Thesaurus & armamentarium medico-chymicum, or, A treasury of physick with the most secret way of preparing remedies against all diseases : obtained by labour, confirmed by practice, and published out of good will to mankind : being a work of great use for the publick / written originally in Latine by ... Hadrianus à Mynsicht ...; and faithfully rendred into English by John Partridge ...

The Aperitive Magistery of Mars.

TAke of the Juyce of Sorrel depurated three pound, pour it upon eight ounces of the best Tamarinds; rub them well together either with your hands, or with a wooden Pestle in an earthen Bason (not a Pewter one) that it may be all like Pulp, or thick Pottage: then take out all the husks and little stringy fibres, boil it a little, and clarifie it with the whites of two Eggs; then strain it through a woollen Cloth, and being clear, put it into a glass Cucurbit, to which add filings of Steel well cleansed from all its filth four ounces. Let them digest together in Sand warm for three days and three nights, putting a blind head upon the Cucurbit, and stir it often with a wooden

Spatula. After digestion filter it into a Glass or earthen Bason, and in Sand let it evaporate to the consistence of a liquid Extract, and you shall have this Aperitive Magistery of Mars. What remains of the Steel let it be dried and brought into a most fine Powder, and reserved for use; and so you have Steel prepared with Vinegar of Tamarinds for Cha∣lybeate Wine, whose description and use seek in its proper Section.

Virtue, Use, and Dose. It hath a singular property in opening, dissolving, and drying; which admirable Title is not given to it only for opening the oppila∣tions of the Liver, Spleen, and Meseraicks, but also for dissolving and consuming hard scirrhous Tumors, and for drying and corroborating the parts grieved and debilitated by a redundance of humors. Besides it hath an excellent faculty of attenuating, loosning and preparing black Choler; and therefore it hath been experimented in the Cure of Melancholy, black and yellow Jaundice, Quartan Agues, and all other affects arising from superfluity, obturation, putrefa∣ction, and the like. It also by a specifick quality openeth the Veins of the Matrix being obstructed, and hence it moves and provokes the Terms, &c. It hath been also experimented in the Green-sickness, ill habit of Body, and the beginning of a Dropsie. It also corroborates the Genital parts of man or wo∣man, debilitated and relaxed by a superfluity of moisture. Lastly, it is also very profitable in an in∣veterate Gonorrhoea, and the white stinking flux of the Womb. Moreover, if this liquid Magistery be mixed with a just quantity of Rhenish Wine, it co∣lours it black; but if it be filtred again through a Paper, it becomes clear and dilucid as before, and doth no ways abate of its strength, it still retaining its

strong taste, and is of equal virtue and force; there∣fore in all affects where the Spaw-waters, or any other Medicinal Waters that are impregnated with the Minerals of Mars, which are so highly commend∣ed by our practical Physicians, are useful, this will supply the place, and may be given as effectually to the Patient to drink. For where the body is conve∣niently cleansed, and some Veins opened, if there be occasion, and afterwards for certain days drink this Martial Wine, and observe a good diet, there and then it works upon the same affects, which those Medicinal Waters are given for or can perform. The Dose of this Aperitive Magistery is from half a dram to a dram, more or less, in some appropriate Vehicle, or in Electuaries, Conserves, Boles, Rotula's, and in other Species of Medicines it may be mixed accor∣ding to the judgment of the Physician. But the Dose of the Martial Wine is from two ounces to three, ei∣ther by it self, or mixed with other Liquors.