THE PEARL OF PRACTICE. 



243 



well as courage in the patients partaking of the strange ad- 

 mixtures : 



" To cure a Wound, though the Patient be ever so far off. Take 

 a quart of pure Spring water, and put into it some Roman Vitrol 

 and let it dissolve, then if you have any blood of the wound either 

 in linnen or wollen or silk, put the cloth so blooded into the water, 

 and rub the cloth once a day, and if the wound be not mortal, the 

 blood will out, if it be, it will not. Let the Patient keep his 

 wound clean, washing it with white wine ; when ever you wash 

 the cloth, the Party wounded shall sensibly find ease ; let the 

 cloth be constantly in the water." 



One is hardly surprised to find, among the other horrors in 

 these medicinal compounds, that "dung" of various and suDdry 

 kinds plays an important part. Read this rare combination of 

 game and fertilizing materials, in juxtaposition with the house- 

 hold " staff of life " : 



" Dr. Baffa, an Italian. An approved Receipt to break the Stone 

 in the Kidneys. In the Month of May distill Cowdung, then 

 take two live Hares, and strangle them in their blood ; then take 

 one of them, and put it into an earthen vessel or pot, and cover it 

 well with a mortar made of Horsedung and Hay, and bake it in 

 an Oven with household bread, and set it still in the Oven for two 

 or three days, baking it anew with anything, until the Hare be 

 baked or dryed to powder ; then beat it well, and keep it for your 

 use. The other Hare you must flea, and take out the guts only ; 

 then distill all the rest, and keep this water ; then take at the new 

 and full of the Moon, or any other time, three mornings together 

 as much of this powder as will lie on a sixpence, with two spoon- 

 fuls of each water, and it will break any stone in the Kidneys." 



Then this " pretty " drink : 



" The Lady Gorings Water for an Ague, sickiiess or foulness in 

 the Stomach, and to purge the blood. Take dung of a stone-horse 

 that is kept in the stable, when it is new made, mingle it well 

 with Beer and a little Ginger, and a good quantity of Treacle, 

 and distill in an ordinary still ; give of this a pretty draught 

 to drink." 



Truly loathsome, perfectly disgusting, we say ; " reely nasty," 

 " beastly," perhaps our English cousins said. 



We often hear people complain of the elongation of the palate 

 (uvula), and they have recourse to many remedies, surgical and 

 otherwise ; even if one could believe that the uvula could be af- 

 fected from the top of the head, through skull, brains, and all, 

 would the " cure " here given work on a thick head of hair, or is 

 it only applicable to the bald-headed ? 



" To draiv up the Uvula. Take a new-laid Egg, and roast it till 

 it be blue, and then crush it between a cloath, and lay it to the 



