A SHORT Discourse of the most rare and excellent virtue of Nitre: Wherein is declared the sundry and diverse cures by the same effected, and how it may be aswell received in medicine inwardly as outwardly plasterwise applied: serving to the use and commodity aswell of the meaner people as of the delicater sort. ❧ Ecclesiast. 38.4. The Lord hath created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them. IMPRINTED at London by Gerald dews, dwelling in Paul's churchyard at the sign of the Swan. 1584. The Printer to the Reader. I Have adventured (gentle Reader) for thy behoof, to print this small treatise touching the faculties and qualities of Nitre, whose virtue (being such as our author avoucheth) may bring to all which stand in need thereof no small ease, & commodity: the medicines are not very hard to be made or compounded, nor over costly to be procured, but how commodious and effectual, I leave to the learned, and to such, as by proof have had, or may have profit thereby. Thus omitting to commend that (which I hope will commend itself sufficiently) I end nothing doubting but that all those which receive commodity and ease by others travails and labours, will not be unthankful for the same but use them to God's glory. Thine at his small power. A. D. Fortuna A COPY OF A DISCOURSE WRITTEN FROM THE ISLE OF LAMBY ON THE the East coast of Ireland, by Thomas Chalonergent▪ unto his cozen john Napper Apothecary dwelling at the sign of the Ewe and the golden Lamb over against Soper lane end in cheap side at London, touching the quality and faculty of Nitre. The example whereof he sent unto him with that letter. WITH my hearty commendations beloved cozen: in performance of my promise (although not so soon as you looked for): I do send unto you herewith by this bearer, some Nitre onwards. And as you shall like thereof, I shallbe willing to furnish you accordingly. Not doubting that you shall find it a merchandise as availleable & gainful, as any drug of gross quantity that you shall have to do with, so many ways commodious is it, to the use aswell of the meaner people, as of the delicater sort. THis Nitre is (as you may percive) a juice thickened by growing together, and hardened by congelation, in form and appearance like unto transparent Alum, Salgemme, or Borace. And (in deed) such sort of it as is grown together in the earth and hardened into a stony substance by long abiding so, and at the last is digged up and brought into Christian regions out of Egypt, Armenia, Turkey, Barbary, and other far countries coming to the hands of the Borace makers unpure, and by them refined, is the principal substance and matter, of which they do make the Borace wherewith the Goldsmiths do solder their works of gold and of silver: And the Battriesmythes their copper pans. A drug so rare and precious, as by the great price and small plenty thereof, is known unto you. Neither cometh this Nitre (which I do send unto you) otherwise to be had in quantity for our country to have the use and comedy thereof, but by my father's industry and means. And yet his good mind unto his native country is such, as to procure it so reasonably cheap, that the poorer sort be not barred the benefit of so necessary and so great a commodity, for the excessiveness of the price. What I have heard him define and discourse of the complexion, nature, and excellent faculty, and manifold use, of this Nitre: (gathered partly of good authors, and partly of his own experience and of reason) I will impart unto you, cozen, so well as my memory hath served me to note: To yourself I mean. For if (by your showing this my letter for commendation of the matter) the learned, or others (in proof thereof) reprone my report, I must excuse me to have not so perfectly borne a way his speeches thereof, as he delivered them. Neither did he to other end impart it unto me, but for mine own instruction: knowing how sufficiently the learned (upon the sight and taste of this Nitre) can define and set down what it is, and how to use it. And fittest for their censure and judgement, charitably to publish & recommend the fittest use and fruition thereof, to the public commodity. The smack thereof (being at the first taste unto the tongue, sour sharp, then moderately bitter, and lastly a little rank in the swallowing) argueth therein a mixture of a watery substance, altered and mastered by coldness beyond the first degree (formally rather then effectually) whereon an extern heat hath out breathed whatsoever native heat was therein: Leaving yet the pricking sharpness that was in that watery altered substance, which pierceth the tongue, and therewith also mixed an earthy dry substance, overmastered and subtiliated by a smothering heat, (partly beyond the first degree, causing the rankness & leavened Nitrosity: and partly adusted by a sterie heat unto the middle of the second degree, causing bitterness:) which bitterness being of more force, effecteth the taste more strongly than the rank Nitrosity. So as until the smack of bitterness be passed, the rankness is not perceived. By mixture of which passive substances, earth, and water, the action and leavening of putrefactive heat, hath caused in that rank Nitrosity, an oily and gummy substance airy. The fatness and oilinesses whereof, together with the aforesaid watery substance (out of the which the nature heat first hath been evaporated by an extern heat, and then altered and mastered by coldness, so surmounteth the dry, adust, earthy, subtle part thereof, as sufficeth it not to fluzze nor inflame, nor be set on fire, (as Saltpetre will) nor to spark (as salt will) by reason the watery substance is so mastered with the oily airy substance, neither is it salt as Saltpetre is. For, as for the the taste of saltness (which was else also perceived in that sort of Nitre that cometh from Armenia, aswell as also that fine meal or flower of Nitre called Aphron Nitron) this Nitre hath thereof little or nothing at all. Because (what saltness it had of if self) is separated from it in the refining. And for the oilinesses or fatness sti●l abiding with it, unless it be consumed by further burning artificial, it hath not yet that purchased saltness. The colour of this Nitre is (as you may see) only white, by reason of the refining: And so not of colour black, or russet, as is the native or unpurified Nitre mixed with the soot of the earth or slimy pits or slowghes out of the which it is digged or gathered. So in faculty this Nitre hath no astringence (which, you wots, meaneth in our English tongue, shriveling, or shutting of the poors or swertholes of the skin) as that other salter Nitre hath. But it hath faculties and virtues of entering, and piercing, and sufficiently warming and heating, suppling, rarefying, opening, enlarging, unstopping, dividing, resolving, spreading, dispersing, extenuating, evaporing, emptying, discombring, and effectually wiping, cleansing, and scouring, without smarting, fretting, or excoriation as hath the other sharper or salter Nitre. To you cozen, that do understand these usual terms concerning these faculties and virtues, I recite them as of ordinary they be termed. Nevertheless this refined Nitre (with artificial burning) shall also purchase more subtlety and adust quality. Whereby it shall be the more piercing, heating, resolving, wasting, and drying. And with bay salt or alum added, or else with any other medicine astrictive, hot or cold as shallbe requisite, it shall also be be accompanied with that faculty, wherewith the sinews or other parts, which by looseness or slackness are weak, shallbe fastened & kept in their due tightness and strength. The preparation of this Nitre unto more subtility, sharpness, dryness and heat, is after three sorts ensuing. SPread this Nitre thin in a platter of glazed earth or of pewter. So set it in the hot Sun, and attend it until it be parched white and not melted, and so it will come into fine white powder or flower as Aphron Nitron. And hereby getteth it somewhat more subtleness and less gumminesses, and may be named purified Alphron Nitron. The second way. GEt a new earthen pot glazed within, & fitted with a cover (to close it, that no ashes come therein) having such an handle as thereby with your tongues or pliers you may (when it is in your fiery furnace) take of the cover, to look into your pot, and again at your pleasure cover it. Fill that pot half full with this Nitre. And set that pot with the Nitre therein and the cover thereon in a wide furnace for this purpose, raised with two walls on either side a foot high from the ground, left open through between those two sides before and behind. Grate that overthwart with bars of iron, each bar a finger wideness from other, and thereon above those bars aswell before as behind, as also one each side, wall it up square half a yard more of height. And let the wideness of the furnace within, be such, as your pot being set in the midst of your furnace may have room on every side of your furnace half a foot: not forgetting to travers your furnace within, with two sufficient bars whereon to place your pot half a foot above your foresaid iron grate: and that you have to cover the upper mouth of your furnace with tiles, brick, or iron plates, to be couched upon iron rods or bars, lose and removable for the purpose. These things thus ready, fill your furnace with dead charcoals, first half a foot height from the grate. Then place your pot upon the two bars in the midst of your furnace: having your pot (as aforesaid) half full of Nitre, and covering your pot with the cover fitted for it, pour in more dead charcoals to fill the void room on every side about your pot, up as high about your pot, as your Nitre filleth your pot within, and somewhat more. Then kindle your charcoals leisurely beneath and above: closing the forepart and hinder part of the vent under the grate, with lose bricks or tiles, so as the wind under, come not up to vehement at the first. But that your pot take heat by little and little increasing. And it were not amiss that your pot were empty (but yet covered) until the coals be all fired, and your pot nealled red hot. And then to put in your Nitre unto the half fullness of your pot (as aforesaid) and so cover your pot, and also the upper mouth of your furnace, with the covers thereto prepared. So yet, as there is vent-holes left, one at every corner, and one in the midst. And then pull away the closure of your neither vents under the grate of your furnace, that the fire may have full quickening by the grate: And as the experience of the work will teach you) suffer your Nitre to melt & dry up & tossed, so farforth as the colour become black & not yet white again. Then take up your pot, first above your coals, with plying tongues or hooks fit for you purpose: Then higher upon the upper bars of your furnace: And lastly upon hot ashes, and scrape out your Nitre with a fair iron ladle fit thereto, and bray it into fine powder, and reserve it. It hath then, lesser moisture and gumminesses, & more subtility, and more heating and drying faculty, than the first way aforesaid. The third way of more Calcination to make this Nitre, yet more sharp and subtle, than the other two ways aforesaid. USing the self same way last afore prescribed: when this Nitre hath taken such heat, as the melting and heaving thereof hath ceased, and that your Nitre is dried and burned beyond black colour, and become again perfect colour: use it as is aforesaid in withdrawing it from the fire. And after that it is taken out of your pot, bray it lightly, and reserve it to use: Equivalent unto Nitre called Bawrak of Armenia: howbeit not astrictive without mixture of astrictive medicines as aforesaid. By the which aforesaid complexion, quality and faculties: this Nitre hath (aswell otherwise as in medicine) the manifold and sundry operations and virtues, particularly (for example) declared hereafter, besides a great many more than I set forth, Outward remedies to fordo foulness and diseases of the skin: as tawny stainings, Sunneburning, freckles, duskness, jaundices, yellow, green, and black, weals and white whelks, choleric, melancholic, & phlegmatic evaporations, ill colour or complexion by sickness called Atrophy, which cometh of ill conversion and assimulation of the nourishment: and to restore the skin and complexion to the native beauty. Also to remove and fordo, scurf, dandruff, scales, scalls, scabs, pimples, bushes, mange, ringworms, tetters, biles, buttons, dry lepries, and such effects. FIrst that (that for those purposes) of antiquity, Nitre aswell as Aphron Nitre, and Bawrak, hath been (of ordinary use in Baines and hot houses) dissolved in warmed water, or in warmed lie made of the ashes of vineshreddes or of rosyers', or of sweet briars, or of brambles, or of willows, or of rosemary, or of sage, or of hyssop, or of lavender, or of thyme, or of bays, or of such like, or else in a young boy child's urine undistilled, or rather distilled: or else in vinegar, or rather in distilled vinegar, or in juices of very sour Oranges, or rather in juices of lemons, or else dissolved with clarified white honey, and (after three days seasoning) laid on by night, or else in like sort dissolved with hens grease, or capon's grease, or swans grease: or oils of sweet almonds & of bitter almonds, (three or four days afore mixed and seasoned together) I say with any of those liquors or ivycees, laid on at night, and washed of in the morning with rose-water, or with water of beaneflowers, or with the clear broth of barley meal, of wheat bran and mallow roots: (For to scour and cleanse the hear, the face, the skin, and the rest of the body, from rankness of smell, and from fumosities, sweat, soil, staining and duskness of the skin, and to fordo freckles, spottings, tawniness, Sunneburning, morphews, jaundices, discoloring, scurf, dandruff, scales, scales, scabs, mange, bushes, pimples, ringworms, tetters, roughness, and all such deformities and affects of the skin) it is touched by many ancient authors, insomuch as (amongst others) S. Jerome in an Epistle to a Gentlewoman, saith: Although thou wash thy skin with Nitre, and rub it never somuch with the herb called Bawrak or Bowrik, what availeth it, if yet thou remain filthy with sin? And to those purposes also, some do dissolve Nitre in distilled whey, or in distilled Goats milk: or else do temper it with the brooth and fatness of figs: or else with the fine meal of the knots of the roots of Aaron called cuckoo pintle or the knots of roots of serpentine called dragon or snakegrass: nine times soaked in rose-water and each time dried by the Sun or over a sooking fire: or with meal of lupines: or or with oil of bitter almonds, and lay it on all night, and on the morning wash it of, as aforesaid. But if those affects be deep rooted, and do require stronger scouring out: Then put oaken ashes, and unquenched lime, in a meisshing tub, the one couched by course upon the other by several lays or couches, beginning at the nethermost with the ashes and leaving uppermost with the ashes. Then pour therein hot water, or rather the warmed urine of young boy children, in quantity sufficient (to wit) so much liquor, as the ashes and lime will receive, to be but filled with the liquor to the upper ashes. And if you take young boy child's urine, it may be had at the schools, setting vessels for that purpose. Then (after sufficient steeping with the ashes and lime) boil that mixture together, and lastlly brain and let run the lie into a receiving vessel, and let it settle to become clear, and then (by a spigot somewhat higher than the grounds settled) draw the clear lie from the troubled grounds, and boil that clear lie down again unto such wasting and strength, that it can bear an egg. Then distil it into a limbeck (if you will) and put by, the weaker liquor which droppeth first, & reserve for your purpose the strongest liquor that distilleth the first weaker water: And unto so much of that strong distilled water, or else unto the strong Lie itself undistilled (so much as will cover the bottom of an earthen boiling pipking, or skillet well glazed within, and fitted with a cover of the same stuff, and so set over a soft fire of wood coals) melt therein, for every pint of that strong distilled water, or strong Lie, two pound weight of chosen Soap not rank nor stinking. And then cast thereto by little and little, twice so much weight of Nitre as your soap weighed) and as the Nitre is all dissolved therein, boil them altogether to the wasting of the said distilled water or liquor of Lie. Foreseeing that your boylling vessel be but a third part full of them all, lest they foam over. This done, take it from the fire, and slur it still with a stick or splatter until it be come cold and stiff. Then form your stuff into flat pellets or small round balls: and put them on a fair board to dry and to harden in the wind and shadow, and reserve them to wet (at sundry times as you shall need) with juice of lymondes or of sour Oranges, or with distilled vinegar, or with distilled urine of young boy children, or with the phlegm water of distilled wine. And with the slime of one of those pellets or balls so moisted, rub the stainings or spots of the skin, suffering it to lie on a reasonable space: And then wash it of with broth of barley flower, or of wheat brawn boiled with stamped roots of mallows, or with distilled water of the cods and flowers of beans, or of roses, or of whey distilled. And to the self same purpose is succinctly taught by Galene. To take (as aforesaid) to parts of Nitre and one part of Soap, tempered with sufficient quantity of strong Soap Lie call- Capitellum, and to make them into tro●●skes or pelletes to be dried and reserved to be used as aforesaid. And this outward medicine is for effects of the skin, of hard removing. another way more delicate, and for tender skin, which leisurely removeth such affects, and also doth smooth and beautify the skin. Steep chosen Gum Tragacanthe of the purest and whittest a night and a day in rose-water, than put thereto of this Nitre, and a courtesy of Camphor. And season and incorporate them together, and by night lay it on, and wash it of in the morning as aforesaid. An other for the same, of stronger effect. TAke chosen Gum Tragacanth, of the whitest and purest, one portion, distilled rose-water, or rather strong vinegar distilled with red roses either fresh or dry, thrice or four times so much as the weight of the Gum, & therein steep your gum until it soften and dissolve therein: Add fine powder of the knots of Aaron roots, or of Dragon roots, seven times soaked in rose-water, and every time dried again by the Sun: Also fine powder of sweet preos root: And fine flower of Rice: of every of those three, as much as the weight of your Gum. Then put so much Nitre as your gum and roots and riseflowre (altogether) weighed, and over a soft fire, mix and temper them together: always stirring them until the Nitre melt, and that the compound lastly (after washing of the overplus of the rosewater) be apt to become stiff (which shall be known by proof of a drop let fall on a marble stone to cool: if being cold it become stiff) them sprinkling into your mixture a courtesy of Camphor, and so mixing that with stirring, take it from the fire, and still stir your mixture until it become cold and stiff. So form it into washing balls, and dry them in the wind and shadow, not forgetting (at the first) to dissolve a courtesy of musk, civet, and Ambergris, in your aforesaid rosewater, or distilled rosevinegre for the more pleasantness of the smell. Howbeit that the rose-water, and the yreos root, of themselves, are sufficient of pleasant odour. And whereas Gum Tragacanth (either for dearness or for scarcity shallbe forborn) there, the slime of the harebell root, otherwise called jerubell or Hiacynthus, may serve in steed of that gum. The use of those balls, is to moist one of them at night in warmed rose-water, or in warmed water of the flowers and cods of beans, or (for more effect) in distilled strong vinegar rosate, or in juices of distilled lymondes, or of sour oranges distilled and purified by the filter: And at going to bed, smear the affected places of the skin, yea, and over all the face, with the slime of your moisted ball, suffering it to lie one all night, or less space, as the medicine to the tenderness of the skin is tolerable. And then always wash and scour it of with some of the waters aforesaid. These balls in hotter water, may serve to wash & scour the beard, the face and the hears of the head, in steed of soap-balls adorate. A lotion of washing to fordo ringworms, and tetters. TAke of Nitre 3. drams, of common salt one dram, of distilled water of the roots of sour-docks four ounces, of vinegar of squilla one ounce, dissolve and and mixed them together: And each time of the use of them (being warmed and well mixed) moisten a cloth or sponge therein and rub therewith the places affected. An ointment or plaster to foredoe hard knobs, buttons, or corns wheresoever they be in the face, or other parts of the skin. TAke Nitre, Salgemme, or digged salt, leaves and tender crops of hyssop, and pennyroyal, of each a like portion: Bray them fine and soft, and over a moderate fire incorporate them in Gerate rosate. The receit thereof I need not to receive unto you (cozen) that are an Apothecary, and apply it to the place affected. another ointment for the same. TAke Nitre, Alum du plume, seeds of basil or Deyinum, leaves and tender tops of green pennyroyal, and Costus Indiane, of each a like portion: Bray them soft and fine, & over a soft fire mix them with hens grease, or capon's grease, or swans grease, or duck's grease, and anoint the places affected. another ointment to fordo the buttons of lepry faces. TAke burned Nitre, burned alum, & calcined Tartar, of each one ounce & a half, brown yellow Litarge, and the ingredience of the unguent citrine (which I need not receit to you chosen being an Apothecary) of each four ounces, of Ceruse washed, two ounces of juices of Lemons, of roots of Enula campana, of the roots of Sour-dock, of roots of Cyclamine, and roots of Dragon or serpentine. And roots of Aaron or cuckoo pintle, of every of them (as often infused in rose-water and dried again in the Sun as afore described) five ounces, vinegar of squilla, water of plantine, water of porcelain, of each three ounces, and of oil of complete roses, a pint, use them according to your art, and incorporate them together, and therewith anoint the place affected. To mundify and heal ulcers in the face. TAke Nitre, and over a soft fire (and in an empty vessel set within an other vessel full of boiling water) dissolve it with honey and cows milk, and anoint the ulcers of three with. An expert ointment for cure of mange, ringworms, scabs, and eating soores. TAke Nitre, brymestone, and Maiorane, otherwise called Margerome, of each a dram, beat and sift the Nitre and brimstone into fine powder, and bray the Maiorane fine and soft, mix them, and temper them with oil rosate, and therewith anoint the places affected. A linement or anointing, effectually good against Itch, and breaking out of all the body. Melt Nitre and brimstone together which (being cold) cometh to be hard as a stone, bray that again into fine powder, and with grease make a salve, or smeering for the purpose aforesaid, or else bathe it on with young boy child's urine, or with the broth of meal of lupines and wheat bran. A lotion or washing for the same. TAke the fine powders of Nitre and of sulphur vine, or else of sulphur commune, bailed together, with bruised sorrel roots in vinegar, and with a cloth or sponge, dipped in that liquor, rub the places affected, or else cut a Lymond or sour Orange by half overthwart, and thereon bestow of that liquor with those powders, and with the innerside of oak of those half Lemons or Oranges, rub the places affected. Or ease take the foresaid powders of Nitre and brymestone melted together, and with a young boy child's urine, or with broth of meal of lupins and of wheaten bran, or with wine (mixed warm) dip therein a sponge, and bathe and soak the places affected. In like manner, mix Nitre with vinegar distilled or undistilled, or with juice of lymondes or of sour Oranges, or put the powder of Nitre on the moist inward part of lemons, or cyterone or sour Oranges cut overthwart, and rub the places affected with the juice. In like manner, bruise and steep Nitre and salt, in verjuice of wines or of crabs, and lay one the places affected with Itch, or with Tetters or ringworms or bushes or pimples new come out. An effectual plaster and lotion or washing for the Affects aforesaid. Mix Nitre with a young boy child's urine, and with a pestle of fine red copper bray and fret them long together in a mortar of fine red copper, set & continued over hot ashes made hot by fire or over hot sand, or the hot Sun, until the mixture do become thick, and then so taken out, and put in an earthen glazed platter and dried in the Sun or over hot sand (still turning it over and over with a splatter) until it corn like to small worms or at least until it be made into fine powder, and when you will use it, mix it with Therebyntine, and apply it in plaster to the affects aforesaid. It cureth bushes called surfeiters, scurvy & scaly dry lepers, and filthy manginess, and all such breaking out: Applying it on by night, and one the morning wiping it of with a sponge dipped in warm barely broth, or warmed broth of wheaten bran boiled with bruised roots of mallows, and the place washed after with rose-water, or with water of flowers and cods of beans, or such like. The same emplaster or washing. Applied to the forehead and swollen brows, doth remedy the swollen brows. Take heed to wink while it is in laying on, and also while it is in washing of, lest the sharpness of the medicine itself (or mixed with the broth) do smart and fret the eyes. A lotion or lineament for bringing out, and for outward healing of the small pocks, measelles, whealkes, and bushes. Mix Nitre with juices of Hyssop, Marigolds, & Camomile, and therewith temper oil of bitter almonds, and with the lineament anoint the skin, or else burn Nitre white (as aforesaid) and quence it hot in rough tasted wine, then temper it with oil of bitter almonds, and anoint the body, after bain. For healiing and sealing up of rank lepry breaking out. TEmpre Nitre with vitriol, and with viridae Aeris called verdigris or green canker of copper or brass, and lay it one the places affected, This (if it were with liquor or grease, or oil or gum) aggregeth very near with that working of Nitre in a copper mortar, as aforesaid. But either of them are to be washed of with decoction of wheat bran broiled with bruised mallow roots and afterwards with rose-water, or other waters of delaying and claryfying faculty. For opening, riping, drawing and mundifying of carbuncles sores, and for cure of suspect felon sores with hollow brims, deep sores, and all ulcers in general. TEmper Nitre with Therebyntine and apply it thereto for salve, etc. A lotion unto the cankering, creeping and spreading of malicious ulcers and sores. TAke vinegar drawn through quick lime afore unquenched and therewith mix Nitre, and so wash the sores. another lotion, and emplaster to fordo deformities of scurvy & dry scaly eating lepers, maung, tetters, ringworms, itches, and deformed neiles. Dissolve Nitre in strong distilled vinegar, and therewith first rub the said deformities, and then lay to them bruised roots of sorrel, or of Sorrel du boys, or of Sour-docks, boiled in vinegar, or steeped and tempered raw in vinegar. An ointment to heal the skin broken out of putrefied salt phlegm, be it one the face, or elsewhere on the rest of the body. TEmper Nitre with old barrow's grease, or else rather with oil of roses, and wax in form of a lineament or smering & therewith anoint the places affected. another lotion for the Itch. Dissolve Nitre and alum with distilled vinegar, or with water of Scabious, and therewith rub and wash the places affected. A lotion or rubbing for Itch, Mange and Scurvy lepers. rub the places with powder of Nitre, mixed with dogs urine when it may be come by, and it helpeth those effects, A lineament to fordo freckles in the face, & other places of the skin. Dissolve Nitre with Galbanum, in strong distilled vinegar or in juice of lymondes or sour Oranges, and rub & smear the places affected, and after it hath lain on by night, wash it off every morning as is aforesaid. A drink for the jaundyze Mix a spoonful of Nitre each morning with a draft of wine, and drink it fasting. A lineament or lotion for the staining of the jaundize (after right cure) used inwards Dissolve Nitre in distilled vinegar, & with a sponge rub & scour the skin at night going to bed, & each morning wash it off▪ as aforesaid. A lineament or lotion delicate to fordo Morphews, dark and white. Dissolve Nitre with white wine (if not with distilled vinegar, or with juices of Lymondes, or of sour Oranges) and therewith rub the places deformed, at going to bed, and one the morning wash it of as aforesaid. Likewise for the white morphews. Mix Nitre with the juice of the herb and roots of that wild kind of Chicory, called Condrilla or Caudarilla, or Seralia, but with us called Dent de Lion, or else take honey with Trociske or passed of the same herb and roots, and temper therewith distilled vinegar, or juice of Lemons, or of sour oranges, and rub the places so stained, at going to bed, and in the morning wash and scour it of, as afore mentioned. another lotion or washing for the white Morphew. TAke Nitre with creta cimolea (a chalk so named which you know) dissolve them in distilled vinegar, and rub them in the Sun upon the places affected. For such as are discolered by the sickness called Atrophia, in that their nourishment is not natuturally converted. Dissolve Nitre in warm water, and use it to baine them therewith, it is good for them. To fordo the rank smell of the armholes, and other the cleansing parts of the body, and folds of the skin. Dissolve Nitre in warm water, and with a sponge or linen cloth dipped therein, bath and scour away the sweat and rank humours and fumosities expulsed by nature through those lose cleansing parts. In general. TO bain with warm water, with only Nitre therein dissolved, or adding what other sorts of medicines simple or compound, according the diversity of the cause: doth cleanse, and supple, and smooth, and beautify the skin. And healeth, the Itch, and Mange, and scurvy or dry scaly Lepry: Reformeth cold and moist distemperances', Hydropsies, benomming and other diseases of the sinews motive and sensitive, caused through coldness, sliminess, clammines, congelation, clynging, cluddering, stopping, stuffing, compression, distension, contraction, cramps or stitches, and slackness or paralysy. Moreover cureth straightness of breath and weising in the wine pipes, catarrhs and distillations from the head. Remedieth rawness of the stomach pasted or sobbed with phlegm. Redresseth the cold and overmoist distemperance of the Liver, Spleen, Kidneys, Matrice, and Genitories, divideth, unstoppeth, and skowreth away, the slimy clinging and pasted chokeing and stuffing in them moderately heateth & comforteth them, & apteth the Matrice unto conception. An ointment for the face, to make the skin smooth, equal, stick, and suppell, fordoing the duskenes of the skin, and yielding the complexion clear transparent. TAke of seeds of psillium otherwise called Fleworte, a dram, oil of Tartar three ounces, steep them together three days in a glazed vessel, than put the seeds with the oil in a little long linen bag bound strong at the neck, and wring it downwards between two sticks, and gather so the slime or mucilage that cometh through the linen, and mix that slime with an ounce of oil rosate, and therein dissolve Nitre and Salgemme, of each a dram, so enoint the face therewith at night going to bed, and wash it of in the morning with rose-water or bean flowers water or broth of wheat bran and barley meal decoct with Mallow roots, settled and drawn clear from the grounds by an hole pierced above the grounds, or with such like. another ointment to the same purpose & effect. TAke oil of the marrow of Hearts bones two ounces, oil of the marrow of a gelded calf two ounces, oil of Gourd seeds one ounce, Venice Therbyntine washed well and often in rose-water half an ounce, Goattes' suet half an ounce, new wax three drams, melt first the wax in a double vessel as afore specified, then add and melt therewith the goats suet then add and melt therewith the Therbyntine, then add the said oils, and mix and temper them well, then add and temper therewith the powders of Mastic and of burned Nitre, of each two drams, and stir and incorporate them well altogethrr, taking it from the fire, and still stirring them until they be cold, and with that ointment anoint the face at night going to bed, and in the morning wash it of with water of wheat bran and Mallows, as aforesaid. To cherish the growing of the hears, and to cause them to become fair and yellow naturally TEmper Nitre and raw stamped lupines with warm water, and therewith ordinarily wash the hears and roots of them. Likewise for the same. TAke the phlegm water of Aquavitae drawn of wine, and of it, with ashes of the wood and leaves of ivy burned, make Lie, and with that Lie warmed, dissolve Nitre, and Labdanum, adding oil of sweet Almonds, of the which mixture (daily and often during lx. days, at each time warmed) sponge and moisten the hears and the roots of the hears, and it will yield them fair and yellow naturally from the roots. Likewise for the same. TAke the bark or outward part of cane roots half an ounce, and Aphron Nitre, half an ounce, mix them with pix Liquida (it is not Tar: you cozen, do know the right pix Llquida) and rub that lineament on the place being often shaven. An other for the same. TAke Aphron Nitre, white pepper, Ginger, Muscaerda, or Mouse-dung, Alcionium (of which I can well furnish you) ashes of goats hooves, juice of Thapsia, and Mirra of each a like deal, bray them well, and mix and incorporate them with goats gall, and use it as aforesaid, washing it off with Lie of dulce and tender wood or with Nitre soap, which is made of equal patres of sweet soap and of Nitre dissolved and encorporated together. For falling off, or pilling of the hears. Dissolve Nitre with wine malvoisie, or Bastard, or Muskadel, or like sweet wine, and therewith rub the places piled of hair, or which by the heat or itching are like to pill, cisting first those places lightly over with the point of a penknife, or skratching Scalpel, and after, rub and apply thereon, the raw leaves of beets, and the use hereof will bring again the hear to grow. To fordo vermin, nits, scurf, Dandruff, Scales, mattering Skalles, and dry Skalles in the head. Dissolve Nitre, and terra Samia in oil of Radish seeds, and therewith rub the places a affected. An other for the same TAke Nitre with meal of lupines, or with hens gall, or Partriche gall, or with stronger gall, also powder of Staphisagre, and distilled urine of a boy child, mix them and let them all season together: And therewith rub the roots of the hears and places affected, and after, wash it off as aforesaid, it doth fordo those affects, and cleanseth the hears and the roots of them, and yields them a clear colour. A medicine to scour and heal the moisture and mattering scalls of the head. Dissolve Nitre in white vinegar, or in a boy child's urine distilled or undistilled, or with juice of a Lemon, & mix therewith powder of Olibanum (which is the masculine Frankincense (and rub it one the places affected. Another for the same. TAke toasted Nitre (which is the second way of preparing afore spoken of) sprinkle it one the places affected, and and rub it with a red Onion, or with Bulbus esculentus, cut overchwarte, etc. An ointment for the same. TAke Aphoron Nitre, Frankencens, fine powder of Leaddessage, vine buddings, and Myrrh, bray them well each by themselves, and mix them with vinegar and oil of mytles as much as sufficeth, so make an ointment, and use it to the places affected. Likewise for the same. TAke Nitre and Vitriol of each a dram, dissolve them in oil, and make an ointment to be used for the like effect upon the roots of dark coloured hears, but not unto such as have bright coloured hears. Likewise. TAke Aphron Nitre, Alum du plume, Staphisagre, Olibanum, Rocket seeds, Vitriol, of each a dram, Sulphur vive vi. drams, Rue three crops, bray them fine each by themselves, and mix them with vinegar and oil of Bayberries, or of mytles, as much as sufficeth, and so make an ointment, to use unto the roots of dark coloured hears, but unto bright coloured hears, leave out the Vitriol. An ointment for scalls on the head and for dandruff. TAke Nitre meal of cicers, meal of Fenegreke, wheat bran, powder of mytles, and bruised mustard seeds, of each two ounces, oil Olive as much as sufficeth, vinegar and water, of each a little, make an ointment and enoint the the head, first shaved and washed and then rubbed dry with a rough cloth. A washing medicine for the same. TAke Aphron Nitre, Vitriol, of each a like, dissolve them in warm wine, as much as sufficeth, and with a sponge dipped and wrong out, rub the roots of the hears there with (at the least once every wecke) if the hears be black. But if the hears be yellow or bright, then use this medicine. TAke Nitre, and white Arguill (which as you know, is the hard effects of Lies cleaving to the sides and heads of white wine vessels, or Rheynish wine fats) powder of a Pumice, and meal of lupines, of each a like deal, boil them in white wine, and use it with a sponge unto the roots of the hears, as aforesaid, another ointment to fordo Vermin and nits in the head, and other hairy places. TAke powders of Nitre, Staphisagre, and of roots of white elleborus, of each a like deal, boil them in as much oil of Radish seeds as sufficeth, and in a bain (after sweeting and cleansing of the head or hairy parts affected) rub one that ointment. another ointment for the same. TAke Nitre, and the red orpiment called Sanderake of each a like deal, and of Staphisagre, as much as of both the other, heat and sift them fine, and temper them with oil & vinegar as much as sufficeth, and enointe the roots of the hears as aforesaid. To clean the teeth. TAke Nitre burned as aforesaid, until it become first black and lastly white again, and therewith rub the teeth. and it skowreth them and restoreth them their native colour. For the toothache. Boil Nitre with wine and pepper, and hold that liquor in the mouth. Likewise. Boil Nitre and bruised Leek seed with vinegar or with wine, and hold that liquor in the mouth. Or else. Boil Nitre & bruised Leeks, with vinegar, or with wine and hold that liquor in the mouth. For an old ache in the head. take Nitre, with the juice of the leaves and berries of ivy and snuff that mixture into the nostrils, ann then shed upon the head vinegar beaten with oil Rosate or else Oxirhodinum. Or else rather. Temper Nitre with juice of ivy leaves and berries and with honey and with oil of Camomile, and snuff up that mixture into the nostrils. And therewith also for the same. Anoint the head with the said mixture, tempered with vinegar Rosate, and with oils of Camomile & of Violets, and oil Rosate Omphacyne, which is (as you know) oil of unripe Olives made with buds of unripe Roses. For the ears aching, & mattering, or having noise or hissing or ringing in them. And also to cleanse the ears from stopping or stuffing, and to amend the hearing. PUt (warmed) into the ears, the said mixture of Nitre, with the juice of the leaves and berries of ivy, and with the oils of bitter Almonds, of Camomile, of Violets & of complete Roses. Or else. Mix and dissolve Nitre with warmed wine, or with Aquavitae, or with oil of bitter Almonds, or with distilled vinegar, or (only) with warm water and juice of Onions, and so drop it warm into the ears. Or for the same. Blow the dry powder of Nitre with a quill into the ears. For bleared eyes, pin, web, and scars in the eyes, or for white, grown between the circle and black of the eye, and to remove dimness of of the eyes, and to sharpen the eye sight. TEmper Nitre with honey of Roses, or else boil Nitre in wine malvoisie unto the half, and delay it with Rosewater, or with Endive water, or else boil Nitre with figs, in barely water, and put any of those mixtures (cold) into the corners of the eyes. For bleeding at the nose. Mix Nitre with Silphium or Assa fetida, and hold it to the nose to smell thereto. Or else. Receive into the nose, the esteem of vapour of Nitre boiled in water. To help the deformities of the nails. Dissolve Nitre with wine malvoisie, in the cup or bark of pomegranate, set upon hot ashes, and dip clouts therein, and apply them upon the deformed nails. For cure of the Squinancy or strangles. Boil Nitre with Violet flowers, and temper that broth with honey of Violets, and therewith mix pix liquida or Cedria, and gargoyle that mixture, and by little and little, let down some of it. Or else. Dissolve Nitre with broth of Hyssop and figs, and gargoyle it, and by little and little let it down. Or else. Gargoyle the decoction of Nitre, Violet flowers, lupines, & powder of young Swallows, and of their nests: mixed with honey of Violets. Also. Apply outwards: honey of violets, and oil of Violets, tempered with Nitre, and with meal of lupines & powder of young Swallows, & of their nests, and Album grecum, or rather excrementum pueri infantis. Or else. Mix Nitre with decoction of wormwood, adding oils of Violets, and of wormwood, with honey of Violets: and meal of lupines, powder of young Swallows, or of Swallows nests: Album graecum & excrementum pueri infantis, and emplaster this compound outwards. For paralysy of the tongue Boil Nitre with Sage, and posca: or water, vinegar & salt, and put that mixture to leaven with doa, and so make that doa in bread, and let the patiented use to eat that bread. For the which also of ancient time: Nitre, hath been used aswell in the leavening and seasoning of bread: as also in the mosting or smering over of the bread, when they did put their bread into the Oven, for to cause the bread baked, to have a fair shining gloss. For other paralisies and slackness of the Sinews, and for privation of the faculty of sense or moving of the sinews, and for stitches, cramps, convulsions, distortions, wrying, shrinking, crouching or tying forwards, backwards, or sidewardes, of the sinews, and for all such like griefs or defaults of the sinews and faculties motive and sensitive. Use baths or fomentations, with sponges or clouts dipped in the boiling of Nitre in salt water, or of Nitre boiled with water and salt, together with Sage, Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme, Hyssop, Organy, Pennyroyal, savoury, elder leaves, Danewort, mints, Horehound, dead nettles, enula campana roots, Oaken polypody roots, or such like, anointing the affected places (first and last) with the Oil of castory, or else with the Oils of spike, and of Mastic tempered with the powder of Castory. Or (in causes requiring less vehemence) as wrenches of sinews, or grief and anguish of sinews: Temper Nitre with barrows grease, or with oil of roses, and wax, and so enointe the places grieved. A bathe to the feet, very wholesome for the feet, the sinews, the head, and all the body to be used once or twice weekly, in the morning or evening, before meal, and at going to sleep. TAke red Rose leaves, fresh or dry, camomile, betony, Organie, Sage, Rue and Asarum of each an handful, put them into a linen bag, and knit the bag, and so boil the same in water sufficiently. Then cast thereto two pound and an half of Nitre, and a fistfull of bay salt (while the bath is yet on the fire) and when they are dissolved in the bath: use that bathe, sufficiently warm or temperately hot, it may serve a long while (to be heat and bathed in) from time to time, until the liquor be consumed. For stifenes of grief of the Rompe, the hippe-ache, or Sciatica, or such like. Give glisters of Nitre with broth of Danewort, or of bark of the roots of elder, and of roots of enula campana▪ To ease the hurt of other parts of the body. ENOyte the joints or other parts grieved afore a fire or in the hot Sun, with flower of Nitre, and fine powder of brimstone, boiled together in the water of the smiths trough, which hath gotten quality and taste of quenching of fired iron, and participation of the Sea-coal nature. Or else for the same. Boil Nitre with Rue roots, or with Turnepes together with leaves and bark of Elder, or Danewort, and therewith bathe or use fomentation unto the grieved parts afore a fire, or in the hot Sun. For uncumbring and cleansing of the Lungs, and breast-bulk, and for remedy of hoarseness, old cough, and tough cough, stright breath, weising in the windepipes, heaviness of the breast, and sighing. Boil Nitre with Hyssop and figs, and with that broth, mix the juice of raw Coleworts, and lick down that mixture with a spoon, by little and little, holding open the mouth, and leaning backwards, that the drawing in of the breath may let down the liquor by little and little into the wezand pipe and Lungs. Or else for the same. Take Nitre with juice of raw Coleworts, and Hyssop, and use it as aforesaid. Or else for the same. Dissolve Nitre with posca, or with water and vinegar, wherein the herb Melissa (otherwise called Apiastrum, commonly called balm) in good quantity hath been stamped, and boiled with figs, and with great raisings cleansed from the kernels, and the liquor of that broth wrong out, to be used as aforesaid. Or else for the same. Dissolve Nitre with honey of Violets, and broth of balm leaves, and use it as aforesaid. Or else for the same. Dissolve Nitre with juices of Hyssop and horehound, and with broth of honey, or of figs, or of great raisins cleansed from their kernels, or of juice of Liquorice, and use it as aforesaid. Or else for more effect to the same. Take Aphron Nitre (which is the fine meal or flower of Nitre) and Galbanum, and Therbyntyne of each a like deal, mix and form them in pills, the muchness of a bean, and hold one of those pills long under the tongue, to mix thereof as much as may be with the moisture of the mouth to descend down the weazand pipe as the breath is drawn in the mouth being hold open and leaning backward as aforesaid, and lastly swallow it, and so renew the like at sundry times or (if it be loathsome) lap it in pap of a roasted apple buttered with sugar, and swallow it down, and so continue that remedy to fordo the old cough, weising in the windpipes, straitness of breath, and heaviness of the breast, and sighing. Likewise for heaviness of the Lungs and cause of sighing. Drink down (by little and little) etc. Nitre dissolved with ptizane. Also for the same. The use of Nitre bain as aforesaid is good for those affects. To cleanse the stomach of filth & encumbrance of slyimy and clinging humours, & loathsomeness & to remedy suffocation, windynes, heaving, gnawing & torment, of the stomach, underbulke, and bowels. A dram of Nitre with honey of Roses, or with common honey, taken by the mouth, skowreth down the feces and filth of the stomach, and so riddeth the fulsomeness and loathsomeness, and restoreth appetite. For the same. Mix Nitre with oxymel de radicibus, and bruised pepper, and bruised Aniseeds, or Dilleseedes, and powder of red meadow Mints, and powder of Yreos root, or of galanga root, compound them in form of an electuary, and eat thereof. Also for the same. Make lineament or fomentation of the region of the stomach with Nitre and juice, or decoction of Mints, Rue, Dill, Cummine, complete Roses, bitter Almonds, and Rue. For suffocation or strangulation by such sliemy & clinging matter in the stomach or in the veins or conduittes between it, & the Liver or Spleen. Drink Nitre with lazar or Assa dulcis, or only with posca, or warm water, vinegar and salt, or else in warmed wine. Or else for the same. Make Almond milk of sweet Almonds and bitter Almonds, brayed and drawn with the decoction of Nitre, Camomel Flowers, Violets, Borage, bugloss, Balm-herb red Mints of the meadow, roseleaves, and lazar or Assa dulcis, and drink thereof. Also for the same. In the same Almond milk and decoction warmed, dip sponges and make warm bathing or fomentation on the region of the Stomach, Liver, and Spleen, anointed first with the oils of bitter Almonds, Camomile, Dill, Rue, and complete Roses. Likewise for the same. Drink a dram of Nitre, with broth of Rue, red Roses and Dill or Commin, or with the oils aforesaid, receive it down. Likewise for the torment of the stomach and bowels. Drink Nitre, and Balm-herb, with warmed wine, or with Ale warmed, or with warm water. To unstop and discombre the Liver, from the distentions, stuffing and choke of the conduits thereof. Drink Nitre with broth of Chicory, Endive, Dent de Lion, adding in the broth a few red Rose leaves, and on the region of the Liver, emplaster or enoint Nitre with oil of bitter Almonds, oil Rosate, and vinegar of Roses wherein fired steel is often quenched. Also give glisters with the said decoctions, and with the oils of bitter Almonds, and of camomile, and with honey of Roses: dissolving therein an ounce of Nitre at a time. To assuage and ease the swelling or stuffing and hardness of the Spleen. TAke Nitre, and Caper roots, and Fenegreke seeds brayed, with also a courtesy of red rose leaves, fresh or dry. Boil them in water, adding Rose vinegar, or simple vinegar wherein fired steel hath been quenched, & with sponges or pieces of soft frise, make outward bathing and supyling on the region of the Spleen, anointed first with oils of camomile, of Dill, of complete Roses, of unripe Roses, of sweet Almonds, of bitter Almonds, & of Capers, or proceed by degrees & turns of mollifying, rarifiying, and resolving, always mixing the comfortatives. Also. Make an oxymel or syrup of honey Rosate, or of common honey well clarified, adding vinegar Rosate or simple vinegar wherein fired steel is often quenched as aforesaid: boiling therein Nitre, Fenegreeke seeds bruised, red Rose leaves, & Capers both fruit and barks of the roots, & receive down by the mouth a spoonful every morning fasting. Also. Eat down Nitre with figs and Capers. Or else. Eat Nitre with figs and Hyssop. And also for the same. Make emplaster to the region of the Spleen of stamped figs mixed with Nitre, Hyssop, and fruits and roots of Capers, tempered with vinegar Rosate, and vinegar of Elders, or with simple vinegar, wherein fired steel hath been often quenched, and much the better if the place be first as aforesaid, softened by degrees with hens grease, or capon's grease, oil of camomile, oil Rosate complete, oil of sweet Almonds, oil of Dill, oil of bitter Almonds, oil of roots of Capers, each after other, always mixing steeled vinegar, and some oil of unripe Roses, or else some decoction of Willow barks. Likewise. Anoint the region of the Spleen with Nitre, meal of Fenugreke seeds, or of lupines, steeled vinegar, oils Rosate Omphacine, and also complete, oils of sweet Almonds and of bitter Almonds, oils of camomile, of Dill, of Elders, and of roots of Capers, or such of them, as (for the purpose) shallbe convenient. For gurgling, heaving, and torment of the underbulke. MAke warm bathing or fomentation under the bulk of the chest and short ribs, with sponges or with soft frieze clouts, dipped (one after an other) in white wine boiled with Nitre, camomile flowers, Marigold flowers, Borage, bugloss, Languedebeof, Hyssop, Dill, Mugwort, Balm-herb, and a courtesy of saffron, anointing first the place with oils of Violets, of Cammomell, of sweet Almonds, of bitter Almonds, and of Roses complete. Also for the same. It availeth to drink that decoction, with Nitre, and powder of Amber and lazar, or Assa dulcis. Or else for the same. To drink Nitre itself with sugar, or without sugar were it but with warm drink, or warm whey, or warm water. For the Illiacke passion, (to wit, the torment of the upper bowels and guts.) Drink the like decoction of Nitre, camomile flowers, Marigold flowers, Hyssop, basil mint, balm-herb, powder of Yreos root, and Galanga root, and lazar or Assa dulcis, adding bruised seeds of Parslie, fennel, anise, Dill, and Cummin, and that broth to be made in Almond milk drawn of sweet Almonds and of bitter Almonds. Also for the same. Make outwardly on the grieved place, a hot bathing or fomentation with the same decoction: first anointing on the place grieved the oils of camomile, Dill, and of bitter Almonds. Likewise for the same. Drink a dram of Nitre in warmed wine, or in other warmed liquor, convenient, with Rue crops, or with Dill, branches and seeds, or with Cummin seeds, or Annyse seeds. For the Colic passion. Use the self same remedies inwards by the mouth: and outwards by hot bathing and fomentation and anointings as afore described, for the Iliac passion. Moreover. Give glisters of Nitre with the like decoctions and oils. For the hydropsy. Eat Nitre with figs and Hyssop. Also. Stamp Nitre with figs and Hyssop, and apply it plasterwise one the belly and other parts affected. Or else. Temper Nitre, with garden Snails stamped shells and all, such as feed on herbs hot and dry, as Rosemary, Sage, Lavender, Thyme, Organy, basil, savoury, Pennyroyal, Town-cresses, Hyssop, Parsley, and such like. Adding fine powders of Baye-salte, Cloves, Mace, Nuttemukes, mastic & Frankencens, tempering them all with vinegar Rosate quenched with steel, and apply it plasterwise, and so let it remain on, until of itself it fall of, and then renew it (from time to time) until the swelling be abated, & the distemperance be amended. Also for the same. Give Nitre in glister with decoction of Danewort (herb and roots) or of the berries, leaves, and inner rinds of barks of the bows and roots of Elder tree, and roots of gladden Acorns, or Yreos, therewith boiled, or powder of either of those roots thereinto cast. Also for the same. Use Nitre baynes made either with the said decoction, or else at least with salt-water. For Nitre bain by quality and virtue doth (more effectually than salt bane) remedy all cold and moist distemperances', and by the subtility and penetration unto to the depth, doth carry therewith the virtue of heating, dividing, unstopping, evaporating, and drying, aswell as of dispersing, wasting, extenuating, mundification, abstersion, scouring, and avoiding. Wherefore, Nitre serveth properly against Hydropsies, Gouts, dolours of sinews, Paralyses, Cramps, Stitches, short breath, Cough, thickness of the eyesight, sounding & wattring of the ears, Scabs, Mange, etc. For to assuage and abate inflammation, swelling and anguish of the cods. Stamp Nitre with great Raisins (be they unkerneled, or not) brayed very small and soft, and mixing therewith a competent portion of oils of Violets and Roses, warm it, and apply it in cataplasm or pultes. To despair or suage other swellings, inflammations and inflations, or heavings outward. TEmper Nitre with the pulp of Casia fistularis, honey of Violets, honey of Roses, oil of Violets, oil of Roses complete, oil of camomile, and juices of camomile, Marigolds, and Elders. And if the evil be inwards. Drink Nitre with broth of camomile flowers, Marigold-flowers and Violet-flowers, adding also Roses, or Chicory, or Dent de lion, etc. For Carnosities or knobs growing in the conduit of the yard, or in the purse of the cods. TEmper Nitre with ashes of vine twigs, and steeled vinegar and apply it on the outside, and using that medicine, it shall disperse and consume those carnosities and knobs. To break the stone in the kidneys and bladder, & and to unstop and discharge the stuffing and chokeing there, and in the conduits of the urine: And for mundifying of soores in the kydnyes and bladder. TAke by mouth Nitre with oxymel of Radish, adding honey of Roses, or powder of red Roses. Or else in like sort. Swallow down Nitre with pulp of Cassia fistularis drawn with the broth of a Coney farced with Parsley and camomile. Or else in like sort. Swallow down Nitre and powder of Rhubarb, tempered with conserve of Roses, & with Cassia fistularis drawn as aforesaid. And moreover also for the same. Anoint the region of the Kidneys and down from the reins aloft by the Hips and Flanks, as the conduits of the urine do descend, and between the cods and the fundament, with the fat of conies kidneys, mixed with Nitre. And also. Put into the fundament a Suppository made with Nitre, fat of Coneys kidneys, and juices of camomile and of Parsley hardened with sufficient quantity of honey of Violets and of Roses and tallow of a buck Goat melted together. And also. Give glisters in sufficient quantity of Nitre, with Cassia fistularis and broth of a Coney farced with camomile, Maidenhair, Parsley, Radish, Sampire, Saxifrage, and such like, adding honey of Roses and of Violets and oil of camomile. For to supple and dissolve the Cake or hardness grown in the substance of the Matrice, and for remedy of suffocation & tortures of the Matrice, and to open and cleanse and apt the Matrice unto conception, and to procure it the benefit of the ordinary and monthly avoidance. Give Nitre with juices of camomile, herb Mercurial, Hyssop, and Mugwort to drink. Or else. Farce those herbs with Nitre in the body of an old Cock wearied with long chase, and unfeathered while it is alive: Then strangled with salt, and cast forthwith into cold water: and then to be farced with Nitre, and those herbs: and boiled according to Art, and give the broth of that Cock to drink. Or else. Boil Nitre with those herbs, in wine and give it to drink. Or else. Dissolve Nitre, with lazar or Assa dulcis, or Belzoynye, by steeping and warming them in wine, and give it to drink. Or else to the poorer sort. Give drink of Nitre itself with those herbs, boiled in warm water, or with warm water mixed with a courtesy of vinegar, or with wine. Likewise. Use injections, or pessaries, into the matrice, of Nitre mixed and dissolved with juices of Hyssop, Marigolds, camomile, Mugwort, Motherwort, herb Mercurial, and only of bitter Almonds, and therein dissolving Galbanum, Assa dulcis or Belzoynie, and a courtesy of Ambregrise, or Aliapta museata. And likewise outwardly. Apply emplasters, or use anointments, or bathings of Nitre with the like herbs, decoctions, gums, and oils. To smooth the wrinkles of women's bellies after childing. ●Ray Nitre with the leaves of Idianthose or black maidenhair in a stone mortar, with a boy child's brine, and therewith let them use to bathe their bellies. To bring the blood, and plumnes and supplenesses unto any member decated and withered by not receiving nutriment. TAke black pitch, wax, and Colophony of each thrce ounces, melt them, and put thereunto an ounce of Tar, an ounce & an half of Nitre, three drams of Sulphur vif, powders of pepper, and of Aderge, of each two drams, Belzoynie two drams, Euphorbium or Catharides half a dram, Labdanum an ounce, oil of sweet Almonds and oil Ciprine, of each an ounce, mix them according to Art, and make a liquid sticking plaster syreade on leather to put on, and to pluck of again often times after it cleaveth. To procure sweeting. Drink Nitre with juices of camomile and Marigolds in warm posset-ale. Also. Enointe the skin with Nitre, mixed with oils of camomile and of bitter Almonds, and lie down lapped warm with clothes. To stay immoderate sweeting. Dissolve and temper Nitre with powder of dry Iris, in oil Rosate Omphacine, adding vinegar Rosate, or other vinegar steeled, and anoint the place to much sweeting. To supple and nimble the stifenes and weariness of the limbs. Anoint the limbs with Nitre dissolved with oil, and a fourth part of vinegar. Or rather Anoint the limbs with Nitre only dissolved with oil of camomile. Or else. With a sponge dipped in warm broth of camomile, and Marigold-flowers, or Elder leaves, boiled in wine or Ale and Nitre therein dissolved: adding hens grease, or capon's grease, or oil: supple and bathe the limbs afore a fire, or in the warmth of the Sun. To prevent the grudge or cold shrug or shaking, invading with the access of fits of Fevers. Dissolve and temper Nitre with oil olive, or rather with oil of bitter Almonds, or of Dill, or of Radish seeds, or of Nettleseedes, or of Castory, or of spike, or of Nardus, and anoint the chine of the back, from the nape of the neck down beneath the shoulder blades, and also the wrists of the hands and the feet. Or else. Afore the access of the fit, procure to sweat, according the instructions aforesaid. To lax and scour the bowels. Drink Nitre with powder of Yreos in juice of raw coleworts. Or else. Drink Nitre only with juice of raw coleworts. Or else. Drink Nitre with the first broth of coleworts not over-boyled. Or else. Drink down a large spoonful of powder of Nitre with warm water or with warm whey, or or with white wine, or with broth of great Raisins, or with warm water and honey. Moreover. Nitre also so taken cleanseth the stomach and bowels of the clinging slimy filth and dirt cleaving thereunto, and riddeth the choking of the conduits and veins, and warmeth and restoreth them their natural operation, evaporing the sweltering heat and restoring natural heat. For burning or scalding. TAke Nitre toasted (as aforesaid) until it become black, bray it then into fine powder, and sprinkle it thick on the place burned or sckalded. For the biting of a mad dog, and for other venomous biting or stinging. TEmper and melt Nitre with Roson, or with Therebyntine adding vinegar, and goosegrease, or swines grease, and apply that treat for the beginning of the cure. And in the continuance of the cure, driane vinegar through unquenched lime, and temper that vinegar with Nitre, and with that lotion, soak and bathe the wound, and mix also that lotion with the aforesarde treat to be still used to the cure. Likewise. Rub the wound with Nitre tempered with dogs urine, when it can be had. Against the venom of Henbane received into the body. Drink Nitre dissolved with warm water, & with the singer, or with a feather procure to vomit it up, and so do eftsoons again and again. Against the astonying venom of Mandragora taken into the body. FIrst procure often vomit by the means aforesaid, with Nitre, and warm water, and honey. Then drink largely of the brewage of stamped wormwood boiled in Muscadeli or Bastard or malvoisie, or other ●at sweet wine, and the juice or broth of the said herb well strained and wrong into the wine: and therein a good portion of Nitre dissolved, and the patientes head to be sponged with vinegar and oil Rosate: adding smells hot and sharp and Rank to the nose, and causing the patiented to exercise the body mightily, and then also procure sweeting as aforesaid. Against the venom and strangling of unkind Mushrowmes eaten. stamp and strain the leaves and stalks of Melissa otherwise called Apiastrum or balm herb, with Pusca, or with vinegar water and salt, and in strained liquor, dissolve Nitre, and drink it warm in large quantity, and procure as aforesaid to yield it up by vomit, and so do often again & again. Against the venom, and ulceration, and strangulation and torment caused by receieving inwards, of Buprestes, or of other Cantharides. Drink Nitre with lazar or Assa dulcis or Belzoynie, dissolved & tempered with warm water & honey, or with sweet wine, or with other wine and honey, warmed, and (as aforesaid) yield it up by vomit; and so renew it often, and then take troeiskes of Alkakengie with Almond milk, or else take Almond milk drawn with broth of Lettuce, Violets, Borage, Petimorell, porcelain, Plantain, great Raisins, the cold seeds, and such like. Against the venom, and strangulation of Bulls blood taken inwards. Drink Nitre with Pusca and salt, or with water and vinegar and salt, or with Aleger and salt warmed, and (after a while, by procurement as aforesaid, yield it up by vomit, and renew that remedy again and again. And universally, for all strangulations, or suffocations, stuffing, or obstructions, by any of those causes, or cluddred blood, or, humours, gross clammy, slimy, clinging, pasted, or cleaving. NItre, is an effectual remedy for all those, aswell by taking it inwards, as also to be bathed, anointed, emplastered outwards. For (as aforesaid) it pierceth, divideth dissolveth, subtileth, looseth, suppleth, rarifieth, enlargeth, extenuateth, unstoppeth, openeth, maketh way, evaporeth, avoideth, skowreth, and cleanseth, all such collections, congeallings, cludeeringes, suffocations, and encumbrances, without any extoriation or seltring, which Nitre of itself, doth rather heal, then impair. And yet moreover besides the foresaid uses of Nitre in medicine, it is serviceable unto other uses. As. For soldering of gold, silver, or copper, and to yield fair colour unto gold unfine. bray or rather fret Nitre, and some Alum du plume, with boy child's urine, in a mortar of pure red copper, with a pestle also of pure red copper, setting the mortar over hot ashes, or over hot sand, or in the hot Sun, until the mixture (togethers with the limell or fretting of the copper) become (at the last) thick & almost dry, then with a thin chip (or an other sit instrument) take it out of the mortar, and also from the pestle, and dry it in the Sun, on a glazed earthen dish, and so reserve it to be made into fine powder, to the like use as gold smiths and coppersmythes do new occupy Borace, and it yields fair colour unto the metal, by way of cemtecing. For sponginge or scouring of grease, or of filthy spots or soil out of silk or linen or bombazine, or woollen or leather. SPonge with the foresaid Trociskes of Nitre and Soap dissolved, and used hot with a young boy child's urine distilled or undistilled, or with vinegar distilled, or white vinegar undistilled, (or more specially) with juice of Lymondes, or of very sour Oranges, repeating the doing thereof sundr● times if it so needeth. For scouring and whytting of linen cloth, or linen yarn. Dissolve Nitre in sharp Lie made reasonable hot, & therein steep and wash the linen cloth or yearn, sundry times, and lastly rinse it out (as often as needeth in warm water, and spread and white it in the air and Sun, according the ordinary. For scouring of will, or of woollen cloth, or of woollen yearn, from the soil, grease and fatness therein: whereby to make it apt to receive and retain Die: and moreover to yield it soft and supple. Use Nitre in the same manner, first with Lie (rosonably hot not very hat) and lastly use only Nitre with warm water, and it so effectually suppleth, & softeneth, and rariefieth the wool, and skowreth out the greasestness and oiliness of the wool: As (in deed the help of winestone named Arguille to fret and dry out the greasiness or fatness of the wool) or yet the help of Alum, or of copporas (to gum the wool, and to cause it to receive, or to sook in and receive the die) shall be found not only superfluous, but also rather marmfull, to the clothes softness and suppleness and fivenes thereof, in that every of them, do yield the wool hard, stubborn, stiff, rough, & brittle: So as of ancient time (while Nitre was to be had plenteously and of price not excessive to much a-above the others) Nitre was used to that purpose, especially, for the most precious clothes and colours. For to scour & supple Buffe-leather, Chamois leather, and such like skins, to make them to become clean, dry, suplle and soft. NItre (used first with warm Lie, dulce, and not over sharp, and then Nitre eftsoons with warm water) doth that business so well, as none better. For to taw and make furs, supple and soft. Wash them in warm water with Nitre soap (afore described) & they shall become so soft and perfectly supple: As (drying them at the fire, or never so many times after wet and dried) they shall not be hard nor stiff. THus have I exceeded the measure of a letter, while I follow to recite unto you the so manifold and commodious uses of Nitre, which thing itself (being found again, and now known to be had) will (I assure you) be gratefully accepted of: and more sufficiently recommended to the public use and utility, by the learned Physicians and experimentors. Wherefore I thus commit you to God from Lambay, etc. Your very friend and loving Cousin. TH. CH.