Choice and rare experiments in physick and chirurgery, or, A discovery of most approved medicines for the curing of most diseases incident to the body of men, women, and of children together with an antidotary of experiments never before published / found out by the studie and experience of Thomas Collins, student in physick neer the city of Gloucester.

Lice.

To destroy Lice.

MAke a Lavatory to wash, scour the body twice a day thus, take brine and strong ly•• o•• a••hes of each a like portion, wormwood a h••n••ful▪ ••eethe them a while and after wash the body with the same liquor.

A goodly Medicine to kill them.

Take the grounds or dregs of oil, Aloes, wormwood, and the gall ••f a Bull or of an ox, make an ointment: which is singular good for the same purpose.

Item, Stavisacre, Brimstone and vinegar is exceeding good.

It is good to give the patient often in his drink powder of an hartshorn brent

Stavisacre with oil is a marvellous wholsom thing in this case.

An expert Medicine to drive away Lice.

Take the grounds and dregs of oil, or in lack of it fresh swines gr••ase, a sufficient quantity, wherein ye shall cha••e an ounce of quicksilver till it be all sunk into the grease, then take powder of Stavisacre, searce and mingle all to¦gether make a girdle of woollen list meet for the midle of the patient and all to anoint it over with the said Medicine, then let him wear it continually next his skin, for it is a sing••lar remedy to chas•• away the vermin. The onely odour of quicksilver killeth lice.

For scabbinesse and Itch.

Take water of Betony two good handfuls, daisie leaves & Alehoof, otherwise called Jud∣mur or ground ivy, of each one handful, the red Dock roots two or three, stamp them all toge∣ther a••d g••inde them well, then mingle them with fresh grease and again stamp them, Let

them so stand eight dayes to putrifie till it be hoar, then f••y them, and strain them out and keep for the same intent; This ointment hath g••eat effect both in young and old, and that without repercussion or driving back of the matter, which should be a perilous thing for a young child••. The water Betony alone is a g••eat Medicine to quench all unkindly heats without danger, or the seething of it in clear well water to anoint the Members.

Another remedy for scabs and Itch.

Take the roots of Docks and fry them in fresh g••ease, then put to a quantity of Brim∣stone in powder, and use to rub the places twice or thrice a day. Brimstone powdred and supped in a rear Egg, healeth the scabs, which thing is also very good to destroy worms.

A g••odly sweet sope for scabs and itch.

Take white sope half a pound and steep it in sufficient rosewater till it be well soked, then ••ake two drams of Mercury sublimed, disolve it in a little rosewater, labour the sope and the Rose water well together, and afterward put in a little mu••k, or civet and keep it. T••is sope is exceeding good to ••ure a great scab or itch, and without peril, but in a Childe shall suffice to make it weaker of Mercury.

Ano••her approved Medicine for scabbiness and It••h.

Take Fumitory, dock roots, scabious

and the roots of Walwort, stamp them all and set them in fresh grease to putrifie, th••n fry them and strain them, in which Liquor you shall put turpentine a little quantity, brim∣stone and f••ankincense very finely powdered and sifted a portion, and with sufficient wax make an ointment on a soft fire, this is a sin∣gular remedy for the same purpose. And if need be to make a bath of Fumitory, centaury, Featherfew, Tansie, wormwood & Sage alone, if ye see the cause of the itch or the scab to be worms in the ••kin, for a bitter decoction shall destroy them and d••y up the moisture of the sores.

Ad scabiem tam si••cum quam humidum praesens Auxilium.

Take the roots of Elecampane and of dock•• ana. and scrape them clean and wash the••, cut them into small slices, and seethe them in vine∣ger until they be soft, then pound th••m very small as is possible, Then take th••reof a pound and of,

Barrowes grease, of common Sivil oil, ana three ounce.

• Of new wax one ou••ce,
• Of quicksilver mortified, of Turpentine wash∣ed ana two ounces,
• Of common salt, half an ounce.

Melt your oil, your ••arrowes grease, and your wax together, then put in your roots prepared and after your Qu••cksilver, then strain it and in the end put in the Turp••ntine and salt made in powder, but it were more safe to leave out the quicksilver and to pu•• in¦stead

thereof three ounces of the juice of Li∣mons, both be good, but the former more vehement.

A clear and white water, that will heal in five dayes at the most all manner of scabs aswell in∣ward as outward.

Take plantain water two glassful, rose wa∣ter, one glassful, of the water of the flowers of Citrons or O••anges half a glassful or less, put all together into a clear pan or Vial of glass, and put to it one ounce of Mercury sub∣limated, beaten into fine powder, and beat it well with fasting spittle and put to the afore∣said water••, then let it boil fair and softly a qua••t••r of an hour, take it from the fire and let it cool, then put it into some Vial and wash the scabbie places at night with it, and let it dry of it self, And let them alone so the next day without washing them, and wash them again the third day, but not the fourth day, and the first and second time they are washed, it will make all the scabs in the body break forth; And at the third time you shall have it so dried up that you shall finde all neat and clean within and without. This water maketh the flesh white, Its good for the Pox, the Gout & many other infirmities, and name∣ly for that the sublimate is good to eat away all the evil and corupt flesh, and all dead flesh and to heal wounds incurable.