¶ The Vertues.
Dioscorides teacheth, that the leaues boiled in wine and drunk by the space of forty daies, do take [ A] away infirmities of the spleen; help the strangurie, and yellow iaundice, cause the stone in the blad∣der to moulder 〈◊〉〈◊〉 passe away, all which are performed by such things as be of thinne and subtill parts: he addeth likewise that they stay the hicket, or yeoxing, and also hinder conception, either in∣wardly taken, or hanged about the partie, and therefore, faith Pliny, Spleenewoort is not to be giuen to women, because it bringeth barrennesse.
There be Empericks or blinde practitioners of this age, who teach, that with this herbe not one∣ly [ B] the hardnesse and swelling of the Spleene, but all infirmities of the liuer also may be effectual∣ly, and in very short time remooued, insomuch that the sodden liuer of a beast is restored to his former constitution againe, that is, made like vnto a raw liuer, if it bee boyled againe with this herbe.
But this is to be reckoned among the old wiues fables, and that also which Dioscorides telleth of, [ C] touching the gathering of Spleenewoort in the night, and other most vaine things, which are found here and there scattered in old books: from which most of the later Writers do not abstaine, who many times fill vp their pages with lies and friuolous toies, and by so doing do not a little 〈◊〉〈◊〉 yong students.