Home › Sect. II › Sect. II: Decoctions

Sect. II: Decoctions

CHAP. IV. Of Decoctions. 1. All the difference between decoctions, and syrups made by decoction, is this: Syrups are made to keep, decoctions only for present use; for you can hardly keep a decoction a week at any time; if the weather be hot, not half so long. 2. Decoctions are made of leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, fruits, or barks, conducing to the cure of the disease you make them for; are made in the same manner as we shewed you in syrups. 3. Decoctions made with wine last longer than such as are made with water; and if you take your decoction to cleanse the passage of the urine, or open obstructions, your best way is to make it with white wine instead of water, because this is penetrating. 4. Decoctions are of most use in such diseases as lie in the passages of the body, as the stomach, bowels, kidnies, passages of urine, and bladder, because decoctions pass quicker to those places than any other form of Medicine. 5. If you will sweeten your decoction with sugar, or any syrup fit for the occasion you take it for, which is better, you may, and no harm. 6. If, in a decoction, you boil both roots, herbs, flowers, and seed together, let the roots boil a good while first, because they retain their virtue longest; then the next in order by the same rule, viz. 1. The Barks. 2. The herbs. 3. The seeds. 4. The flowers, 5. The spices, if you put any in, because their virtues come soonest out. 7. Such things as by boiling cause sliminess to a decoction, as figs, quince-seed, linseed, &c. your best way is, after you have bruised them, to tie them up in a linen rag, as you tie up calf's brains, and so boil them. 8. Keep all decoctions in a glass close stopped, and in the cooler place you keep them, the longer they will last ere they be sour. Lastly, The usual dose to be given at one time, is usually 2, 3, 4, or 5 ounces, according to the age and strength of the patient, the season of the year, the strength of the medicine, and the quality of the disease. CHAP. V. Of Oils.

Oil Olive, which is commonly known by the name of Salad Oil, I suppose because it is usually eaten with salads by them that love it; if it be pressed out of ripe olives, according to Galen, is temperate, and exceeds in no one quality. 2. Of oils, some are simple and some are compounds. 3. Simple oils are such as are made of fruits of seeds by expression, as oil of sweet and bitter almonds, linseed and rape-seed oil, of which see in any Dispensatory. 4. Compound oils are made of oil of olives, and other simples, imagine herbs, flowers, roots, &c. 5. The way of making them is this: having bruised the herbs or flowers you would make your oil of, put them into an earthen pot, and to two or three handfuls of them pour a pint of oil, cover the pot with a paper, set it in the sun about a fortnight or so, according as the sun is in hotness; then having warmed it very well by the fire, press out the herb &c. very hard in a press, and add as many more herbs to the same oil; bruise the herbs (I mean not the oil) in like manner, set them in the sun as before; the oftener you repeat this, the stronger the oil will be: at last when you conceive it strong enough, boil both oil and herbs together, till the juice will be consumed, which you may know by its leaving its bubbling, and the herbs will be crisp; then strain it while it is hot, and keep it in a stone or glass vessel for your use. 6. As for chemical oils, see the latter end of this book 7. The general use of these oils is for pains in the limbs roughness of the skin, the itch, &c. as also for ointments and plaisters. 8. If you have occasion to use it for wounds or ulcers, in two ounces of oil, dissolve half an ounce of turpentine, the heat of the fire will quickly do it; for oil itself is offensive to wounds, and the turpentine qualifies it. CHAP. VI. Of Electuaries.

Physicians make more a quoil than needs by half, about electuaries. I shall prescribe but one general way of making them up; as for ingredients, you may vary them as you please, and as you find occasion, by the last chapter. 1. That you may make electuaries when you need them, it is requisite that you keep always herbs, roots, flowers, seeds, &c. ready dry in your house, that so you may be in readiness to beat them into a powder when you need them. 2. It is better to keep them whole than beaten; for being beaten, they are more subject to lose their strength; because the air soon penetrates them. 3. If they be not dry enough to beat into powder when you need them, dry them by a gentle fire till they are so. 4. Having beaten them, sift them through a fine tiffany sieve, that no great pieces may be found in your electuary. 5. To one ounce of your powder add three ounces of clarified honey; this quantity I hold to be sufficient. If you would make more or less electuary, vary your proportion accordingly. 6. Mix them well together in a mortar, and take this for a truth, you cannot mix them too much. 7. The way to clarify honey, is to set it over the fire, in a convenient vessel, till the scum rise, and when the scum is taken off, it is clarified. 8. The usual dose of cordial electuaries, is from half a dram to two drams; of purging electuaries, from half an ounce to an ounce. 9. The manner of keeping them is in a pot, 10. The time of taking them, is either in a morning fasting, or fasting an hour after them; or at night going to bed, three or four hours after supper. CHAP. VII. Of Conserves.