102 THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



time, beaten or made into a poultice or salve with old 

 hog's grease, and applied to (lie places pained witli the 

 ^^iatica, to continue thrroon lour hours, if it be on a man, 

 and two hours on a Avonian ; the place aftcrMards bathed 

 with M'ine and oil mixed together, and then wrajjpcd vvitli 

 M ool or skins after they have sweat a little, will assuredly 

 cure not only the same disease in hips, huckle-bone, or 

 other of the joints, as gout in the hands or feet, but all 

 other old griefs of the head, (as inveterate rheums) and 

 other parts of the body that are hard to be cured ; and if 

 of the former griefs any parts remain, the same medicine, 

 after twenty days, is to be applied again. The same is 

 also elTeftual in the diseases of the spleen ; and a])plied to 

 the skin, it taketh away the blemishes thereof, whether 

 they be scars, leprosy, scabs, or scurf, which although-it 

 ulcerate the part, yet that is to be helped afterwards w ith 

 a salve made oi oil and wax. Esteem this as another 

 secret. 



Water Cresses. ]) . (h. d. 3.) 



Thfsk arc so well known as not to require a description. 



Place. \ They grow (for the most part) in small stand- 

 ing waters, yel sometimes in small rivulets of running 

 water. 



Time.} They flower and seed in the beginning of 

 S-umrner, 



Govcrnnu'iit and Virtues. 1 It is an herb under the domi- 

 nion of the iVIoon. They are more powerful against the 

 scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours, than 

 Brooklime is, and serve in all the other uses in 

 which Brooklime is available, as to break the stone, 

 and provoke urine and woniens courses. The decoc- 

 tion thereof deanseth ulcers, by washing them there- 

 with. The leaves bruised, or the juice, is good to be 

 applied to the face, or other parts troubled with frec- 

 kles, pimples, spots, or the like, at night, and washed 

 away in the morning. The juice mixed nith vinegar, 

 and the fore part of the head bathed therewith, is very 

 good for those that are dull and drowsy, or have the 

 lethargy. 



