The Anatomy of Melancholy

Alablastritum ointment and poplar ointment are used to anoint the temples and nostrils; or, if these are too weak, saffron and opium are mixed in. Take a grain or two of opium and dissolve it in a spoon with three or four drops of rosewater; then mix in a nut-sized quantity of poplar ointment and use it as before.

Alternatively, take half a dram of opium; half an ounce each of poplar ointment, oil of water lily, rosewater and rose vinegar; and a nut-sized quantity of virgin wax. Anoint your temples with some of it at bedtime.

Cardan and Mizaldus mention bags of wormwood, mandrake, henbane and roses, made into pillows and placed under the patient’s head; anointing the soles of the feet with dormouse fat, and the teeth with a dog’s earwax; swine’s gall, hares’ ears; charms and so on.

Forehead dressings are well known to every housewife: rosewater and vinegar with a little woman’s milk, and nutmegs grated onto a rose cake, applied to both temples.

For a plaster, take one and a half drams of castoreum and half a scruple of opium; mix them with a little distilled spirit, make two small plasters from the mixture, and apply them to the temples.

Ruland, first hundred cases, cure 17, and third hundred, cure 94, prescribes liquid dressings and washes for the head made from a decoction of water lily flowers, violet leaves, mandrake roots, henbane and white poppy. Hercules de Saxonia prescribes “drip applications,” or droppings, and so on. Washing the feet with preparations of these herbs is very beneficial. By these means, says Laurentius, I think you may bring sleep to the most melancholic man in the world. Some use horse-leeches behind the ears and apply opium to the spot.

Bayerus, book 2, chapter 13, sets out some remedies against fearful dreams and for people who walk and talk in their sleep. To bring pleasant dreams and peaceful rest, Baptista Porta, Natural Magic, book 2, chapter 6, would have you take hippoglossa, or the herb horse-tongue, and balm, using them or their distilled waters after supper, and so on.

Such people must not eat beans, peas, garlic, onions, cabbage, venison or hare, drink dark wines, or have any food that is hard to digest at supper; nor should they lie on their backs, and so on.

“Rustic shyness,” bashfulness, flushing of the face, a high colour and redness are common afflictions that greatly torment many melancholic people. When they meet someone, or find themselves among their social superiors or strangers, after a meal, or after drinking a cup of wine or strong drink, they become as red and flushed, and sweat as much, as if they had been at a mayor’s banquet. “Especially if fear is added,” it becomes excessive. They think everyone observes it and takes notice; fear alone will bring it on, mere suspicion without any other cause.