Aloes and Manna purge choler gently; and Scamony doth purge choler violently, that it is no ways fit for a vulgar man’s use, for it corrodes the Bowels. Opopoanax purges flegm very gently.
White starch gently levigates or makes smooth such parts as are rough, syrup of Violets being made thick with it and so taken on the point of a knife, helps coughs, roughness of the throat, wheezing, excoriations of the bowels, the bloody-flux.
Juice of Liquorice helps roughness of the Trachea Arteria, which is in plain English called the windpipe, the roughness of which causes coughs and hoarseness, difficulty of breathing, &c. It allays the heat of the stomach and liver, eases pains, soreness and roughness of the reins and bladder, it quencheth thirst, and strengthens the stomach exceedingly: It may easily be carried about in one’s pocket, and eat a little now and then.
Sugar cleanses and digests, takes away roughness of the tongue, it strengthens the reins and bladder, being weakened: being beaten into fine powder and put into the eyes, it takes away films that grow over the sight.
Labdanum is in operation, thickening, heating and mollifying, it opens the passage of the veins, and keeps the hair from falling off; the use of it is usually external: being mixed with wine, myrrh, and oil of mirtles, and applied like a plaister, it takes away filthy scars, and the deformity the small pox leaves behind them; being mixed with oil of Roses, and dropped into the ears, it helps pains there; being used as a pessary, it provokes the menses, and helps hardness or stiffness of the womb. It is sometimes used inwardly in such medicines as ease pains and help the cough: if you mix a little of it with old white wine and drink it, it both provokes urine and stops looseness or fluxes.
Dragons blood, cools, binds, and repels.
Acasia, and Hyposistis, do the like.
The juice of Maudlin, or, for want of it Costmary, which is the same in effect, and better known to the vulgar, the juice is made thick for the better keeping of it; first clarify the juice before you boil it to its due thickness, which is something thicker than honey.
It is appropriated to the liver, and the quantity of a dram taken every morning, helps the Cachexia, or evil disposition of the body proceeding from coldness of the liver: it helps the rickets and worms in children, provokes urine, and gently (without purging) disburdens the body of choler and flegm; it succours the lungs, opens obstructions, and resists putrifaction of blood.
Gums are either temperate, as, Lacca, Elemi, Tragacanth, &c.