206 
THE COMPLETE HERBAL 
them as you please, and as you find occa- 
sion, by the last chapter. 
1. That you may make electuaries when 
you need them, it is requisite that you keep 
always herbs, roots, flowers, seeds, &c. 
ready dried in your house, that so you may 
be in a readiness to beat them into powder 
when you need them. 
2. It is better to keep them whole than 
beaten; for being beaten, they are more 
subject to lose their strength; because the 
air soon penetrates them. 
3. If they be not dry enough to beat into 
powder when you need them, dry them by 
a gentle fire till they are so. 
4, Having beaten them, sift them 
through a fine tiffany searce, that no great 
pieces may be found in your electuary. 
5. To one ounce of your powder add 
three ounces of clarified honey; this quan- 
tity I hold to be sufficient. If you would 
make more or less electuary, vary your pro- 
portion accordingly. 
6. Mix them well together in a mortar, 
and take this for a truth, you cannot mix 
them too much. 
7. The way to clarify honey, is to set it 
over the fire in a convenient vessel, till the 
Scum rise, and when the scum is taken off, 
it is clarified. 
8. The usual dose of cordial electuaries, 
is from half a dram to two drams; of purg- 
ing electuaries, from half an ounce to an 
ounce. 
_ 9. The manner of keeping them is in a 
de: 
10. The time of taking them, is either in 
a morning fasting, and fasting an hour 
after them; or at night going to bed, three 
or four hours after supper. 
CHAPTER VII. 
Of Conserves. 
_ 1, Tue way of making conserves is two- 
fold, one of herbs and flowers, and the other 
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 ten- 
der tops (for you may beat your heart out, 
before you can beat the stalks small) and 
having beaten them, weigh them, and to 
every pound of them add three pound of 
sugar, you cannot beat them too much. 
_ 8. Conserves of fruits, as of barberries, 
sloes and the like, is thus made: First, — 
Scald the fruit, then rub the pulp through 
a thick hair sieve made for the purpose, 
called a pulping sieve; you may do it for 
a need with the back of a spoon: then take 
this pulp thus drawn, and add to it its 
weight of sugar, and no more; put it into4 . 
pewter vessel, and over a charcoal fire; 
stir it up and down till the sugar be melted, | 
and your conserve is made. 
4. Thus you have the way of making 
conserves; the way of keeping them is 
earthen pots. 
5. The dose is usually the quantity of @ 
nutmeg at a time morning and evening; 
(unless they are purging) when you please. 
6. Of conserves, some keep many yeat’; 
as conserves of roses: others but a year, #8 
conserves of Borage, Bugloss, Cowslips and 
the like. 
7. Have a care of the working of some 
conserves presently after they are made; 
look to them once a day, and stir them 
about: conserves of Borage, Bugloss | 
Wormwood, have got an excellent faculty 
at that sport. 
8. You may know when your conserves 
are almost spoiled by this; you shall find 
a hard crust at top with little holes in it, 
as though worms had been eating there. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
Of Preserves. 
a 
