Culpeper's English physician ; and complete herbal. Vol. I. / [Nicholas Culpeper].

  • Culpeper, Nicholas, 1616-1654
Date:
1817
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Culpeper's English physician ; and complete herbal. Vol. I. / [Nicholas Culpeper]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    does alfo Chryfippus; but Pliny and the Arabian phyficians defend it. For mine own part, I prelently found that fpeech true; Non noftnmi inter nos tantas com- poncrelites, “ It is not for me to adjuft fuch grave difputes;” and away to Dr. Reafon went I, who told me it was an herb of Mars, and under the Scorpion, and perhaps therefore called bafilicon, and then no marvel if it carries a kind of viru- lent quality with it. Being applied to the place Intten by a venomous beaft, or ftung by a wafp or hornet, itfpeedily draws the poifon to it. Every like draws its like. Mizaldus affirms, that if it be laid to rot in horfe-dung, it will breed veno- mous beafts ; and Hollerrus, a French phyfician, affirms upon his own knowledge, that an acquaintance of his, by common fmelling to it, had a fcorpion bred in his brain. Something is the matter, this herb and rue will not grow together, no, nor near each other : and we know that rue is as great an enemy to poilbn as any that grows. To conclude, it expelleth both birth and after-birth ; and, as it helps the deficiency of Venus in one kind, fo it fpoils all her adtions in another. BAY-TREE. Laurus. THIS is fo well known, that it needs no deferiptionI ffiall therefore only write the virtues thereof, which are many. Government and Virtues. I ffiall but only add a word or two to what my friend hath w'ritten, viz. That it is a tre^e of the Sun, and under the celeftial fign Leo, and refifteth witchcraft very potently, as alfo all the evils old Saturn can do to the body of man, and they are not a few; for it is the fpeech of one, and 1 am miftaken if it were not Mizaldus, that neither witch nor devil, thunder aor lightning, will hurt a man in the place where a bay-tree is. Galen faith, that the leaves or bark do dry and heal very much, and the berries more tlian the leaves. The bark of the root is lefs ffiarp and hot, but more bitter, and hath feme aftriciion withal, whereby it is effectual to break the ftone, ^nd good to open obftructions of the liver, fpleen, and other inward parts, which bring the dropfy, jaundice, &c. The berries are very effectual againft 4he poifon of venomous creatures, and the ftings of wafps and bees, as alfo againft the peftilence, or other infedtious difeafes, and therefore is put in fundry treacles for that purpofe; they likewife procure women's courfes; and feven of them given to a woman in fore travail of childbirth do caufe a fpeedy delivery, and expel the after-birth, and therefore not to be. taken but by fuch as have gone out their time, left they procure abortion, or caufe labour too foon ; they wonderfully help all cold and rheumatic diftillatioris from the brain to the eyes, lungs, or other parts; and, being made into an electuary with hone}', do help the confumption, old coughs, ffiortnefs of breath, and thin rheums; as alfo, thp