accompany maladies adding ever to these some grainsof Opium or a little of the seed of white Poppy to mitigate and allay the furious and fiery spirits For example Take of the best water of Elder flowers 4 dr of water Lillie and Rosewater of each 2 drach of Thebaick Opium half a scrup of Elder Vinegar to dissolve the Opium 6 scrup mix them for an Epithenie wherein a double or treble linnen cloth being wet is to be applyed warm to the brows and crown of the head Or in place of the Opium an ounce of the seeds of white Poppy and by baking according to art make an Emulsion unto which you may fitly add the white of an egg well beaten If the belly be bound dissolve of the Syrup or juice of the berries and also of the infusion of the flowers of the Elder ounc 3 or 4. in the water of the flowers and give it when the Patient is dry like a Julip for it will not only open the belly but sweetly quiet the spirits When in Anno 1626. the Plague was raging in Haina and many of the infected were troubled with head aches ravings and wakings a worthy man told me he found no readier help to dissipate those venomous vapours and bring sleep in his own and others bodies then after the giving of several medicines to bind their heads about with the flowers of the Elder CAP. III. Of Melancholy and chiefly Hypocondriack and flatulent IN Hypocondriack Melancholy 't is profitable first of all if the diseased be prone to vomit to provoke it by the Oyl of the infusion of the flowers and bark of the Elder lest by preparing and purging Medicines those crude and excrementitious humors which oft are gathered in the stomach be carried to the more principal parts of the body and augment the obstructions Or give of the syrup made of the sap of the buds and berries an ounce br 1. s. with some grains of the extract of Scammonie and 3 guts of the Oyl of Elder flowers distilled in the distilled water of the flowers thereof Or use the Clyster that is described in the 22 cap. following After this the Wine which is drawn out of the berries and flowers is not of meanest worth for it opens obstructions cuts gross humors and by little and little thrusts them to the dore Moreover it refresheth the vital and animal spirits Drink a cup full thereof each morning for a month taking before a spoonful or two of fresh broth or a saft egg That it may work more safely you may each week mix with the use of these once or twice the manyfold working powder of the buds of the Elder wich is thus prepared Take of Elder buds dried in the shade half an ounce Of Elder Kernels Trochiscated Of Sennie leaves Of Christallised Elder salt of each three drachmes Of the extract of Scammonie two drachmes Of Galengale of Macer of each half a drachme Being all subtilly pulverised distill upon them Of the Oyl of Cloves Of Fennicle of each six drops Of Cinnomon Of Carvi of each three drops Let them be mixt exactly in a Marble Morter for a Powder whose dose is from a scruple to a drachme The Trochiscation or preparation of the seeds or kernels of Elder is thus Take one ounce of the lesser Esula prepared as is known in infusion in Vinegar and grosly pulverised Infund it in the Spanish Wine of Peter Simons lib. 5. let them macerate 8 days in the Sun or in winter in the chimny corner the mouth of the glass being well stopped after strain them through gray paper and purifie them Take the clean Arillas of the Elder berries dry them pulverise them and with a sufficient quantity of the infusion of Esula make them in paste dry it being dryed bedew them with the same infusion and again work it into paste of which from your Trochisces dry them and keep them for your use And because those excrementitious humours lurking about the stomach and vicine places and much troubling both the Physician and Patient in all Hypocondriack Diseases are more easily evacuate by vomit then purge you may use commodiously the oyl of the kernels of the Elder prepar'd by bedewing them with the infusion of Antimony as as hath been shewn in the second Section a little after drinking warm water vomit is pvovoked and that obstructions may be sooner dissolv'd and the matter drawn out of the Meseraick veins into the intestines besides these internal things use this fotus Take of the bar of Elder Roots ounce 1. s Of well dried Elder flowers M. 3. Make a decoction in equal parts of Wine and Water and that it may penetrate the more add as much as you think fit of the Vinegar of the Elder in which fomentation dip a sponge and therewith foment the whole belly but chiefly the left Hypochondre See the other hereafter in the 23 Chapter of the Misenteries obstruction For the altering of the bloud and spirrits in the true and in the Hypocondriac Melancholy after generals the syrup of the juice of the berres and infusion of the flowers of Elder is praised of each of which in the morning fasting every day let the Patient take oun 1. in the water of the flowers of Burrage You are likewise to take a care that the belly be kept open which is to be done by the Syrup and the Clyster mentioned in the 2 cap. In the Paroxisme of your Hypocondriac Melancholy give a spoonful of the spirit of the flowers of Elder in a draught of Malmsey for it dissipateth the ascending vapours and strengtheneth the spirits CAP. IV. Of the Epilepsie AS this is a grievous and a disease much to be lamented so I may say it expects its most specifick cure almost from the Elder The Cure of Children To Infants new-born before you give them any thing to swallow you may give them with great profit a spoonful of the syrup of the infusion of the flowers or juice of the Elder-berries to evacuate that putrid yellowish and sometime blackish water gathered in the stomach and parts about while the infant is in the mothers belly For these Syrups do not only change and evacuate but they also preserve from and resist malignity Macerate a handful of Elder flowers well dried in the wine which the best sort use to wash their new-born babes in for it consumes the humors gathered about the joynts and comforts the members This is also commended Take of the powder of the simple buds 1 drach of the whitest Sugarcandie 1 drach of the berries of herb Paris Number 6. pulverise them most subtilly of which give half a scruple for 9 days together in the water of Elder flowers or any other convenient liquor you please In the Paroxisme the least spoonfull of the spirit of the flowers given with three or five of the seeds of Peony excorticat is praised Or of Peony excorticat 2 drach of the best water of Elder-flowers one ounce and a
have great vertue to open all obstructions Six drops of the spirit of Elder-salt taken in broth is commended In the Scurvy having premised these purging and cutting Medicines the greatest hope of health and helps is placed in evacuating the serosities by sweating whence Plater affirms the rob of Elder-berries or Walwort to be very convenient adding to three ounces of these one ounce of the syrup of Popie The dose drachms 2. The extracts of these are more convenient and penetrating of which give one scruple or one drachm in a spoonful of the spirit of Elder-flowers or of Carduus Benedictus or of Scurvigrass and then let him provoke sweat in his bed or in a dry Bath Topicks EXternally anoint frequently the Hypocondriacks where those bowels are placed with the oyl of the infused flowers which the ordinary and us'd Dispensatories affirm to cure the Jaundies and help the stopt Liver In a hard and Scyrous Milt boyl the leaves of Elder in Wine and Oyl to the consistence of a Poultice which are to be put through a Searse or Setace then mix therewith as much of the meal made of the flowers of Elder and Cammomile as will suffice then apply it hot like a Cataplasm This Cere-cloth or Serat is commended for mollifying and digesting scyrous tumors First boil twice or thrice recent Elder-leaves in the oyl of the infusion of Elder-flowers still pressing the leaves well before you put in new ones Then Take of the oyl so prepared ounc 3. Of the powder of tender Elder-leaves one ounce and half Of Turpentine and yellow Wax enough Of which apply every day to the place affected some of this spread on a piece of Leather cut like a Cowes tongue and covered with a fine linnen cloth The Scorbutick persons amongst other symptoms which I have neither time nor place to mention are troubled with a pain in the soals of their feet and tops of their fingers which the famous Sennert affirms to be cured by this Take of Elder-flowers two handfuls boil them in Wine adding two drachms of sope spread on a cloth and applied to the diseased part CAP. XXIV Of the Hydropsie and its kinds 1. Of Ascites SEeing this depends of serous humors fallen into the Abdomen and seeing the vertue of the Elder is to exsiccate and draw water from the belly by the consent of Dioscorides and all Physicians there is no man that doth not perceive that the Elder is of great vertue in this disease Purging Medicines First then boil in Wine in a close vessel those middle barks of the Elder with one or two Jews-ears sweeten the decoction and for some days give it to the diseased party morning and evening to drink Some praise this Take of the middle bark subtilly grated as much as you will boiled in a sufficient quantity of Goats-milk that being put through a Searse it may acquire the consistence of a syrup or honey of which give an ounce or an ounce and a half for certain days in white wine The water of the succulent middle-bark distilled in the Spring-time and given with a third part of the syrup made of the juice of the buds or roots is used in two or three ounces weight Quercetan in the first book and seventh chapter of his Dogmatick Pharmacy commends this purging water of the berries Take the seeds or berries of the Elder and Ebulus perfectly ripe which is in Autumn out of these with a press draw out the wine or juice shaking out the inmost kernels and mixing them with the rest distil them This water which is Cohobat thus upon the dregs hath a notable efficacy in purging chiefly of serous humors let it be aromatized with Cinnamon Coriander prepared with the juice of Lemmons and such like it may be given to Hydropick persons from one ounce to two Thus far Quercetan For example R. Of the water preserved ounces two Syrup or juice of the berries and buds of each one ounce and half mixed Of this composed water you may see more in the cited place of Quercetan Of the Wines we have often made mention before chiefly in the second Section nevertheless we will set down this of Quercetans in his first Book and ninth Chapter because it differs little from others The seeds are to be prest and the juice drawn out which being mixed with a double quantity of the Must of the best white wine is to be put in a Hogshead of convenient bigness till it be fully digested and fermented Note That it is better if it be done in a close Hogshead that is if the Hogshead be not altogether full but at least the third part be left empty and be well closed that nothing do exhale Which being done and the fermentation being in a moneths time finished the hogshead is to be opened and to be filled up to the brim with wine wrought after that manner with the juice of berries in another hogshead This wine doth purge all serous humors and much helpeth Hydropick persons the dose is a cup less or smaller as the strength of the person is Dioscorides writeth that the root being boiled in wine and given to Hydropick persons in their meat doth help them Whose juice being pressed out doth purge upward and downward like Antimony as Mindererus witnesseth in his Military Medicine cap. 6. So that we are to use it warily and only so much in quantity as the half of a Walnut-shell will hold as he honestly informs He commends there likewise a Sallet made of the buds oyl salt and vinegar which we have set down in the cure of the intestine diseases Forestus lib. 19. Observat 44. affirms That by long experience he had learned that the leaves of Elder being put in Hydrogogick decoctions do excellently purge water chiefly in the Hydropsie The same Forestus in the same book and 87 Observ hath this The bark of the root of the Elder reduced in a Succus the dose is two ounces in fragrant Wine Benedic Veronensis writes that some give four drachms of the juice of the bark of Elder-roots Others give for 9 days together the juice of Elder-bark-roots in a pretty quantity or an ounce in the waning of the Moon and so cure Hydropick persons for it bravely purgeth water as the middle bark of the Elder doth likewise Nicholas at one time gives six ounces of the decoction of middle Elder-bark The same man giveth two or three drachms of the juice of the Elder and of the juice of Ebulus four drachms to an ounce Some give the juice of the middle-bark of the Elder with Oximel Thus far Forestus And this I have set down that all may know there was great difference of the dose amongst the Ancients Nevertheless let him observe faithfully Mindererus his dose till he know the vertues exactly of each Muller in his Medicinal Mysteries saith This is the perfect cure of the Hydropsie R. Of the juice of the recent roots of the white Lilly and of the
juice of the green middle-bark of the Elder of each one spoonful Take it in common water or thin Oximel ever after three or four days This purgeth the belly strongly For the tumors that are left about the knees feet c. lay to them the leaves of the great Bur-docks for they draw out the water The Polychrestick powder of the buds in a drachm given in white wine sweetned with Oximel of the Elder or syrup of the juice of the berries is commended in this disease Or Take of the Polychrestick powder of the buds four scruples Of Gum of Peru of Galingale of each half a scruple Make an exact mixt powder it is to be given in what liquor you please at two times to a patient that is not yet weak for it powerfully evacuateth serous humors If the form of powder displease you work it with the syrup of hony of Elder in form of Pills or with the Rob of Elder in form of a Bole. Hydroticks or Sudorificks If by these Catharticks the body be emptied well enough then you may safely proceed to Sudorificks Diureticks For if we proceed otherwise the whole stream will be devolved on the reins and ureters whereby the gathering together thereof grievous symptoms will arise The Rob of the Elder and its extract are Sudorificks The first whereof given in two drachms weight is commended by the Augustans for this purpose The second is to be in as many scruples dissolved in the water and vinegar of Elder-flowers for one dose Or where the Liver is more cold and the urine less red give a spoonful or two of the spirit of the berries or tincture of the Elder made thin with the water of the flowers and sweetned with the syrup of the juice of the berries Then in bed or in a dry Bath provoke sweat The spirit of the flowers is more gentle nevertheless it excellently provoketh sweat and dryeth strongly the water of the Hydropick person especially if it be well rectified Diureticks and which move Urine Besides those rehearsed these that follow are Diureticks The salt of the Elder with a third or equal part of the salt of Wormwood The dose from a scruple to half a drachm The spirit distilled from the salt powerfully moveth urine and drieth moisture six drops thereof are to be given in broth some days Where the bowels are more hot and the urine more red which is oft-times a deadly token in Hydropick persons instead of these give three or four ounces of the acetous syrup of the Elder dissolved in the water of the flowers and leaves of each half a pound whereof four or five ounces are to be drank before meat twice a day morning and evening The poor mans Euporist viz. A Lixive prepared of Elder and Juniper-ashes with one part of white wine and three parts of simple water or the distilled water of Elder-flowers whereof give a cup full twice a day to the Patient fasting and command moderate exercise for half an hour or longer if it be possible add to it a sufficient quantity of Sugar and Cinnamon to make it smell and taste more sweetly The Experiment of Emylia Countess of Isinburg And seeing we have made mention here of Diureticks I will not pass by this Receipt of the Countess by which alone she cured many poor people of the Hydropsie in which albeit much is to be attributed to the potion it self nevertheless I ascribe the chief effects of this happy Medicine to the wine prepared of the Elder-flowers and sponges which the Hydropick use in time of their cure therefore I have set down the whole course of the cure as it is faithfully communicated to all the true Sons of this noble Art by the famous Finck in the 26 Chapter of his Enchirid. Take of the old Acorns unshelled Of the old roots of Parsley Of white Oculi Cancrorum of each two scruples and an half Of Sugar Of Cinnamon of each one drachm All are to be subtily pulverised and searced Before the diseased person altogether lye down first let him moisten three shives of wheat-bread in strong wine may be it would not be beside the purpose if before in that wine he had macerated some Elder-flowers then presently let him sprinkle upon these shives 4 scruples down weight of that powder and at night before he go to bed let him eat it and go to bed and sleep above them Secondly on the day next following early in the morning let him eat as many shives of bread so prepared and fast one or two hours after Thirdly on the same day at night let him eat the same preparation eating and drinking nothing above it and so go to sleep In the mean time this diet is to be observed Let the diseased person abstain from fish swines-flesh herbs cheese cold water thin and superfluous drink Let him use wine prepared after this manner which I esteem to be the chief part of the cure Take of the whole dried umbels of Elder-flowers three Of Jews-ears exsiccate in a dry air two Of white wine two quarts or for the use of a middle-child one quart Let them stand all night in infusion and the patient may drink thereof at his pleasure but let him abstain from all other drink till the tumor be evanished Mark if the patient by this cure find not an evident alteration abating of the tumor he may after a fortnight renew the cure and without doubt by divine assistance he shall recover his former health Topicks Apply outwardly to the tumified parts a Cataplasm of the juice of the Elder incorporate with Goates-dung which hath an eminent vertue in digesting those salt waterish humors Or anoint the tumified parts with the oyl of the bark and leaves prescribed before in the second place unto which add this same dung to give it consistence The tincture drawn out of the rob and juice of the berries doth excellently discuss and dry if it be rubb'd on the belly and legs Or take a sufficient quantity of the leaves and bark boil them in a common Lixive wherewith foment the belly and tumified parts twice a day The vapour of which decoction held under the Hydropick legs draweth the serosity from thence and discusseth it by sweat it must be poured on hot bricks in a close vessel that the vapour may come to the heat Others bid the feet and legs only to be bathed in a decoction of the leaves wherein a handful or two of common salt hath been dissolved Note that the pith of the Elder being pressed with the finger doth pit as Hydropick feet do therefore the juice of the Elder and the distilled water of Jews-ears are profitable Crollius de signaturis rerum hither you may transfer the example of the Hydropick and gravelly clown as it is set down in the Chapter concerning the Stone who was cured by the use of the pith of the Elder 2. Of Anasarca or Leucophlegmatia IN Anasarca or Leucophlegmatia
liquid extract of Granorum Actes You shall find another extract taken out of Quercetan in the third Section and 26 Chapter II. WINES Take the Elder Berries cleaned of their stalks beat them in a stone mortar or earthen vessel with a wooden pestle till all the Kernels be well bruised with this succulent matter fill the 8 10 or 12 part of a little barrel as you will have it of more or less efficacy fill up the rest with Must or new Wine that they may work together Some boyle equal parts of this succulent matter and Must together till the consumption of a third part of the whole on a slow fire then straining it through a thin linnen cloth they put it as is said in a greater quantity into a Barrel put Must thereon and so suffer them to work Quercetans receipt thereof is set down in seat 3. cap. 24. This is an excellent way R. Of Elder Berries well dried in an Oven lib. 1. Cinnamon the strongest and sharpest unc 3. Caryophill Aromatic ounc 1. and an half Being all grosly pulverised sow them loosly in a knot put them in a vessel that holds twelve English quarts or thereabouts fill up the rest with the best and most fragrant white Wine and place it a fortnight or above in a Wine Cellar which is to be used in time of repast for t is an excellent stomachical drink most delicious in colour taste and smell III. The Spirit and Water Take the ripe berries express the juice at least break them together and let them stand in a wood vessel till they begin to ferment and that they may work the sooner some add a little of the yiest of beer or wine some add none but keep the same process D. Finck keeps in the extracting of the Spirit of black sweet Cherries Enchiridii c. 6. After the fermentation let them be distilled in a Vesica and rectified acording to Art The rectification is best accomplished first in a Vesica and then in Balneo where in place of a Concurbit use a long-necked Viol then the most spiritous part will de abstracted the phlegm beating again the sides of the Viol will again fall down Others prepare it thus Take the ripe berries of the Elder dryed in the weak heat of an oven being pulverised grosly with a third part of Barley meal with them being well mixed put them in an Oken Barrel and put boyling water on them in which some hops have been before macerated stop the Vessel close and suffer them to ferment some four or five days To hasten the fermentation and digestion add some dreggs of Wine or Beer as we have said before distill and rectifie it But the first way is preferred deservedly by most as more simple and pure The Purging water as it is extracted by Quercetan and others out of the berries is set down sect 3. c. 24. IV. The Syrup and Tragea The Syrup is thus prepared Take of the juice extracted from the new gathered ripe berries and clarified lib. 1. Sugar clarified lib. 1. boyl it a little on a soft fire in a double Vessel or in Bal. Mar. to the consistency of a liquid Syrup You shall find the Tragea Granorum Actes or the Tragea of the Bore-tree-berries set down in the 22 cap. of the third sect V. Oyle drawn out of the Stones or Kernels Take the grains or stones of these berries left in the cloth after the juice is strained from them wash them well and dry them in the aire bedew them with odoriferous white-Wine and then in a press strongly squeeze out the oyle of them as you do out of the seeds of the flaxes or line rocked Poppy or Henbane and such like that being purified by residency keep it for your use in a glass for 't is an excellent Vomitive and a good Balsam in externals The Dose to take it inwardly is a drachme or a drachme and a half in hot ale or some other convenient liquor This Oyl may be more Hematick and Cathartick if instead of the Wine the Kernels be bedewed with Malago wherein Crocus metallorum hath been infused and then Oyl expressed out of them which in the same dose will be much more effectual CAP. II. Of the Medicines made of the Flowers of the Elder 1. CONSERVES TAke the fresh flowers pull them in little pieces and to each ounce of them add two ounces of the whitest Sugar incorporate them well together in a Marble Morter with a woodden pestle Expose it afterward in a Glass or earthen Vessel to the Sun for some dayes it being thus prepared reserve it for your use II. The SYRUP and HONEY Take of the recent Flowers lib. 1. let them macerate 12 hours in lib. 6. of warm fountain water having exprest and strained the liquor put in again recent flowers yea do it the third time Add four ounces of the whitest Sugar to each five ounces of the liquor that is last strained boyle them up to a Syrup according to art But if in place of the Sugar you add the same quantity of Honey and boyle it to a fitting consistence you have Mel Sambucinum which is commended by some III. The WATER and SPIRITS There is sundry wayes of distilling Waters from Herbs and Flowers set downe by Wecker Euonimus Quercetan and others this is the easiest Takes as many of the Flowers of the Elder as you list put a sufficient quantity of warm water thereon let them marcerate a night and then distill them per Vesicam That which distilleth first is excellent the next is worse beware then thou urge them not too much poure the water on fresh flowers distil them the second time yea reiterate it the third time so you shall have water fit for the uses set down afterward in the practice for that which is extant in the Apothecaries shops is nothing but meer phlegm not worthy the name of distilled water No wonder then the sick so seldom find the wished and expected fruits therof If from a part of this water in a long necked Viol in a soft Balnean heat you extract the more spirituous part in quantity about the twelfth part thereof you will have a most fragrant and penetrating Spirit Or prepare the Spirit as Quercetan hath set down in lib. 1. Pharm Dogm restitut cap. 7. and D. Sennertus way Inst. Med. lib. 5. part 3. sect 3. cap. 5. is it not much different The Cake which remains in the Vesica after the distillation of the water called of the Chymists Caput Mortuum is not to be thrown away but to be reserved for the uses set down in the Practice IV. The VINEGAR and OXIMEL Pour upon the fresh or half withered flowers of the Elder the Vinegar of white Wine let them stand in a close stopped glass Vessel in the Sun or some other hot place that the Vinegar more exactly may draw out the vertue of the flowers let the flowers remain in the Vinegar till it have drawn out fully
half of Linden flower-flower-water half an ounce Make an Emulsion according to art which being edulcerate Rotalis manus Christi perlatis give it by spoonfuls Let the Nurse sometimes take the Conserves Syrup or water of Elder flowers or having taken the spirit juice or extract of the berries let her provoke smell that thereby her milk being clear of the sharper and more malignant serosities may be the more wholsom I knew an infant which being taken sometime with Epileptick fits each day with a great deal of crying and pain of belly did dung a yellowish greenish matter whom neither Clysters nor cleansing Linctussies did any good I counselled his mother seeing I saw her milk more serous and thin that she should twice or thrice a week take the rhob or juice of the Elder-berries mixt with burn'd Harts-horns and drink a draught of the water of the flowers above it and provoke her self to sweat in her bed or couch Which being done not only the Epileptick fits but also those painfull wringings of the childs belly did cease and by little and little the excrements came to their natural form The cure of those that are come to age In those that are come to age 't is first necessary above all things to purge the body well In the Spring time macerate the bark of the roots of Elder in the whey of Cows milk which being dulcerat with Sugar let him each morning take a hearty draught thereof Or Take the Polichrestick powder of the buds two scruples or one drachme Of recent Rob of the Elder well thickned with good Sugar as much as will make a bole Or take the prescribed bole dissolve it in the whey of Milk add thereto the Syrup made of Juice of the buds and berries ounce I. mix it prepare a draught But if the Patient be prone to vomit give him the oyl expressed out of the kernels The spirit of the flowers and berries of the Elder in and out of the Paroxysm is of great power but it may be made more efficacious thus R. Take of the middle bark of the Elder Of the roots of Poeonie of each six drachms Of dried Elder leaves and buds Of Lynden-tree flowers of each one handful Of Rew-seed two drach Of the Berries of herb Paris numb 20. Of Jews-ears numb 6. This being cut and pounded put as much of the spirit of the Elder thereon as will be a hand broad high above them and in a hot place and well stopped vessel macerate them eight daies distil them in glass vessels in B. M. till they be dry mix with them the distilled spirits the salt drawn out of its dregs and keep it for the Anti-Epileptick Spirit of the Elder Whereof give a whole or half spoonful to the Epileptick in the time of his Paroxisme afterwards using it every quarter of the Moon to dissipate the Epileptick corruption by sweating or insensible transpiration and to guard the brain With this same in the time of the fit rub the nostrils gums and pallat adding thereto a Grain or two of Castor Herein likewise excels the tincture and extract of Granorum Actes the preparation and using of which is set down in the 31 Chapter out of Quercetan Or Take of Granorum actes scrup 1. Of the berries of Herb Paris pulverised half a scrup Mix them and form pils thereof numb 15. or being dissolved in the Anti epileptick Spirit of the Eldergive them in the Paroxisme Mark by the way That the berries of herb Paris called by some Bear or Wolf grapes is held by some Matrons as a great secret against the Epilepsie and they give them ever in an unequal number as 3 5 7 or 9 in the water of Linden Tree flowers or of the roots of Squamaria which I my self have found effectual in some children Seeing these berries are mixt with some Antidotes especially with the Saxonian and half a drachm of the seeds of these berries as Matthiolus relates being given avail much against long sickness and Witchcraft it should not seem strange to any man that they much help in the Epilepsie if they consider seriously the maligne nature of the Epileptick vapor and its enmity with the brain Some affirm that the water of the flowers drawn up into the nose prevails much against the Epilepsie and Vertigo In the same affects the eyes and face are to be washed oft with this water Anoint gently in the fit it self the contracted members with the oyl of the flowers of the first description that thereby the Acrimony of the humors and vapors may be mitigate that the matter may be dissipate and the nerves comforted The oyl of the second and third description or the distilled oyl is much commended if the palmes of the hands and soles of the feet if the temples of the head and nape of the neck be anointed therewith Amulets There is likewise set down a singular Amulet made of the Elder growing on a Sallow If in the month of October a little before the full Moon you pluck a twig of the Elder and cut the cane that is betwixt two of its knees or knots in nine pieces and these pieces being bound in a piece of linnen be in a thred so hung about the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart or the sword-form'd Cartilage and that they may stay more firmly in that place they are to be bound thereon with a linnen or silken roller wrapt about the body till the thred break of it self The thred being broken and the roller removed the Amulet is not at all to be touched with bare hands but it ought to be taken hold on by some instrument and buried in a place that no body may touch it Petraeus Nosilog Harmon l. 1. dissert 6. Finkius Ench. Harm c. 5. The cause of which is not absolutely hid seeing the Elder and its grains help this disease These are the words of Petraeus in the mentioned place There are some that ascribe the same effect to the Bore tree growing on the Tylia or Linden tree seeing both by a peculiar property are anti-epileptick some hang a cross made of the Elder and Sallow mutually in wrapping one another about the childrens neck Petr. Loco Allegat Albeit there be some that deny all specifick operation to Amulets of the Elder growing on the Sallow and Linden tree and to all other Amulets Nevertheless their reasons are not of such weight that they satisfie the mind of a desirous learner 't is not impossible that so little a piece of the Elder bound to the skin should break the force of so stubborn a disease for though it do not draw out sensibly the vitious humors yet it may act against the morbifick cause and rout it some other way by alluring and some other way expugning those vitious humors and that malignant Miamse most noisom to the brain it having in little bulk great force which being or removed 't is likely the Epilepsie will cease though the
especially if you mix with it some of the anti-pestilential powders or at least drink above it three or four spoonfuls of Antilemick Vinegar of the Elder The same Rob chiefly it that is most recent being spread more thickly on a shive of bread and eaten an hour or two before your meat loosneth the belly in whose place you may give a spoonful or two of the syrup of the juice of the berries It is enough to swallow sometimes in a morning before you go out the greatness of a pease of the extract Rohob and the Extract Antilemick of the Elder R. Roots of Tormentillae Buterdock Of Pimpanels Of Angelica Leaves of Scordium Berries of Juniper of each half an ounce Macerate the roots 24 hours in Elder vinegar afterwards dry them at leasure and being powdered by themselves add the leaves of Scordium and berries of Juniper likewise in powder mix them all together and with the Vinegar that remained besprinkle them and work them most exactly with a pound of Rob Sambuci in form of an opiat Of which give to the infected person two drachms in a convenient liquor to provoke sweat and thrust out the poyson from his heart Of which also besprinkled with the spirit of Elder you may prepare the extract that is set down in the second Section and first Chapter of this Book The dose given to the infected is one scruple or drachm in convenient liquor The spirit of the Elder by it self is here very powerful both in preserving a few drops thereof being taken with a little white bread in a morning and likewise in the beginning of the disease a spoonful or two being taken thereof before the feverish heat be powerful But that spirit is far more noble which is drawn off by an Alimbeck in the preparation of the Antilemick extract seeing from the volatile essence of those Bezoartick simples it hath carried much with it Or at least infufe those simples in the spirit of the Elder being macerated therein for a few days let it be strained for the Antilimbeck spirit of the Elder whose vertues in curing and preserving cannot be praised enough By the same Alexitaries and chiefly by the roots of Angelica and Juniper-berries if the red Elder-vinegar of my description be impregnat with them it becomes Antilemick Elder-vinegar which is not only a vehicle to other Alexipharmacal Medicaments but moreover it may be taken by it self when the intense heat and fever will not admit of the spirit or other more hot medicines Some drops of the spirit of Elder-salt given in the broth of flesh is a preservative Neither is it unwholsom if once or twice a week in the morning an hour or two before dinner a cup full of the wine prepar'd of the berries be taken but remember to take before it a little broth for it loosneth the belly hindreth putrefaction and by reason of the Bezoartick vertue of the berries it preserveth the body from contagion At supper drink a cup full of the wine prepared of the dried berries which strengtheneth the stomach A special Topick Oyl Some greatly commend in the Pleague this oyl Take the flowers of the Elder fill therewith a Cucurbit or a more ample Glass to the middle strew upon them Marsh Mallows and tops of Hypericon of each so much as only the fourth part of the Glass shall remain empty powre thereon so much sweet clear Oyl-Olive as will cover the flowers close exactly the mouth of the Glass sigillo hermetico or lute it and through all Summer or for three months set it in the Sun that the heat of the Sun may draw the vertues out of the flowers into the oyl then having strongly pressed the flowers strain the oyl and being purified by setling reserve it in a well closed vessel unto each ounce of which before you use it add a scruple of Sal Nitre Some prepare it suddenly thus They take the oyl of infused Elder-flowers as much as is necessary in it they immerge the flowers of the Marsh Mallows and Hypericon and boil them together in Bal. Mar. for some hours afterwards they express strongly the flowers and strain it in the strained oyl they immerge recent flowers boil them press them and strain them and afterward add Nitre The way of using it is this The whole body of the infected person within 24 hours is to be anointed with this oyl warm and being wrapt in warm sheets he is to be laid in a warmed bed to sweat for they affirm that it is proved that by this only remedy many have safely escaped the fierceness of this poison which unction as it is not disapproved seeing it openeth the pores of the skin and by them draws out and dissipates the pestilential infection and malignity and by consequence is used commodiously not only in the plague and pestilential fevers but also in other malignant and chiefly spotted fevers So we are to be very wary lest in this sharp and dangerous disease we neglect to use the internal Bezoarticks Alexiterix already mentioned but rather ought to join them with these that with united forces both ways internally and externally they may vanquish the malignity It seems this hath come from the Egyptians of whom Alpinus in his 4 Book and 15 Chapter relates that they use this medicine in pestilential fevers in which the spots are either begun to appear with great profit at least once a day using this hot linament after which without delay they cover the feverish with many cloths endeavouring to draw the poisonous humor from the bowels to the skin Comforting and Altering Medicines Lest the diseased in sweating altogether faints we ought to hold often to his nose a sponge dipt in the Antilemick Vinegar of the Elder for this Vinegar doth powerfully dissipate these narcotick vapours and recreate the strength It is likewise to be applyed to the temples with linnen cloths To ease the heat and thirst you are oft times to give to the diseased in and after his sweat some spoonfuls of the Julap which is set down in the Cure of burning fevers or prepare this acetous syrup of the Elder which in provoking sweat in resisting putrefaction and contagion in strengthening the heart and other intrails is far more excellent than the common acetous syrup by reason of the Alexiterous vertue of the Elder Take clear Fountain-water lib. 3. White Sugar lib. 2. and an half Boyl them on a clear fire of Charcole till the half be consumed scumming them well in time of boiling After add sharp Elder-vinegar lib. 1. and an half boil them again on the consistence of a syrup You may to procure a more sweet smell in a knot of fine linnen infuse in it an ounce of Cinamon grosly powdered and sometimes wring it The syrup being cold let it be kept in a galli-pot of which give oft some spoonfuls by it self or dissolve it in the distilled water of Burrage sweet Roses Elder Scabious or such like The
stiff this Disease is and how miserably it tormenteth the patient is known even to children notwithstanding it expects ease if not full cure which sometimes is done by the Medicines of our Elder And seeing nothing is more able to preserve than that great encrease of serous humors being hindred those that are sprung be evacuated Seeing from these if not only yet most commonly Arthritick pains have their beginning as experience can testifie These Medicines therefore that follow are convenient Viz. The wine of the berries of which he is to drink a cup full oft in the week in the morning or in the beginning of dinner But that is of most force which we have set down in the 24 Chapter out of Quercetan The water distilled out of the succulent bark in the Autumn or Spring is oft to be drank Let it be sweetned with the third part of the syrup of the berries or buds the dose is four ounces That it may purge more forcibly mix therewith a half or whole drachm according to the Patients strength of the Polychrestick powder of the Buds Vomits are good to preserve from this disease if it be provoked once a moneth by those that are used to it In cure of the Arthritick chiefly of the Sciatick or Gout seeing vomit doth revel and derive by the upper parts it performs more than any downward purge Therefore you are to reiterate it two days and more if the evil persevere The oyl pressed out of the kernels of the berries and half a drachm thereof taken in the broth of Ale doth excel in this disease The oyl of the infused flowers or bark is good the dose is one or two ounces in warm water You shall repress the Arthritick assaults if you once or twice in the moneth sweat having first purged the body For the serous matter gathered in the body is easily discussed by sweat and as soon as natural or artificial sweat appears there is great hopes of safety See Hildanus Centor 5. observ 3. Give then of the Rob of the Elder two drachms with a scruple of Harts-horn prepared or half a drachm or two scruples of the extract Granorum actes or one spoonful or two of the spirit of the berries or flowers This is uporist of some The Roots of the Elder or Walnut half an ounce Of the pulverised Kernels drachm 1. Let them macerate for a night in white wine whose Colature being a little sweetened with Sugar is to be given in the morning in bed to provoke sweat If it be given a little before the fit it disappoints it In the Spring-time the buds prepared with oyl vinegar and salt and frequently being eaten before supper being mixed with other Sallets is commendable for they gently purge the belly and purifie the blood from serosity The powder of the buds dried in the shadow is good for preventing of Gouts and all Arthritick Diseases whereof take in the Spring-time or Harvest for a whole month together in the morning half a scruple in a soft egg with a little salt Or take the Conserve of the buds alone or mixed with the Conserve of the flowers in equal parts The dose is the bigness of a Walnut or Chesnut morning and evening before meat Drink above it some of the water of the flowers sweetned with a little of the juice of the berries Topicks A linnen cloth dipt in the distilled water of the leaves and flowers of the Elder and applied warm wonderfully asswages the pain unlocks the pores digests the matter and strengthens the nervous parts That it may more penetrate and where the colour and heat is greater you may add in equal quantity Elder-vinegar Where the matter is colder and the pain longer you may dip the same clothes in such a liquor as this and apply them hot Take of the spirit of Elder-berries three ounces The spirit of the flowers drach 2. Of Opium of Thebes scruples two mix them By its Narcotick vertue it mitigateth the pains and discusseth the more stubborn matter and refresheth the members The Goutish Anodine Water Quercetan in the first book and seventh chapter sets down this Podagrick water Take of the green leaves and flowers of Elder of each lib. 1. more or less as you please to make it greater or less quantity pound them and macerate them well in B. M. then distill them in a Glass or Copper vessel till they be dry with this water forment the pained place twice a day yea you may use it constantly in that Gout which proceeds from hot humors So far he The Oyle wherein the roots of the Elder or Ebulus and the leaves or fine extract from them hath been boyled chiefly the oyle of the Dwarf-Elder-seed from which the seeds of the greater differ little is much praised here It is prepared thus beat the ripe and clean seeds in a paste boyle it in water and gather the scum thereof put it in a long Glass in a warm place for three or four daies till the oyle which is greenish go to the bottom the same oyle pressed out of the seeds is most powerfull These are the words of Plater in the second part of his practice Or take oyle of infused Elder-flowers ounces two and of it pressed out of the kernels half an ounce Being mixt apply them warm to the grieved place Dioscorides affirms that the recent leaves applyed with the fat of a Goat or Bull doth help the Goutish I know a man that whensoever he is troubled with the Gout useth only this unction He taketh new Cream of Milk and he mixeth with it the Powder made into fine meal of the and leaves of the Elder till it acquire the consistence of a Poultice or Cataplasme which being spread on a linnen cloth he applyeth it hot to the diseased part and from this easie and simple Medicine he exspects and experiences with happy successe great ease Gabel Shover amongst others hath this Take the water of the Elder and the spirit of Wine of each ounces 2 mix them and apply clothes moystened therein Some take two ounces of elder-Elder-water and one of aqua vite and mix them The same man much commendeth in pains of the joynts and other cold defluctions from which the resolution and Palsie of the joynts do proceed this Take a good quantity of Elder-pith a quarter of a pint of rhenish-Rhenish-Wine and as much of your own urine being mixed boyle them in a new pot till half be consumed Then anoynt the grieved place with the spirit of Wine and rub it well in Afterward apply a woollen-cloth hot dipt in the former decoction And when it is dry dipt it and apply it again And this is to be done before you go to bed Some praise this that follows in Arthritick Diseases chiefly which are hot A Mucilaginous Andonyne Liquor R. Of quick Snails newly taken whole out of their shelly cottages Of Elder-berries dried in the Oven and pulverized and of common salt of each as
the Products of Pesants yet are more safe and effectual for out bodies and diseases then the most renowned Exoticks For Nature with a plentiful Horn hath provided each Climate proper Medicines This being considered by the ingenious it will not only press upon them a thankful remembrance of the Author for gathering but of you also for procuring the Translation of these Experiments This Translation owes you its Life and lies prostrate at your feet to be exposed or cherished If it please you 't is all the Translator desires if not 't is all he could do in these rough and rugged hils where even the common elements are barbarous But he knows you are ready to entertain any foundling of his though full of deformities thereby to encourage him for better births Wherefore he beseecheth you will take this Paper-indeavor as a fragment of the great duty he owes you till he be able in more worthy expressions to declare himself SIR Your sincere Clyent C. de IRYNGIO At the Camp in Athol June 30. 1651 THE INDEX OF THE ANATOMY of the ELDER Sect. I. OF the names kinds form place qualities of the Elder page 1 Sect. II. Of the Medicines made of the Elder 10 Chap. 1. Of the Medicines of the Berries 11 1. The Rhob Tincture Extract ib. 2. The Wines 13 3. Spirits and Waters 14 4. Syrups and Trageas 16 5. The oyle pressed from the stones ib. Chap. 2. Of the Medicines of the flowers 1. Conserves p. 18 2. Syrups and Honey ib. 3. Water and Spirits 19 4. Vinegar and Oxymel 21 5. Wines 22 6. Oyles by Infusion Distillation 23 Chap. 3. Of the Medicine of the buds 26 1. Powders ib. 2. Conserves ib. 3. Syrups 27 Chap. 4. Of the Leaves middle-bark roots Jews-ears c. 28 1. Waters ib. 2. Syrups 29 3. Oyles and Liniaments ib. Chap. 5. Of the Salt and its Spirit 32 Sect. III. Shewing the practice and use of the Elder Medicaments 35 Chap. 1. Of the Cephalalgia page 36 2. Of ravings and wakings 38 3. Hypocondriack Melancholy 40 4. Of the Epilepsie 45 5. Of the Apoplexie and Palsie 56 6. Of Catharres 61 7. Of the Toothach 63 8. The diseases of the eyes 66 9. The dregs of ears and hearing 70 10. Of the nose and smelling ib. 11. Of the face and head 74 12. Of the mouth and throat 76 13. Of Dispnea and Astmate 79 14. Of the host and hoarsnesse 82 15. Of the plurisie and pthisis 85 16. Of the diseases of the dugs 89 17. Of swouning and faintnesse 91 18 Of Feavers and 1. Of intermitting 93 2. Of continued and burning 104 19. Of the pest and pestilential feavers 106 20. Of the small-pox and measles 118 21. Of the diseases of the stomach 120 22. Of the Diseases of the Intestines of the Collick 125 Worms 128 Leienterie and Coeliack Fluxes 130 Dyssentery 131 Constipation of the belly 135 Hemorrhoides 136 23 Of the obstructions of the Mesentery Liver Lien from whence proceed both the Jaundies and Scurvie 138 24. Of the Hydropsie 144 1. Ascites ib. 2. Anasarca 158 3. Tympany 161 25. Of the stone in the Reins of the Dysury and Iscury 163 26. Of the diseases of the Matrix 170 Retention of Flowers ib. Fluxion 173 Suffocation of the Matrix 174 27. Of Arthritical Diseases 183 28. Of the scab and its kinds 192 29. Of the Erysipelas or Rose 201 30. Of Inflammations Oedemas and Schirrous Tumors 208 31. Of Wounds Ulcers and Contusions 211 32. Of burning and congelation 219 33. Of poyson outwardly and inwardly 224 Medicines set down in the Practice 1. An Amulet Epileptick Sect. 3. Cap. 4. For the Rose 29 2. A Balsam vulnerary 31 3. A Bath for the scab 28 4. A Cataplasm for a spreading Herpes ib. 5. A decoction for host and hearsnesse 14 6. A decoction against Philtres and other poyson 33 7. The Experiment of Countess Emylia 24 8. Extract Granor. Actes Quer. 26 Lithontribon 25 Antilemick 19 9. Lac aureum 29 10. A liquor of Snails and Elder-kernels which is Anodine 27 11. Oyle topick in the Plague 19 12. Oyle of Elder-sugar 13 13. Misture uterine 26 14. Powder Traumattick 31 15. Polychrestick of the buds 3 16. Rob Antimelick of the Elder 19 17. A specifick in the Rose The Spirits of the Elder 24 18. Apoplectick 5 19. Bezoartick 19 29. Epileptick 4 21. Hysterick 26 22. Lythonthriptick 25 23. Pneumatick 13 24. Stomachick 21 25. The syrup acetous of the Elder 19 26. Sugar candid of the Elder 14 27. Tragea Granorum Actes 22 28. Trochiscation of Elder-stones 3 29. A water Anodine c. 27 30. A water-purge of the berries 24 31. The Wine of the berries of Quercetan ib. Mundus regitur opinionibus OF THE ANATOMY OF THE Elder or Boor Tree SECT 1. Of the Name Kinds Form Place and Quality of the ELDER TREE SEeing the Elder is a Tree most known even to the rudest of the Commons it seems a matter not worth the pains to describe it in many words Nevertheless lest in this respect our Treatise should seem lame some things are to be prefaced out of the ancient and Modern Botanicks I. The Name 'T is called by Dioscorides and other Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is a lover of brinks and shadowy banks as is thought by Pena and Lobel in their Advers of Plants p. 434. which name Theophrastus Paracelsus hath retain'd in whose and the modern Chymist-writing you will find frequent mention of Granorum Actes and of Medicines prepared of them 'T is called of the Latins Sambucus or by others chiefly of Q. Serenus as witnesseth Hugh Frida Val. l. 2. de tuend san c. 26. Sabucus from the likeness the musical Instrument called Sabuc or Sambuck hath with its hollow and pith-emptied rods Pena and Lob in the place before cited Whence till this day 't is called by the Spaniards Sabuco or Sabugo by the Germans Holunder or by contraction Holder albeit there be some which imagine 't is from the many vertues thereof called Holder as it were deduced from Hulder Or Hulderich but in this we will not contend with any The Italian names it Sambuco the French Susier Suyn and Susau the Bohemians Bez the English the Elder tree the Scots Boor tree or Bore tree the Low Dutch Ulier See Tabernomontanus Herbal part 3. sect 1. c. 62. II. The Kinds Matthiolus and others speak of four kinds thereof The Domestick the Mountain the Water Elder and the Little Elder or Danwort whereof the first and last are most commended in Medicine by Physicians who herein follow Dioscord viz. the Elder tree properly so called and the Ebulus called the less Dwarf or low Elder But because both these kinds as we will hear anon out of Dioscorides differ little or not at all one from the other in vertue I will describe here the Domestik or Elder tree properly so called by which you may easily judge what is to be thought of the Ebulus III. The Form
The Elder Tree in figure is like the Ash sendeth forth long small reed-like branches covered with an outward bark of an ash colour the next rine to it is green and that is yellow and succulent which next clotheth the wood within which is contained a white and fungous pith the leaves are like those of the Walnut tree but less growing by intervals by threes fours yea if you look to both the sides of the branch by fives and sevens incompassing it together of an heavy smell lightly cut in edges In the tops of the branches and twigs there springeth sweet and crisped umbels swelling with white sweet smelling flowers in June befor St. Johns Eve which by their fall give place to a many branched Grape first green then ruddy lastly of a black dark purple colour succulent and tumid with its winish liquor Of all the wild plants 't is first covered with leaves and last unclothed of them We omit other descriptions this being full IV. The Place The place of its nativity is every where and scarce can you find any place where any other tree or shrub enmantle themselves in their green garments which the bountiful enricher of Nature hath envyed this treeling But it most delighteth in hedges orchards and other shadowy places or on the moist brinks of rivulets and ditches unto which places 't is thrust by the Gardeners lest by its luxury and importunate encrease whereby yearly it doth spread and enlarge it self it should possess the place of more honourable as they conceive and of more pretious Plants V. The Qualities and Vertues The Qualities in general are described by Galen lib. 6. Simpl. Medic. facul sect That it hath the force of desiccating conglutinating and digesting moderately which word for word is repeated by the Galenick Physician Paulus of Aegian lib. 7. Medic. â— 3. Dioscorides who as Galen witnesseth hath of all others written most accurately most truly and most learnedly of Plants did long agoe in more proper colours limn them in his fourth Book and 175 Chapter of the Matter of Medicine These are his words The faculty and use of both he meaneth the Elder and Ebulus is the same in exiccating and drawing water from the belly They are indeed troublesom to the stomach nevertheless their leaves being boyled as pot-hearbs will purge bile and pituite Their tender stalks being boyled in pot or pan effect the same The root being boyled in wine and given in meat helpeth the Hydroped yea it helpeth those that are bitten of a Viper drunk after the same manner Being boyl'd with water for bathing it softneth and openeth the vulva and corrects what enormities are there abouts The berries thereof drunk with Wine work the same effect Anointed on the hair they make them black The recent and tender leaves mitigate inflammations being with Polent anointed thereon Their anointing helps burning and the bitings of mad dogs They conglutinate profound and fustulous ulcers and helps the guttish being together with the fat of a Bull or hee Goat anointed These vertues so nobilitate the Elder that if after ages had not found out any yet they are enough to commend it to us But as in all other things as Seneca witnesseth Quest Natur. l. 7. c. 31. Nature doth not at once discover her mysteries neither are her secrets promiscously laid open to all being withdrawn and shut in her inmost Cabinets out of which some in this age some in another is received and unfolded Even so here one day hath taught another And the later Physicians with more intent thoughts falling into the contemplation both of other herbs and of the Elder they have tryed it in many affections to be most wholsom so that not undeservedly they esteem it a Panacaea or All-heal For what is given to others apart experience proves together to be in the Elder That I may say nothing of its wondrous and hid operations in expugning Epilepsies Plague Erysipelasses and other malign affections which shall be spoken of afterwards It hath a wonderfull force in purging out of the body all hurtfull bilous pituitous and especially serous humors from which bud such troops of sicknesses as is to be seen in that famous and learned Treatise of the ingenious Piso De serosa Colluvie Besides 't is Anodyne and by rarifying the skin and digesting the humors and vapours it lulleth the pain it provokes urine sweat expelleth the stone provoketh the stopt flowers and doth other rarities according to the parts and preparation thereof That not without cause what the more sober and learned Chymists have attributed to their manifold Medicinal Mercury Antimony Vitriol we may admit admire and acknowledge in our Elder though I willingly confess with some difference yea we are more to admire this seeing what is got in that Triad of Minerals is got with such sweat and pains by those indefatigasearchers of the many works and windings of Nature but we attain our desire in this with light and little labour SECT 2. Of the Receipts of Medicaments drawn out of the Elder BEfore we come to the Diseases cured by the Elder 't is worth our labour first to explain the Medicaments which out of each part thereof ought and can be prepared lest in divers affections the same with a great deal of loathing and labour be repeated we will here set down the more curious and common beginning with the Berries as the best and last product of that Simple CAPI Of the Medicaments from the Berries 1. Of the Rob Tincture Extarct or Essence TAke the ripe Berries of the Elder picked from their stalks press the juice out of them which being strained is to be thickned on a soft and clear fire Some in time of their inspissating add a little sugar that the pallat may rellish it the better and this is called the Rob of Elder berries with sugar Of the Rob or inspissat juice of the Berries without sugar the Tincture and extract is prepared after this manner Take a pound of this Rob put it in a long and capacious Glass called by the Chymists a Cucurbite put thereon the spirit of Wine or the proper spirits of the Elder described in this Chapter so that it be a handful high above it The Glass being well closed that the spirit may not exhale digest it in Balneo four or five days shaking the Glass twice a day After that strain the whole matter contained in the Cucurbit through gray paper Take the strained liquor which is obscurely reddish and is called of some the Tincture of the Elder or Granorum actes and may be kept without further distillation to good purpose put it in a Glass Cucurbit and having put on the Alembick distil it on a slow Balnean heat till the Menstruum or that spirit drop by drop separate and the extract of the berries remain in the bottom like hony If the Menstruum be not totally extracted that which remains in the Cucurbit is called by the modern Chymists the
humors remain if they be not altogther corrupt which humors are to be purged according to the diversities of constitutions before you use such Amulets Read Sennert l. de Cons dissen Gal Chymic Whereas they object That in all these Amulets do not hold This will not prove that they are not indewed with an Anti-epileptick faculty otherwise many famous Medicaments should be called in question seeing many times they are disappointed of their actings in some subjects because it may be they are not used in fit quantity time or after due prepration or some other errours are committed which may hinder the best and most approved Medicine to take effect neither is it in the power alwaies of the Physician or Medicine that the diseased should be releived some times the evil excels the cunningest art CAP. V. Of the Apoplexie and Palsie AS preservative a against the Apoplexie and Palsie the Salt of the Elder is much commended if it be mixt with a third part of the volatile salt of Amber which volatile salt useth to stick to the neck of the retort in the distillation of the oyl of Amber and given in the time of the new Moon or full moon in a convenient liquor in the weight of a scruple or half a drachme The salt of the Elder must be first excellently Crystallized in the water of Sage as you know Amwald desires that three parts of the extract of black Hellebore be mixed with the Rob of Elder which he commends as a gallant specifick against the Apoplexie and all noysom affections of the brain The receit is set down in his Treatise Panacea Amwaldina fol. 23. Pulvis Tureonum Polychrestus doth not only purge the stomach and nearest vessel but likewise the brain from its gross pituite and serous humors whereof give a drachme thereof when it is needful in form of a Pill Oxymel Samb is likewise useful in these cold distempers of the brain whereof give oft in the water of Sage a little masted before purging at least two or three ounces for the cutting and preparing that gross matter The Spirit likewise distilled from the Berries is excellent if once a week or at least each quarter of the Moon a spoonful thereof mixt with crums of wheat bread and a little sugar for it consumes the phlegmatick humors and drieth and comforteth the brain and 't is taken in place of a simple Anti-epileptick as we have said in the former Chapter Or. You may prepare it new thus only for this affection in what quantity you please thus Take of Sage Marjoram Ivy Arthritica of each two drachmes Of Couslip flowers Conval Lilly flowers of each one drach and an half Of Rochet seed two drachmes Which all being cut and grosly pulverised are to be macerated in a sufficient quantity of the spirit of Elder and after eight daies to be distillid in B. M. till they be dry for the Apoplectick spirit of the Elder in a part of which Castoreum may be dissolved and oft times transcolate of which mixture a spoonful chiefly in the time of the Paroxisme should be instilled as the cause is of exigency and with the same rub the pallat nostrills crown of the head and nuke of the neck Two or three drops of the oyl of the second or third description or distilled being instilled in the ear or anoynted on the pallat after the manner the spirit is thought to help the rest Mark That those things we have now commended have chief place in that Apoplexie that proceeds from pituite or other gross humors and is familiar to old men but that which proceeds from depression of the scul or inflammation of the brain is to be cured by other Medicines that is not our part here to handle Of the Palsie But if the Apoplexie end in a Palsie of the sides or other members as it useth having observed those universals for the provision of whole body and brain 't is necessary oft in the week to provoke sweat Half an ounce of the Apoplectick Spirit of the Elder is useful here also two drachms of the rob of the berries in Sage water Or Of the extract of the Rohob of the Elder drach 5. and an half Antimony diaphoretick most white half a drachm Of which every morning give to the Paralitick they being exactly mixt 1 drachm in 2 or 3 ounces of the decoction of the root of the great Burdock and command him that being well lapped in his bed he swet for half an hour and that he may sweat more freely and fully you may mix with the potion half an ounce of the Apoplectick spirit of the Elder Topicks The enervat or hanging members are twice a day to be rubbed first with hard sharp clothes afterward with the spirit drawn out of the berries and inebriate with the essence of Cephalick herbs So those gross and viscid humors that trouble the nerves and compresse them and stop the passage of the animal spirits will be attenuate and dissipate and the stupified spirits will be raised and allured Nevertheless lest by these hot and much drying spirits the matter it self and nevres should be hardned you are to mix with the oyl of the infusion of the flowers of the Elder a third of the oyl drawn from the Kernels of its berries and this will attemperate the too too much exsiccating heat and nevertheless digest and consume the matter In this case likewise the decoction of the root of the Elder and Ebulus in simple water is much praised And seeing oft times the Palsie of the tongue and difficulty of speaking remains the tongue is oft times to be rub'd and humectated with a sponge dipped in the Apoplectick spirit of the Elder CAP. VI. Of Catarrhs IN this the Wine prepared of the flowers and berries is much commended because it excellently purgeth the body of that serous inundation of which after you have taken a little broth drink a cupfull in the morning The simple Powder of the buds of the Elder taking a scruple thereof in a soft egg or in some syrup or in a spoonful of the Oximel of the Elder in the Spring or Harvest for 14 daies each morning and fasting two hours at least after it doth mightily consume the Catarrhous matter Or instead of the Powder use the Conserve of the buds mixt with the third part of the Conserve of the flowers the Dose ounc s. If the body stand in need of greater evacuation exhibit once or twice the polichrestick powder of the buds The salt of the Elder by it self or mixt with the third part of the volatile salt of Ambre dose scrup 1. is esteemed likewise the spirit of the Elders salt taking weekly six drops thereof or more in broth made of flesh Also a spoonful or two of the spirit of the berries and flowers taken with crums of bread and sugar Concerning other things especially sweetning which is sometimes conducible to consume the matter in this disease read the precedent
Chapter CAP. VII Of the Toothach SEing this disease oft flowes from defluxions those things are to be first used that are set down in the former Chapter Topicks We will onely prescribe here Topicks made of the Elder Raymund Minder in his Military Medicine cap. 10. commends much the decoction of the roots in Wine and Vinegar used to gargarise with and protests that no one Medicine sooner easeth this great pain For Example Take of the roots of Elder cut in slices two ounces and an half Of Elder or simple Vinegar of white Wine of each six ounces Boyl them for a water to wash the mouth which is oft to be spit out and renewed Or Take of the middle Elder bark Of Elder flowers of each an handfull Of Jews ears one Boyl them likewise in a sufficient quantity of Vinegar and Wine and use it Where there is a suspicion of worms in the hollow tooth the hollowness is to be filled with the spongiola of the Elder at last it is to be held hard betwixt the teeth Likewise the vapor of the former decoction may be received through a funnel at the mouth They make Tooth-pickers and Spoons of Elder to which they attribute much in preserving from this pain The common people take these tooth-pickers being bloudy with pricking and picking the tooth and glew them to the Trunk of an Elder which is irradiated with the morning Sun beams they pull away the bark and cover the place with rosin of the Pine and thus they cure all tooth-aches 'T is not apparent by what vertue this is done when may be that is attributed to the incision which ought to be attributed to the blooding or time of continuance wherein most diseases are eased But we leave every man to his judgement Scal. Exerc. 183. sect 11. If from a defluction the gums and cheeks do swel anoynt them with the oyl of the infusion of the flowers of the Elder and put the dregs or crassament of them to it for they will digest and resolve it CAP. VIII Of the Affects of the eyes PLaterus Tom. 2. praxeos hath observed that Chirurgeons used to apply to sore eyes a Pill of the Elder macerated in common or Rose water or other convenient to mitigate the pain The water of the flowers of the Elder mixt with a like proportion of Rose water wounderfully mitigateth ophthalmike pains and strengtheneth the sight into which sometimes prepared tutty in a knot is to be put to ease the itch and a spunge of the Elder macerated in Pennyroyal water to be applyed to the nuke or hollow of the neck This following liquor anointed on the eyelids with a feather is profitable R. Elder flowers gathered in the month of June before the rising of the Sun and picked from their stalks as much as you will beat them in a Marble Morter and in a glass well stopped expose them for a month to the rayes of the Sun them let then be involv'd in a leavened Rie loaf and baked with other bread in an oven which being taken out and opened you shall find an oleaginous liquor which you must carefully preserve in another glass for your use The tender and recent leaves with polent or barly meal applyed to inflammations doth mitigate them by dissolving and digesting as was taught before by Dioscorides which may be used externally in Ophthalmies general Medicines being premised Or rather use this Cataplasme which did much help in a more vehement tumor of the eyelids whereby the whole eye was hid Make of the Mucilage of the seed of Psyllium and Linseed extracted by the best water of Elder flowers of each six drachmes add of Elder oyl half an ounce and as much meal of the flowers as will suffice Make thereof a Cataplasm The little spunge of the Elder macerate well in the best water of the flowers til they swell great do wipe away gallantly the dirt and matter in those blemishes and in all other wounds and ulcers of the eyes immediately laying thereon a tender and recent Elder leaf They say that the ashes thereof blown in the eye hath consumed a beginning Panincle CAP. IX Of the Diseases of the Ears and Hearing FOments of the decoction of Elder and Camomile flowers mitigates the pain of the ears The oyl of the infusion of the flowers may be with profit anointed or adding the meal of the flowers make thereof a Cataplasm which is to be applied hot to the whole region of the ears The difficulty of hearing through gross humors and vapors that possess the auditory organs is greatly helped after you have used universals and the polychrestick buds of the Elder by the vapor of the decoction of the roots and leaves of the Elder made in a fit Lixive in the which Lixive if you add Origanum the ears are to be oft washed and still well dried The same vapor takes away the tingling whistling and other sounds of the ear which are also remedied by a drop or two of the oyl of the flowers of the second or third description being put on a bombaceous tent thrust in the ears for it consumes and dissipates the flatuosities from which these arise Some who suspect the unctuosity of the oyl use after the same manner the spirit of the flowers and berries chiefly the apoplectick which by its penetrating force doth discuss them egregiously The juice prest out of the recent leaves with a little Wine and instilled in the ears doth cleanse the filth of the exulcerate ears and kill the worms It doth likewise cleanse and consolidate wounds and ulcers of which in his proper Chapter CAP. X. Of the Defects of the Nose and Smelling THe best Water of the Flowers of the Elder oft drawn up in the nose doth help the smelling that is diminished by some great sickness In the exulceration of the nose by a salt defluxion the water of the flowers and bark are profitable seeing they deterge dry and conglut inate In a greater exulceration where the flesh is too proud the spirit of the salt is needful which being mixt with the rest it consumes the proud flesh and hindreth further putresaction See the Chapter of curing ulcers Gabel Rover doth commend the Spunges that grow on the stock of the Elder being dryed pulverised and given in a fit liquor for staying the Hemorage of the nose Tragea Granorum actes which is described in the cure of the Dyscentery is good in this case The dose half a drachme or two scruples in a spoonful or two of Quercetans Corralline Syrup or in the Styptick red Wine or in the distilled water of the Sperm of Frogs Shepherds purse or Purslain c. or make a Powder of the equal parts of Tragea and the little sponges which is both to be taken in the mentioned liquors and lightly and easily to blown into the nostrils CAP. XI Of the blemishes of Face and Head IF you wash the face oft with the distilled water of the leaves and flowers
of the Elder it cleanseth and drieth up all pimples and pustles of the face Dispensatories affirm that the oyl of the infusion of the flowers mundifieth and makes clear the skin In Lentiginibus commonly called Freckles by signature a decoction of the flowers in water is commended for the flowers of the Elder are spotted Oswald Croll de signaturis Dioscorides teacheth that the juice anointed makes the hair black This will be a profitable experiment to those that endeavour to make their red hair black albeit the colour be more comely in many than ill favoured What we must allow to those old Ruffins that are ashamed of their white locks Galen hath taught hath taught us l. 1. de Compos Medicament secund Loc. c. 3. and this transcursorily occasioned by Dioscorides his words Take Elder roots cut very small adding a little of the seed of Staphis agriae made in a Lixive wherein wash the head that is full of scales lice The same decoction heals the Tineam or Favum in children if it be over strong and painful dilute it with the decoction of the flowers and leaves The pain is likewise mitigated by the anointing of the oyl of the infusion of the flowers if after washing it be anointed The oyl expressed out of the berries and kernels and mixt by stirring with a third part of Turpentine and anointed doth cure by drying and cleansing all ulcers of the head the whole Elder leaf after being applyed Oleum Saccharo sambucinum is likewise commodious CAP. XII Of the Diseases of the Mouth and Throat THe Common Women so soon as they suspect any Disease in the Throte of their young ones they steep the sponge of the Elder in their drink and when it is sweld they therewith carefully wipe away all the filth of the pallat gums and tongue The expressed juice of the leaves mixt with simple or Elder honey doth absterge and exsiccate egregiously all the ulcers of the gums and throat If therewith they be anointed by a pencil or if it be disolved in the water of the leaves and bark and gargarised therewith You shall add more vertue thereto in deterging in purifying if you mix a little of the salt of the Elder therewith or dissolve the said juice in a weaker Lixive and use it as a Gargarisme If the ulcers be more malignant and the product of the great Pox 't is necessary that twice or thrice a day you rub them with a sponge or pencil dipped in the spirit of Elder berries wherein a little of the flowers of Sulphur hath been dissolv'd and immediatly after wash them with the decoction of the leaves and besprinkling them with the small flower of the Elder pith The Tonsils being tumefied by a thin and saltish defluxion let them be gargarised with water or decoction of Elder flowers wherein a little Elder-hony hath been mixed for licking the Rhob of the Elder inspissated with Sugar is commodious which is our womens common and used Medicine you may use the syrup of the juice of the berries or infusion of the flowers or the hony of either Outwardly anoint them with the oyl of Elder flowers infusion which doth resolve it In the Squinancy having first used universals to the foresaid Gargarism add some leaves of Self-heal with one or two of the sponges of the Elder called by many Jews ear which is a sure experiment Lob. in Advers Novis stirp p. 434. The Linctus must be the former only add some pulverised Jews ears or make this Eclegme Take Jews-ears two or three let them sharpen an hour or two in a sufficient quantity of the water of Elder flowers then let them boyle lightly and them in a Marble Mortar and put them through a Setace add unto this Musilage as much as is needful of the Syrup of the juice of the flowers and sugar as will make a Linctus which you may oft use besides it opens the belly Outwardly apply an Anadyne Cataplasm which doth digest and resolve made of Elder leaves and Reddish stalks pounded and boyled in the oyl of the infusion of Elder flowers to the consistency of a Pulticle The Acetoses Syrup of the Elder dissolved in the decoction of Barley and given as a Julap when 't is necessary tempereth the heat of the blood and whole body See afterward the cure of the continued Fevers In spitting of blood Tragea granorum actes is profitable whereof we have made mention in the tenth Chapter which being taken in some convenient Syrup is to be used for a Linctus CAP. XIII Of Dyspnei and Asthma THat those things may be remov'd in these diseases and expectorat which are gathered through the proper imbecility of the Lungs use the water of the flowers in which a third part of Elder Oximel is dissolved and as Julap twice a day drink two or three ounces thereof it cuts the gross matter and facilitateth the expectoration thereof The same Oximel thickned with Sugar-candy and taken off a liquorice-stick like a Linctus and swallowed leasurely worketh well in expectoration The Syrup of the flowers of the Juice of the Berries and Buds c. are wholsome taken after the same manner The Bark of the Elder entreth that famous Oximel Helleborat of Gesner The spirit of the berries in a great Dispnoea is profitable half a spoonful or a spoonful thereof taken with sugar Use this following Asmalick or Pneumatick Spirit if you please Take of the middle Elder bark Liquorish well shaven six drachms Of the roots of Allacompaine of Florentine Ireos Of each two drachms Of the whole herb Erysimum two handful Of Fennel-seed half an ounce Being cut and shaked together infuse them in a sufficient quantity of the spirit of Granorum actes in which let them stand seven days every day twice stirring all together afterward let them be distilled in Bal. Mar. for the Pneumatick spirit of the Elder which in time of necessity is to be taken either by it self or dulcerat with a little sugar or the syrup of Violets Or with the same with Canary-sugar or of Madara prepare the oyl of the Elder-sugar as followeth Take of this Pneumatick spirit rectified as much as you will mix with it half the quantity of Sugar fire the spirit with a wax-candle or light paper stir it hither and thither with a knife till all turn to a thick and oily liquor and the flame cease of it self Use it as an Eclegme with a stick of Liquorice by it self or mix with an equal part of Elder Oximel it mightily moves expectoration c. 't is profitable to anoint the breast in the greatest difficulty of breathing with the oyl of Elder-flowers of the first description you may mix therewith some drops of the oyl of the flowers of the third description In suffocating Catars besides these abundantly declared it availeth much if in the time of the fit you put a sponge dipped in Elder-vinegar to the nose and therewith wet the crown of the head
CAP. XIV Of Hoasting and Hoarsness VVOmen with great success give to their coughing unquiet children the recent Rob of the Elder which is more liquid In older the Linctus of the Oyl of Elder-sugar is profitable In that wild Cough where corrupt matter is exercat and more corruption feared this is much praised Take of the Elder-leaves recent or dried in the shadow M. I. boil them in a quart of Fountain or clear River water to the consumption of a third part the strained drink is to be sweetned with Sugar-Candy or scummed hony of which every day morning and evening drink a warm draught The same is commended in hoarsness proceeding from a Catar that fils the inequalities of the wind-pipe or Arteriae Asperae Or where more detersion in necessary for the same effect there is a fit Lixive prepared of the ashes of the leaves with the water of the flowers which being sweetned with sugar or hony is to be oft taken by spoonfuls in the day This if any thing will take away hoarsness is a great secret amongst women as the giving their own proper urine to the diseased to drink which is loathsom to many To make a clear voice this is a secret of Alexis Take of Elder-flowers dried in the Sun and pulverised of which drink a little every morning in white Wine fasting The Cough and hoarsness proceeding from heat in feavers is excellently remedied by a Linctus of the Syrup made of the juice of Elder-berries with equal parts of the Syrup of Violets If you list and have leasure you may make Elder-sugar in imitation of Violet-sugar-candy Cinnamon or Rose-sugar of which in these pectoral diseases hold some still to be dissolved in your mouth that by little and little it may descend into Asperae Arteriae or wind-pipe 'T is thus made Take of the best Canary-sugar lib. 6. let it melt and boil in the fragrant water of the flowers till it acquire a fit thickness for making up tablets Then infuse the fresh juice pressed from the berries well purified or the frequent infusion of the flowers as vou please to have the colour lib. 2. on a soft fire boil them to the consistency of a syrup then in a glass or earthen pot put sticks in order two fingers broad asunder and pour the liquor hot thereon and in a warmed shop the vessel being bound up in a thick Cotton cloth leave it there to congeal See more of this in the famous Botanicks Pena and Lobel p. 20. advers Nov. Stirpium Cas Bauhine lib. I. c. 19. de comp Medicam CAP. XV. Of the Pleurisie and Phthisis IN a bastard Pleurisie 't is a very safe and us'd Medicine if there be no fever to provoke sweat by taking the Rhobob Granorum actes in the water of Elder-flowers or Cardui benedicti seeing it ariseth from the serous and flatulent humors that fall betwixt the Pleura and intercost all muscles c. In a true Pleurisie where there is a continual fever adjoyn'd proceed more warily For after the use of universals the rob water and spirit of Elder-flowers are not to be much feared here seeing with success we use hotter sudorificks of the blessed and milky thistles of the simple and composed spirit of Vitriol c. for many expert men acknowledge a malignity in these humors which Paracelsus likeneth to Auripigmentel Poyson which doth corrode the life like a fire Diosc lib. 5. c. 121. Pectorals For the expectoration of the matter in the Lungs use them that are weak as the syrup of the flowers and berries inspissat with sugar or Elder candied-sugar likewise the water of the flowers inspissat supped down you may mix with these some of the Tragea Gran. Actes for the spitting of blood Topicks Externally anoint with the oyl of the infusion of the flowers with the fat of a Capon or saltless May-butter or foment oft the side with linnen dipt in the water or decoction of the flowers and leaves of the Elder for by ratifying the skin and parts they digest resolve those sharp vapors and humors Or take Elder-leaves and flowers Camomile of each an handful make a decoction in milde beer which put in a Cows-bladder and after the opening of a vein being oft in the day applyed warm it did wonderfully ease a Smith in my Country whose wife I counselled to do so Of the Phthisis In preserving and curing the Phthisis besides other things the decoction for the wild cough being taken by spoonfuls and by little little swallowed is used with success seeing it proceeds from the ulcer of the Lungs which requires detersion exsiccation and consolidation and the leaves and flowers of the Elder mixed with a little sugar or honey work these effects they think to satisfy all the indications by this decoction But I had rather in this case instead of simple sugar hony use tabled sugar-roset or honyroset strained and mix a scruple or half a drachm of this following powder chiefly were much arterious blood with the spittle is cast up Take of Tragea Gran. actes drach 1. of Jews ears dryed in a Furnace Oculorum Cancri praep an drach and half Saffron Oriental scrup 1. sugari rosat tabled drach 2. being all pulverised well mix them together exactly in the mean time you are to have an eye to the prime cause of this ulcer whose knowledge is to be found elsewhere George Amwald in his Panacea p. 29. commends the unction of the oyl of Elder-flowers in a Phthisis CAP. XVI Of the affections of the Duggs SEeing the Duggs of women oft-times by reason of the sudden and abundant affluxion of blood for the generating of milk chiefly after their delivery use to be inflamed or as the blood is of thinner consistence and hotter use to have an Erysipelas or Rose the following receipts may safely and securely be applyed In Inflammations the Caput mortuum or the cake of the flowers of the Elder with the red Vinegar thereof in one Erysipelas let it be bedewed with the distilled water of the leaves and flowers of the Elder and so applied warm For it digests and resolves that which hath flowed in and is compacted and doth moderately by reason of the Vinegar repel the inflammation extinguish the heat of the blood Anoint he hardened kernels of the dugs with the oyl of the infusion of Elder-flowers and put the leaves of the Elder thereupon For the exulcerat the lac aureum or Golden-milk is most fitting being made of the common or elder Lixive and the oyl of the infused flowers and bark mixed by hard shaking and stirring together in which linnen being dipt and wrung afterward is to be applied warm to the ulcers 'T is also profitable for the more hasty and happy perfecting of the cure to blow on it the powder of Elder-leaves So the ulcer whatever it be shall be cleansed dryed and dighted view these in their proper places I knew a woman whereof I made
bowels and vessels and both by urine and sweat dissipate the feverish matter See more in the 23 Chapter Before the Fit Internal Medicaments Those which are used before the Fit are of two sorts for some of them move vomit and the belly others provoke sweat When in time of the fit the matter tendeth upward which is known by the sudden straitness of the brest by the stretching of the Hypocondriac by nauciousness and propensity to vomit give him a spoonful or drachm and a half of the oyl pressed out of the berries kernels in warm Ale and by putting your finger in his throat hasten the vomit Joseph Quercetan in his 1 Book and 8 chapter of Dogmatick Pharmacy asserteth that this following decoction is excellent in intermitting fevers quotidan and quartan Take Elder-roots and bark of each ounce 1. of Asarium drachms 3. of good Cinnamon drachm 1 and an half boyl them in milk This decoction at one and the same time moves vomit and sedge Let it be taken at the beginning of the fit and reiterate if it be needful If the body be evacuate and nature encline to sweating before the fit use these following The Rob of Elder in greatness of a Walnut being mixed with half a drachm of the powder of the blessed Thistle and swallowed and drinking vinegar above it and afterwards two hours before the fit provoking sweat in bed is an usual Medicine Or make this mixture Take half a drachm of the extract of the rob of the Elder and half a scruple of the salt of the Elder mix them and form of them with the powder of Hearts-horn Pills which are to be taken in a spoonful of the syrup of the berries two hours before the fit give the half thereof to the younger and weaker complexions In Fevers less hot especially quartans two or three spoonfuls of the spirit of the Elder-berries given before the fit is commended There are some which dissolve this following powder in it before and they cannot praise enough this Medicine in more obstinate quartans especially if the day before the fit the stomach and other vessels nutritive be well purged by the oyl pressed out of the stones of the Elder-berries Take of Hearts-horn prepared without burning of the finest Antimony diaphoretick of each half a scruple let them be exactly powdered Neither is the heat of this spirit here to be feared seeing in the same fevers Galen and other famous Physicians prescribe Theriack Methridate Myrrh the spirit of Wine the water of Zedoary for a hard knot must have a hard wedg And experience proves that these Medicines being administred before the fit do not only stop the fierceness of the fit but likewise quite overthrow the fever which before would neither yield to preparing nor purging Medicines the reason is because the feverish matter at that time is more moveable and being prepared by nature it self more easily followeth the course of the Medicine Externals or Topicks This Topick is commended to be applied to the pulses Of Elder Lavender leaves of each half an handful of salt half as much They being pounded well incorporate them with the oyl of Elder that they may become a paste whereof apply one half to the wrist of the right hand and the other to the wrist of the left and bind them with a rowler wet in Elder-vinegar Foelix Plater in the second part of his Practice hath this Take of Elder Rue Marigolds and Nettle-leaves ana m. 1. let them be pounded with salt and vinegar and let them be applyed A double linnen cloth dipt in the spirit of Granorum actes is applyed with a great deal of comfort to the belly chiefly to the stomach before the fit in a quartan for seeing the fuel of the evil is setled in these places if it be not altogether routed by the application of this Epitheme yet it will be much weakned To take away the shaking and mitigate the chilness the back-bone is to be rubb'd with the same spirit being hot 2. Of continual and burning Fevers In continual and hot Tertian and burning Fevers where the heat is more intense and great drought tormenteth the Patient make this Julap R. Of Fountain or River-water lib. 3. of Elder-vinegar ounces 3. of the finest Sugar ounces 2. let them boyl together a little in a fit vessel unto which being warm add one drachm of Cinnamon in powder let them cool of themselves in a close vessel and strain them through Hyppocrates sleeve for a Julap Of which give the patient oft in the day it extinguisheth the feverish heat cuts the gross and tough matter cleanseth the thin and bilous unlocks obstructions it purgeth humors that offend through their convenient places and by its acceptable acidity it sharpneth the appetite and refresheth the strength This same is performed by the acetory syrup of the Elder described in the next Chapter which is to be dissolved in Barley-water till it come to the consistency of a Julap For example Take the sharp Elder-syrup ounc 3. simple Barley-water lib. 1. mixed or Oximel of the Elder ounc 2. clear Fountain-water lib. mix them give four ounces or more of this and such like at each time otherwise if you give less and only once or twice a day they rather encrease than diminish heat P. Egineta lib. 2. cap. 36. for as Charcole in a Smiths Forge being besprinkled with water burneth more ardently so the feverish heat is rather kindled than quenched by drinking sparingly That you may extinguish the intemperate heat and refresh the vanquisht strength instead of an Epithem apply to the pulses the Vinegar of Elder-flowers mixed with Rose-water and imbibed by double or treble linnen cloths To loose without danger in these fevers the bound belly the syrup of the juice of the berries is convenient of which dissolve two or three ounces in the water of Elder-flowers use it instead of a Julap and drink it for it gently looseth the belly and evacuateth the feverish matter CAP. XIX Of the Pest and Pestilential Fevers IN curing and preserving from the Plague great is the use of the Elder A little sponge being wet in Vinegar of the Elder and carried in a hollow globe made of Juniper-wood and smell it it mightily strengtheneth the spirits against the impression of the infectious contagion Red hot bricks being besprinkled with this Vinegar and a vapor raised it doth dissipate the contagious virulency so that it cannot insinuate it self in mens houses and cloths By what means it may be indued with an Antilemick force more efficacious shall appear by what I will now say Rob of the Elder and the extract prepared of it here are excellent The first whereof is named by many The Country-mans Theriack of which each week to swallow the bigness of a Walnut and drink above it its proper Vinegar and so to sweat in bed is a commonly received preservative This may be fitly used by those who are infected with the Plague
little before and having anoynted his loynes with Elder-oyle he must go into a 〈◊〉 made of Pease-straw and Mallows the flowers of Elder and Cammomile afterward let him drink a spoonfull of this spirit in white-Wine and stay in the Bath till he avoid the Stone And to avoid swouning let him hold to his nose a sponge dipt in Elder-vinegar and let him moisten his pulses with this same vinegar or some cordial Epithem This Medicine hath its original from the experiments set down in the Dutch Matthiolus and is called a wonderfull Medicine by Muller in his Mysteries Medicinal Nevertheless this is to be preferred to that in respect of the vertues it hath from the pith or spirit of the Elder to break the stone A Stonebreak Essence or Extract He that pleaseth may prepare an excellent Essence or Extract against stony tartarous diseases as followeth Take of the Pith of the Elder one ounce Of the dryed Berries of the Elder Of recent Juniper-berries of each an ounce and half Of Liquorice mundified six drachmes The Pith and Liquorice are to be cut in small pieces and the berries grosly powdered being mixed let them be infused in a sufficient quantity of Elder spirit and let them stand in a hot place for a fortnight together stirring each day the glass and stopping the mouth thereof well that time being ended put them in a linnen bag and in a press press them strongly put the strained liquor in a Cucurbit and putting to the Alimbeck thereof distil that spirit in Balneo till that which remains in the bottom become as thick as hony having mixed before with it two drachms of the Magisterie or salt Ocular Cancror being mixed keep them in a glass vessel whereof give from a scruple to a drachm dissolved in a spoonful of that spirit that was distilled from them and in the water of Linaria distilled with Rhenish wine observing those things which were prescribed before in the administration of the stonebreak spirit of the Elder The salt of the Elder is commendable in salt tartarous diseases given alone or mixed with the former extract in a convenient liquor 8 or 6 grains of the spirit of salt doth cleanse these tartarous muddinesses Dysuria and Ischuria In the difficulty of making water and in the not making water at all these Medicines are excellent seeing these symptomes arise from a muddy and mucid humor or from a glewish toughness that obstructeth the urinal passages But chiefly the stonebreak extract of the Elder is good in this case whereof give a scruple in the water of the flowers of Vinaria and the diseased is to be fomented about the secrets with the decoction of the Radish and Vinaria Pliny saith that the stones being drank in two ounces weight move urine CAP. XXVI Of the Affections of the Womb. TO mollifie and open the secrets of a woman and cure the diseases about them it is affirmed by Dioscorides to be done by incession made of the Roots of Elder boyled in water 1. Of the stopping of the Monethly Terms MAny Medicines made of the Elder are to be used in the defect of the monethly Termes which for the most part proceeds from a gross bloud or tough humor closing or obstructing the orifices of the Histerick veins First then you are to use things which open the belly and disburthen it of that putrid filth give them therefore to drink the wine of the berries which looseneth the belly and maketh thin the bloud and grosse humors The distilled water of the middle-bark mixt with the purging water of the berries prepared as Quercetan directs serves for both ends The dose is three ounces with one ounce of the syrup of the berries bark or buds Which if you desire to be more Cathartick add to it half a drachm or as much as sufficeth of the Polychrestick powder of the buds The Elder-rob with the powder of the white Dittany or of Pimpinel is the womens Medicine Gabel Shover hath this Take of ripe Elder-berries Of Rosemary of each one handful Of Pimpinel-roots half an ounce Boyled in a quart of strong old Wine whereof drink a good draught warm each morning for three days before the time of their courses and let them fast two houres after The spirit of the berries is likewise usefull which by its subtility passes through the whole body and through the least vessels thereof cutting and attenuating the grosness of the humors it may be taken the same time before the courses use to flow The dose is a pretty spoonfull in Wine or some distilled water in place of the simple spirit you may take the Hysterick described hereafter in the same quantity and manner for his vertue is great in moving the courses The oyle of the second description is commendable if two or four drops thereof be added to these spirits In the Scyrrous disposition of the matrix where the cram'd humor is hardened into a Scyrrous closing the orifice of the veins and stopping the courses besides these Medicines you must make incessions of the leaves and root of the Elder boyled in water as Dioscorides commands Let there likewise be an oyntment made of the oyle of the infused flowers and leaves mixed with the fat of a hen This same fat dissolved in the decoction of the roots and leaves is to be injected into the womb 2. Of the flowing of the Courses TRagea granorum actes excelleth in stopping these whereof give half a drachm and as much Nutmeg in a soft egg or red Wind singed by the quenching of red hot gold in it Take of Tragea Granorum Actes half an ounce Of Nutmegs a little roasted Of the roots of Tormentil Of red Coral prepared with Rosewater of each two scruples Of Sugar-rosat in Tablets six drachmes Let them be mixed for a Tragea whereof take morning and evening two drachmes for a dose in the former liquors If the bloud be too serous and fluid that serousness is either to be purged gently by the belly or by weak Hydroticks by sweating whereof we have spoken largely in another place Gabel Shover hath this Give to the woman in the morning three spoonfuls of the best water of Elder-flowers and command her to fast three hours after 3. Of the Suffocation of the Matrix SEeing this most perillous Disease dependeth from a malignant and cold air exhaled from the womb and uterine vessels to the Midriff Heart and Brains the womb is to be purged of all malignant and putrid humors and the strength is to be corroborated Apply here those things which were set down in the stopping of the Courses both because these used not to be the least and seldomest cause of these malignant vapors and likewise because the Medicaments purge and dissipate these uterine filths gathered upon whatsoever occasion A half or whole spoonful of the spirit of the flowers or berries of the Elder greatly availeth here both out and in time of the fit for both powerfully discuss these
cold and poysonous vapors evacuate out of the utrenal sink and vindicate the more nobler intrals from their infection and restore freer breathing Gabel Shover taketh a handful of Jews-ears and infuseth them in a quart of the spirit of Wine of the which he giveth the diseased a full draught in time of her fit The Antiepileptick Elder-spirit if it be used instead of the Juniper is good and with it anoynt the belly below the navel toward the secrets Or prepare for this and such diseases this that follows The Histerick Spirit of the Elder Take of the middle bark of the Elder one ounce Of the roots of white Dittany Of round Birthwort of each three drachmes Of the dried leaves of the Elder one handfull Of red Artimesia or Mugwort Of Prrsley of each half an handfull Of the flowres of white Lillies two drachmes Of clean Jews-ears three in number Being cut infuse them in a competent quantity of Elder-sprit that it may be a hand-breadth above them Let them stand in infusion for ten daies every day stirr them twice afterwaad distill them in Balneo foa the Histerick spirit of which give a half or whole spoonfull in time of the fit and with the same anoynt the lower belly by rubbing it in as hath been prescribed Not only in the suffocation of the Matrix which by excellency is called the Histerick passion but also it is excellent for the stopped flowers and other cold and moist diseases of the womb It helpeth likewise to expel the dead child secondines if after universals and topicks a spoonfull thereof be given in white Wine or some distilled water three or four drops of the oyle of the flowers of the second description being mixt therewith Extractum Granorum Actes Hystericum Of the ripe grains of the Elder dried in the shadow Quercetan forms an Extract which is a specifick Histerick and is called of the Chymists Extractum Granorum Actes It is thus prepared Gather a great quantity of the grains of the Elder well dried in the shadow having thrown all the rest of the berry away reserve the grains only with which fill a long-necked great Cucurbit to the middle put upon it the strong spirit of wine made acid with the acid liquor either of Vitriol or Sulphure that it may be three or four fingers broad above the matter the vessel being closed that nothing may breath out Digest it for five or six days in B.M. till the spirit of the wine receive the tincture of a Ruby which you shall separate by inclination having a care that none of the dregs or troubled matter go with it Of which tincture not having separated its menstruum that is the aqua vitae which without any corruption or alteration will be kept long unto which you may add a little Sugar if you will make it have a more pleasant taste you may give a half or whole silver spoonful to women troubled with the suffocation of the Matrix shall be unexpectedly and as it were miraculously weakened and restored to their perfect health Again if you will separate from it the aqua vitae by an Alimbeck in Balneo vaporoso till the extract remain in the bottom of a most excellent red colour whereof give a scruple for a dose in its own proper distilled water or in other convenient waters or in white wine and it will become red Thus far Quercetan The Uterine mixture which I used to prepare is this First I take the berries of the Elder dried in a flow heat of the Bake-house of Mugwort and of Castoreum as much as I please I put upon each of them by themselves in a Viol some of the rectified spirits of the Elder and draw out the essence according to art and I purifie each one of them by themselves and keep them in Glasses Afterwards Take of the essence of Elder-berries six ounces Of Balm-mint three ounces Of Castor Of the spirit of Vitriol well rectified of each one ounce Being mixed I put them in a Glass of a narrow throat and I digest them for ten days in a warm Balneo that they may be well united and if any dregs be in them they may go to the bottom from which I separate that which is clear I strain it and keep it in a well-stopped Glass The dose is a little spoonful alone and dissolved in some appropriate water but if the body be full of ill humors I first purge it with the Polychrestick powder of Elder-buds In place of Appendix I thought fit to joyn hereto the Medicines made of the Elder long ago commended and commanded by our great Chieftain and Master Hippocrates in Uterine Affections In the Hydropsie of the Matrix he commendeth the fruit of the Elder given fasting in wine lib. 1. de morb mulier He saith this purgeth things to be purged in Child-bed boil the leaves of the Elder and give the water thereof to drink ibidem If the womb be inflamed in child-birth let her sup hot the tender leaves of the Elder lightly boiled with the grossest part of recent wheat-meal ibid. In the same place he commands us to put into the secrets a long piece of Elder-pith the tenderer part being shaven In Ulcers of the womb pound Linseed and Elder-berries together mix hony with them and make a Plaster and use it ibid. Or the leaves of the Elder and of the Lentisk being boiled in water and strained are to be injected warm Lib. de natur mulier The same things being likewise pounded with Muss may be outwardly applied ibid. In a filthy ulceration of the Matrix boyl the berries of the Elder and Lawrel in equal potions in wine afterward inject that wine lib. 1. d. m. m. Or take the berries of the Elder Anice Franckincense Myrrh Wines and inject their juices ibid. Whereby the courses are likewise provoked ibid. To expel the Secondine first apply a Foment made of the decoction of Elder-leaves and then that which is made of Cantharides ibid. In very great fluxes of the courses apply a Cataplasm made of Elder and Mirtle-leaves lib. 2. m. m. Or boil in water the leaves of Elder and Lentisk and with the Colature warm wash the Matrix ibid. In the strangulation of the Matrix R. Three half quarts of Oyl and a handful of Elder-leaves boil this and make a fomentation therewith or with hot shels put in it make a Stove placing the woman in a chair and covering her with cloths Or boil the leaves of Elder and Mirtle and in the strained water boil Barley-chaff and make a Stove if she can endure the heat thereof ibid. If the pain be vehement after her purging boil in black wine the Lawrel and Elder-berries and wash it therewith ibid. Or boil the Elder in water and having strained the water put to it sweet wine and wash therewith Of which and many others you may view Hippocrates in those Books and places mentioned CAP. XXVII Of the Arthritick Disease HOw