2 THE COMPLETE HERBAL 
take the berries of it, and having bruised 
them, apply them to felons, and thereby 
soon rid their fingers of such troublesome 
guests. 
We have now shewed you the external 
- use of the herb; we shall speak a word or 
two of the internal, and so conclude. Take 
notice, it is a Mercurial herb, and there- 
fore of very subtile parts, as indeed all 
Mercurial plants are; therefore take a 
- pound of the wood and leaves together, 
bruise the wood (which you may easily do, 
for it is not so hard as oak) then put it in 
a pot, and put to it three pints of white 
wine, put on the pot-lid and shut it close; 
and let it infuse hot over a gentle fire 
twelve hours, then strain it out, so have 
you a most excellent drink to open obstruc- 
tions of the liver and spleen, to help diffi- 
culty of breath, bruises and falls, and con- 
gealed blood in any part of the body, it 
helps the yellow-jaundice, the dropsy and 
black jaundice, and to cleanse women newly 
brought to bed. You may drink a quarter 
of a pint of the infusion every morning. It 
purgeth the body very gently, and not 
churlishly, as some hold. And when you 
find good by this, remember me. 
They that think the use of these medi- 
cines is too brief, it is only for the cheap- 
ness of the book; let them read those books 
of mine, of the last edition, viz. Reverius, 
Veslingus, Riolanus, Johnson, Sennertus, 
and Physic for the Poor. 
ALL-HEAL. 
Iv is called All-heal, Hercules’s All-heal, 
and Hercules’s Woundwort, because it is 
supposed that Hercules learned the herb 
and its virtues from Chiron, when he 
learned physic of him. Some call it Panay, 
and others Opopane wort. 
Descript.] Its root is long, thick, and ex- 
_ ceeding full of juice, of a hot and biting 
_ taste, the leaves are great and large, and 
_ winged almost like ash-tree leaves, but that 
they are something hairy, each leaf con- 
sisting of five or six pair of such wings set 
one against the other upon foot-stalks, 
broad below, but narrow towards the end; 
one of the leaves is a little deeper at the 
bottom than the other, of a fair yellowish, 
fresh green colour: they are of a bitterish 
taste, being chewed in the mouth, from 
among these riseth up a stalk, green in 
colour, round in form, great and strong in 
magnitude, five or six feet high in altitude, 
with many joints, and some leaves thereat; 
towards the top come forth umbles of 
small yellow flowers, after which are 
passed away, you may find whitish, yellow, 
short, flat seeds, bitter also in taste. 
Place.| Having given you a description 
of the herb from bottom to top, give me 
leave to tell you, that there are other herbs 
called by this name; but because they are 
strangers in England, I give only the des- 
cription of this, which is easily to be had 
in the gardens of divers places. 
Time.] Although Gerrard saith, that 
they flower from the beginning of May to 
the end of December, experience teacheth 
them that keep it in their gardens, that it 
flowers not till the latter end of the Sum- 
mer, and sheds its seed presently after. 
Government and virtues.] It is under 
the dominion of Mars, hot, biting, and 
choleric; and remedies what evils Mars 
inflicts the body of man with, by sympa- 
thy, as vipers flesh attracts poison, and 
the loadstone iron. It kills the worms, 
helps the gout, cramp, and convulsions, 
provokes urine, and helps all joint-aches. 
It helps all cold griefs of the head, the 
vertigo, falling sickness, the lethargy, the 
wind cholic, obstructions of the liver and 
spleen, stone in the kidneys and bladder. 
It provokes the terms, expels the dead 
birth: It is excellent good for the griefs 
of the sinews, itch, stone, and tooth-ache, 
the biting of mad dogs and venomous 
beasts, and purgeth choler very gently. — 
