MEMB. 2. SUBSECT. 1. Purging Simples upward.

Melangoga, or melancholy purgin medicines, are either Simple or Compound, and that gently, or violently, purging upwards or downward. These following purge upward. Asarum, or Asrabecca, which as Mesue saith, is hot in the second degree, and dry in the third, it is commonly taken in wine, whey, or as with us, the juyce of two or three leaves or more sometimes, pounded in posset drink qualified with a little liquorice, or anniseeds, to avoid the fulsomness of the taste, or as Diaserum Fernelii.

Brassivola in Catart. reckons it up amongst those simples that only purge melancholy, and Ruellius confirms as much out of his experience, that it purgeth black choler, like Hellebor it self. Galen lib. 6. simplic. and Matthiolus ascribe other vertues to it, and will have it purge other humors as well as this.

Laurel, by Heurnius method. ad prax. lib. 2. cap. 24. is put amongst the strong purgers of melancholy; it is hot and dry in the fourth degree. Dioscorides lib. 11. cap. 114. adds other effects to it. Pliny sets down 15. berries in drink for a sufficient potion: it is commonly corrected with his opposites, cold and moist, as juyce of Endive, Purslane, and is taken in a potion to seaven grains and a half. But this and Asrabecca, every Gentlewoman in the Country knows how to give, they are two common vomits.

Scilla, or Sea Onyon, is hot and dry in the third degree. Brassivola in Catart. out of Mesue, others and his own experience, will have this simple to purge melancholy alone. It is an ordinary vomit, vinum Scilliticum, mixt with Rubel in a little white wine.

White Hellebor, which some call sneezing powder, a strong purger upward, which many reject, as being too violent: Mesue and Averroes will not admit of it, by reason of danger of suffocation, great pain and trouble it puts the poor patient to, saith Dodonæus. Yet Galen lib. 6. simpl. med. and Dioscorides cap. 145. allow of it.

It was indeed terrible in former times, as Pliny notes, but now familiar, insomuch that many took in those dayes, that were students, to quicken their wits, which Persius Sat. 1. objects to Accius the Poet, Ilias Acci ebria veratro. It helps melancholy, the falling sicknesse, madnesse, gout, &c. but not to be taken of old men, youths, such as are weaklings, nice or effeminate, troubled with headach, high coloured, or fear strangling, saith Dioscorides.

Oribasius an old Physitian, hath written very copiously, and approves of it, in such affections, which can otherwise hardly be cured. Heurnius lib. 2. prax. med. de vomitoriis, will not have it used but with great Caution, by reason of its strength, and then when Antimony will do no good, which caused Hermophilus to compare it to a stout captain (as Codroncus observes cap. 7. comment. de Helleb.) that will see all his souldiers go before him and come post principia, like the bragging souldier, last himself: when other helps fail in inveterate melancholy, in a desperate case, this vomit is to be taken.

And yet for all this, if it be well prepared, it may be securely given at first. Matthiolus brags, that he hath often, to the good of many, made use of it; and Heurnius, that he hath happily used it, prepared after his own prescript, and with good success. Christophorus à Vega lib. 3. c. 41. is of the same opinion, that it may be lawfully given; and our country Gentlewomen finde it by their common practice, that there is no such great danger in it.

D. Turner speaking of this plant, in his Herball, telleth us, that in his time it was an ordinary receipt among good wives, to give Hellebor in powder to iid. weight, and he is not much against it. But they do commonly exceed, for who so bold as blinde Bayard, and prescribe it by penyworths, and such irrationall wayes, as I have heard my self market folks ask for it in an Apothecaries shop:

but with what successe God knows; they smart often for their rash boldness and folly, break a vein, make their eyes ready to start out of their heads, or kill themselves. So that the fault is not in the Physick, but in the rude and undiscreet handling of it.

He that will know therefore, when to use, how to prepare it aright, and in what dose, let him read Heurnius lib. 2. prax. med. Brassivola de Catart. Godefridus Stegius the Emperour Rodolphus Physitian cap. 16. Matthiolus in Dioscor. and that excellent Commentary of Baptista Codronchus, which is instar omnium de Helleb. alb. where he shall finde great diversity of examples and Receipts.

Antimony or Stibium, which our Chymists so much magnifie, is either taken in substance or infusion, &c. and frequently prescribed in this disease. It helps all infirmities, saith Matthiolus, which proceed from black choler, falling sickness, and Hypocondriacall passions; and for farther proof of his assertion, he gives severall instances of such as have been freed with it:

One of Andrew Gallus, a Physitian of Trent, that after many other essayes, imputes the recovery of his health, next after God, to this remedy alone. Another of George Handschius, that in like sort, when other medicines failed, was by this restored to his former health, and which of his knowledge, others have likewise tried, and by the help of this admirable medicine, been recovered.