208 CULPEPER’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
obferves a decoétion of this plant tobe infinitely ferviceable for thofe who have bad 
livers, and for fuch as have itches and running tetters. Either the powder or the 
decoétion hereof is effe€tual in killing worms. The green leaves, bruifed and boiled 
_ in old hog’s greafe, and ufed as an ointment, heal the bitings of dogs, abate the 
fwellings of womens’ breafts, and eafe the painful fwellings occafioned by thorns or 
fplinters, and, ufed with vinegar, cleanfe and heal tetters. There is a fyrup made 
of this plant, fold by moft apothecaries, which I would recommend as an excellent 
help to evacuate tough phlegm and cold rheum from the lungs of aged perfons, 
efpecially thofe who are afthmatic or fhort-winded. : 
HORS E-TeAd L- 
OF this there are many kinds, but I fhall decline troubling my reader with the 
defcription of any other than the moft eminent. > 
Description. The great horfe-tail, at the firft fpringing, hath heads fomewhat 
like afparagus, which afterwards grow to be hard, rough, hollow, ftalks, jointed in 
feveral places, and about a foot high; the lower part appearing to be put into the 
upper. On each fide grows a bufh of fmall, long, rufh-like, hard, leaves, each part 
refembling a horfe’s tail, (from whence it took its name.) At-the tops of the ftalks 
come forth {mall catkins, fomewhat‘like thofe of trees. The root creepeth under 
the ground, having many joints. | 
Puace. This horfe-tail (as do moft of the other kinds hereof) generally groweth » 
in moift and wet grounds. =, . 
Time. They fpring up in April, and their catkins bloom in July; in Auguft 
_they thed their feed, and then perith, rifing afreth every {pring. 
. Government anp Virtues. Of this herb, rhe fmooth rather than the rough, 
vand the leafed rather than the bare, are moft phyfical. Saturn claims dominion 
‘over it, yet its qualities are very harmlefs. - It is very good to ftanch bleedings, either 
inwardly or outwardly, the juice or deco¢tion thereof being drunk, or externally aP- 
plied. | It ftays lafks and fluxes of every kind, either in men or women; fupprefies 
the evacuation of blood through the urinary paffages, and healeth not only the 
inward ulcers and excoriations of the entrails, bladder, 8c. but all other forts of 
foul, moift, and running, ulcers, and quickly healeth green wounds. Ic is an OF 
‘cellent cure for ruptures in children. The decoétion, taken in wine, provoketh 
‘urine, and helpeth the ftone and ftranguary; and a fmall quantity of the diftilled 
water thereof, drunk two or three times in a day, eafeth the difagreeable fenfations of 
the bowels, and is effeétual againfta cough when proceeding from the diftillation 
of the head, By bathing the parts affeéted with the warm juice or diftilled wate 
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