Sect. II
Of making and keeping Compounds.
CHAP. 1. Of distilled Waters. CHAP. 2. Of Syrups. CHAP. 3. Of Juleps. CHAP. 4. Of Decoctions. CHAP. 5. Of Oils. CHAP. 6. Of Electuaries. CHAP. 7. Of Conserves. CHAP. 8. Of Preserves. CHAP. 9. Of Lohocks. CHAP. 10. Of Ointments. CHAP. 11. Of Plaisters. CHAP. 12. Of Poultices. CHAP. 13. Of Troches. CHAP. 14. Of Pills. CHAP. 15. The way of fitting Medicines to compound Diseases. Of all these in order.
CHAP. 1.
Of Leaves of Herbs or Trees. 1. Of leaves, choose such only as are green, and full of juice; pick them carefully, and cast away such as are any way declining, for they will putrify the rest. So shall one handful be worth ten of those you buy in any of the shops. 2. Note what places they most delight to grow in, and gather them there: for betony that grows in the shade is far better than that which grows in the sun, because it delights in the shade; so also such herbs as delight to grow near the water, should be gathered near it, though haply you may find some of them upon dry ground; the treatise will inform you where every herb delights to grow. 3. The leaves of such herbs as run up to seed, are not so good when they are in flower as before, (some few excepted, the leaves of which are seldom or never used) in such cases, if through negligence forgotten, you had better take the top and the flowers than the leaf. 4. Dry them well in the sun, and not in the shade, as the saying of physicians is; for if the sun draw away the virtues of the herb, it must needs do the like by hay, by the same rule, which the experience of every country farmer will explode for a notable piece of nonsense. 5. Such as are artists in astrology, (and indeed none else are fit to make physicians) such I advise: let the planet that governs the herb be angular, and the stronger the better; if they can, in herbs of Saturn, let Saturn be in the ascendant; in the herbs of Mars, let Mars be in the mid heaven, for in those houses they delight; let the moon apply to them by good aspect, and let her not be in the houses of her enemies; if you cannot well stay till she apply to them, let her apply to a planet of the same triplicity; if you cannot wait that time neither, let her be with a fixed star of their nature. 6. Having well dried them, put them up in brown paper, sewing the paper up like a sack, and press them not too hard together, and keep them in a dry place near the fire. 7. As for the duration of dried herbs, a just time cannot be given, let authors prate their pleasure; for 1st. Such as grow upon dry grounds, will keep better than such as grow on moist. 2dly. Such herbs as are full of juice will not keep so long as such as are dryer. 3dly. Such herbs as are well dried will keep longer than such as are slack dried. Yet you may know when they are corrupted, by their loss of colour, or smell, or both; and if they be corrupted, reason will tell you that they must corrupt the bodies of those people that take them. 8. Gather all leaves in the hour of that planet that governs them. See the table of the planetary hours at the end of this book. CHAP. II. Of Flowers. 1. The flower, which is the beauty of the plant, and of none of the least use in physic, groweth yearly, and is to be gathered when it is in its prime. 2. As for the time of gathering them, let the planetary hour and the plant they come of be observed, as we shewed you in the foregoing chapter; as for the time of the day, let it be when the sun shines upon them, so that they may be dry; for if you gather either flowers or herbs when they are wet or dewy, they will not keep. 3. Dry them well in the sun, and keep them in papers near the fire, as I shewed you in the foregoing chapter. 4. So long as they retain their colour and smell, they are good; either being gone, so is their virtue also.