to the age and strength of the patient, the season of the year, the strength of the medicine, and the quality of the disease. Of Oils.
Oil Olive, which is commonly known by the name of Salad Oil, I suppose because it is usually eaten with salads by them that love it; if it be pressed out of ripe olives, according to Galen, is temperate, and exceeds in no one quality. Of oils, some are simple and some are compounds. Simple oils are such as are made of fruits of seeds by expression, as oil of sweet and bitter almonds, linseed and rape-seed oil, of which see in any Dispensatory. Compound oils are made of oil of olives, and other simples, imagine herbs, flowers, roots, &C.
The way of making them is this: having bruised the herbs or flowers you would make your oil of, put them into an earthen pot, and to two or three handfuls of them pour a pint of oil, cover the pot with a paper, set it in the sun about a fortnight or so, according as the sun is in hotness; then having warmed it very well by the fire, press out the herb, &C. very hard in a press, and add as many more herbs to the same oil; bruise the herb (I mean not the oil) in like manner, set them in the sun as before: the oftener you repeat this, the stronger the oil will be; at last, when you conceive it strong enough, boil both oil and herbs together, till the juice will he consumed, which you may know by its leaving its bubbling, and the herbs will be crisp; then strain it while it is hot, and keep it in a stone or glass vessel for your use. The general use of these oils is for pains in the limbs, roughness of the skin, the itch, &c. as also for ointments and plaisters. If you have occasion to use it for wounds or ulcers, in two ounces of oil, dissolve half an ounce of turpentine; the heat of the fire will quickly do it; for oil itself is offensive to wounds, and the turpentine qualifies it. Of Electuaries.
I shall prescribe but one general way of making them up; as for ingredients, you may vary them as you please, and as you find occasion, by the last chapter.
That you may make electuaries when you need them,
1. it is requisite that you keep always herbs, roots, flowers, seeds, &c. ready dry in your house, that so you maybe in readiness to beat them into a powder when you need them.
2. It is better to keep them whole than beaten; for being beaten, they are more subject to lose their strength; because the air soon penetrates them.
3. If they he not dry enough to beat into powder when you need them, dry them by a gentle fire till they are so.
4. Having beaten them, sift them through a. fine sieve, that no great pieces may be found in your electuary.
5. To one ounce of your powder add three ounces of clarified honey, this quantity I hold to be sufficient. If you would make more or less electuary, vary your proportion accordingly.
6. Mix them well together in a mortar, and take this for a truth, you cannot mix them too much.
7. The way to clarify honey is to set it over the fire, in a convenient vessel, till the scum rise ; and when the scum is taken off, it is clarified.
8. The usual dose of cordial electuaries is from half a dram to two drams; of purging electuaries, from half an ounce to an ounce.
9. The manner of keeping them is in a pot.
10. The time of taking them is either in a morning fasting, or fasting an hour after them; or at night going to bed, three or four hours after supper. |
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Of Conserves.
The way of making conserves is twofold, one of herbs and flowers, and the other of fruits.
2. Conserves of herbs and flowers are thus made: if you make your conserves of herbs, as of scurvy-grass, wormwood, rue, and the like, take only the leaves and tender tops (for you may beat your heart out before you can beat the stalks small) and having beaten them, weigh them, and to every pound of them add three pounds of sugar: you cannot beat them too much.
3. Conserves of fruits, as of barberries, sloes, and the like, are thus made: first, scald the fruit, then rub the pulp through a thick hair sieve made for that purpose, called a pulping-sieve; you may do it for a need with a back of a spoon; then take this pulp, thus drawn, and add to it its weight of sugar, and no more; put it into a pewter vessel, and over a charcoal fire; stir it up and down till the sugar be melted, and your conserve is made.
4. Thus you have the way of making conserves; the way of keeping them is in earthen pots.
5. The dose is usually the quantity of a nutmeg at a time, morning and evening, or (unless they are purging) when you please.
6. Of conserves, some keep many years, as conserve of roses; others but a year, as conserve of borage, bugloss, cowslip, and the like.
7. Have a care of the working of some conserves presently after they are made ; look to them once a day, and stir them about: conserves of borage, bugloss, and wormwood, have got an excellent faculty at that sport.
8. You may know when your conserves are almost spoiled by this; you shall find a hard crust at top, with little holes in it, as though worms had been eating there. Of Preserves.
Of Preserves are sundry sorts, and the operations of all being somewhat different, we shall handle them all apart. These are preserved with sugar. 1. Flowers. 2. Fruits. 3. Roots. 4. Barks.
1. Flowers are very seldom preserved: I never saw any that I remember, save only cowslip flowers, and that was a great fashion in Sussex, when I was a boy. It is thus done: Take a flat glass, we call them jar-glasses; strew in a laying of fine sugar, on that a laying of fine flowers, on that another laying of sugar, on that another laying of flowers; so do till your glass be full; then tie it over with paper, and in a little time you shall have very excellent and pleasant preserves. There is another way of preserving flowers; namely, with vinegar and salt, as they pickle capers and broom buds; but as I have little skill in it myself, I cannot teach you.
2. Fruits, as quinces, and the like, are preserved two ways.
(I.) Boil them well in water, and then pulp them through a sieve, as we showed you before; then with the like quantity of sugar, boil the water they were boiled in into a syrup viz. a pound of sugar to a pint of liquor; to every pound of this syrup add four ounces of the pulp ; then boil it with a very gentle, fire to their right consistence, which you may easily know, if you drop a drop upon a trencher; if it be enough, it will not stick to your fingers when it is cold.
(2.) Another way to preserve fruits is this: First, pare off the rind ; then cut them in halves, and take out the core ; then boil them in water till they are soft ; if you know when beef is boiled enough, you may easily know when they are; then boil the water with its like weight of sugar into a syrup; put the syrup into a pot, and put the boiled fruit as whole as you left it when you put it into it, and let it remain till you have occasion to use it.
3. Roots are thus preserved: First, scrape them very clean, and cleanse them from the pith, if they have any, for some roots have not, as eryngo and the like; boil them in water till they be soft, as we showed you before in the fruits ; then boil the water you boiled the root in to a syrup, as we showed you before; then keep the root whole in the syrup till you use them.
4. As for the barks, we have but few come to our hands to be done, and of those the few that I can remember, are oranges, lemons, citrons, and the outer harks of walnuts, which grow outside the shell, for the shells themselves would make but scurvy preserves - this be they I can remember ; if there be any more, put them in the number. The way of preserving these is not all one in authors, for some are bitter, some are hot; such as are bitter, say authors, must he soaked in warm water, oftentimes changing till their bitter taste is fled; but I like not this way, and my reason is this, because I doubt when their bitterness is gone, so is their virtue also. I shall then prescribe one common way, namely, the same with the former, viz. first boil them whole till they be soft, then make a syrup of sugar and the liquor you boiled them in, and keep the barks in the syrup.
5. They are kept in glasses, or glazed pots.
6. The preserved flowers will keep a year, if you can forbear eating of them; the root and barks much longer.
7. This art was plainly and first invented for delicacy, yet came afterwards to be of excellent use in physic : for,
(1.) Hereby medicines are made pleasant for sick and squeamish stomachs, which else loath them.
(2.) Hereby they are preserved from decaying a long time. Of Lohocks.
1. That which the Arabians call Lohocks, and the Greeks Eclegma, the Latins called Linctus, and in plain English signifies nothing else but a thing to be licked up.
2. Their first invention was to prevent and remedy afflictions of the breast and lungs, to cleanse the lungs of phlegm, and make it fit to be cast out.
3. They are in body thicker than a syrup, and not so thick as an electuary.
4. The manner of taking them is, often to take a little with liquorice-stick, and let it go down at leisure.
5 They are easily thus made: Make a decoction of pectoral herbs, and the treatise will furnish you with enough; and when you have strained it, with twice its weight of honey or sugar, boil it to a lohock; if you are molested with much phlegm, honey is better than sugar; and if you add a little vinegar to it, you will do well; if not, I hold sugar to be better than honey.
6. It is kept in pots, and way be kept a year or longer.
7. It is excellent for roughness of the windpipe, inflammations and ulcers of the lungs, difficulty of breathing, asthmas, and distillations of humours. Of Ointments.
1. Various are the ways for making ointments which authors have left to posterity, which I shall omit, and quote one which is easiest to be made, and therefore most beneficial to people that are ignorant in physic, for whose sake I write this. It is thus done: Bruise those herb, flowers, or roots, you will make an ointment of, and to two handfuls of your bruised herbs, add a pound of hog's grease dried, or cleansed from the skins, beat them very well together in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle, then put it into a stone pot, cover it with paper, and set it either in the sun, or some other warm place, three, four, or five days, that it may melt; then take it out and boil it a little; then, whilst it is hot, strain it out, pressing it very hard in a press; to this grease add as many more herbs bruised as before, let them stand in like manner as long, then boil them as you did before. If you think your ointment not strong enough, you may do it the third and fourth time; yet this I will tell you, the fuller of juice the herbs are, the sooner will the ointment be strong: the last time you boil it, boil it so long till your herbs be crisp, and the juice consumed, then strain it, pressing it hard in a press, and to every pound of ointment add two ounces of turpentine, and as much wax, because grease is offensive to wounds, as well as oil. 2. Ointments are vulgarly known to be kept in pots, and will last above a year, some above two years. Of Plaisters.
1. The Greeks make their plaisters of divers simples, and put metals into most of them, if not all; for, having reduced their metals into powder, they mixed them with that fatty substance whereof the rest of the plaister consisted, whilst it is yet hot, continually stirring it up and down, lest it should sink to the bottom ; so they continually stirred it till it was stiff; then they made it up in rolls, which, when they needed for use, they could melt by fire again.
2. The Arabians made up theirs with oil and fat, which needeth not so long boiling.
3. The Greek emplaisters consisted of these ingredients, metals, stones, divers sorts of earth, faeces, juices, liquors, seeds, roots, herbs, excrements of creatures, wax, rosin, gums. Of Poultices.
1. Poultices are those kind of things which the Latins call Cataplasmata, and our learned fellows, that if they can read English, call them Cataplasms, because 'tis a crabbed word few understand: it is indeed a fine kind of medicine to ripen sores.
2. They are made of herbs and roots, fitted for the disease and members afflicted, being chopped small, and boiled in water almost to a jelly; then, adding a little barley-meal, or meal of lupins, and a little oil, or rough sweet suet, which I hold to be better, spread upon a cloth, and apply to the 'grieved place.
3. Their use is to ease pain, to break sores, to cool inflammations, to dissolve hardness, to ease the spleen, to concoct humours, and dissipate swellings.
4. I beseech you take this caution along with you ; use no poultices, (if you can help it) that are of an healing nature, before you have first cleansed the body, because they are subject to draw the humours to them from every part of the body. Of Trockes.
1. The Latins called them Placentula, or little cakes, and the Greeks, Proelaikos, Kukliskoi, and Artiscoi: they are usually little round flat cakes, or you may make them square if you will.
2. Their first invention was, that powders being so kept, might resist the intermission of air, and so endure pure the longer.
3. Besides, they are easier carried in the pocket of such as travel . as many a man, (for example) is forced to travel, whose stomach is too cool, or at least not so hot as it should be, which is most proper, for the stomach is never cold till a man is dead; in such a case it is better to carry troches of wormwood, or galengal, in a paper in his pocket, than to take a gallipot along with him.
4 They are made thus: At night when you go to bed, take two drams of fine gum tragacanth put it into a gallipot, and put half a quarter of a pint of any distilled water fitting for the purpose you would make your troches for, to cover it, and the next morning you shall find it in such a jelly as the Physicians call mucilage: With this you may (with a little pains taking) make a powder into a paste, and that paste into a cake called troches.
5. Having made them, dry them in the shade, and keep them in a pot for your use. Of Pills.
1. They are called Pillulae, because they resemble little balls; the Greeks call them Catapotia.
2. It is the opinion of modern Physicians, that this way of making medicines were invented only to deceive the palate, that so, by swallowing them down whole, the bitterness of them might not he perceived, or at least might not be insufferable; and indeed most of their pills, though not all, are very bitter.
3. I am of a clear contrary opinion to this: I rather think they were done up in a hard form, that so they might be the longer digesting, and my opinion is grounded upon reason too, not upon fancy or hearsay. The first invention of pills was to purge the head; now, as I told you before, such infirmities as lie near the passages, were best removed by decoctions, because they pass to the grieved part soonest; so here, if the infirmity lies in the head, or any other remote part, the best way is to use pills, because they are longer in digestion, and therefore better able to call the offending tumour to them.
4. If I should tell you here a long tale of medicines working by sympathy and antipathy, I would tell you a long story. They that are set to make physicians may find it in the treatise. All modern physicians know not what belongs to flats and sharps in music, but follow the vulgar road, and call it a hidden quality, because it is hidden from the eyes of dunces, and indeed none but astrologers can give a reason for it ; and physic without reason, is like a pudding without fat.
5. The way to make pills is very easy, for with the help of a pestle and mortar, and a little diligence, you may make any powder into pills, either with syrup, or the jelly I told you of before. The way of fitting or applying medicines to compound diseases.
1. In all diseases strengthen the part of the body afflicted.
2. In mixed diseases there lies some difficulty, for sometimes two parts of the body are afflicted with contrary humours, as sometimes the liver is afflicted with choler and water, as when a man hath had the dropsy and yellow jaundice; and this is usually mortal. In the former, suppose the brain be too cool and moist, and the liver to be hot and dry; thus do: 1. Keep your head outwardly warm.
2. Accustom yourself to the smell of hot herbs.
3. Take a pill that heats the head at night going to bed.
4. In the morning take a decoction that cools the liver, for that quickly passeth the stomach, and is at the liver immediately.
5. Be sure always to fortify the grieved part of the body by sympathetical remedies.
6. Regard the heart, keep that upon the wheels, because the Sun is the foundation of life, and therefore those universal remedies, Aurum Potabile, and Philosopher's Stone: cure all diseases by fortifying the heart. Progressively hot foot baths:
Have a pot and a deep footbath ready. For the recommended footbath, use a mixture of thyme tea and horsetail tea.
Preparation: Prepare 1 quart (1 L) of thyme tea and 1 pint (1/2 L) of horsetail tea in a pot - pour boiling water over 4 tablespoonfuls of the aerial parts of thyme and 2 tablespoonfuls of the aerial parts of horsetail, let steep, covered, for ten minutes, then strain through a sieve. Put this mixture into the footbath.
Application.. Begin the footbath in 98.6°F (37°C) water, then, by adding hot water, slowly increase the temperature as long as it is bearable. End the footbath after 10 to 15 minutes, dry your feet, and put on warm socks. Have a pot and a deep footbath ready. For the recommended footbath, use a mixture of thyme tea and horsetail tea.
Preparation: Prepare 1 quart (1 L) of thyme tea and 1 pint (1/2 L) of horsetail tea in a pot - pour boiling water over 4 tablespoonfuls of the aerial parts of thyme and 2 tablespoonfuls of the aerial parts of horsetail, let steep, covered, for ten minutes, then strain through a sieve. Put this mixture into the footbath.
Application.. Begin the footbath in 98.6°F (37°C) water, then, by adding hot water, slowly increase the temperature as long as it is bearable. End the footbath after 10 to 15 minutes, dry your feet, and put on warm socks. Peace and Good health to you .
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