CENTURY X. 501 



929. They have in physic use of pomanders, and 

 knots of powders, for drying of rheums, comforting 

 of the heart, provoking of sleep, &c. For though 

 those things be not so strong as perfumes, yet you 

 may have them continually in your hand ; whereas 

 perfumes you can take but at times ; and besides, 

 there be divers things that breathe better of them 

 selves, than when they corne to the fire ; as nigella 

 romana, the seed of melanthium, amomum, &c. 



930. There be two things which, inwardly used, 

 do cool and condense the spirits ; and I wish the 

 same to be tried outwardly in vapours. The one 

 is nitre, which I would have dissolved in Malmsey, 

 or Greek wine, and so the smell of the wine taken ; 

 or if you would have it more forcible, pour of it upon 

 a firepan, well heated, as they do rose-water and 

 vinegar. The other is the distilled water of wild 

 poppy, which I wish to be mingled, at half, with 

 rose-water, and so taken with some mixture of a few 

 cloves in a perfuming-pan. The like would be done 

 with the distilled water of saffron flowers. 



931. Smells of musk, and amber, and civet, are 

 thought to further venereous appetite ; which they 

 may do by the refreshing and calling forth of the 

 spirits. 



932. Incense and nidorous smells, such as were 

 of sacrifices, were thought to intoxicate the brain, 

 and to dispose men to devotion : which they may do 

 by a kind of sadness, and contristation of the spirits ; 

 and partly also by heating and exalting them. We 



