Of moistening Medicines.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Culpeper, Nicholas
There can be no such difference found amongst moistening medicines, that they should surpass the second degree. For seeing all medicines are either hot or cold, neither heat nor cold, seeing they are extremes, can consist with moisture, for the one dries it up, the other condensates it.
Use. Phylosophers therefore call moisture and dryness, passive qualities, yet have they their operation likewise; for moist medicines lenify and make slippery, ease the cough, and help the roughness of the throat. These operations are proper to medicines moist in the first degree.
Those which are moister, take away naturally strength, help the sharpness of humours, make both blood and spirits thicker, looses the belly, and fits it for purgation.
The immoderate or indiscreet use of them dulls the body, and makes it unfit for action.