The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic.

1st, To the Vulgar. Kind souls, I am sorry it hath been your hard mishap to have been so long trained in such Egyptian darkness which to your sorrow may be felt; The vulgar road...

one, and sometimes also two stalks, and flowers at the foot of a leaf, which are without any scent at all, and stand on the top of the stalk. After they are past, come in their...

Much jarring hath been amongst physicians about purging medicines, namely, whether they draw the humours to them by a hidden quality, which in plain English is, they know not ho...

By [_head_] is usually understood all that part of the body which is between the top of the crown, and the uppermost joint of the neck, yet are those medicines properly called _...

1. Flowers are very seldom preserved; I never saw any that I remember, save only cowslip flowers, and that was a great fashion in Sussex when I was a boy. It is thus done, Take...

1. A SYRUP is a medicine of a liquid form, composed of infusion, decoction and juice. And, 1. For the more grateful taste. 2. For the better keeping of it: with a certain quanti...

Those which cheer the mind, are not one and the same; for as the heart is variously disturbed, either by anger, love, fear, hatred, sadness, &c. So such things as flatter lovers...

1. OF leaves, choose only such as are green, and full of juice; pick them carefully, and cast away such as are any way declining, for they will putrify the rest: So shall one ha...

2. Give me leave to be a little critical against the vulgar received opinion, which is, That the sap falls down into the roots in the Autumn, and rises again in the Spring, as m...

Galen in _Lib. 5. de Simple, Med. Facult. Cap. 10._ determines hardening medicines to be cold and moist, and he brings some arguments to prove it, against which other physicians...

By loosening here, I do not mean purging, nor that which is opposite to astringency; but that which is opposite to stretching: I knew not suddenly what fitter English name to gi...

Repelling medicines are of contrary operation to these three last mentioned, viz. attenuating, drawing, and discussive medicines: It is true, there is but little difference betw...

For many times one particular part of the body is most afflicted by the poison, suppose the stomach, liver, brain, or any other part: such as cherish and strengthen those parts,...

This excrement of blood is twofold: for either by excessive heat, it is addust, and this is that the Latins call _Atra Bilis_: or else it is thick and earthly of itself, and thi...

1. ALL the difference between decoctions, and syrups made by decoction, is this; Syrups are made to keep, decoctions only for present use; for you can hardly keep a decoction a...

1. OIL Olive, which is commonly known by the name of Sallad Oil, I suppose, because it is usually eaten with sallads by them that love it, if it be pressed out of ripe olives, a...

1. JUICES are to be pressed out of herbs when they are young and tender, out of some stalks and tender tops of herbs and plants, and also out of some flowers.

The medicines appropriated to the breast and lungs, you shall find called all along by the name of [_pectorals_] that’s the term Physicians give them, when you heat them talk of...

1. Such as provoke appetite are usually of a sharp or sourish taste, and yet withal of a grateful taste to the palate, for although loss of appetite may proceed from divers caus...

The opinion of physicians is, concerning these, as it is concerning other medicines, viz. Some draw by a manifest quality, some by a hidden, and so (quoth they) they draw to the...

This is done by such medicines which are not only temperate in heat, but also by a gentle viscosity, fill up or stop the pores, that so the heat of the part affected be not scat...

The palate is the seat of taste, and its office is to judge what food is agreeable to the stomach, and what not, by that is both the quality and quantity of food for the stomach...

2. It is the opinion of modern physicians, that this way of making medicines, was invented only to deceive the palate, that so by swallowing them down whole, the bitterness of t...

The nature of discussing (or sweating) medicines is almost the same with attractive, for there are no discussive medicines but are attractive, nor scarce any attractive medicine...

The various mixtures of heat, cold, dryness, and moisture in simples, must of necessity produce variety of faculties, and operations in them, which now we come to treat of, begi...

HITHERTO we have spoken of medicines which consist in their own nature, which authors vulgarly call Simples, though sometimes improperly; for in truth, nothing is simple but pur...

2. Conserves of herbs and flowers, are thus made: if you make your conserves of herbs, as of scurvy-grass, wormwood, rue, and the like, take only the leaves and tender tops (for...

PHYSICIANS make more a quoil than needs by half, about electuaries. I shall prescribe but one general way of making them up; as for ingredients, you may vary them as you please,...

1. VARIOUS are the ways of making ointments, which authors have left to posterity, which I shall omit, and quote one which is easiest to be made, and therefore most beneficial t...

This also is the difference between cleansing and discussing medicines, the one makes thick humours thin, and so scatters them, but a cleansing medicine takes the most tenacious...

There are many things diligently to be observed in the cures of wounds and ulcers, which incur and hinder that the cure cannot be speedily done, nor the separated parts reduced...

3. Besides, they are easier carried in the pockets of such as travel; as many a man (for example) is forced to travel whose stomach is too cold, or at least not so hot as it sho...

1. THE seed is that part of the plant which is endowed with a vital faculty to bring forth its like, and it contains potentially the whole plant in it.

The joints, seeing they are very nervous, require medicines which are of a heating and drying nature, with a gentle binding, and withal, such as by peculiar virtue are appropria...

2. It signifies only a pleasant potion, as is vulgarly used by such as are sick, and want help, or such as are in health, and want no money to quench thirst.

The office of the reins is, to make a separation between the blood and the urine; to receive this urine thus separated from the blood, is the bladder ordained, which is of a suf...

4. They are easily thus made; Make a decoction of pectoral herbs, and the treatise will furnish you with enough, and when you have strained it, with twice its weight of honey or...

1. POULTICES are those kind of things which the Latins call _Cataplasmata_, and our learned fellows, that if they can read English, that’s all, call them Cataplasms, because ’ti...

2. The barks of fruits are to be taken when the fruit is full ripe, as Oranges, Lemons, &c. but because I have nothing to do with exotics here, I pass them without any more words.

Take notice that such medicines as provoke the menses, or stop them when they flow immoderately, are properly hystericals, but shall be spoken to by and by in a chapter by thems...

1. THE flower, which is the beauty of the plant, and of none of the least use in physick, grows yearly, and is to be gathered when it is in its prime.

These require a greater drying faculty than the former, not only to consume what flows out, but what remains liquid in the flesh, for liquid flesh is more subject to flow abroad...

1. THE Greeks made their plaisters of divers simples, and put metals into the most of them, if not all; for having reduced their metals into powder, they mixed them with that fa...