AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



43 



with. I can prove it doth both my own 

 experience, and the experience of those to 

 whom I have taught it, that most desperate 

 sore eyes have been cured by this only 

 medicine ; and then, I pray, is not this far 

 better than endangering the eyes by the art 

 of the needle? For if this does not abso- 

 lutely take away the film, it will so facilitate 

 the work, that it might be done without 

 danger. The herb or root boiled in white 

 Wine and drank, a few Anniseeds being 

 boiled therewith, opens obstructions of the 

 liver and gall, helps the yellow jaundice; 

 and often using it, helps the dropsy and the 

 itch, and those who have old sores in their 

 legs, or other parts of the body. The 

 juice thereof taken fasting, is held to be of 

 singularly good use against the pestilence. 

 The distilled water, with a little sugar and 

 a little good treacle mixed therewith (the 

 party upon the taking being laid down to 

 sweat a little) has the same effect. The 

 juice dropped into the eyes, cleanses them 

 from films and cloudiness which darken the 

 sight, but it is best to allay the sharpness 

 of the juice with a little breast milk. It is 

 good in all old filthy corroding creeping 

 ulcers wheresoever, to stay their malignity 

 of fretting and running, and to cause them 

 to heal more speedily : The juice often 

 applied to tetters, ring-worms, or other such 

 like spreading cankers, will quickly heal 

 them, and rubbed often upon warts, will 

 take them away. The herb with the roots 

 bruised and bathed with oil of camomile, 

 and applied to the navel, takes away the 

 griping pains of the belly and bowels, and 

 all the pains of the mother; and applied to 

 women's breasts stays the overmuch flowing 

 of the courses. The juice or decoction of 

 the herb gargled between the teeth that ach, 

 eases the pain, and the powder of the dried 

 root laid upon any aching, hollow or loose 

 tooth, will cause it to fall out. The juice 

 mixed with some powder of brimstone is 



not only good against the itch, but takes 

 away all discolourings of the skin what- 

 soever : and if it chance that in a tender 

 body it causes any itchings or inflamma- 

 tions, by bathing the place with a little 

 vinegar it is helped. 



Another ill-favoured trick have physicians 

 got to use to the eye, and that is worse than 

 the needle ; which is to take away the films 

 by corroding or gnawing medicine. That 

 I absolutely protest against. 



1. Because the tunicles of the eyes are 

 very thin, and therefore soon eaten asunder. 



2. The callus or film that they would eat 

 away, is seldom of an equal thickness in 

 every place, and then the tunicle may be 

 eaten asunder in one place, before the film 

 be consumed in another, and so be a readier 

 way to extinguish the sight than to restore 

 it. 



It is called Chelidonium, from the Greek 

 word Chelidon, which signifies a swallow ; 

 because they say, that if you put out the 

 eyes of young swallows when they are in 

 the nest, the old ones will recover their eyes 

 again with this herb. This 1 am confident, 

 for I have tried it, that if we mar the very 

 apple of their eyes with a needle, she will 

 recover them again; but whether with this 

 herb or not, I know not. 



Also I have read (and it seems to be 

 somewhat probable) that the herb, being 

 gathered as I shewed before, and the 

 elements draw apart from it by art of the 

 alchymist, and after they are drawn apart 

 rectified, the earthly quality, still in rectify- 

 ing them, added to the Terra damnata (as 

 Alchymists call it) or Terra Sacratisima (as 

 some philosophers call it) the elements so 

 rectified are sufficient for the cure of all 

 diseases, the humours offending being known 

 and the contrary element given : It is an 

 experiment worth the trying, and can do 

 no harm. 



