THE AGKIMONY. 169 



being either the better or the worse for it, though 

 I should have been very unwilling to hurt the 

 feelings of my good old nurse, under whose juris- 

 diction it was administered, by affirming this. The 

 usual mode, amongst old women learned in such 

 matters, of preparing this tea, is by an infusion 

 of the crown of the root, sweetened with honey ; 

 but another very favourite one is by boiling the 

 leaves in whey, this mixture being usually given 

 as a cooling " diet-drink " in the spring time. 

 When dried, for winter use, any part of the plant 

 appears to be indifferently applied to its vari- 

 ous purposes, in the form of a powder ; while 

 Blanchard in his "Physical Dictionary/'* in which 

 it is to be observed, the physical is used in the sense 

 of relating to physic recommends that the leaves 

 should be infused in beer or ale. 



The " Stockholm MS/' so often referred to,f after 

 thus enumerating uses very similar to these which 

 we have mentioned, viz : 



" To drynkys et playstris [plasters] it is good 

 Ageyn veynymys [venom] et sorys [sores] wood 

 It remewyth postemys [posthumes] dronkyn wt wy, 



[with wine] 

 And clensyth ye splene et distroith venym :" 



goes on to tell us of another virtue which, if sub- 

 stantiated, would indeed entitle it to the name of 

 philanthropes which Gerarde tells us it was " called 

 of some," excelling, apparently, even that most ines- 

 timable alleviator of human suffering, chloroform. 



* 1702. f See above Art. " Fumitory." 



I 



