1 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 =

2 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 =

3 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 =

4 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 =

5 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 =

6 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 =

7 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 viz° 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 =

8 gather all leaves in the hour of that planet that governs them =

1 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 =

2 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 =

3 dry them well in the sun and keep them in papers neer the fire as i
shewed you in the foregoing chapter =

4 so long as they retain their colour and smel they are good either of
them being gone so is the vertue also =

1 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 =

2 as for place let them be gathered from the plants where they delight
to grow =

3 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 =

4 when you have gathered them dry them a little and but a little in the
sun before you lay them up =

5 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 =

6 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 =

1 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 =

2 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 =

3 the dryer time you gather your roots in the better they are for they
have the less excrementitious moisture in them =

4 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 =

5 such roots as are great will keep longer than such as are small yet
most of them will keep a yeer =

6 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 =

7 it is in vain to dry such roots as may commonly be had as parsly
fennel plantane &c° but gather them only for present need =

1 barks which physitians use in mediscines are these sorts of fruits of
roots of boughs =

2 the barks of fruits is to be taken when the fruit is full ripe as
orrenges lemmons &c° but because i have nothing to do with exoticks here
i shall pass them without any more words =

3 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 =

4 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 &c° 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 =

1 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 =

2 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 =

3 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 =

1 waters are distilled out of herbs flowers fruits and roots =

2 we treat not here of strong waters but of cold as being to act galen's
part and not paracelsus =

3 the herbs ought to be distilled when they are in their greatest vigor
and so ought the flowers also =

4 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 =

5 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 =

6 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 =

1 a syrup is a medicine of a liquid form composed of infusion decoction
and juyce and 1 for the more grateful tast 2 for the better keeping of
it with a certain quantity of honey or sugar hereafter mentioned boiled
to the thickness of new honey =

2 you see at the first view then that this aphorism devides it self into
three branches which deserve severally to be treated of viz° =

*{1} ..*{=} 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 &c° 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 &c° 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 &c° 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 =

3 if you make syrups of roots that are any thing hard as parsley fennel
and grass roots &c° 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 =

4 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 =

5 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 =

1 juleps were first invented as i suppose in arabia and my reason is
because the word juleb is an arabick word =

2 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 =

3 now a daies 'tis commonly used =

*{1} ..*{=} 4 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 =

5 all juleps are made for present use and therefore it is in vain to
speak of their duration =

1 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 =

2 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 =

3 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 =

4 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 =

5 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 =

6 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 viz° =

*{1} ..*{=} 7 such things as by boyling cause sliminess to a decoction
as figs quince seeds linseed &c° 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 =

8 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 =

1 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 =

2 of oyls some are simple and some are compound =

3 simple oyuls are such as are made of fruits or seeds by expression as
oyl of sweet and bitter almonds linseed and rapeseed oyl &c° of which
see my dispensatory =

4 compound oyls are made of oyl of olives and other simples imagine
herbs flowers roots &c° =

5 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
&c° 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 =

6 as for chymical oyls i have nothing to say in this treatise =

7 the general use of these oyls is for pain in the limbs roughness of
the skin the itch &c° as also for oyntments and plaisters =

8 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 =

1 that you may make electuaries when you need them it is requisite that
you keep alwaies herbs roots seeds flowers &c° ready dried in your house
that so you may be in readiness to beat them into pouder when you need
them =

2 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 =

3 if they be not dry enough to beat into pouder when you need them dry
them by a gentle fire till they are so =

4 having beaten them sift them through a fine tiffany searce that so
there may be no great pieces found in your electuary =

5 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
=

6 mix them well together in a mortar and take this for a truth you
cannot mix them too much =

7 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 =

8 the usual dose of cordial electuaries is from half a dram to two drams
of purging electuaries from half an ounce to an ounce =

9 the manner of keeping them is in a pot =

10 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 =

1 the way of making conserves is two fold one of herbs and flowers and
the other of fruits =

2 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 =

3 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 =

4 thus have you the way of making conserves the way of keeping of them
is in earthen pots =

5 the dose is usually the quantity of a nutmeg at a time morning and
evening or unless they be purging when you please =

6 of conserves some keep many yeers as conserves of roses others but a
yeer as conserves of borrage bugloss cowslips and the like =

7 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 =

8 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 =

*{1} ..*{=} 1 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 =

2 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 viz° 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 =

3 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 =

4 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 viz° 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 =

5 they are kept in glasses or glassed pots =

6 the preserved flowers will keep a yeer if you can forbear eating of
them the roots and barke much longer =

7 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 =

8 hereby they are preserved from decaying a long time =

1 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 =

2 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 =

3 they are in body thicker than a syrup and not so thick as an electuary
=

4 the manner of taking them is often to take a little with a liquoris
stick and let it go down at leisure =

5 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 =

6 it is kept in pots and will a yeer and longer =

7 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 =

1 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 =

2 oyntments are vulgarly known to be kept in pots and will last above a
yeer above two yeer =

1 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 =

2 the arabians made up theirs wih meals oyl and fat which needed not so
long boyling =

3 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 =

1 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 =

2 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 =

3 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 =

4 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 =

1 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 viz° 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 =

2 their first invention was that pouders being so kept might resist the
intromission of air and so endure pure the longer =

3 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 =

4 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 =

5 having made them dry them well in the shadow and keep them in a pot
for your use =

1 they are called pilulae because they resemble little balls the greeks
call them catapotia =

2 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 =

3 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 =

4 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 =

5 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 =

*{1} ..*{=} 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 =

1 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 =

*{1} ..*{=} these are the herbs medicinal for your grief =

2 in all diseases strengthen the part of the body afflicted =

3 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 =

*{1} ..*{=} 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 =

*{1} ..*{=} 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 25 1651 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 =

*{mr°} ..*{=} my answer to the letter was to this effect =

*{sir} ..*{=}