plight,
He would not come to her that night.
Take Roman vitriol six or eight ounces, beat it very small in a mortar, sift it through a fine sieve when the sun enters Leo; keep it in the heat of the sun by day and dry by night; if a person be wounded, apply it not to the wound but to the weapon by which he received it and the wound shall heal.
In West Country England it is known as a fact that warts can be easily cured by this method: steal a piece of meat and bury it. Just so long as the theft remains unconfessed and the meat rots, the warts will continue to disappear.
For the cure of warts, first burn a stick at one end in an open fireplace; take it out, but do not touch the charred end, and let the burnt portion cool. The black soot must be cooled, and it will be most effective if it is chilled by being put in snow, but this is not essential. Lay the burnt end then on the warts; only the other end of the stick can be held by the hand, the charred tip must touch only the warts that it is to cure. Then throw the entire stick in the fire, still taking care not to touch the charred end which now contains the essence of the warts. If it is touched, it will merely plant new warts.
This is the way to cure warts most effectively, and other cures are best forgotten. Split a bean. Cut the wart. Some say that blood should appear, but it will work either way in most cases. Half of the bean must be placed on the wart. If blood has come, some of it must be absorbed by the bean. Burn the other half of the bean to nothingness, but retain the half that has covered the wart, and wait for a moonless night. Then, on such a night, take the half of the bean to a crossroads, arriving there exactly at midnight. Here bury the bean, all the while chanting, “Down bean, off wart, come no more to bother me.” This will remove the warts and they will not return.
You can stop an epileptic fit by reciting in a low voice over the stricken person this prayer: “Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et divina institutione formati, audemus dicere. Pater noster... etc.” Before you have finished the Lord’s Prayer, the fit will have ended. Take care though to step over the man if he rolls on the ground, for if you touch him otherwise the illness will enter your own body as it leaves his. Another way to cure such a fit is to whisper the following into his right ear: “Gaspar fert mirrham, thus Melchior, Balthassar, aurum,” and he will recover. If the man can point out the spot where first he fell to the ground, you can make his cure complete by driving three iron nails into the ground at that spot, each time pronouncing his name.
Arthritis is cured by taking hog’s dung and charnell and putting them together and holding them in the left hand; and take a knife in the other hand and prick the medicine three times. And cast the medicine into the fire; and take the knife and make three pricks under a table, and let the knife stick there. And take three leaves of sage and as much of herb John or herb Grace and put them in ale and drink it last at night and first at morning; and this will ease the lameness infallibly.
To dispel worms in children, peach tree leaves should be preserved in vinegar with mint and alum and applied to the navel.
In times of plague chew burnet, any plant of the genus Sanguisorba, which will preserve you from contagion. Greater burnet is also useful for stopping hemorrhages.
Pound the flower of the marshmallow with turpentine and pork fat. Applied to the stomach, this cures inflammations of the womb. The root of the marshmallow plant, if it is infused in wine, prevents retention of the urine. If the seed of the marshmallow plant is pounded and kneaded into an ointment, this can be rubbed over the face and hands to insure against the stings of bees and wasps.
Royal comfrey, a plant of the genus Symphytum, is useful in bringing stillborn children from the womb. It will remove films from the eyes as well, if used in compresses. Royal comfrey is helpful to bones and ulcers, and its leaves are potent against inflammation.
Anet stalks can be cooked in oil and applied to the head to deliver one from insomnia.
Dill water is excellent for use in children’s complaints, as flatulence.
To remove herpes (shingles) and other skin eruptions, one should grind leeks and mix with barley flour and oil.
If one is troubled with ulcers on feet and legs, plantain leaves will solve this, if they are pounded and applied as a poultice. To stop dysentery, pulverize seeds of plantain in wine, or preserve the leaves in vinegar. To cure dropsy, eat raw plantain leaves after dry bread, without taking a drink. The root of the fresh water plantain, when infused in wine, is useful in neutralizing opium poisoning and other narcotic effects.
Viburnum leaves in red wine are a certain cure for epilepsy. Also, for convulsions and spasms, viburnum or cramp bark is used.
Some women after giving birth are troubled by insatiable hunger. This can be easily remedied by pounding the leaves and tendrils of grape vines into a poultice which is applied to the stomach.
The grapestone can be roasted and pulverized and applied in poultice for the cure of dysentery.
Wormwood, cooked in wine and taken in small dosages, saves women from the danger of miscarriage.
Fumigations of wormwood boiled and taken in a hip bath will deliver a woman of a stillborn child.
Nettle seeds are effective against pleurisy and lung inflammations, for which they should be cooked in wine. The leaves of the nettle may also be pounded and applied to sores and wounds for the prevention of gangrene and to aid healing. If one suffers from mushroom poisoning, a decoction of the seeds of the nettle plant is advised.
A little nitre mixed with oil is effective against poisoning, especially mushroom poisoning.
Nettle seeds should be mixed with honey and sucked for goiter and for consumption.
Nettle has many outstanding properties. It is famed for sweetening the breath. Also, if one will hold a nettle stalk in his hand and a milfoil stalk which has been picked while the sun was passing through the Lion, he will be made completely impervious to fear. For gathering fish, a fine bait can be made from nettle juice and juice of snake root; when the hand is anointed with the blend and plunged into a body of water, it will attract whole schools of fishes, which can be easily captured.
For henbane poisoning, take the juice of the purslane, a plant of the family Portulacaceae, with a sweet wine.
Angelica in wine is a good cure for interior ulceration. If this plant is reduced to a powder, a pinch of it swallowed with wine before breakfast in the winter will guard one from winter epidemics. In the summer, the powder should be taken with rosewater to preserve from ills of that season.
For ulcers of the lung, an infusion of thistles is used. If the thistle root be powdered fine and applied it will cure ulcers of the breast.
Aloe juice with vinegar will invariably cure falling hair. Rosemary, southernwood, and citric acid are also prescribed for falling hair.
Chewed raw, purslane cures mouth ulcers. The seeds of the purslane, when crushed and eaten with honey, are effective against asthma.
Raspberry leaves are effective in treating mouth ulcers.
Angelica leaves, pulverized with rue and honey, will prevent rabies when applied to dog bites.
Agnus castus in a strong decoction will work to preserve chastity; moreover, with smallage and sage in salt water it results in a liniment for the back of the head which will restore those who have been in a coma.
To be completely safe from vipers or any venomous reptile,
