long as in amaritude it resembled that which the Bees collect in Pontus It were supervacaneous to treat any more of Honey since we have abundantly spoken thereof in the third Chapter of the third Book of our Institutions CHAP. VII Of Manna MAnna is the most excellent and divine gift of Nature and not onely that which God preternaturally bestowed on the Israelites but this also which like Honey or Sugar-dew distills upon leaves and daily offers it self for our use For our vulgar Husbandmen do no less admire their small Manna than the Israelites did their Sugar-hail whil'st exulting they sing Jupiter rains Honey down whence it is called Areomel by the Arabians Terenjabin and in the sacred Scriptures Manna with which our Manna or Manna Thuris accords onely in name which is produced by the elision of two bundles one against another for therby certain small fragrancies are congested which is collected for Manna Thuris There is also another kinde they call Manna Larigna collected of the broken boughs of the Larix tree but both these too licentiously usurp this title for Manna properly so called which is used by Physicians for I do not speak of the Man-hu or Manna of the Hebrews is celestial dew sweet and gratefull delabing about the day-spring upon the boughs and leaves of trees and herbs which speedily concretes into the consistency of a gum That is best which is collected of leaves and is called Manna de folio and that worst which is called Manna de terra Now the Calabrian Manna especially that which comes out of a certain part of Oenotria is thought the best where it descends every Summer and is gather'd of all Brassavel in exam fimpl Brassavelus tels us Historia how the Neopolitan Kings once occluded this place that none might assume it without toll or tribute but the Manna thereupon ceased to descend the tribute being taken off and the hindrances removed the Manna again descended the place being again occluded it ceased the inclosure or hedge being again taken away it descended so that the Kings were glad to leave it free and permit any to collect it that would The same is storied of the Tragasaan of Salt in Epirus upon which when Lysimachus imposed a tribute there was none to be found when the tribute was contra-decreed the Salt redounded c. 12. l. 9. Rhod. Cal. But that I may not further rove there is a kinde of Manna in France commonly called Manna Briansonnensis which Medicks sometimes use for want of Calabriensis but it is not near so good There is another kinde round called Manna Mastichina Manna â—â—â—â—china which beaten from the boughs and leaves of trees by the impetuousness of the winde which delabes like hail but neither from Heaven nor from the Air which is improperly called Manna being the tears of trees or their juice concreted Manna is moderately hot it lenifies the throat asper-artery and breast it benignly moves the belly and purges watry humours especially the small Manna as that which comes from Calabria not Terenjabin which the Arabians say is like Honey which we use not because we want it CHAP. VIII Of Cordial Flowers and first of Violets A Violet which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grows in opake and rough places at the foundations of walls or margins of gardens and sometimes in meadows it is green all the year long and flourishes sometimes in February most frequently in March whence it is called Mars his Flower and sometimes in Autumn if it be cultivated it leaves are like Ivy leaves but less and thinner of a short stalk in the end whereof grows a Flower of a ceruleous purple colour and odour like Flower de luce It brings forth a small seed in little round leaves about the end of Summer Now Violets are multifarious and different in colours for some are white some blew and other in a mean betwixt both There are some also which stand upon longer and harder stalks whose flowers are like a purple colour others which are tricolorous and grow upon quadrate slender succulent and reptile stalks in dry places whose leaves are more angust long and lascivious than others from its three-fold colour some call it the herb Trinity others the flammeous Violet and the vulgar Frenchmen the Minute pensea Other small stocks of Violets have got names which because Phyficians seldome use we omit But the martial Violets are wholly used for their flowers being endued with an exhilarating faculty Vires are mixed with Cordials their seeds and leaves being malactical ingrede the decoction of Glysters and confection of Cataplasms All men conclude that their Flowers are refrigerative yet that acrimony they leave in the mouth by mastication speaks them to participate of some calour But because that calour is fugitive being overcome by their exuberant frigidity the Medicks judge them to be frigid CHAP. IX Of the Flowers of Bugloss BUgloss so tearmed from its similitude to an Oxes tongue because it is eximious in inducing hilarity is by Dioscorides and Pliny called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath long broad rough leaves like Cumfrey but straiter shorter and not of so obscure a green Its stalks are bicubital brachiate rough its flowers replenished with spots like stars ceruleous shining in the bottome whereof is a long obscure pithy seed It s root is long crass black without white within succubent sweet it grows in gardens in fandy and also in plain places There is no variety neither in nature nor shape amongst the Hortensian Buglosses onely the flowers of some are white of others purpureous and vulgarly ceruleous But the wild ones differ much for some are alwayes green which will like in any region others are very sharp whose leaves are rigid with prominent pricks which by some are mistaken for Anchusa so named from the blood wherewith its root infects the tangent Bugloss is of a hot and moyst or rather a middle temperature whence it is reckoned amongst the exhilarative Plants which Galen was not ignorant of when c. 80. l. 6. de simpl med he wrote that Bugloss immerged in Wine would cause joy and hilarity CHAP. X. Of Borrage flowers BOrrage is an herb notorious enough its leaves and faculties bear an affinity with Bugloss for both their leaves are long resembling a Neats tongue but Borrage leaves are shorter and broader which the rigour of the winter soon corrupts and kills but Bugloss bears it out and grows but especially its root and those leaves that are next ground flourish It bears broad ceruleous flowers and sometimes white larger than Bugloss in the midst whereof as in its center is defixed a certain dusky crown whose end is acuminated It grows in any ground but it is more florid in humid and fat soyl It is fresh all Summer and also all Autumn if it be sown later its seed is black in all other things it responds to Bugloss Its flowers put into broth give a special taste and
Feavers Coughs and asperity of the tongue they cure stranguty and ardour they quench thirst if duly assumed Vires and kill and expell Wormes CHAP. XVII Of Jujubs JUjubs which the Greeks call Zizipha and Zinzipha grow in Syria and now in many places in Italy and Narbone upon a small tree like a Whin with hard spinose and spolious surcles mossy flowers its caule is contorted rough and ramous its boughs slender long obsequious but hard and protended like the branches of Broome its leafes hard oblong like them of Periwinkle alternately disposed at long intervalls about which small mossy and pallid flowers do erupt after whose occase oblong carnose tender berryes of the magnitude of Cherryes vested with a membranous and hard cortex do accede Galen calls them Serica These luteous or luteously purpureous sweet carnose vinous fruits of the figure and magnitude of moderate Olives turgid with a stone yellow without when they have attained maturity are gathered dryed contracted into wrinkles and kept We cannot learn from the Greeks and Arabians any thing of their qualities and salubrity for Galen saith they are ill for the stomack they nourish little and are hard of concoction the Arabians accommodate and commend them to many uses and though Fuchsius acerbly insult and speak against these yet Actudrius Graecus Nic. Alexandrinus and many more much celebrate their use having sufficiently experienced their salubrious effects They cure the Cough difficulty of breathing and the asperity of the Artery they concoct and expell humours Vires cure many vices in the Lungs and Breast help the reines and allay the ardour of Urine and dolour of the Bladder CHAP. XVIII Of Figgs THe Figge-Tree germinates every where but in cold Countreys it is either sterile or beares only grosse and uselesse or small and insuave fruits which never attain maturity in hot regions it fruiticates copiously fructifying twice annually in the Spring and Authmne it is a Tree of a moderate magnitude not assurging with a direct caule nor yet a smooth bark but somwhat rough especially when inveterate its wood is white soft and meoullous its leafes ample quinquefariously disterminated quinqueangular rough hard and obscurely green its fruits which are at first small and green afterwards greater and either white or red with a turbinated figure erupt about the exortion of its leafes without any praevious flowers and as some Figgs are more forward and sweeter then others so are some whiter some redder some blacker then others all are soft medullous and gravidated with small graines while they are immature if they be vulnerated with the stalks or ends of leafes they will emitt a lacteous acrimonious and amare humour There is another low Fig-Tree very like the former excepting procerity which growes in a prique places and somtimes in Septentrionall regions Another wild and infaecund one responds to these in effigies which is celebrated for no medicinall use There is also an Indian Fig-Tree which some think is that same that Pliny calls Opuntia which is a Plant without boughs without Caules consisting onely of leafes which hath not yet been experienced in medicinall uses The best Figges come from Massilia which may be substituted in defect of Dactyls Vires they calefy moderately nourish lubricate the belly but do not generate very laudable blood they attenuate leviate maturefy concoct and profit the asper artery the reins Lungs and Bladder a dry Figge is called Carica by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word Matthiolus designes Apias Figg-Tree leafes move baemorrhoids if the Fundament be rubbed therewith the so much celebrated Antidote Mythridate is made of Figgs Rue and Nutts whose composition we have described in the History of Rue Figgs are of much more utility which for brevity sake I will not recenseate See Dioscorides C. 183. and 184. Lib. 1. CHAP. XIX Of Dactyls or Dates DActyls are the fruits of Palmes growing in Aegypt Crete and Judaea which attaining maturity are by Galen called Phaenicobalani the best come from Judaea they are great flave somwhat rugous soft but carnous subdure within white towards the Kernell red towards the cortex of a vinous sapour they sound little or nothing when concussed the flaccid hard and macilent are worse Now there is no small difference in Palmes Galen himself being Judge for some are dry and astrictive as the Aegyptian ones others soft humid and sweet as those we call Chariotae but the best grow in Syria Palestine and many Eastern regions where they suppeditate both meat and drink to the incolists The Trunk of a Palme is crasse round and high rough with dense and gradate notches by the adjument of whose inaequality the orientall incolists can easily ascend their summityes its leafes are Arundinaceous long and acuminated many proceeding out of one exortion according to the longitude of the boughs it beares much fruit on its summity as it were racemously cohaereing but their pedicles are more prolix whereof there are many sorts but the sweet and succulent ones such as grow in Judaea Syria and Palestine are best they are of a yellow or luteous colour neither great nor yet small the green insuave and juicelesse are naught Galen's judgement of the qualityes of the Palme and its fruits is this All the parts of the Palme-Tree saith he participate of an astrictive faculty for the austere succe of its boughs consists of an aqueous tepid terrene and frigid substance But it s sweet fruits have much of calidity they profit the stomack and breast Vires suggest laudable nutriment and are meat for many Nations CHAP. XX. Of Olives THat Olives and their fat juice called oyle appertain to esculents each one knowes for Olives nobilitate rich mens Tables to excite appetite and their oyle is usurped not only in confecting acetaryes frying fishes and praepareing other meats but also in confecting unguents and salves Now Olives are the fruit of a Tree of a moderate magnitude which the French call Olivetum the Latines Olea which especially the sative assurges with a long Caule for the wild one is lower with many oblong boughs laterally diffused hard and pallidly virid like willow boughs with white racemous flowers whereunto oblong carnous succulent berryes called Olives at first green after black with hard stones within succeed the fruit derives its name from the Tree and the succe from the fruit This Tree delights in dry places and hot regions as in Spain Italy and France for it willingly amplects a hot squalid air it either growes not at all or else is sterile and tabid in the Septentrionall regions The Greeks call Olives drawing to maturity and blacknesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the French Drupae when they are condited with salt the Greeks call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oyle simply so called is extracted from them when they are mature Omphacinum when immature but let herbalists be sought for larger treatises hereabout Immature Olives are
Of some eximious Flowers from which most efficacious Waters and Oils are extracted and first of Roses ROse is so common spontaneously growing in every hedge that it cannot but be known There are two sorts hereof one wild which is called Cynorrhodon or Dog-rose the other Garden-rose which we call Rose absolutely whereof there are many sorts to wit red white pale incarnate luteous ceruleous which grows in many places in Italy and the mosellate Rose which flourishes in Autumn Other varieties may be educed out of these by art and mangony but three onely are used in Medicine to wit white red and damask waters are distilled out of the white Honey of Roses Conserve Oil and Unguent of the red and Syrup laxative are made of the damask There are many parts in Roses to wit the flower the stalk capillaments granules little flowers the calix the seed the daun Some call those little flowers that adhere to the capillaments Anthera but Anthera properly is a compound Medicament used to the affections of the mouth as it appears by Actuarius c 7. l. 6. meth med by Celsus c. 11. l. 6. by Oribasius and Marcellus All Roses have not the same faculty for the pale relax the red astringe both roborate as also the common white and sweet Roses for all sweet odours recreate and refresh the spirits as also those vital and animal parts that hold the principality CHAP. XXXIX Of Nymphea or Water-Lilly THis Nymphea which the Poets feign to have sprung from a dead Nymph that was jealous of Hercules is the most used of all water-plants in Medicine whereof Pharmacopolists make two sorts one greater which bea rt white flowers the other less which bears luteous flowers Both grow in standing waters and fens The greater hath ample round and green leaves gracile long smooth and round stalks white flowers in candour and magnitude resembling Lillyes and yellow in the middle a black nodous and long root some call it Water Lilly some Neâ—â—â—â—ar and others Heraclea The lesser grows in a slimy watty soyl on slender stalks about three cubits long whereon a yellow shining flower grows like a Rose its root is white nodous sharp and sweet Nymphea refrigerates exceedingly asswages salacity Vires retains the immoderate flux of the seed and being drunk and exhibited by way of liniment it quite extinguishes the seed it conciliates sleep and wholly takes away Venery if its decoction or conserve or syrup made of its flowers be long used CHAP. XL. Of Lilly Lilly is by some of the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by others who believe that it was produced by Juno her milk it is called Juno's Rose in Garlands it is placed next to the Rose for its eximious candour suaveolence and elegant form illustrate its dignity This Plant is very fecund for one root will produce and nourish fifty heads It consists commonly of one stalk two cubits high and sometimes higher comous with leaves like Ragwort but something longer twined and green with a flower in form of a basket whole labra constitute a circle out of which bottom issue shining tufts like yellow yearn and whose extremity is tuberous This broad and elegant flower adhering to a small slender and languid peduncle and another to a crass and rigid branch encompassed with leaves which withers about the end of Summer and buds again at the beginning of Autumn There are many sorts of Lillyes for besides the white and common which is so called absolutely there is another they call the white Byzantian Lilly which hath got its distinction from the place where it grows another there is of a cruent colour another yellow another light red There is also a small Lilly they call the Lilly of the Valley and there is a great one they call the Persian Lilly or more commonly the Imperial Crown which the Barbarians of Tusat whereunto we may adde the Day-Lilly Chalcedony Byrantine and such like whereof now to treat were beyond our institution The root of white Lilly is malactical and anodynous and of much use in decocting glysters and confecting emollitive and matter moving Cataplasms An Oil also may be extracted out of the flowers infused for the same purposes Their water also distilled will take wrinkles out of ones face and make it of a very white colour CHAP. XLI Of Crocus or Saffron WE referr to the order of these eximious flowers Saffron the golden coloured red flower of a bulbous Plant which the Physicians call Crocus the French men following the idiome of the Mauritanians Saffron But it is a bulbous Plant lively and carnous whose leaf is narrow and gramineous whose flower is like meadow Hermodactyle with filaments of a purple and golden colour and whose odour is intense with some sharpness It grows best about fountains and high-wayes rejoycing to be torn and trod upon which as they say comes better on by being killed But the best of all grows in Corycus a Mountain of Cilicia for its odour is more fragrant and its colour more aureous It is green in the Spring it dilates it self all Summer in Autumn are its flowers gathered which are not usurped for medicinary and culinary uses solely but many more when any aureous colour is desired Now Crocus is either domestick whereof Dioscorides enumerates many sorts or sylvestrian whereof Dodonaeus describes more all which for brevities sake I omit It is hot in the second degree dry in the first Vires if moderately used it helps the brain refocillates the senses excites sleep and torpour by recreating the heart it begets joyfulness draws the humours to concoction and much profits him that knows how to use it with prudence Mesue makes an Oil thereof which ingredes the confection of the Emplaster made of Frogs It goes also to other compositions as to the Syrup of King Sabor and to the Oxycrocean Emplaster whereunto it gives not onely colour but also eximious faculties SECTION II. Of Purgative Simples The Preface OUR former Section being finished wherein we have clearly unfolded and explained such common Simples as are as it were Preparatives and occur every where to the composition of Medicaments we will proceed therefore in the next place to describe such Catharticks as purge humours by subdacing the belly and they are such as are given sometimes by themselves alone or mingled with such Compositions as are prescribed in our Shop And these are for the most part exetical and forreign conveyed to us dry from savage and barbarous Regions Yet some we have growing with us especially in hot Regions net they do not retain the same virtues and qualities that the other have but come far short and therefore it is that they are rejected and the forreign which are brought from India and Arabia used Notwithstanding our Soyl is not altogether so ungratefull but the it affords many excellent purging Simples as we shall here demonstrait in this Section CHAP. I. Of Rhabarb MAny of the Antients put no difference
attested that it doth grow out of a horn of a Ram contunded and perforated yet the recent buds and slender germination of this and other such Plants that may be cropped for Pot-herbs were called in former times Sperages Now Sperage is either wilde or sative and both notorious enough putting forth many sprigs and many little long and slender leaves which like Fennel end in Capillaments This Pot-herb delights in siccity and perishes by frequent rigation yet if it be irrigated in Autumn it will put forth tender and succulent buds It proceeds from round roots in number many Vires which are apertive deduce the passages remove obstructions from the liver and reins cure the suffusion of the gall move flowers and urine CHAP. XXVI Of Fennel ALL the parts of Fennel are usefull Fennel for its tender branches mixed with sour Condiments make them more gratefull its seed decocted with Senny discusses all that that causes flatuosity and wringings in the guts yea either mixed with others or assumed alone it effects innumerable benefits its roots alone without other mixture remove obstructions It is a kinde of ferulaceous Plant sometimes exceeding a mans height its stalk is geniculated filled with a fungous sap its external cortex is smooth and green its leaf like Maiden-weed slender long soft capillaccous and suaveolent its muscary or top round patulous broad and circulated whereon there depends a nude long and pale seed its root is long crass white and odoriferous There are two kinds of Fennel one the Greeks call Marathrum which also is two-fold the one sweet which is copious in Italy the other common whose seed is less and sharper The second sort they call Erraticum or Hippomarathrum from its magnitude for it exceeds the sative Parsley in crassitude and procerity and grows in Mauritania sometimes twelve cubits in height four palms in thickness its seed is like Millet seed its root white and suaveolent Fennel calefies onely in the second degree Vires or beginning of the third Being drunk in wine it helps the poyson of Serpents moves flowers and urine generates milk and cures suffusion Hippomarathrum is more efficacious in all things for it potently expells flowers and urine ejects stones purges the Kings evil yea nothing so good against the poyson of Serpents Some will have wilde Parsnip to be a kinde of Fennel its stak and muscary being feniculaceous but their leaves colour odour sapour virtue and form are very dissimilar This Herb is called by some Harts-eye by others Gratia Dei. CHAP. XXVII Of Ruscus or Butchers-broom Ruscus Ruscus or Bruscus seem to be a spinous Mirtle or wilde Butchers broom for it hath the form and leaves of a Mirtle but they are more rigid hard macronate and inodorous Certain red berries adhere to its virgults about the magnitude of Cherries wherein two or three nuts are enclosed of such osseous durity that they will scarce admit of pulveration by triture Another Plant called Hypogloss and Laurus Alexandrina hath some affinity herewith but its leaves are softer and larger out of the middle or superiour part whereof little leaves like little tongues proceed It grows in rude and uncultivated places Vires the decoction of its root moves flowers breaks and expells the stone cures stranguty and the jaundies CHAP. XXVIII Of the four greater frigid Seeds THese four are the Seeds of Gourd Quatuor frig major Cucumber Melons and Citrulls under which many oleraceous Fruits are contained which by the Antients are denoted by this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea there is such affinity amongst these that their nomenclatures seem to be indeterminate and indistinct for many under the name Cucumber comprehend Melons and Pepons under Cucurbites Citrulls and Melo-pepons But culture and mangony hath effected many sorts of each Cucurbitarum differentiae for they have designed four sorts of Cucurbites the greater the lesser or the lagenarious or the anguine the long and blew one besides Coloquintida which is a wilde Cucurbite Cucumber is either sylvestrian Cucumeres which is called the asinine Cucumber of whose juice an Elatery is confected or sative of which there are many sorts for some are long strait and yellow others shorter green and crooked some compressed broad and round others clypeiformous and are commonly called Pepons Melons by the French so called Melones are by the Italians named Pepans by Dioscorides Melopepons by the Antients domestick Cucumbers But to avoyd the confusion of names it is expedient we call those Fruits which springing from the sative Sicya for so is the Plant whereon Melons grow named are fragrant like Quinces or such redolent Apples Melons whereof as well as of the rest there are many sorts for some from the suavity of their odours and sapour are called Moschatelline others Saccharine Melons others from the soyl and region wherein they grow acquire other denominations Citrulls in magnitude exceed all the former which abound in the Countrey whereof also there is much variety both in colour figure Citrulli magnitude and sapour for some are short others long some plain others round some are unequal others yellowish which excell the rest in suavity And as these four Plants have mutual affinity in their form so also in their faculties Their seeds collected are the four greater frigid seeds which are preserved for frequent use in Pharmacy CHAP. XXIX Of the four lesser frigid Seeds and first of Lettice and its seed LEttice or Lactuce Quatuor frig minor is so called from the exuberance of lacteous juice that may be expressed from it which is the first of Oils for as it is most gratefull in Edibles and Condiments so is it most salubre in Medicaments for besides its faculty in generating laudable blood it extinguishes the fervour of the blood and bowels conciliates sleep and helps such as labour of hectick Feavers Gal. c. 40. l. 2. de alim c. 13. l. de maras and it is a most familiar alimentous Medicament much conducing to young and cholerick natures It may be sown at any time and if the soyl be fat well subacted and exposed to the Sun it will flourish and largely diffuse it self If it be plucked while it is tender and be transplanted into another soyl well stercorated it will abundantly emit circumvolved leaves and be capitated As no Pot-herb is more excellent so none more notorious than Lettice whereof we finde three kinds in Gardens the wrinkled and vulgar which is not capitated the sessile or capitated and the Roman with black seed and broad leaves Some adjoyn two more to wit the Cecilian and Cyprian or Grecian Besides which there grows another Herb in uncultivated places which derives the denomination of Lactuce rather from its juice and seed than from its form which Galen calls Thridax Some enumerate more sorts from the variety of their colours as white red black and purpereous Lettices All the parts Vires as also
tenacious juice and foliated like the greater House-leek It s stalk is a foot high its flowers white and seed like Daffadil its root is single and crass like a stake struck into the earth It grows plentifully in India from whence its juice is brought as also in Arabia and other hot Countryes This Plant will through its tenacious juice live two years and emit new leaves if it be set upon a board but if it be cast on the ground it withers It is by some for its lively nature for it is alwayes green called the Seas Sempervive yet it will soon tabefy if it be not preserved from cold whereof it is very impatient The whole Plant is graveolent and its sapour bitter but especially its juice which out of what part soever it be extracted is very usefull in Medicinal Confections It s liquor concreted and brought to us is of two sorts the one sandy and contaminated with filth which we call Aloe Caballine and use in curing horses and the like the other is coacted like a liver and is thence called Hepatical Aloes or Aloe succotrine or Succo-citrine its powder being of Citrine or Orange colour It is also called by some Socotorine because it comes out of an Island so called The yellow fat clear and friable made up like a liver is the best the black hard sandy and impure is not good It is hot in the first degree dry in the third applyed it condensates astringes exsiccates and glutinates the wounds assumed it opens reserates the passages moves and stimulates the Hemorrhoides roborates the ventricle subduces the belly purges cholerick and phlegmatick humours kills and expells belly-worms takes away obstructions exarceates putretude and preserves bodyes long from corruption CHAP. VI. Of Seeny or Senna AS all the precepts of Pharmacy were not at first put in practice Senna so neither were all Medicaments at first marshall'd under precepts or indeed brought to light for the Antients had no knowledge of that we call Seeny the Persians Abalzemer than which no purgative now more frequent more usual more usefull It is a siliquous Plant brought to us from the Eastern Countryes much like our Collutea but its leaves better resemble the greater Myrtle Flowers of a dusky colour issue out of the hollow betwixt its stalk and stem appended on tenuious pedicles to which succeed little long plain incurvated leaves gravidated with small brown compressed seeds like Gygars Its roots which are long and slender are useless in Pharmacy especially if its stalk be not long-lived which being impatient of cold lives not above four months in the Western Countryes nor in Raly after Autumn There are two sorts hereof one wild whose leaves are lesser rounder and more useless the other domestical whose leaves are larger more acute and usefull Seeny calefies not so much as some think Vires for it is but hot about the end of the first degree or beginning of the second and dry about the end of the second It purges clemently both cholcrick and crass phlegmatick humours it deterges digests and expurges all viseid humours and adust choler from the brain lungs spleen liver ventricle and mesentery and cures all diseases in those parts arising from these humours It is exhibited either in form of powder Lenitivum as when it ingredes the Electuary of* Diabalzemer or Catholicon or infused and decocted as when purgative Syrupus de pomis or laxative Apozemes are made thereof But seeing in concoction it excites gripings and flatuosity it must be mixed either with Anise or Coriander or Fennel seeds to discuss its flatuosity CHAP. VII Of Mechoacan root ACertain crass root cut into short stakes and dryed hath been of late brought us from the Province of Mechoacan and bears the Provinces name This peregrine root is purgative of a pale colour and crass which puts forth many long and imbecil boughs which without fulciments would lay along the ground but being annexed to perches they grow up and with many involutions amplect them like Briony to which its effigies is very similar but its faculties dissident Differentia inter Brioniam Mechoacam for Briony is sharp and hot Mechoacan almost infipid and voyd of all acrimony The leaves of Briony are broad and quinquangular and divided like Vine leaves but more sharp hirsute and white its flowers small white racemous and congregated like Grapes And Mechoacous leaves are ample but withall tenuious sad-green and mucronated onely on one side not angular like Briony Its fruits are many cohering in bunches about the magnitude of Corianders which come to maturity in Autumn The whitish and freshest root is best Some call this root white Rhabarb others American Scammony the Pharmacopolists Mechoacan root That which is very white or black or worm-eaten is naught It is hot in the first degree and dry in the second it purges and that facilely pituitous and watry humours not debilitating like other purgatives but roborating the parts It should be dissolved rather in wine than in other liquors it may be safely adhibited to old men and boyes it conduces very much to such as are infested withan inveterate cough with colick dolour and with the French disease CHAP. VIII Of Agarick MUshromes are either terrestrial which grow out of the earth or arboreous which adhere to the stocks of trees for there 's scarce an inveterate tree but some kinde of campinion adheres thereunto either blackish and rugous as on Oaks and Wallnut trees or crass dure and whitish as on the Beech tree or white full soft and friable as Agarick that is excerped from the Larix tree Which tree is nobilitated with three sorts of excrements as Larix Rosine which is more humid than others and voyd of all acrimony which is by some sold for Turpentine Laxative Manna which is collected from its effracted boughs and branches and Agarick which grows upon its bole when inveterate The coniferous Larix tree is of eximious procerity assurging with a strait stalk incorticated with a crass bark dehiscing with frequent chinks circumvested with many leaves short soft and tenuious like Pine leaves not aculeated but retuse which numerously cohere together in each tubercle Its apples are small almost like them of the Cypress tree That Agarick that seems to be the impostume of the Larix tree is best which is white rare friable at the first sweet to the gust afterwards bitter and styptical Democritus calls it Medicamentum familiae It grows in Galicia and Cilicia but the best comes from Agaria a region of Samatia whence it derives its denomination Now we have very good from Delphinatus a Province of France and many parts of Italy where procerous Larix trees grow copiously on whose trunks Agarick grows which is no root as Dioscorides and Galen conjectured It is hot in the first degree dry in the second it purges flegm liberates obstructions attenuates deterges dissipates flatuosity and eases us of all diseases proceeding from viscid
and extinguishes the venereous poyson The Indians use its juice to cure the venereous disease which to them is natural and endemial CHAP. XXVI Of Chyna root I May not omit this other Antidote against the Indian disease to wit that excellent Root which as also the whole Plant hath its name from Chyna but in its native foyl retains its Countryes name to wit Lompatau It grows in the vast region of Chyna which terminates upon the East-Indies and Scythia not in mountainous and dry ground as some have conjectured but in fens and moyst places like a reed as about the sea-shore or head of some fountain It s root is crass and nodous as red 〈◊〉 hard also and tuberous like the Brambles root and rubeous and tortuous like Bistorts root Slender and imbecil cauls crupt out of its root which are circumcinged with very rare leaves which though low require fulciments that they may be strait This root is now vulgar which the Antients either knew not or oscitantly pretermitted but now it is so notorions that no Barber or young Apprentice but he will talk thereof The Indians use this Medicament as panpharmacal to all diseases and especially to such as cannot be cured by other remedies It is very prevalent in curing the Indian Pox Vires it helps the Vertigo cures the pain of the stomack helps the hydroptical cures the colical colour and affections of the uterus removes obstructions opens the passages moves urine causes sudour helps in convulsions and palsey and eases the dolour of the articles for Charles the fifth Emperour of that name found no ease from other Medicaments but much from Chyna against the Gout which handled him very ill Some say that it is good for such as are tabid but I think too hot to cure the consumption to emend a dry distemper and resarciate it Garcias used it against the heat of the liver so long that his body was almost wholly inflamed It s use is now more rare than formerly it hath been SECTION IV. Of Indigenous Calefactives The Preface WE have many hot Plants which will not grow in forreign Countryes of which we intend to speak distinctly in this fourth Section And they are such as either grow spontaneously in the Fields or by culture in Gardens Wherein we shall observe this method first touch upon those that are hottest then such as are hotter and lastly those that are moderately hot all which we shall run over with brevity yet not so but that their qualities may be distinctly known And therefore we shall begin with such as have a fiery kinde of quality as CHAP. I. Of Bartram or Pellitory BArtram or Pyrethrum is so called from that igneous quality which its chewed root leaves in the gustative organ the Vulgar call it Alexander's foot the Latines from the abundance of spittle it causes in the mouth call it Herba salinaris It is an herb of a cubits height or more in its caul and leaves emulating the wild Daucus or vulgar Carret are multifariously divided and sected into small capillaments like Fennel its flower that erupts out of the summities of its surcles is fair broad and patulous like a Marigold but larger subluteous in its orb and circumdated with little angust long leaves supernally whitish and on the contrary fide of a purple colour in the middle of its orb and between the leaves issues a small long and odorate seed It s root is crass long and of a blackish red colour It grows in many places of Italy and Spain and fruticates flourishes and perfects its seed when it is sown in Gardens in Holland but it grows more copiously and floridly in hot and Eastern Regions and we enumerate it amongst our indigenous Plants because we have it in Europe and the Western Countryes-pretty plentifull There is another Plant which by its acrimonious odour moves sternutation which Apothecaries call wild Pyrethrum because by its vellicative sapour it moves the gust like Bartram and promotes spittle which grows in mountainous and incultivated places also in meadows and hedges Pyrethrum's root is hot in the fourth degree detained in the mouth it projects flegm copiously and therefore it helps the tooth-ache proceeding from a frigid cause it helps also the diuturnal head-ache the Apoplexy Epilepsy Palsey and all affections arising from flegm congested in the head CHAP. II. Of Mustard MUstard is no Aliment sometimes a Medicament often a Condiment for it is most conveniently admixed to viscid and glutinous dishes especially in winter that their viscidity may be corrected and the ventricle thereby roborated for it admirably helps such as have dull palats and nauseate their meat But because by its acrimony it importunely affects the gust it is not onely grinded with vinegar to mitigate its fervour but mixed with sweet wine to obdulcorate its acrimony and so is made a gratefull Condiment which many for its vulgarity disestimate Mustard is either sative or spontaneous the sative is of two sorts the one hath leaves like Rape but lesser and more sharp with a round hispid sharp stalk of two cubits height or more brachiated with many boughs about which erupt luteous flowers orderly disposed to which long thin and sharp husks succeed wherein a little round seed is included of a yellow colour and mordaceous gust The other sative Mustard is so like the former that they seem onely to dissent in colour of their seeds which in the former is luteous in this a blackish red the leaves of this are somewhat more like Rocket than the other in all other things they are the same The wild grows spontaneously in any dry place and sometimes in humid places brinks and hedges it is less than the former bearing lesser leaves jagged almost like Shepherds-purse but more acute it emits luteous quadrifolious flowers it afterwards puts forth its seed in husks which it varies sometimes bearing white sometimes red seed This Plant denominates a noble Medicament they call Synapismum which is celebrated to many uses as to inveterate Head-achs Epilepsy Vertigo difficulty of breathing distillations and the Gout Mustard is hot and dry in the fourth degree it incides attenuates Vires extracts detained in the mouth it moves flegm brayed and snuffed up the nose it causes sternutation it excites women suffocated with the histerical passion but such as have imbecil and caliginous eyes should altogether eschew it CHAP. III. Of Thlaspi or Treacle-Mustard MUstard and Thlaspi are rightly described in the same series for both agree if not in effigies yet much in qualities so that Thlaspi is commonly called Countrey Species or Treacle-Mustard There are many kinds of Thlaspis whereof three are most noted one greater another lesser and another mean whereunto all the rest of that name are referred The first grows plentifully both in cultivated and incultivated Fields with large long crisped leaves acute towards the end its caul is about half a foot long emitting boughs circumcinged with flowers at
Kettle without water and expressed out of a hollow not plain Press into a subdititious vessel wherein the Oyl that swims above the water may be collected The mass may be again brayed and moistened with water and pressed in a hollow Torcular that more oleous fatness may be elicited Dioscorides confects it a little otherwise for he elixates the mature berries in water which exude their fatness through their skins which he subacts with his hands and puts in a shell but the former way is more usual yet Apothecaries make it not but buy it thus ready made of such as congesting a great quantity of berries together make it their work to elicite Oyl Some bray the fresh and mature berries without other mistion and express their Oyl out of them in a Torcular Oyls may be thus extracted out of the berries of Lentisks Turpentine-trees Ivy Junipers and the like which bear odorate berries The Oyl of Laurel-berries is calefactive mollitive apertive and discussive and hence it cures all cold distempers whether simple or mixed with phlegm and flatulency as also the cholical dolour arising hence if it be injected into the intestines with some convenient decoction it presently cures all cold affections of the brain nerves articles and loyns it takes away lassitude opens the spiracles of the veins cures the Palsey and Trembling if the Back-bone be anointed therewith CHAP. 8. Oleum Balfami or The Oyl of Balm THe next of this kinde is Oyl of Balm which flows from a peregrine Tree which is low of stature and not elegant of a subcineritious colour with a luteous flower like Jasmins its leaves fall off about the end of Autumn and grow again in Spring It fruticates copiously in the Arabian Aegyptian and the Babylonish tract it is scarcely cicurable in colder Regions They sometimes cut off its tender succles whereunto they annex Canes oblited with wax that their fat succe may flow into them Sometimes they vulnerate its crasser boughs out of which wounds that precious Lachryma which is so much celebrated distils Some drops of this Oyl exhibited on a jejune stomack help difficulty of breathing take away the obstructions of the Liver move fluours allay stomachical dolours help the tabid and consumed and excite appetite CHAP. 9. Liquid Amber LIquid Amber is a certain oleous Rosine flowing from the incisures of a Praegrand and Venust tree of a vast magnitude whose leaves are hederaceous cortex crass and cineritious which being vulnerated emits this Oyl called from its suaveolence Liquid Amber or Oyl of Amber The Trees from which it flows are so fragrant that they send a sweet odour from the place where they grow into vicine Regions This Liquor is of much use in Medicine for it calefies roborates resolves mollifies all tumours removes obstructions moves fluors cures the suffocation of the Uterus and other diseases of women CHAP. 10. Petreolaeum or Oyl of Peter PEtreol is the work and effect of Natures hand not of the Apothecaries for he onely collects it or buys keeps and uses it when collected for Nature confects it in the bowels of the Earth and it eructates out of the clefts of Rocks whence it is called Petreol or Rock-Oyl It is to be had in those Regions where Bitumen is whereunto it is related for Bitumen is either dense or liquid the dense is as it were the fatness of the earth which swims upon the water and by agitation of the winds is cast upon the shore and there concretes and becomes tenacious and dense The legitimate Bitumen is Judaical by some called Bitumen of Sodom because it is found on the banks of Sodom It is very rare in Europe The liquid which the Greeks call Naphta is very white of colour and rapacious of fire insomuch that fire will leap to it from distance as also to all dense Bitumen Besides this Naphta there is another sort yet more fluxile like Oyl which distils from Rocks and Stones as that which abounds in the Mutinian fields on the Mount Gibion There is also a fossile and terrene Bitumen and that of two sorts the one too hard and frangible which they commonly call Stone-coal the other very dense and intensely black with nitre called Gagates of which we have treated in our Book of Simples Some and that upon good grounds affirm that Amber is a kinde of hard Bitumen Bitumen then is of large comprehension to whose family many refer Pissaphaltus and Mumy However Pissaphaltos is a kinde of mixture made of Pitch and Asphaltos or dense Bitumen which is used in maritimous towns to Pitch Ships withall The Arabians call Pissaphaltus Mumy which in their Language denotes Balm in stead whereof the Syrians and Arabians of meaner fortune used Pissaphaltos in embalming their dead carcases And thus they take Pissaphaltus for Balm and Balm for Mumy which agree not so much as in name for natural Balsam or Balm is Opobalsamum artificial consists of many Aromata's used in conditing Kings bodies Pissaphaltos is a certain mixture of Pitch and Asphaltos Mumy is a thing arising from one or both of them and the putretude of a carcase whose illicite use now to prosecute and disprove appertains not to our purpose whereunto I shall now return Petreol is not to be rejected by Apothecaries for its faculties are of much use Vires It calefies siccates by the tenuity of its substance opens penetrates digests resolves all excrementitious matter helps many diseases of the brain and nerves as the Epilepsie Lethargie and Palsey SECT V. Of Oyls extracted by Distillation and first of such as are elicited by descent BEsides these wayes of confecting Oyls Mesue subjoyns many more all which he saith are made by Resolution Education by descent and ascent is a Chymical term of whose Oyls opportune occasion now gives leave to treat Mesue also leading the way Of which I shall onely subjoyn a few words both because laborious work long time and great cost are necessarily requisite to this education of Oyls and also because they are now adayes made by some base imperite and ignorant Circulators who defraud the Commonalty with their vain promises and spend their time in seeking secret Fopperies and confecting Magisterial Bables I do not now speak of men of approved skill learning and knowledge who given to the study of abstruser Sciences seek the more secret Closets of Nature and finde the more miraculous vertues of Creatures who make Medicaments after several manners change them into several forms and by divers preparations give them divers qualities sejoyning what is useless and retaining what is expetible and so coacting them that in small quantity they have much vertue But such Medicaments should not be exhibited but by the perite for else they are perillous and precipitate men into open danger Yet skilful Medicks and Apothecaries following Mesue their Chieftain may after a Chymical manner educe certain Oyls by distillation and that either by descent whereunto descension by transudation or by draining is
always green Ibid. Boxes to be had in an Apothecaries shop pag. 489 Brass whence it is pag. 429 How to burn it Ibid. It s Flower Ibid. Its Fleaks Ibid. Broom pag. 339 Bricks pag. 424 Bryony how it differs from Mechoachan pag. 258 Bugloss its vertues pag. 228 Bulbus pag. 306 Burning of Med. pag. 67 What things require burnings Ibid. The kindes thereof Ibid. Why Sulphur and Nitre must be added pag. 69 Burnet pag. 325 Butchers-Broom pag. 240 Its vertues Ibid. Butter pag. 448 C. CAbage its description and vertues pag. 318 Cadmia pag. 433 Factitious pag. 434 Fossile pag. 434 How it is washed and prepared pag. 53 69 Calamint pag. 315 Calaminaris pag. 433 How to wash it pag. 53 Calamus Aromaticus pag. 273 Calchanthum what it is pag. 399 Caldrons that are to be used in shops what and how many pag. 483 Calefaction what it is pag. 71 Cambyses his Present to the King of Aegypt pag. 2 Champhor pag. 385 How it may be adulterated pag. 158 How to powder it with ease pag. 57 How to preserve it pag. 147 Cancannum what it is pag. 397 Its vertues Ibid. How to candy seeds pag. 106 Cantharides how they move Urine pag. 470 For what use they are pag. 469 How to prepare them pag. 470 Capers pag. 338 Capillary Herbs whence they have their name pag. 233 Their difference Ibid. Capons their difference pag. 447 Capons-grease its vertues Ibid. Cappes how they are quilted pag. 209 Caranna pag. 383 Caraway pag. 246 Carbo Petrae pag. 403 Cardamomes pag. 280 Cardiaca pag. 332 Cardiobotanum Ibid. Cardutellum pag. 333 Carduus Benedictus pag. 331 Black Carduus Ibid. Carot pag. 248 Carneol pag. 415 Carpesium pag. 281 Carpobalsamum pag. 282 Carthamus pag. 261 Cassia Fistula how to extract it pag. 81 Cassia and Cinamon are the same pag. 253 Cassidony pag. 320 Castor what it is pag. 450 His Cods Ibid. The biting of a Castor is terrible Ibid. Which Cods are to be taken Ibid. Cataplasmes what they are their use and matter pag. 200 A Cataplasme to asswage pain and mollifie hardness pag. 200 To open and discuss Flatuosity Ibid. Catapasmes what pag. 201 Catapotia why so called pag. 114 Cathartick what properly it is and what it signifies pag. 10 28 Catharticks purging by pag. 15 Attraction pag. 15 Compression pag. 15 Lubrication pag. 15 How to infuse them pag. 56 A Liquid Cathartick purges sooner then any other pag. 264 Their variety of doses pag. 163 Cautery how it differs from a vesicatory its matter and manner of making pag. 206 Centory greater and lesser pag. 335 Cephalicks pag. 18 Cerate what it is pag. 123 Why so called pag. 710 Cerecloth Ibid. The method to be observed in the making of a Cerecloth Ibid. Ceratum Oesypatum or the Cerate of wools grease pag. 713 Cerat refrig Galeni or Galen 's cooling Cerate pag. 711 Cerat Santalinum or the Cerate of Saunders Ibid. Cerat Stomachicum or a Cerate for the Stomach pag. 712 The form of a Cerecloth must be according to the part affected pag. 123 Cerus what it is pag. 432 How to make it Ibid. It s preparation pag. 433 Its Lotion pag. 53 Its burning pag. 68 Ceterach its description and vertues pag. 235 Chalk pag. 423 Chalcus pag. 135 Chamelaea pag. 267 Chamaeleon thistle pag. 333 Characters of Paracelsus are the Medicines of the Devil pag. 159 Cheme pag. 136 Cherries pag. 378 How to preserve them pag. 540 Chymical Extracts pag. 79 Chymists Opinion of the purging faculty pag. 14 Chymists Philosophical month pag. 72 Their menstruum Ibid. China root pag. 289 Its vertues pag. 290 Chrystal pag. 422 Chrysocolla pag. 399 How to burn it pag. 69 Chrysolapis pag. 420 Cicers pag. 365 Cinaberis pag. 408 Cinamon its kindes pag. 277 Cinamon water pag. 734 How it may be adulterated pag. 158 Cinkfoil pag. 361 Circulation pag. 92 Cistern-waters why unwholsome pag. 218 Cistus its description pag. 391 Citrons pag. 373 How to candy their peels pag. 543 Citruls pag. 241 Civet pag. 451 Claret pag. 734 Against the Stone pag. 735 Clarification how many ways it is made pag. 84 85 Clary its description and vertues pag. 32 Cleavers pag. 361 Cloves pag. 280 How they may be adulterated pag. 158 Cochlearium pag. 136 Coccus Baphicus pag. 284 Cocks-combe rosted for what pag. 16 Coction what it is pag. 64 The order and time pag. 65 Cohobation pag. 92 Colchicum how it differs from Hermodacts pag. 262 Collation pag. 82 Collocation pag. 86 How many wayes it may be acquired Ibid. Colyries their difference Dry Colyries Ibid. Their matter Ibid. A Colyry for the Scab of the Eye-lid pag. 196 To quicken sight pag. 195 To cool the Eye pag. 196 To dry the Rheume Ibid. A Colyry of Lead Ibid. Of Lanfrancus Ibid. Colophony pag. 377 Coloquintida pag. 266 How it may easily be powdered pag. 57 Colwort pag. 358 Coltsfoot pag. 359 How to preserve the leaves pag. 544 Common Grass pag. 304 Comfrey pag. 350 How to candy the roots pag. 547 Composition of Medicaments why pag. 97 The end thereof pag. 94 Compounds why termed simples pag. 76 Concha pag. 137 Condites their matter pag. 169 Conditures pag. 87 A cordial Condite pag. 169 How it differs from regal paste Ibid. Why made pag. 169 Condites in general pag. 106 Liquid Condites Ibid. Congius pag. 137 Confectio Alkermes pag. 615 Its vertue pag. 616 Conf. de baccis Lauri or the Confection of Bayberries pag. 618 Conf. de Dactylis or the Confection of Dates pag. 559 Conf. Hamech pag. 562 Conf. de Hyacintho or the Confection of the Hyacinth pag. 656 Conf. de Rebecha pag. 614 Conserves why to be infolated pag. 71 Their difference pag. 104 Conserve of Balm pag. 539 Of Betony Ibid. Of Borage pag. 538 Of Bugloss pag. 537 Of the Flowers of Mallows pag. 537 Of water-Lillies pag. 538 Of Rosemary-Flowers pag. 539 Of Roses pag. 536 How it is to be made pag. 105 How to be made red Ibid. Of dried Roses pag. 536 Of dryed Roses pag. 536 Of Sage pag. 539 Of Staechados Ibid. Of Violets pag. 536 Contemptible things procure health pag. 2 One contrary is opposed to another pag. 8 Copper pag. 427 Coral pag. 406 407 Cordial waters what they are and how many pag. 150 Cordial flowers what they are their vertues pag. 227 Coriander pag. 337 How to prepare the Seed pag. 66 Cornel Tree pag. 376 Cowslips pag. 357 Costus bitter sweet pag. 274 Its succidany Ibid. Crabs pag. 464 How to burn them pag. 68 The propriety of their ashes pag. 12 Cranes Bill pag. 329 Cribration pag. 81 Its use Ibid. Crocus Martis pag. 610 Whence it hath its name Ibid. The divers preparations of it pag. 611 Crude Unguent of what it consists pag. 87 Various Opinions about it Ibid. Cubebs pag. 281 Cucumber pag. 241 Wild Cucumber pag. 266 Culeus pag. 137 Cumin pag. 245 Curands pag. 386 How to candy them pag. 541 Custome of leacherous courtiers pag. 86 Cyathus pag. 137