Culpeper's complete herbal ... To which are ... annexed his English physician enlarged, and Key to [Galen's Method of] physic ... to which is also added ... receipts selected from the author's Last legacy / Nicholas Culpeper.

  • Nicholas Culpeper
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Culpeper's complete herbal ... To which are ... annexed his English physician enlarged, and Key to [Galen's Method of] physic ... to which is also added ... receipts selected from the author's Last legacy / Nicholas Culpeper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/500 (page 12)
    the spirits, is good against quartan agues, stancheth bleeding at mouth and nose, if it be stamped and applied to the nape of the neck; the herb also bruised, and with some salt and vinegar and hogs-grease, laid upon an hard tumour or swelling, or that vulgarly called the king's evil, do help to dissolve or discuss them; and being in like manner applied, doth much allay the pains, and give ease to the gout, sciatica, and other pains of the joints and sinews. It is also very effectual to heal green wounds, and old ulcers; also to stay their fretting, gnawing and spreading. It draws forth splinters, and such like things gotten into the flesh, and is very good against bruises and bur- nings. But the yellow Archangel is most commended for old, filthy, corrupt sores and ulcers, yea although they grow to be hollow; and to dissolve tumours. The chief use of them is for women, it being a herb of Venus. ARSSM ART. The hot Arssmart is called also Water- pepper, or Culrage. The mild Arssmart is called dead Arssmart Persicaria, or Peach- wort, because the leaves are so like the leaves of a peach-tree; it is also called Plumbago. Desaiption of the MildS\ This has broad leaves set at the great red joint of the stalks; with semi-circular blackish marks on them, usually either bluish and whitish, with such like seed following. The root is. long, with many strings thereat, perishing yearly; this has no sharp taste (as another sort has, which is quick and biting) but rather sour like sorrel, or else a little drying, or without taste. Place.~\ It grows in watery places, ditches, and the like, which for the most part are dry in Summer. Time.'] It flowers in June, and the seed is ripe in August. Government and virtues.] As the virtue of both these is various, so is also their govern- ment ; for that which is hot and biting, is under the dominion of Mars, but Saturn challenges the other, as appears by that leaden coloured spot he hath placed upon the leaf. It is of a cooling and drying quality, and very effectual for putrified ulcers in man or beast, to kill worms, and cleanse the putrified places. The juice thereof dropped in, or otherwise applied, consumes all cold swellings, and dissolveth the congealed blood of bruises by strokes, falls, &c. A piece of the root, or some of the seeds bruised, and held to an aching tooth, takes away the pain. The leaves bruised and laid to the joint that has a felon thereon, takes it away. The juice destroys worms in the ears, being dropped into them; if the hot Arssmart be strewed in a chamber, it will soon kill all the fleas; and the herb or juice of the cold Arssmart, put to a horse, or other cattle’s sores, will drive away the fly in the hottest time of Summer; a good handful of the hot biting Arssmart put under a horse’s saddle, will make him travel the better, although he were half tired before. The mild Arssmart is good against all imposthumes and inflammations at the beginning, and to heal green wounds. All authors chop the virtues of both sorts of Arssmart together, as men chop herbs for the pot, when both of them are of contrary qualities. The hot Arssmart grows not so high or tall as the mild doth, but has many leaves of the colour of peach leaves, very seldom or never spotted; in other particulars it is like the former, but may easily be known from it, if yOu will but be pleased to break a leaf of it cross your tongue, for the hot will make your tongue to smart, but the cold will not. If you see them both together, you may easil}’^ distinguish them, because the mild hath far broader leaves.