The Midwife's Book of Cures

On the preparation of herbs

Leaves of Herbs or Trees

1. Of leaves, choose only those that are green and full of juice; pick

them carefully, and throw away the ones that are any way declining, or

they will putrefy the rest.

2. Note what places they most grow in, and gather them

there

3. Dry them well in the Sun, and not in the shade.

4. Having well dried them, put them up in natural leather, sewing it

up like a sack, and press them not too hard together, and

keep them in a dry place near the fire.

5. As for the duration of dried herbs, a just time cannot be given,

Those that grow on dry ground will keep better than those that

grow on moist. Herbs that are full of juice will not keep so long

as ones that are drier. Herbs that are well dried will keep longer than

those that are slack dried. You will know when they are corrupted by

their loss of colour, or smell, or both; and if they are corrupted,

reason will tell you that they will corrupt the bodies of those people

that take them.

Flowers

1. The flower of the plant grows yearly and is to be gathered when it is

in its prime.

2. As for the time of gathering them, let it be when the sun

shines upon them, that so they may be dry; 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 leathers near the fire.

4. So long as they retain the colour and smell, they are good; either

of them being gone, so is the virtue also.

Seeds

1. The seed is that part of the plant which is endowed with a vital

part to bring forth its like, and it contains potentially the whole

plant in it.

2. As for place, let them be gathered from the place where they

readily grow.

3. Let them be fully ripe when they are gathered.

4. When you have gathered them, dry them a little, and but a little

in the sun, before you lay them up.

5. You need not be so careful of keeping them so near the fire because

they are fuller of spirit, and therefore not so subject to corrupt.

6. As for the time of their duration, it is palpable they will keep a

good many years; yet, they are best the first year. They will grow

sooner the first year they are planted, therefore then they are in their prime;

and it is an easy matter to renew them yearly.

Roots

1. Roots, neither rotten nor worm-eaten, but proper in their taste, colour,

and smell; such as exceed neither in softness nor hardness should only be

used.

2. The drier time you gather the roots in, the better they are; for

they have the less excrementitious moisture in them.

3. Such roots as are soft, your best way is to dry in the sun, or else

hang them in the chimney corner on a string; those that arehard, you

may dry them any where.

4. Roots as are large will keep longer than those that are small;

yet most of them will keep a year.

5. For roots that are soft, the best way to keep them is always

near the fire.

6. It is in vain to dry roots that may commonly be had, but gather

them only for present need.

Barks

1. Barks are of these sorts: fruits, of roots, of boughs.

2. The barks of fruits are to be taken when the fruit is ripe.

3. The barks of trees are best gathered in the Spring because then

they come off easier, and you may dry them if you please; but the

best way is to gather all barks only for present use.

4. As for the barks of roots, take the roots ofsuch herbs as have a

pith in them, slit them in the middle, and when you have taken out

the pith (which is easily done) that which remains is called the

bark.

Juices

1. Juices are to be pressed out of herbs when they are young and

tender.

2. Having gathered the herb, would you preserve the juice of it,

when it is very dry bruise it well in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle,

then having put it into a canvas bag, press it hard in a press,

then take the juice and clarify it.

3. The manner of clarifying it is this: Put it into a skillet and set it over

the fire; and when the scum rises, take it off; let it stand over the fire till

no more scum rises; when you have your juice clarified, cast away the

scum.

4. When you have clarified it, you have two ways to preserve

it all the year.

• (1) When it is cold, put it into a glass, and cover it to the thickness of

  two fingerswidth oil; the oil will swim at the top, and keep the air from

  putrefying it. When you intend to use it, pour it into a porringer, and if

  any oil come out with it, you may easily skim it off with a spoon, and put

  the juice you do not use into the glass again, it will quickly sink under the

  oil.

• (2) When you have clarified the juice, boil it over the fire, till it is

  of the thickness of honey.

Bears breech helps aches and numbness of the joints, and is

of a binding quality, good for wounds and broken bones.

They are profitable for ruptures, or wounds that

burst, or burnt with fire; use a decoction made with root and water.

Angelica; strengthens the heart, and is good against pestilence and poison,

half a dram taken in the morning instead of food.

Bur, Clot-bur, or Burdock, bruised and mixed with

salt and applied to the place, helps the bitings of mad dogs. It

eases pains of the teeth, strengthens the back.

Bistort, or snakeweed,: half a dram at a time taken inwardly, resists

pestilence and poison, helps ruptures and bruises, stays fluxes,

vomiting, helps inflammations and soreness of the mouth, and fastens

loose teeth; take bruised and boiled in white wine, and wash the mouth

with it.

Cinnamon strengthens the stomach, help digestion, cause a

sweet breath, resist poison, provoke urine, and the menses, cause

speedy delivery to women in travail, help coughs and defluxions of

humours upon the lungs and difficulty of urine.

In ointments it takes away red pimples, and the like deformities from

the face. There is scarce a better remedy for women in labour, than

a dram of Cinnamon newly beaten into powder, and taken in white

wine.

Pomegranates. The rind cools, and forcibly binds,

helps digestion, strengthens weak stomachs, fastens the teeth,

and are good for such whose gums waste.

You may take a dram of it at a time inwardly. Pomegranate

flowers are of the same virtue.

Juniper. The smoke of the wood, drives away serpents;

the ashes of it made into lye, cures itch, and scabs.

Chaffweed is of a drying and binding nature;

boiled in lye, it keeps the head from nits and lice;

being laid among clothes, it keeps them safe from moths, kills worms, helps

the bitings of venomous beasts;

taken in a tobacco-pipe, it helps coughs of the lungs, and vehement headaches.

Eyebright, inwardly taken, restores the sight, and makes

old men's eyes young, it comforts and strengthens the memory.

Tobacco is of a cleansing nature: the leaves warmed and applied

to the head are good for head-aches, helps stiff necks:

eases stomach pains:

heated by the fire, and applied hot to the side, they loosen the

belly, and kill worms

applied to the navel, they give present ease to the fits of the mother:

they take away cold aches in the joints applied to them:

boiled, the liquor absolutely and speedily cures scabs and itch:

there isn't any better salve in the world for wounds that are made of it

it cleanses out the filth in the bones:

it cures wounds made with poisoned weapons.

It is an admirable thing for carbuncles and plague-sores, inferior to none:

It will cure green wounds: ulcers and gangrenous wounds very quickly,

not only in men, but also in beasts.

Taken in a pipe, it has almost as many virtues;

it eases weariness and takes away the sense of hunger and thirst.

Solomon's Seal. Stamped andboiled in wine and dranki t speedily helps all broken bones;

also being stamped and applied to the place, it soon heals all wounds, and quickly takes away the black and blue marks of blows, being bruised and applied

to the place.

Wormwood. Helps weakness of the stomach, cleanse choler, kill worms, open stoppings, clear the sight, resist poison, cleanse the blood, and secure cloths from moths.

Vervain: a great opener, cleanser, healer.

It helps the yellow jaundice, pains in the head;

and if it is bruised and hung about the neck, all diseases in the privities;

made into an ointment it is a sovereign remedy for old head-aches, as also frenzies, it clears the skin, and causes a lovely color.

Of the parts of animals

Eating the brain of Sparrows provokes lust exceedingly.

The roasted brain of an Hare helps trembling, makes

children breed teeth easily; their gums being rubbed with it. It also

helps scald heads, and falling off of hair, by anointing the head with it.

Crab-eyes open stopping of the bowels.

The lungs of a Fox, well dried (but not burned) is an admirable

strengthener to the lungs.

The liver of a Duck stops fluxes, and strengthens the liver

exceedingly.

Ivory, or Elephant's tooth, binds, it strengthens the heart and stomach, helps the yellow jaundice, and makes women fruitful.

Those small bones which are found in the fore-feet of an Hare,

being beaten into powder and drank in wine, powerfully provoke

urine.

Goose grease, and Capons grease, are both softening, help gnawing

sores, stiffness of the womb, and mitigate pain.

The suet of a Goat mixed with a little saffron, is as excellent an ointment for the gout, especially the gout in the knees.

Bears grease stays the falling off of the hair.

Fox grease helps pains in the ears.

Whey, cleanses both choler and melancholy: wonderfully helps melancholy and madness ; opens the bowels; helps troubles with the stopping of the spleen. Outwardly it cleanses the skin of such deformities as from choler or melancholy, as scabs, itch, leprosies, etc.

Honey is of a gallant cleansing quality, exceeding profitable in all

inward ulcers; it opens the veins,cleanses bladder.

Wax, softens, heats, and fills sores with flesh.

Millepedes, hog-lice and wood-lice, being bruised and mixed with wine, provoke urine,help the yellow jaundice;

being boiled in oil, help pains in the ears, a drop being put into them.

Eating the flesh of vipers clear the sight, help the vices of the nerves, resist poison exceedingly, neither is there any better remedy under the sun for their bites than the head of the viper that bit you, bruised and applied to the place, and the flesh eaten.

Do not eat above a dram at a time, and make it up as needed.

Neither is there any comparable cure to the stinging of bees and wasps than the same that sting you, bruised and applied to the place.

Land Scorpions cure their own stings by the same means;

the ashes of them (being burnt) potently provokes urine.

Earth-worms are an admirable remedy for cut nerves, being applied to the place;

The powder of them put into an hollow tooth, makes it drop out.

To draw a tooth without pain, fill an earthen crucible full of Ants, or Pismires, eggs and all, and when you have burned them, keep the ashes;

if you touch a tooth it will fall out.

Put Eels into wine or beer and let them suffer to die in it, he that drinks it will never endure that sort of liquor again.

Oysters applied alive to a pestilential swelling, draw the venom to

them.

Swallows, being eaten, clear the sight;

the ashes of them, eaten, preserves from drunkenness, helps sore throats and inflammations.

Grass-hoppers, being eaten live, ease the colic, and pains in the

bladder.