Receipt for Procuring Milk.
Drink arpleni, drawn as tea, for twenty-one days. Or eat aniseeds. Also the juice of arbor vitæ, a glassful once a day for eleven days, is very good, for it quickens the memory, strengthens the body, and causeth milk to flow in abundance.
Directions for Drawing of Blood.
Drawing of blood was at first invented for good and salutary purposes, although often abused and misapplied. To bleed in the left arm removes long-continued pains and head-aches. It is also good for those who have got falls and bruises.
Bleeding is good for many disorders, and generally proves a cure, except in some very extraordinary cases; and in these cases bleeding is hurtful.
If a woman be pregnant, to draw a little blood will give her ease, good health and a lusty child.
Bleeding is a most certain cure for no less than twenty-one disorders, without any outward or inward applications; and for many more, with application of drugs, herbs and flowers.
When the moon is on the increase, you may let blood at any time, day or night; but when she is on the decline, you must bleed only in the morning.
Bleeding may be performed from the month of March to November. No bleeding in December, January, or February, unless an occasion require it. The months of March, April, and November, are the three chief months of the year for bleeding in; but it may be performed with safety from the 9th of March to the 19th of November.
To prevent the dangers that may arise from the unskilful drawing of blood, let none open a vein but a person of experience and practice. There are three sorts of people you must not let draw blood: first, ignorant and inexperienced pretenders. Secondly, those who have bad sight and trembling hands, whether skilled or unskilled. For when the hand trembles, the lancet is apt to startle from the vein, and the flesh be thereby damaged, which may hurt, canker, and very much torment the patient. Thirdly, let no woman bleed you, but such as has gone through a course of midwifery at college; for those who are unskilful may cut an artery, to the great damage of the patient. Besides, what is still worse, those pretended bleeders, who take it up at their own hand, generally keep unedged and rusty lancets, which will prove hurtful even in a skilful hand. Accordingly, you ought to be cautious in choosing your physician: a man of learning knows what vein to open for each disorder; he knows how much blood to take as soon as he sees the patient; and he can give you suitable advice concerning your disorder.