This may either be employed as an assistant to a course of mercurial alteratives, or taken after the mercury has been used for some time. It strengthens the stomach, and restores flesh and vigour to habits emaciated by the venereal disease. It may also be taken in the rheumatism, and cutaneous disorders proceeding from foulness of the blood and juices. For all these intentions it is greatly preferable to the Decoction of Woods.
This decoction may be taken, from a pint and a half to two quarts in the day.
The following decoction is said to be similar to that used by Kennedy, in the cure of the venereal disease, and may supply the place of Lisbon diet drink:
Take of sarsaparilla, three ounces; liquorice and mezereon root, of each half an ounce; shavings of guaiacum and sassafras wood, of each one ounce; crude antimony, powdered, an ounce and a half. Infuse these ingredients in eight pints of boiling water for twenty-four hours, then boil them till one half of the water is consumed; afterwards strain the decoction.
This decoction may be used in the same manner as the preceding.
Decoction of Seneka.
Take of seneka rattle-snake root, one ounce; water, a pint and a half. Boil to one pint, and strain.
This decoction is recommended in the pleurisy, dropsy, rheumatism, and some obstinate disorders of the skin. The dose is two ounces, three or four times a-day, or oftner, if the stomach will bear it.
White Decoction.
Take of the purest chalk, in powder, two ounces; gum arabic, half an ounce; water, three pints. Boil to one quart, and strain the decoction.