The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power.

  • D'Arcy Power
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to selle & a pounde ther-of is worth xid. The thennest platys of hem schulbe chosene to cure with the ezene & they comen from beyende the see. It is a grete medycine for the yzene.’ Injuries to the eye ‘ of what manere that evere they ben, with stone or staff or harde stubbe or stalke or swerd or ony lyke’ are best treated at once and by the use of white of egg. ‘Some folyssch lechys and unkunynge whane they seene a mane smytene in the yze they taken wex & comyne poudryd & medlyd togedere & make ane emplastre & they laye it hote uppone the eye that is hurtte.’ Arderne’s purging pellets. Most of the treatise, however, is taken from Lanfranc, so that it lacks originality and is a rather laboured com- position, but it is remarkable in its anticipation of modern pharmacy, for Arderne describes some purging pellets whose composition he does not disclose. He says the patient “schalbe purgyd ane oure after the sonne is go doune. Take of the pellettes withoute the weche I wolde not be, that.is to seye x1, or xii or xv, after the strengthe of the pacient & the pellettes schulbe of the gretnesse of 00 [a] pese, & they schulbe yoven in rere eyrene (raw eggs) or wounde in obeleys (wafers) wette in wyne or ale or mede, & withoute chowynge they schulbe swolowyd doune.’ Of diseases of the eye Arderne recognizes simple inflammation, inflammation with rupture of the coat—traumatic rupture of the eyeball— web in the eye (cataract), blear eye, and watery eye. The blear eye he observes as occurring in crooked men as well as in others, so that he had evidently seen it in association with tuberculous diseases of the spine. Treatise on fistule. The treatise on fistula printed in the Early English Text Society’s publications follows the treatise on diseases of the eye, the two being separated by a prescription for making ‘ The drink of Antioch’, which was used to cure all manner of fistule and cancers and “ yf yrene or thorne or splent of a staffe be in the fflesche ’. Another cure for scabies. Then follow the virtues of Parsley, of the Achs, and of Quicksilver. In connexion with the Aches (the old name for parsley) Arderne says: ‘Wommene with chylde usynge Ache en- gendryth postemys & stynkynge bocchys in the body of the chylde. And therfore lechys forfenden wommene with chylde & norycys that kepen yonge soowkynge childerne from Ache leste that the childe be made unwyse or folyssch therthorough.’ Quicksilver mortified and _ stirred well with the yolk of a raw egg may be rubbed into a woollen cloth. The cloth is then to be girded about the flanks, and is to be kept in place by a second cloth ‘uppon hyme that is scabbyd & lowsy & it schall hele alle the scabbys & lyzs withoute ony other thynge medlyd therwith ; the weche I have provyd ane hundryd tymes & therwith have gote moche lucre, pro certo & that xx sol. for oo lyzste (dressing). And nota that such a lyzste schalbe borne uppone a mane xl dayes or a monthe at the lecstes, Next comes a formula for making an aqua vite, a decoction of herbs, and not as we understand the term, a spirit. This is followed by directions
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