174 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. hair spring on bald heads. Besides its use in the famous Salernitan anti- 

 "^y^^ dote if the kernel, a little masticated, be applied to the bite of a sus- 

 pected mad dog, and when it has lain three hours, be cast to poultry, 

 they will die if they eat of it. In Italy, when a countryman finds any pain 

 in his side, he drinks a pint of the fresh oil of this nut, and finds imme- 

 diate ease. And more famous is the wonderful cure which the fungous 

 substance, separating the lobes of the kernel, pulverized and drunk in 

 wine, in a moderate quantity, did perform upon the English army in 

 Ireland, afflicted with a dysentery, when no other remedy could prevail. 

 The juice of the outward rind of the nut makes an excellent gargle for a 

 sore throat : The kernel being rubbed upon any crack or chink of a 

 leaky or crazy vessel, stops it better than either clay, pitch, or wax. In 

 France they eat them blanched and fresh, with wine and salt, having first 

 cut them out of the shells before they are hardened, with a short broad 

 brass knife, because iron rusts ; and these they call Cerneaux, from their 

 manner of scooping them out. Lastly, of the fungus emerging from the 

 trunk of an old tree, and indeed some others, is made touchwood, artifi- 

 cially prepared in a lixivium, or lye, dried, and beaten flat, and then 

 boiled with salt-petre, to render it apter to kindle. The tree wounded 

 in the spring, yields a liquor, which makes an artificial wine. For other 

 species, see Mr. Ray's Dendrolog. tom. iii. p. 5, 6. 



AUia, ruta, pyra, et raphanus, cum theriaca, nux, 

 Praestant antidotum contra lethale venenum. 



SCHOL. SALERN. 



