SEEDS OR GRAINS.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Culpeper, Nicholas
Coriander seed, hot and dry, expels wind, but is hurtful to the head; sends up unwholesome vapours to the brain, dangerous for mad people.
Fenugreek seeds, are of a softening, discussing nature, they cease inflammations, be they internal or external: bruised and mixed with vinegar they ease the pains of the spleen: being applied to the sides, help hardness and swellings of the matrix, being boiled, the decoction helps scabby heads.
Lin-seed hath the same virtues with Fenugreek.
Gromwell seed, provokes urine, helps the cholic, breaks the stone, and expels wind. Boil them in white wine; but bruise them first.
Lupines, ease the pains of the spleen, kill worms and cast them out: outwardly, they cleanse filthy ulcers, and gangrenes, help scabs, itch, and inflammations.
Dill seed, encreases milk in nurses, expels wind, stays vomitings, provokes urine; yet it dulls the sight, and is an enemy to generation.
Smallage seed, provokes urine and the menses, expels wind, resists poison, and eases inward pains, it opens stoppings in any part of the body, yet it is hurtful for such as have the falling-sickness, and for pregnant women.
Rocket seed, provokes urine, stirs up lust, encreases seed, kills worms, eases pains of the spleen. Use all these in like manner.
Basil seed: If we may believe Dioscorides and Crescentius, cheers the heart, and strengthens a moist stomach, drives away melancholy, and provokes urine.
Nettle seed, provokes venery, opens stoppages of the womb, helps inflammations of the sides and lungs; purgeth the breast: boil them (being bruised) in white wine also.
The seeds of Ammi, or Bishop’s-weed, heat and dry, help difficulty of urine, and the pains of the cholic, the bitings of venomous beasts; they provoke the menses, and purge the womb.
Annis seeds, heat and dry, ease pain, expel wind, cause a sweet breath, help the dropsy, resist poison, breed milk, and stop the Fluor Albus in women, provoke venery, and ease the head-ache.
Cardamoms, heat, kill worms, cleanse the reins, and provoke urine.
Fennel seed, breaks wind, provokes urine and the menses, encreases milk in nurses.
Cummin seed, heat, bind, and dry, stop blood, expel wind, ease pain, help the bitings of venomous beast: outwardly applied (viz. in Plaisters) they are of a discussing nature.
Carrot seeds, are windy, provoke lust exceedingly, and encrease seed, provoke urine and the menses, cause speedy delivery to women in travail, and bring away the placenta. All these also may be boiled in white wine.
Nigella seeds, boiled in oil, and the forehead anointed with it, ease pains in the head, take away leprosy, itch, scurf, and help scald heads: Inwardly taken they expel worms, they provoke urine, and the menses, help difficulty of breathing.
Stavesacre, kills lice in the head, I hold it not fitting to be given inwardly.
Olibanum mixed with as much Barrow’s Grease (beat the Olibanum first in powder) and boiled together, make an ointment which will kill the lice in children’s heads, and such as are subject to breed them, will never breed them. A Medicine cheap, safe, and sure, which breeds no annoyance to the brain.
The seeds of Water-cresses, heat, yet trouble the stomach and belly; ease the pains of the spleen, are very dangerous for pregnant women, yet they provoke lust: outwardly applied, they help leprosies, scald heads, and the falling off of hair, as also carbuncles, and cold ulcers in the joints.
Mustard seed, heats, extenuates, and draws moisture from the brain: the head being shaved and anointed with Mustard, is a good remedy for the lethargy, it helps filthy ulcers, and hard swellings in the mouth, it helps old aches coming of cold.
French Barley, is cooling, nourishing, and breeds milk.
Sorrel seeds, potently resist poison, help fluxes, and such stomachs as loath their meat.
Succory seed, cools the heat of the blood, extinguishes lust, opens stoppings of the liver and bowels, it allays the heat of the body, and produces a good colour, it strengthens the stomach, liver, and reins.
Poppy seeds, ease pain, provoke sleep. Your best way is to make an emulsion of them with barley water.
Mallow seeds, ease pains in the bladder.
Chich-pease, are windy, provoke lust, encrease milk in nurses, provoke the menses, outwardly, they help scabs, itch, and inflammations of the testicles, ulcers, &c.
White Saxifrage seeds, provoke urine, expel wind, and break the stone. Boil them in white wine.
Rue seeds, helps such as cannot hold their water.
Lettice seed, cools the blood, restrains venery.
Also Gourds, Citruls, Cucumbers, Melons, Purslain, and Endive seeds, cool the blood, as also the stomach, spleen, and reins, and allay the heat of fevers. Use them as you were taught to do poppy-seeds.
Wormseed, expels wind, kills worms.
Ash-tree Keys, ease pains in the sides, help the dropsy, relieve men weary with labour, provoke venery, and make the body lean.
Piony seeds, help the Ephialtes, or the disease the vulgar call the Mare, as also the fits of the mother, and other such like infirmities of the womb, stop the menses, and help convulsions.
Broom seed, potently provoke urine, break the stone.
Citron seeds, strengthen the heart, cheer the vital spirit, resist pestilence and poison.