Concrete Juices, or Juices made thick, are either
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Culpeper, Nicholas
Liquid Amber is not much unlike liquid Styrax: by unction it warms and comforts a cold and moist brain, it eases all griefs coming of a cold cause, it mightily comforts and strengthens a weak stomach, being anointed with it, and helps digestion exceedingly, it dissolves swellings. It is hot in the third degree, and moist in the first.
I think it would do the commonwealth no harm if I should speak a word or two on Manna here, although it be no Gum: I confess authors make some flutter about it, what it is, some holding it to be the juice of a tree; I am confident it is the very same condensated that our honey-dews here are, only the contries whence it comes being far hotter, it falls in great abundance. Let him that desires reason for it, be pleased to read Butler’s book of Bees, a most excellent experimental work, there he shall find reason enough to satisfy any reasonable man. Choose the driest and whitest; it is a very gentle purger of choler, quenches thirst, provokes appetite, eases the roughness of the throat, helps bitterness in the throat, and often proneness to vomit, it is very good for such as are subject to be costive to put it into their drink instead of sugar, it hath no obnoxious quality at all in it, but may be taken by a pregnant woman without any danger; a child of a year old may take an ounce of it at a time dissolved in milk, it will melt like sugar, neither will it be known from it by the taste.
Myrrh is hot and dry in the second degree, dangerous for pregnant women, it is bitter, and yet held to be good for the roughness of the throat and wind-pipe; half a dram of it taken at a time helps rheumatic distillations upon the lungs, pains in the sides; it stops fluxes, provokes the menses, brings away both birth and after-birth, softens the hardness of the womb; being taken two hours before the fit comes, it helps agues. Mathiolus saith he seldom used any other medicine for the quartan ague than a dram of myrrh given in Muskadel an hour before the fit usually came; if you make it up into pills with treacle, and take one of them every morning fasting, it is a sovereign preservative against the pestilence, against the poison of serpents, and other venomous beasts; a singular remedy for a stinking breath if it arise from putrefaction of the stomach, it fastens loose teeth, and stays the shedding off of the hair, outwardly used it breeds flesh in deep wounds, and covers the naked bones with flesh.
Olibanum is hot in the second degree, and dry in the first, you may take a dram of it at a time, it stops looseness and the running of the reins; it strengthens the memory exceedingly, comforts the heart, expels sadness and melancholy, strengthens the heart, helps coughs, rheums and pleurises; your best way (in my opinion,) to take it is to mix it with conserve of roses, and take it in the morning fasting.
Tachamacha is seldom taken inwardly, outwardly spread upon leather, and applied to the navel; it stays the fits of the mother, applied to the side, it mitigates speedily, and in little time quite takes away the pain and windiness of the spleen; the truth is, whatsoever ache or swelling proceeds of wind or cold raw humours, I know no better plaister coming from beyond sea than this gum. It strengthens the brain and memory exceedingly, and stops all such defluctions thence as trouble the eyes, ears, or teeth, it helps the gout and sciatica.
Gum Coopal, and Gum Anime, are very like one another both in body and operation, the former is hard to come by, the last not very easy. It stops defluctions from the head, if you perfume your cap with the smoke of it, it helps the headache and megrim, strengthens the brain, and therefore the sinews.
Gum Tragaganth, which the vulgar call Gum Dragon, being mixed with pectoral Syrups, (which you shall find noted in their proper places) it helps coughs and hoarseness, salt and sharp distillations upon the lungs, being taken with a liquorice stick, being dissolved in sweet wine, it helps (being drank) gnawing in the bowels, sharpness and freetings of the urine, which causes excoriations either in the reins or bladder, being dissolved in milk and the eyes washed with it, it takes away weals and scabs that grow on the eyelids, it is excellently good to be put in poultice to fodder wounds, especially if the nerves or sinews be hurt.
Sagapen, dissolved in juice of rue and taken, wonderfully breaks the stone in the bladder, expels the dead child and afterbirth, clears the sight; dissolved in wine and drank, it helps the cough, and distillation upon the lungs, and the fits of the mother; outwardly in oils or ointments, it helps such members as are out of joint or over-stretched.
Galbanum is of the same operation, and also taken from the same plant, viz. Fennel, Giant.
Gum Arabic, thickens and cools, and corrects choleric sharp humours in the body, being dissolved in the white of an egg, well beaten, it helps burnings, and keeps the place from blistering.
Mastich stays fluxes, being taken inwardly any way. Three or four small grains of Mastich, swallowed at night going to bed, is a remedy for pains in the stomach, being beaten into powder, and mixed with conserve of Roses, it strengthens the stomach, stops distillations upon the lungs, stay, vomiting, and causes a sweet breath; being mixed with white wine and the mouth washed with it, it cleanses the gums of corruption, and fastens loose teeth.
Frankincense being used outwardly in the way of a plaister, heats and binds; being applied to the temples, stops the rheums that flow to the eyes, helps green wounds, and fills hollow ulcers with flesh, stops the bleeding of wounds, though the arteries be cut; being made into an ointment with Vinegar and Hog’s-grease, helps the itch, pains in the ears, inflammations in women’s breasts commonly called agues in the breast; beware of taking it inwardly, lest it cause madness.
Turpentine is hot in the second degree, it heals, softens, it discusses and purges, cleanses the reins, provokes urine.
Styrax Calamitis is hot and dry in the second degree, it heals, mollifies, and concocts; being taken inwardly helps the cough, and distillations of the lungs, hoarseness and loss of voice, helps the hardness of the womb, and provokes the menses.
Ammoniacum, hot and dry in the third degree, softens, draws, and heats; being dissolved in vinegar, strained and applied plaister-wise, it takes away carbuncles and hardness in the flesh, it is one of the best remedies that I know for infirmities of the spleen, being applied to the left side; being made into an ointment with oil, it is good to anoint the limbs of such as are weary: a scruple of it being taken in the form of a pill loosens the belly, gives speedy delivery to women in travail, helps diseases of the spleen, the sciatica and all pains in the joints, and have any humour afflicting their breast.
Camphire, it is held by all authority to be cold and dry in the third degree, it is of very thin subtile parts, insomuch that being beaten into very fine powder it will vanquish away into the air, being beaten into powder and mixed with oil, and the temples anointed therewith, eases headaches proceeding of heat, all inflammations whatsoever, the back being anointed with the same, cools the reins, and seminal vessels, stops the running of the reins and Fluor Albus, the moderate use of Venery, the like it doth if it be drank inwardly with Bettony-water, take but a small quantity of it at a time inwardly, it resist poison and bitings by venomous beasts; outwardly, applied as before, and the eyes anointed with it, stops hot rheums that flow thither.
Opopanax purges thick flegm from the most remote parts of the body, viz. the brain, joints, hands, and feet, the nerves and breast, and strengthens all those parts when they are weak, if the weakness proceed of cold, as usually it doth; it helps weakness of the sight, old rotten coughs, and gouts of all sorts, dropsies, and swellings of the spleen, it helps the stranguary and difficulty of making urine, provokes the menses, and helps all cold afflictions of the womb; have a care you give it not to any pregnant women. The dose is one dram at most, corrected with a little Mastich, dissolved in Vinegar and outwardly applied helps the passions of the spleen.
In the next place the College tells you a tale concerning Liquid, Juices, and Tears, which are to be kept for present use, viz.
College.] Vinegar, Juice of Citrons, Juice of sour Grapes, Oranges, Barberries, Tears of a Birch-tree, Juice of Cherries, Quinces, Pomegranates, Lemons, Wood-sorrel, Oil of unripe Olives, and ripe Olives, both new and old, Juice of red and Damask Roses, Wine Tears of a Vine.
Culpeper.] The virtues of the most of these may be found in the Syrups, and are few of them used alone.
Then the College tells you there are things bred of PLANTS.
College.] Agarick, Jew’s-ears, the berries of Chermes, the Spungy substance of the Briar, Moss, Viscus Quercinus, Oak, Apples.
Culpeper.] As the College would have you know this, so would I know what the chief of them are good for.
Jew’s-ears boiled in milk and drank, helps sore throats.
Moss is cold, dry, and binding, therefore good for fluxes of all sorts.
Misleto of the Oak, it helps the falling sickness and the convulsions; being discreetly gathered and used.
Oak Apples are dry and binding; being boiled in milk and drank, they stop fluxes and the menses, and being boiled in vinegar, and the body anointed with the vinegar, cures the itch.
Then the College acquaints you, That there are certain living Creatures called
College.] Bees, Woodlice, Silkworms, Toads, Crabs of the River, little Puppy Dogs, Grass-hoppers, Cantharides, Cothanel, Hedge-hogs, Emmets or Ants, Larks, Swallows, and their young ones, Horse-leeches, Snails, Earthworms, Dishwashers or Wagtails, House Sparrows and Hedge Sparrows, Frogs, Scineus, Land Scorpions, Moles, or Monts, Tortoise of the Woods, Tenches, Vipers and Foxes.
Culpeper.] That part of this crew of Cattle and some others which they have not been pleased to learn, may be made beneficial to your sick bodies, be pleased to understand, that
Bees being burnt to ashes, and a lye made with the ashes, trimly decks a bald head being washed with it.
Snails with shells on their backs, being first washed from the dirt, then the shells broken, and they boiled in spring water, but not scummed at all, for the scum will sink of itself, and the water drank for ordinary drink is a most admirable remedy for consumption; being bruised and applied to the place they help the gout, draw thorns out of the flesh, and held to the nose help the bleeding thereof.
Therefore consider that the College gave the Apothecaries a catalogue of what Parts of Living creatures and Excrements they must keep in their shops.
College.] The fat, grease, or suet, of a Duck, Goose, Eel, Boar, Herron, Thymallows, (if you know where to get it) Dog, Capon, Beaver, wild Cat, Stork, Coney, Horse, Hedge-hog, Hen, Man, Lion, Hare, Pike, or Jack, (if they have any fat, I am persuaded ’tis worth twelve-pence a grain) Wolf, Mouse of the mountains, (if you can catch them) Pardal, Hog, Serpent, Badger, Grey or brock Fox, Vulture, (if you can catch them) Album Græcum, Anglice, Dog’s dung, the hucklebone of a Hare and a Hog, East and West Bezoar, Butter not salted and salted, stone taken out of a man’s bladder, Vipers flesh, fresh Cheese, Castorium, white, yellow, and Virgin’s Wax, the brain of Hares and Sparrows, Crabs’ Claws, the Rennet of a Lamb, a Kid, a Hare, a Calf, and a Horse, the heart of a Bullock, a Stag, Hog, and a Wether, the horn of an Elk, a Hart, a Rhinoceros, an Unicorn, the skull of a man killed by a violent death, a Cockscomb, the tooth of a Boar, an Elephant, and a Sea-horse, Ivory, or Elephant’s Tooth, the skin a Snake hath cast off, the gall of a Hawk, Bullock, a she Goat, a Hare, a Kite, a Hog, a Bull, a Bear, the cases of Silk-worms, the liver of a Wolf, an Otter, a Frog, Isinglass, the guts of a Wolf and a Fox, the milk of a she Ass, a she Goat, a Woman, an Ewe, a Heifer, East and West Bezoar, the stone in the head of a Crab, and a Perch, if there be any stone in an Ox Gall, stone in the bladder of a Man, the Jaw of a Pike or Jack, Pearls, the marrow of the Leg of a Sheep, Ox, Goat, Stag, Calf, common and virgin Honey, Musk, Mummy, a Swallow’s nest, Crabs Eyes, the Omentum or call of a
Lamb, Ram, Wether, Calf, the whites, yolks, and shells of Hen’s Eggs, Emmet’s Eggs, bone of a Stag’s heart, an Ox leg, Ossepiœ, the inner skin of a Hen’s Gizzard, the wool of Hares, the feathers of Partridges, that which Bees make at the entrance of the hive, the pizzle of a Stag, of a Bull, Fox Lungs, fasting spittle, the blood of a Pigeon, of a Cat, of a he Goat, of a Hare, of a Partridge, of a Sow, of a Bull, of a Badger, of a Snail, Silk, Whey, the suet of a Bullock, of a Stag, of a he Goat, of a Sheep, of a Heifer, Spermaceti, a Bullock’s spleen, the skin a Snake hath cast off, the excrements of a Goose, of a Dog, of a Goat, of Pigeons, of a stone Horse, of a Hen, of Swallows, of a Hog, of a Heifer, the ancle of a Hare, of a Sow, Cobwebs, Water thells, as Blatta Bazantia, Buccinæ, Crabs, Cockles, Dentalis, Entalis, Mother of Pearl, Mytuli Purpuræ, Os sepiæ, Umbilious Marinus, the testicles of a Horse, a Cock, the hoof of an Elk, of an Ass, a Bullock, of a Horse, of a Lyon, the urine of a Boar, of a she Goat.
Culpeper.] The liver of an Hedge-hog being dried and beaten into powder and drank in wine, strengthens the reins exceedingly, and helps the dropsy, convulsions, and the falling sickness, together with all fluxes of the bowels.
The liver being in like manner brought into powder, strengthens the liver exceedingly, and helps the dropsy.
Then the College tells you these things may be taken from the SEA, as
College.] Amber-grease, Sea-water, Sea-sand, Bitumen, Amber white and yellow, Jet, Carlinæ, Coral, white and red, Foam of the Sea, Spunge, Stone Pumice, Sea salt, Spunges, Amber.