Concrete Juices, or Juices made thick, are either
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Culpeper, Nicholas
Temperate, as, Juice of Liquorice, white starch.
Hot in the first degree. Sugar.
In the second. Labdanum.
In the third. Benzoin, Assafœtida.
Cold in the third degree. Sanguis Draconis, Acacia.
In the third. Hypocistis.
In the fourth. Opium, and yet some authors think Opium is hot because of its bitter taste.
Aloes and Manna purge choler gently; and Scamony doth purge choler violently, that it is no ways fit for a vulgar man’s use, for it corrodes the Bowels. Opopoanax purges flegm very gently.
White starch gently levigates or makes smooth such parts as are rough, syrup of Violets being made thick with it and so taken on the point of a knife, helps coughs, roughness of the throat, wheezing, excoriations of the bowels, the bloody-flux.
Juice of Liquorice helps roughness of the Trachea Arteria, which is in plain English called the windpipe, the roughness of which causes coughs and hoarseness, difficulty of breathing, &c. It allays the heat of the stomach and liver, eases pains, soreness and roughness of the reins and bladder, it quencheth thirst, and strengthens the stomach exceedingly: It may easily be carried about in one’s pocket, and eat a little now and then.
Sugar cleanses and digests, takes away roughness of the tongue, it strengthens the reins and bladder, being weakened: being beaten into fine powder and put into the eyes, it takes away films that grow over the sight.
Labdanum is in operation, thickening, heating and mollifying, it opens the passage of the veins, and keeps the hair from falling off; the use of it is usually external: being mixed with wine, myrrh, and oil of mirtles, and applied like a plaister, it takes away filthy scars, and the deformity the small pox leaves behind them; being mixed with oil of Roses, and dropped into the ears, it helps pains there; being used as a pessary, it provokes the menses, and helps hardness or stiffness of the womb. It is sometimes used inwardly in such medicines as ease pains and help the cough: if you mix a little of it with old white wine and drink it, it both provokes urine and stops looseness or fluxes.
Dragons blood, cools, binds, and repels.
Acasia, and Hyposistis, do the like.
The juice of Maudlin, or, for want of it Costmary, which is the same in effect, and better known to the vulgar, the juice is made thick for the better keeping of it; first clarify the juice before you boil it to its due thickness, which is something thicker than honey.
It is appropriated to the liver, and the quantity of a dram taken every morning, helps the Cachexia, or evil disposition of the body proceeding from coldness of the liver: it helps the rickets and worms in children, provokes urine, and gently (without purging) disburdens the body of choler and flegm; it succours the lungs, opens obstructions, and resists putrifaction of blood.
Gums are either temperate, as, Lacca, Elemi, Tragacanth, &c.
Intemperate, and so are hot in the first degree, as Bdellium, Gum of Ivy.
In the second, Galbanum, Myrrh, Mastich, Frankincense, Olibanum, Pitch, Rozin, Styrax.
In the third. Amoniacum.
In the fourth. Euphorbium.
Gum Arabick is cold.
Colophonia and Styrax soften.
Gum Arabick and Tragacanth, Sandarack or Juniper Gum, and Sarcocolla bind.
Gum of Cherry trees, breaks the stone.
Styrax provokes the menses.
Opopanax gently purges flegm.
From the prickly Cedar when it is burned comes forth that which, with us, is usually known by the name of Tar, and is excellently good for unction either for scabs, itch, or manginess, either in men or beasts, as also against the leprosy, tetters, ringworms, and scald heads.
All sorts of Rozins fill up hollow ulcers, and relieve the body sore pressed with cold griefs.
The Rozin of Pitch-tree, is that which is commonly called Burgundy pitch, and is something hotter and sharper than the former, being spread upon a cloth is excellently good for old aches coming of former bruises or dislocations.
Pitch mollifies hard swellings, and brings boils and sores to suppuration, it breaks carbuncles, disperses aposthumes, cleanses ulcers of corruption and fills them with flesh.
Bdellium heats and mollifies, and that very temperately, being mixed with any convenient ointment or plaister, it helps kernels in the neck and throat, Scrophula, or that disease which was called the King’s Evil. Inwardly taken in any convenient medicine, it provokes the menses, and breaks the stone, it helps coughs and bitings of venomous beasts: it helps windiness of the spleen, and pains in the sides thence coming. Both outwardly applied to the place and inwardly taken, it helps ruptures or such as are burst, it softens the hardness of the womb, dries up the moisture thereof and expels the dead child.
Bitumen Jadaicum is a certain dry pitch which the dead sea, or lake of Sodom in India casts forth at certain times, the inhabitants thereabouts pitch their ships with it. It is of excellent use to mollify the hardness of swellings and discuss them, as also against inflammations; the smoke of it burnt is excellently good for the fits of the mother, and the falling-sickness: Inwardly taken in wine it provokes the menses, helps the bitings of venomous beasts, and dissolves congealed blood in the body.
Ambergreese is hot and dry in the second degree, I will not dispute whether it be a Gum or not: It strengthens nature much which way soever it be taken, there are but few grains usually given of it at a time: mixed with a little ointment of Orange flowers, and the temples and forehead anointed with it, it eases the pains of the head and strengthens the brain exceedingly; the same applied to the privities, helps the fits of the mother; inwardly taken it strengthens the brain and memory, the heart and vital spirit, warms cold stomachs, and is an exceeding strengthener of nature to old people, adding vigour to decayed and worn-out spirits: it provokes venery, and makes barren women fruitful, if coldness and moisture or weakness be the cause impediting.
Assafœtida being smelled to, is vulgarly known to repress the fits of the mother; a little bit put into an aching tooth, presently eases the pain, ten grains of it taken before dinner, walking half an hour after it, provokes appetite, helps digestion, strengthens the stomach, and takes away loathing of meat, it provokes lust exceedingly and expels wind as much.
Borax, besides the virtues it has to solder Gold, Silver, Copper, &c. inwardly given in small quantities, it stops fluxes, and the running of the reins: being in fine powder, and put into green wounds, it cures them at once dressing.
Gambuge, which the College calls Gutta Gamba. I know no good of it.
Caranna outwardly applied, is excellent for aches and swellings in the nerves and joints: If you lay it behind the ears, it draws back humours from the eyes; applied to the temples as they usually do Mastich, it helps the tooth-ache.
Gum Elimi, authors appropriate to fractures in the skull and head. See Arceus’ liniment.
Gum Lacca being well purified, and the quantity of half a dram taken in any convenient liquor, strengthens the stomach and liver, opens obstructions, helps the yellow jaundice and dropsy; provokes urine, breaks the stone in the reins and bladder.