The surgeons mate or Military & domestique surgery Discouering faithfully & plainly ye method and order of ye surgeons chest, ye uses of the instruments, the vertues and operations of ye medicines, with ye exact cures of wounds made by gunshott, and otherwise as namely: wounds, apos fumes, ulcers, fistula's, fractures, dislocations, with ye most easie & safest wayes of amputation or dismembring. The cures of the scuruey, of ye fluxes of ye belly, of ye collicke and iliaca passio, of tenasmus and exitus ani, and of the calenture, with A treatise of ye cure of ye plague. Published for the service of his Ma. tie and of the com:wealth. By John Woodall Mr. in chyrurgerie.

Sal Nitri.

* 1.1 IS the Chrystalline salt purified from grosse Salt-peeter, knowne to be pure by that it doth contain no common salt therein, being also wholly combustible▪ of temperament, it is either hot or cold, as is* 1.2 plainly seen by his office and vertue: do I say vertue? yea and vice; both I may say, for in truth for wounding and killing salt goeth be∣yond Mercury, this is the dangerous part of gun-powder, which giveth it the force of piercing to the heart, which God deliver all Christians from feeling it, and accursed be that hellish Germane Monk* 1.3 which taught it first in Europe. This Sal nitri is either animal or ve∣getable, or both, and may also not unfitly be tearmed mineral, grow∣ing in mines, and it is every where, for every creature living may be said to have a part thereof: man and beast, I am sure hath a great part* 1.4 of it. It is a most medicinable subiect as any is in the world, and no man can live without it, for our bloud and urine hath it in it, yea, and our very excrements are mixed therewith, it is also in caves, in mountains and plains, and where not?

* 1.5 But to leave such discourse, whereto I have not appointed this little time, I say, Sal nitri in the Chirurgions chest is a worthy medicine, and the purer it is, the better it is for all uses: Touching the inward uses thereof, it is good against Hemoragia, or bleeding of a vein, whe∣ther it be by the nose, or any inward vein of the body, taken ʒ j. dissol∣ved in plantane or fair water.

* 1.6 In the Calenture it is approved good to coole the boyling of the blood taken as aforefaid, the dose for a need, if the heat be great may be given every foure houres, or the party may have a barley water rather made, wherein two drachmes or more may be dissolved to drink at will, it will not offend him, onely if he take too great a* 1.7 dose at once, it may cause him to vomit, but it will not hurt him. It is the best thing I do know for the furring of the mouth and the throat in fevers, the place gently washed therewith dissolved in water, it presently bringeth away all the whitenesse and furring without of∣fence.* 1.8 It is not ungrateful of taste: but so soon as you have taken such furring away, I advise you that you have ready some gentle sanative lotion to inject, to take away the acrimony thereof, for it is abster∣gent, and yet without violence or danger; you may use therefore the ordinary lotion one part, faire water two parts, and so inject to cleanse the mouth after the use thereof. I have expressed other uses of Sal Nitri proper in the cure of the Scurvy, to which I referr the Reader.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The purity.
• * 1.2

  The Nature.
• * 1.3

  Germane Monk. Europs Doct rs. Sal Nitriof two sorts.
• * 1.4

  The spacious kingdome of Sal Nitri.
• * 1.5

  The inward vertue of Sal Nitri. The dose for Hemoragie.
• * 1.6

  Helpeth the Calenture.
• * 1.7

  The dose.
• * 1.8

  Cleanseth the mouth furred, used in water. The mouth cleansed, a Lo∣tion needful.