118 
THE COMPLETE HERBAL 
with salt, it helps the biting of a mad dog; 
with mead and honeyed water, it eases the 
pains of the ears, and takes away the rough- 
ness of the tongue, being rubbed thereupon. 
It suffers not milk to curdle in the stomach, 
if the leaves thereof be steeped or boiled in 
it before you drink it: Briefly it is very 
profitable to the stomach. The often use 
hereof is a very powerful medicine to stay 
women’s courses and the whites. Applied to 
_the forehead and temples, it eases the pains 
in the head, and is good to wash the heads 
of young children therewith, against all 
manner of breakings-out, sores or scabs, 
therein. It is also profitable against the 
poison of venomous creatures. The dis- 
tilled water of mint is available to all the 
purposes aforesaid, yet more weakly. But 
if a spirit thereof be rightly and chymically 
drawn, it is much more powerful than the 
herb itself. Simeon Sethi saith, it helps a 
cold liver, strengthens the belly, causes di- 
gestion, stays vomits and hiccough; it is 
good against the gnawing of the heart, pro- 
vokes appetite, takes away obstructions of 
the liver, and stirs up bodily lust ; but there- 
- fore too much must not be taken, because 
it makes the blood thin and wheyish, and 
turns it into choler, and therefore choleric 
persons must abstain from it. It is a safe 
medicine for the biting of a mad dog, being 
bruised with salt, and laid thereon. The 
powder of it being dried and taken after 
meat, helps digestion, and those that are 
splenetic. Taken with wine, it helps women 
in their sore travail in child-bearing. It is 
good against the gravel and stone in the 
kidneys, and the stranguary. Being 
smelled unto, it is comfortable for the head 
and memory. The decoction hereof gargled 
vee da mouth, cures the gums and mouth 
_ that are sore, and mends an ill-savoured 
breath; as also the rue and coriander, causes 
the palate of the mouth to turn to its place, 
decoction ints eveled and held i in ihe 
The virtues of the Wild or Horse Mint, — 
such as grow in ditches (whose description — 
I purposely omitted, in regard they are well _ 
known) are especially to dissolve wind in © 
the stomach, to help the cholic, and those © 
that are short-winded, and are an especial 
remedy for those that have veneral dreams 
and pollutions in the night, being outwardly _ 
applied. The juice dropped into the ears — 
eases the pains of them, and destroys the — 
worms that breed therein. They are good | 
against the venomous biting of serpents. — 
The juice laid on warm, helps the king’s — 
evil, or kernels in the throat. The decoction — 
or distilled water helps a stinking breath, — 
proceeding from corruption of the teeth, 
and snuffed up the nose, purges the head. 
Pliny saith, that eating of the leaves hath 
been found by experience to cure the lep- 
rosy, applying some of them to the face, 
and to help the scurf or dandriff of the 
head used with vinegar. They are extremely 
bad for wounded people; and they say 4 
wounded man that eats Mint, his wound will 
never be cured, and that is a long day. 
MISSELTO. 
Descript.] Tuis rises up from the branch — 
or arm of the tree whereon it grows, with 
a woody stem, putting itself into sundry — 
| branches, and they again divided into many 
other smaller twigs, interlacing themselves _ 
one within another, very much covered 
with a greyish green bark, having two leaves 
set at every joint, and at the end likewise, 
which are somewhat long and narrow, small — 
at the bottom, but broader towards the end. 
At the knots or joints of the boughs and - 
branches grow small yellow flowers, which 
run into small, round, white, transparent | 
berries, three or four together, full of 4 | 
glutinous moisture, with a blackish seed 1 — 
each of them, which was never yet know? © 
We keegaen fate the ground, or apy 
