of leaves chuse only such as are green and full of juyce pick them
carefully and cast away such as are any way declining for they will
putrifie the rest so shall one handful be worth ten of those you buy in
cheap side note in what place they most delight to grow in and gather
them there for bettony that grows in the shadow is far better than that
which grows in the sun because it delights in the shadow so also such
herbs as delight to grow neer the water though happily you may find some
of them upon dry ground the treatise will inform you where every herb
delights to grow the leaves of such herbs as run up to seed are not so
good when they are in flower as before some few excepted the leaves of
which are seldom or never used in such cases if through ignorance they
were not known or through negligence forgotten you had better take the
top and the flower than the leaf dry them well in the sun and not in the
shadow as the swinge of physitians is for if the sun draw away the
vertues of herbs it must needs do the like by hay by the same rule which
the experience of every country farmer will explode for a notable piece
of non sense such as are artists in astrology and indeed none else are
fit to make physitians such i advise let the planet that governs the
herb be angular and the stronger the better if they can in herbs of
saturn let saturn be in the ascendent in the herbs of mars let mars be
in the mid heaven for in those houses they delight let the moon apply to
them by good aspect and let her not be in the houses of their enemies if
you cannot well stay till she apply to them let her apply to a planet of
the same triplicity if you cannot wait that time neither let her be with
a fixed star of their nature having well dryed them put them up in brown
papers sewing the paper up like a sack and press them not too hard
together and keep them in a dry place neer the fire as for the duration
of dryed herbs a just time cannot be given let authors prate their
pleasures for first such as grow upon dry grounds will keep better than
such as grow on moist secondly such herbs as are full of juyce will not
keep so long as such as are dryer thirdly such herbs as are well dryed
will keep longer than such as are ill dried yet this i say by this you
may know when they are corrupted by their loss of colour or smell or
both and if they be corrupted reason will tell you that they must needs
corrupt the bodies of those people that take them gather all leaves in
the hour of that planet that governs them the flower which is the beauty
of the plant and of none of the least use in physick groweth yeerly and
is to be gathered when it is in its prime as for the time of gathering
them let the planetary hour and the planet that rules the plant they
come of be observed as we shewed you in the foregoing chapter as for the
time of the day let it be when the sun shines upon them that so they may
be dry for if you gather either herbs or flowers when they are wet or
dewy they will not keep and this i forgot before dry them well in the
sun and keep them in papers neer the fire as i shewed you in the
foregoing chapter so long as they retain their colour and smel they are
good either of them being gone so is the vertue also the seed is that
part of the plant which is endewed with a vitall faculty to bring forth
its like and it contains potentially the whol plant in it as for place
let them be gathered from the plants where they delight to grow let them
be full ripe when they are gathered and forget not the coelestial
harmony before mentioned for i have found by experience that their
vertues are twice as great at such times than at others there is an
appointed time for every thing under the sun when you have gathered them
dry them a little and but a little in the sun before you lay them up you
need not be so careful of keeping them so neer the fire as the other
before mentioned because they are fuller of spirit and therefore not so
subject to corrupt as for the time of their duration 'tis palpable they
will keep good many yeers yet this i say they are best the first yeer
and this i make appear by a good argument they will grow soonest the
firt yeer they be set therefore then are they in their prime and 'tis an
easie matter to renew them yeerly of roots chuse such as are neither
rotten nor wormeaten but proper in their tast colour and smell such as
exceed neither in softness nor hardness give me leave to be a little
critical against the vulgar received opinion which is that the sap falls
down into the root in autumn and rises again in spring as men go to bed
at night and rise in the morning and this idle tale of untruth is so
grounded in the heads not only of the vulgar but also of the learned
that a man cannot drive it out by reason i pray let such sap mongers
answer me to this argument if the sap fall into the root in the fall of
the leaf and lie there all the winter then must the root grow only in
the winter as experience witnesseth but the root grows not at all in the
winter as the same experience teacheth but only in the summer ergo if
you set an apple kernel in the spring you shall find the root to grow to
a pretty bigness in that summer and be not a whit bigger next spring
what doth the sap do in the root all that while pick straws for god's
sake build not your faith upon tradition 'tis as rotten as a rotten post
the truth is when the sun declines from the tropick of cancer the sap
begins to congeal both in root and branch when he toucheth the tropick
of capricorn and ascends to us ward it begins to wax thin again and by
degrees as it congealed but to proceed the dryer time you gather your
roots in the better they are for they have the less excrementitious
moisture in them such roots as are soft your best way is to dry in the
sun or else hang them up in the chimney corner upon a string as for such
as are hard you may dry them any where such roots as are great will keep
longer than such as are small yet most of them will keep a yeer such
roots as are soft it is your best way to keep them alwaies neer the fire
and take this general rule if in winter time you find any of your roots
herbs or flowers begin to grow moist as many times you shall especially
in the winter time for 'tis your best way to look to them once a month
dry them by a very gentle fire or if you can with convenience keep them
neer the fire you may save your self the labor it is in vain to dry such
roots as may commonly be had as parsly fennel plantane but gather them
only for present need barks which physitians use in mediscines are these
sorts of fruits of roots of boughs the barks of fruits is to be taken
when the fruit is full ripe as orrenges lemmons but because i have
nothing to do with exoticks here i shall pass them without any more
words the barks of trees are best gathered in the spring if it be of
great trees as oaks or the like because then they come easiest off and
so you may dry them if you please but indeed your best way is to gather
all barks only for present use as for the bark of roots 'tis this and
thus to be gotten take the roots of such herbs as have a pith in them as
parsly fennel slit them in the middle and when you have taken out the
pith which you may easily and quickly do that which remains is called
though somthing improperly the bark and indeed is only to be used juyces
are to be pressed out of herbs when they are yong and tender and also
out of some stalks and tender tops of herbs and plants and also out of
some flowers having gathered your herb you would preserve the juyce of
when it is very dry for otherwise your juyce will not be worth a button
bruise it very wel in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle then having
put it into a canvas bag the herb i mean not the mortar for that will
yield but little juyce press it hard in a press then take the juyce and
clarifie it the manner of clarifying of it is this put it into a pipkin
or skillet or some such thing and set it over the fire and when the scum
riseth take it off let it stand over the fire till no more scum rise
then have you your juyce clarified cast away the scum as a thing of no
use hitherto we have spoken of medicines which consist in their own
nature which authors vulgarly call simples though somthing improperly
for indeed and in truth nothing is simple but the pure elements all
things else are compounded of them we come now to treat of the
artificial medicines in the front of which because we must begin
somewhere we place distilled waters in which consider waters are
distilled out of herbs flowers fruits and roots we treat not here of
strong waters but of cold as being to act galen's part and not
paracelsus the herbs ought to be distilled when they are in their
greatest vigor and so ought the flowers also the vulgar way of
distillation which people use because they know no better is in a peuter
still and although distilled waters are the weakest of all artificial
medicines and good for little unless for mixtures of other medicines yet
this way distilled they are weaker by many degrees than they would be
were they distilled in sand if i thought it not impossible to teach you
the way of distilling in sand by writing i would attempt it when you
have distilled your water put it into a glass and having bound the top
of it over with a paper pricked full of holes that so the
excrementitious and fiery vapors may exhale which indeed are they that
cause that setling in distilled waters called the mother which corrupts
the waters and might this way be prevented cover it close and keep it
for your use stopping distilled waters with a cork makes them musty and
so will a paper also if it do but touch the water your best way then is
to stop them with a bladder being first wet in water and bound over the
top of the glass such cold waters as are distilled in a peuter still if
well kept will endure a yeer such as are distilled in sand as they are
twice as strong so will they endure twice as long a syrup is a medicine
of a liquid form composed of infusion decoction and juyce and for the
more grateful tast for the better keeping of it with a certain quantity
of honey or sugar hereafter mentioned boiled to the thickness of new
honey you see at the first view then that this aphorism devides it self
into three branches which deserve severally to be treated of of each of
these for your instruction sake kind country men and women i speak a
word or two or three apart first syrups made by infusion are usually
made of flowers and of such flowers as soon lose both colour and
strength by boyling as roses violets peach flowers my translation of the
london dispensatory will instruct you in the rest they are thus made
having picked your flowers clean to every pound of them ad three pound
or three pints which you will for it is all one of spring water made
boyling hot by the fire first put your flowers in a peuter pot with a
cover then powr the water to them then shutting the pot let it stand by
the fire to keep hot twelve hours then strain it out in such syrups as
purge as damask roses peach flowers the usual and indeed the best way is
to repeat this infusion adding fresh flowers to the same liquor diverse
times that so it may be the stronger having strained it out put the
infusion into a peuter bason or an earthen one well glassed and to every
pint of it ad two pound of fine sugar which being only melted over the
fire without boyling and scummed will produce you the syrup you desire
secondly syrups made by decoction are usually used of compounds yet may
any simple herb be thus converted into syrup take the herb root or
flower you would make into syrup and bruise it a little then boyl it in
a convenient quantity of spring water the more water you boyl it in the
weaker will it be a handful of the herb root is a convenient quantity
for a pint of water boyl it till half the water be consumed then let it
stand till it be almost cold and strain it being almost cold through a
woollen cloth letting it run out at leisure without pressing to every
pint of this decoction ad one pound of sugar and boyl it over the fire
till it come to a syrup which you may know if you now and then cool a
little of it in a spoon scum it all the while it boyls and when it is
sufficiently boyled whilst it is hot strain it again through a woollen
cloth but press it not thus have you the syrup perfected thirdly syrups
made of juyces are usually made of such herbs as are full of juyce and
indeed they are better made into a syrup this way than any other the
operation is thus having beaten the herb in a stone mortar with a wooden
pestle press out the juyce and clarifie it as you were taught before in
the juyces then let the juyce boyl away till a quarter of it or neer
upon be consumed to a pint of this ad a pound of sugar and boyl it to a
syrup alwaies scumming it and when it is boyled enough strain it through
a woollen cloth as we taught you before and keep it for your use if you
make syrups of roots that are any thing hard as parsley fennel and grass
roots when you have bruised them lay them in steep some time in that
water which you intend to boyl them in hot so will the vertue the better
come out keep your syrups either in glasses or stone pots and stop them
not with cork nor bladder unless you would have the glass break and the
syrup lost and as many opinions as there are in this nation i suppose
there are but few or none of this only bind a paper about the mouth all
syrups if well made will continue a yeer with some advantage yet of all
such as are made by infusion keep the least while juleps were first
invented as i suppose in arabia and my reason is because the word juleb
is an arabick word it signifies only a pleasant potion and was vulgarly
used by such as were sick and wanted help or such as were in health and
wanted no money to quench thirst now a daies 'tis commonly used it is
thus made i mean simple juleps for i have nothing to say to compounds
here all compounds have as many several idea's as men have crotchets in
their brain i say simple juleps are thus made take a pint of such
distilled water as conduceth to the cure of your distemper which this
treatise will plentifully furnish you withal to which add two ounces of
syrup conducing to the same effect i shall give you rules for it in the
last chapter mix them together and drink a draught of it at your
pleasure if you love tart things ad ten drops of oyl of vitriol to your
pint and shake it together and it will have a fine grateful tast all
juleps are made for present use and therefore it is in vain to speak of
their duration all the difference between decoctions and syrups made by
decoction is this syrups are made to keep decoctions only for present
use for you can hardly keep a decoction a week at any time if the
weather be hot not half so long decoctions are made of leaves roots
flowers seeds fruits or barks conducing to the cure of the disease you
make them for in the same manner are they made as we shewed you in
syrups decoctions made with wine last longer than such as are made with
water and if you take your decoction to clense the passages of urine or
open obstructions your best way is to make it with white wine instead of
water because that is most penetrating decoctions are of most use in
such diseases as lie in the passages of the body as the stomach bowels
kidneys passages of urine and bladder because decoctions pass quicker to
those places than any other form of medicines if you will sweeten your
decoction with sugar or any syrup fit for the occasion you take it for
which is better you may and no harm done if in a decoction you boyl both
roots herbs flowers and seeds together let the roots boyl a good while
first because they retain their vertue longest then the next in order by
the same rule such things as by boyling cause sliminess to a decoction
as figs quince seeds linseed your best way is after you have bruised
then to tie them up in a linnen rag as you tie up a calves brains and so
boyl them keep all decoctions in a glass close stopped and in the cooler
place you keep them the longer will they last ere they be sowr lastly
the usual dose to be given at one time is usually two three four or five
ounces according to the age and strength of the patient the season of
the yeer the strength of the medicine and the quality of the disease oyl
olive which is commonly known by the name of sallet oyl i suppose
because it is usually eaten with sallets by them that love it if it be
pressed out of ripe olives according to galen is temperate and exceeds
in no one quality of oyls some are simple and some are compound simple
oyuls are such as are made of fruits or seeds by expression as oyl of
sweet and bitter almonds linseed and rapeseed oyl of which see my
dispensatory compound oyls are made of oyl of olives and other simples
imagine herbs flowers roots the way of making them is this having
bruised the herbs or flowers you would make your oyl of put them in an
earthen pot and to two or three handfuls of them powr a pint of oyl
cover the pot with a paper and set it in the sun about a fortnight or
less according as the sun is in hotness then having warmed it very well
by the fire press out the herbs very hard in a press and ad as many more
herbs to the same oyl bruised the herbs i mean not the oyl in like
manner set them in the sun as before the oftner you repeat this the
stronger will your oyl be at last when you conceive it strong enough
boyl both herbs and oyl together till the juyce be consumed which you
may know by its leaving its bubling and the herbs will be crisp then
strain it whilst it is hot and keep it in a stone or glass vessel for
your use as for chymical oyls i have nothing to say in this treatise the
general use of these oyls is for pain in the limbs roughness of the skin
the itch as also for oyntments and plaisters if you have occasion to use
it for wounds or ulcers in two ounces of oyl dissolve half an ounce of
turpentine the heat of the fire will quickly do it for oyl it self is
offensive to wounds and the turpentine qualifies it physitians make more
a quoil than needs behalf about electuaries i shall prescribe but one
general way of making them up as for the ingredients you may vary them
as you please and according as you find occassion by the last chapter
that you may make electuaries when you need them it is requisite that
you keep alwaies herbs roots seeds flowers ready dried in your house
that so you may be in readiness to beat them into pouder when you need
them your better way is to keep them whol than beaten for being beaten
they are the more subject to lose their strength because the air soon
penetrates them if they be not dry enough to beat into pouder when you
need them dry them by a gentle fire till they are so having beaten them
sift them through a fine tiffany searce that so there may be no great
pieces found in your electuary to an ounce of your pouder ad three
ounces of clarified honey this quantity i hold to be sufficient i
confess authors differ about it if you would make more or less electuary
vary your proportions accordingly mix them well together in a mortar and
take this for a truth you cannot mix them too much the way to clarifie
honey is to set it over the fire in a convenient vessel till the scum
arise and when the scum is taken off it is clarified the usual dose of
cordial electuaries is from half a dram to two drams of purging
electuaries from half an ounce to an ounce the manner of keeping them is
in a pot the time of taking them is either in the morning fasting and
fasting an hour after them or a night going to bed three or four hours
after supper the way of making conserves is two fold one of herbs and
flowers and the other of fruits conserves of herbs and flowers are thus
made if you make your conserves of herbs as of scurvy grass wormwood rue
or the like take only the leaves and tender tops for you may beat your
heart out before you can beat the stalks small and having beaten them
waigh them and to everie pound of them ad three pound of sugar beat them
verie well together in a mortar you cannot beat them too much conserves
of fruits as of barberries sloes and the like is thus made first scald
the fruit then rub the pulp through a thick hair sieve made for the
purpose called a pulping sieve you may do it for a need with the back of
a spoon then take this pulp thus drawn and ad to it its waight of sugar
and no more put it in a peuter vessel and over a charcoal fire stir it
up and down till the sugar be melted and your conserve is made thus have
you the way of making conserves the way of keeping of them is in earthen
pots the dose is usually the quantity of a nutmeg at a time morning and
evening or unless they be purging when you please of conserves some keep
many yeers as conserves of roses others but a yeer as conserves of
borrage bugloss cowslips and the like have a care of the working of some
conserves presently after they are made look to them once a day and stir
them about conserves of borrage bugloss and wormwood have gotten an
excellent faculty at that sport you may know when your conserves are
almost spoiled by this you shall find a hard crust at top with little
holes in it as though worms had been eating there of preserves are
sundry sorts and the operations of all being somthing different we will
handle them all apart there are preserved with sugar flowers are but
very seldom preserved i never saw any that i remember save only cowslip
flowers and that was a great fashion in sussex when i was a boy it is
thus done first take a flat glass we call them jarr glasses strew in a
lain of fine sugar on that a lain of flowers on that another lain of
sugar on that another lain of flowers do so til your glass be full then
tie it over with a paper and in a little time you shall have very
excellent and pleasant preserves there is another way of preserving
flowers namely with vinegar and salt as they pickle capers and broom
buds but because i have little skill in it my self i canot teach you
fruits as quinces and the like are preserved two waies first boyl them
well in water and then pulp them through a sieve as we shewed you before
then with the like quantity of sugar boyl the water they were boyled in
to a syrup a pound of sugar to a pint of liquor to every pound of this
syrup ad four ounces of the pulp then boyl it with a very gentle fire to
the right consistence which you may easily know if you drop a drop of it
upon a trencher if it be enough it will not stick to your fingers when
it is cold secondly another way to preserve fruits is this first pare
off the rind then cut them in halves and take out the core then boyl
them in water till they are soft if you know when beef is boyled enough
you may easily know when they are then boyl the water with its like
waight of sugar into a syrup put the syrup into a pot and put the boyled
fruit as whol as you left it when you cut it into it and let it so
remain till you have occasion to use it roots are thus preserved first
scrape them very clean and clense them from the pith if they have any
for some roots have not as eringo and the like boyl them in water till
they be soft as we shew you before in the fruits then boyl the water you
boyled the roots into a syrup as we shewed you before then keep the
roots whol in the syrup till you use them as for barks we have but few
come to our hands to be done and those of those few that i can remember
are orrenges lemmons citrons and the outer bark of walnuts which grows
without the shell for the shels themselves would make but scurvy
preserves there be they i can remember if there be any more put them
into the number the way of preserving these is not all one in authors
for some are bitter some are not such as are bitter say authors must be
soaked in warm water often times changed till their bitter tast be fled
but i like not this way and my reason is because i doubt when their
bitterness is gone so is their vertues also i shall then prescribe one
commmon way namely the same with the former first boyl them whol till
they be soft then make a syrup with sugar and the liquor you boyled them
in and keep the barks in the syrup they are kept in glasses or glassed
pots the preserved flowers will keep a yeer if you can forbear eating of
them the roots and barke much longer this art was plainly and cleerly at
first invented for delicacy yet came afterwards to be of excellent use
in physick for first hereby medicines are made pleasant for sick and
queazy stomachs which else would loath them hereby they are preserved
from decaying a long time that which the arabians call lohoch and the
greeks eclegma the latins call linetus and in plain english signifies
nothing else but a thing to be licked up their first invention was to
prevent and remedy afflictions of the breast and lungs to clense the
lungs of flegm and make it fit to be cast out they are in body thicker
than a syrup and not so thick as an electuary the manner of taking them
is often to take a little with a liquoris stick and let it go down at
leisure they are easily thus made make a decoction of any pectoral herbs
the treatise will furnish you with enough and when you have strained it
with twise its waight of honey or sugar boyl it to a lohoch if you are
molested with tough flegm honey is better than sugar and if you ad a
little vinegar to it you will do well if not i hold sugar to be better
than honey it is kept in pots and will a yeer and longer its use is
excellent for roughness of the windpipe inflamations of the lungs ulcers
in the lungs difficultie of breath asthmaes coughs and distillation of
humors various are the waies of making oyntments which authors have left
to posteritie which i shall omit and quote one which is easiest to be
made and therefore most beneficial to people that are ignorant in
physick for whose sakes i write this it is thus done bruise those herbs
flowers or roots you would make an oyntment of and to two handfuls of
your bruised herbs ad a pound of hogs grease tryed or clensed from the
skins beat them very well together in a stone mortar with a wooden
pestle then put it in a stone pot the herbs and grease i mean not the
mortar cover it with a paper and set it either in the sun or some other
warm place three four or fivs daies that it may melt then take it out
and boyl it a little then whilst it is hot strain it out pressing it out
very hard in a press to this grease ad as many more herbs bruised as
before let them stand in like manner as long then boyl them as you did
the former if you think your oyntment be not strong enough you may do it
the third and fourth time yet this i tell you the fuller of juyce your
herbs are the sooner will your oyntment be strong the last time you boyl
it boyl it so long till your herbs be crisp and the juyce consumed then
strain it pressing it hard in a press and to every pound of oyntment ad
two ounces of turpentine and as much wax because grease is offensive to
wounds as well as oyl oyntments are vulgarly known to be kept in pots
and will last above a yeer above two yeer the greeks made their
plaisters of diverse simples and put mettals in most of them if not in
all for having reduced their mettals into pouder they mixed them with
that fatty substance whereof the rest of the plaister consisted whilst
it was yet hot continually stirring it up and down lest it should sink
to the bottom so they continually stirred it till it was stiff then they
made it up in rolls which when they need for use they could melt by the
fire again the arabians made up theirs wih meals oyl and fat which
needed not so long boyling the greeks emplasters consisted of these
ingredients mettals stones diverse sorts of earths feces juyces
liquoiris seeds roots herbs excrements of creatures wax rozin gums
pultisses are those kind of things which the latins call cataplasmata
and our learned fellows that if they can read english thats all call
them cataplasms because 'tis a crabbed word few understand it is indeed
a very fine kind of medicine to ripen sores they are made of herbs and
roots fitted to the disease and member afflicted being chopped smal and
boyled in water almost to a jelly then by adding a little barley meal or
meal of lupines and a little oyl or rough sheep suet which i hold to be
better spread upon a cloath and applied to the grieved place their use
is to ease pains to break sores to cool inflamations to dissolve
hardness to ease the spleen to concoct humors to dissipate swellings i
beseech you take this caution along with you use no pultissees if you
can help it that are of a heating nature before you have first clensed
the body because they are subject to draw the humors to them from every
part of the body the latins call them placentule or little cakes and you
might have seen what the greeks call them too had not the last edition
of my london dispensatory been so hellishly printed that's all the
commonwealth gets by one stationer's printing anothers coppies to plague
the country with false prints and disgrace the author they are usually
little round flat cakes or you may make them square if you will their
first invention was that pouders being so kept might resist the
intromission of air and so endure pure the longer besides they are the
easier carried in the pockets of such as travel many a man for example
is forced to travel whose stomach is too cold or at least not so hot as
it should be which is most proper for the stomach is never cold till a
man be dead in such a case 'tis better to carry troches of wormwood or
of galanga in a paper in his pocket and more convenient behalf than to
lug a gall pot along with him they are thus made at night when you go to
bed take two drams of fine gum tragacanth put it into a gally pot and
put half a quarter of a pint of any distilled water fitting the purpose
you would make your troches for to it cover it and the next morning you
shall find it in such a jelly as physitians call mussilage with this you
may with a little pains taking make any pouder into past and that past
into little cakes called troches having made them dry them well in the
shadow and keep them in a pot for your use they are called pilulae
because they resemble little balls the greeks call them catapotia it is
the opinion of modern physitians that this way of making up medicines
was invented only to deceive the pallat that so by swallowing them down
whol the bitterness of the medicine might not be perceived or at least
it might not be unsufferable and indeed most of their pills though not
all are very bitter i am of a clean contrary opinion to this i rather
think they were done up in this hard form that so they might be the
longer in digesting and my opinion is grounded upon reason too not upon
fancy nor hear say the first invention of pills was to purge the head
now as i told you before such infirmities as lay neer the passages were
best removed by decoctions because they pass to the grieved part soonest
so here if the infirmity lie in the head or any other remote part the
best way is to use pills because they are longer in digestion and
therefore the better able to call the offending humor to them if i
should tell you here a long tale of medicines working by sympathy and
antipathy you would not understand a word of it they that are fit to
make physitians may find it in the treatise all modern physitians know
not what belonged to a sympathetical cure no more than a cookoo knows
what belongs to flats and sharps in musick but follow the vulgar road
and call it a hidden quality because 'tis hid from the eyes of dunces
and indeed none but astrologers can give a reason of it and physick
without reason is like a pudding without fat the way to make pills is
very easie for with the help of a pestle and mortar and little diligence
you may make any pouder into piils either with syrup or the jelly i told
you of before this being indeed the key of the work i shall be somthing
the more dilligent in it i shall deliver my self thus first to the
vulgar kind souls i am sorry it hath been your hard mishap to have been
so long trained in such egyptian darkness even darkness which to your
sorrows may be felt the vulgar road of physick is not my practice and i
am therefore the more unfit to give you advice and i have now published
a little book which will fully instruct you not only in the knowledg of
your own bodies but also in fit medicines to remedy each part of it when
afflicted mean season take these few rules to stay your stomachs with
the disease regard the cause and part of the body afflicted for example
suppose a woman be subect to miscarry through wind thus do these are the
herbs medicinal for your grief in all diseases strengthen the part of
the body afflicted in mixed diseases there lies some difficulty for
somtimes two parts of the body are afflicted with contrary humors the
one to the other somtimes one part is afflicted with two contrary humors
as somtimes the liver is afflicted with choller and water as when a man
hath both a dropsie and the yellow jaundice and this is usually mortal
in the former suppose the brain be too cold and moist and the liver too
hot and dry thus do you must not think courteous people that i can spend
time to give you examples of all diseases these are enough to let you
see so much light as you without art are able to received if i should
set you to look upon the sun i should dazle your eyes and make you blind
secondly to such as study astrology who are the only men i know that are
fit to study physick physick without astrology being like a lamp without
oyl you are men i exceedingly respect and such documents as my brain can
give you at present being absent from my study i shall give you and an
example to shew the proof of them but that this may appear unto you as
cleer as the sun when he is upon the meridian i here quote you an
example which i performed when i was as far off from my study as i am
now yet am i not ashamed the world should see how much or little of my
lesson i have learned without book on july there came a letter to me out
of bedfordhsire from a gentleman at that time altogether to me unknown
though since well known who was a student both in astrologie and physick
the words which are these my answer to the letter was to this effect