A most excellent and learned vvoorke of chirurgerie, called Chirurgia parua Lanfranci Lanfranke of Mylayne his briefe: reduced from dyuers translations to our vulgar or vsuall frase, and now first published in the Englyshe prynte by Iohn Halle chirurgien. Who hath thervnto necessarily annexed. A table, as wel of the names of diseases and simples with their vertues, as also of all other termes of the arte opened. ... And in the ende a compendious worke of anatomie ... An historiall expostulation also against the beastly abusers, both of chyrurgerie and phisicke in our tyme: with a goodly doctrine, and instruction, necessary to be marked and folowed of all true chirurgie[n]s. All these faithfully gathered, and diligently set forth, by the sayde Iohn Halle.

Turbith.

TVrbith is estemed a barbarous name, geuē to a roote, whiche is called Turpetum, wherof among all menne, there is no small ambiguitie, nor a fewe opinions. For Syluius and Manardus, doe make therof a destinction, in .iiii. sortes, whiche I thoughte good thus to gather.

• Turbith siue Turpetum.
  • The one, whiche some call Turbith Dioscoridis.
    • Radix pityusae, whiche hath the leaues of Pinus.
  • Serapionis. i.
    • Radix Tripolii Dioscoridis.
  • Vulgare. i.
    • Radix Tithymali foeminae siue myrtites, so called be∣cause it hath leaues like to Myrtus. Or Radix Alipi, after Matthiolus vnder the autorities of Actuarius, who calleth it Turpetum album.
  • Mesuae.
    • Is the roote of an herbe, whose leaues are like Fe¦rula: wherof thei dare not geue sentence. Howbeit Brasauolus iudgeth it the roote of Tithymali myrs••••ites but that would Matthiolus refute: who semeth by reasons to proue that Turbith Mesuae & Actuarii is none other thynge then the roote of Alipiae. And so of our common Turpetum.

Wherfore knowyng that there are at this daie, not a fewe diligent men in this kinde of studie: namely in the serching out of suche vnknowne symples, & the certeintie of thinges so vncerteyne and doubtful: (least they should wante a iust occasion, to examine suche conditions of plantes or rootes, as shall in anywyse be lyke to any of these.) I haue set here (for the sakes chiefly of the meanly learned) the seuerall de∣scriptions of the kindes of Turbith here mēcioned: Namly suche as haue not before in the Englyshe tongue been pu∣blyshed. For Pytiusa and Tithymalus myrtites, are of D. Tur∣ner right well described. Whiche therfore I touche not.

Turbith Scrapionis siue Tripolium,* 1.1 Graece 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, groweth by the sea sides, in places that are by the tydes washed, and by the ebbes left againe: so that it groweth neither in the sea, nor on the drie grounde: with a lefe like to Glastum, but thic∣ker, and a stalke lyke the Date tree, deuided in the toppe. whose floures (as men saye,) doe thrice in one daye change their colours: beynge whyte in the morninge, purple at noone, and crimson at nyght: whose rote is whyte, odorife∣rous, and whotte in taste.

Of the whiche, two dragmes drunke in wyne, draweth out water and vrine by the belly, and is put into medicines that resiste venym.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.2 in Latin Alypum or Alypia, is a bushie and reddish herbe with sclender stalkes and thinne leaues: hauinge a softe thinne flowre, and of them plentie, & a sclender roote lyke the roote of Beta, full of sharpe iuyce, with seede lyke the sedes of Epithymi: whiche purgeth blacke choler, if it be taken with an equall portion of Epithymum, with salte and vineger: but it doth a litle exulcerate the intraelles.

It groweth in places nighe the sea, chiefly and most plē∣tifully in Libya: though much of it doe also growels where.

Turbith sayeth Mesues, is a mylky herbe, hauynge leaues lyke Ferula but lesse: wherof there is Hortense and Syluestre, of the whiche also some is great, and some little: whyte (also) yelowe, ashe coloured or blacke. Praysinge that whiche is

Gummie, white, empty, and like a reede, with a plaine and ashy rynde, or as it weare baked vnder ashes, beyng mean∣ly newe and easy to be broken: but that saieth he, whiche is not gummie, is weake and troubleth the belly: dyspraysing also the yelowe and the blacke, the grosse and the leane.

The curled or wrynkled rynded also, whiche is as it were sinewy within when it is broken, which is the wilde. The olde is weake: The newe dothe lesse trouble and o∣uerturne the bowelles. Some doe adulterate it, by anoyn∣ting the rynde outwardly with melted oyle: but being bro∣ken, it is not gummy within.

And where as the roote of Thapsia is numbered amonge the sortes of Turbith: whiche the Apothecaries thinke to be theyrs. Andreas Marinus, calleth it Turbith apulum, affirming it to be that whiche mesues calleth Crassum. The fraude wher¦of beynge at the laste discouered, it was reiected & put oute of vse: for though it purge phlegme as doth the right Tur∣bith, yet that doth it violently, and with the great damage of the principall members. Whose faculties you may far∣ther reade before vnder the propre title therof.

Mesues of his Turbith sayeth, it is whotte in the thirde degree, purgeth meanly by attraction, rayseth wyndes, that ouerturne the stomache ad nauseam: and dryeth, being purged from the thinne excrementes therof. Turbith cor∣tected draweth out grosse, toughe, and putrefied phlegme, from the breste, the stomache, and the sinewes: Euen from the ioyntes and farthest partes.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Dioscor. lib. 4
• * 1.2

  Dioscor. lib. 4