Electuaries

Use in the book

In the regimen of retention and evacuation, medical art supplies what nature fails to discharge. Lenitive electuaries stand beside suppositories, preserved prunes and other means, after Burton has qualified the idea that constipation’s opposite must be good by invoking a middle course. The list preserves several forms rather than making them all one medicine.

The later sequence moves from lenitives to preparatives and then purgers, with the lenitive electuary among the first group; the continuation forbids purges when the illness can be relieved otherwise. Other electuaries are located among solid purgatives, including Wecker’s electuary of epithyme. Preparation form and therapeutic strength therefore need to be distinguished.

The synopsis names an electuary of gems among warming aromatic confections. A later Latin formula likewise concludes by naming an electuary as its resulting form. The adjacent discussion objects to alkermes in some cases and concludes that a remedy useful for one person may harm another. These historical labels are retained without reconstructing or recommending the recipes.

Electuaries also enter the account of erotic luxury. Burton’s Latin catalogue includes medicinal pastes alongside syrups, foods and comforts; the continuation explains that luxurious people prize things physicians prescribe for sexual impotence. The same medicinal form can thus appear within a criticism of consumption, outside the melancholy-treatment catalogue.

Related entries

Receipt

Confection

Lenitive

Purging

Diet and regimen

Luxurious and riot

Places to read

1. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 15Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
2. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 16It occurs among warming aromatic solid confections, not as the name of every electuary.
3. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 17Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
4. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraph 27Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
5. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraph 28The preparation is one form of assistance when ordinary evacuation fails; lenitive specifies gentle laxative action.
6. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraph 29Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
7. Subsection 3 Compound Purgatives · paragraph 38Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
8. Subsection 3 Compound Purgatives · paragraph 39The mixed English-Latin label preserves an ingredient and an attributed pharmaceutical preparation within the solid-purger list.
9. Subsection 3 Compound Purgatives · paragraph 40Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
10. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraph 31It exemplifies the lenitives placed before preparatives and stronger purgers.
11. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraph 32Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
12. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraph 33Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
13. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse The… · paragraph 5Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
14. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse The… · paragraph 6The closing Latin instruction identifies the dosage form produced by a historical formula.
15. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse The… · paragraph 8Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
16. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse The… · paragraph 9Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
17. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful… · paragraph 46Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
18. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful… · paragraph 47In the Latin catalogue of luxurious foods they belong to the materials sought to stimulate desire.
19. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful… · paragraph 48Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.

In this edition

“lenitive electuaries” becomes “laxative electuaries”. The noun is retained while the adjective makes the local bodily action explicit; the note explains the sweet vehicle and the gentler force of lenitive. “Electuarium lenitivum” becomes “the lenitive electuary” in the more technical list.

“Electuarium de gemmis” becomes “The electuary of gems”, while “Weckers Electuarie de Epithymo” becomes “Wecker’s electuary of epithyme”. In the Latin account of luxurious diet, “electuaria” becomes “medicinal pastes”. The alternatives preserve either the technical name or an explanation of its form, according to the local passage.

electuarium

Printed “electuarium” (Latin; lemma).

A medicinal paste compounded with a sweet carrier.

Here: The closing Latin instruction identifies the dosage form produced by a historical formula.

Context: The grammatical command belongs to Burton’s historical recipe; quoted here only to identify the form, without reproducing quantities or instructions for its manufacture.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: fiat electuarium

Modern rendering: make an electuary

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a medicinal paste compounded with a sweet carrier in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

electuarium · electuaria

Printed “electuaria” (Latin; lemma).

A compounded medicinal paste, commonly sweetened.

Here: In the Latin catalogue of luxurious foods they belong to the materials sought to stimulate desire.

Context: Burton’s criticism concerns their indulgent use in a larger supposed aphrodisiac diet; it does not redefine the preparation or establish its effect.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: electuaria

Modern rendering: medicinal pastes

Word and construction: The indexed form supplies a compounded medicinal paste, commonly sweetened in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

electuary

Printed “electuaries” (English; lemma).

A medicinal compound commonly made into a paste with a sweet vehicle.

Here: The preparation is one form of assistance when ordinary evacuation fails; lenitive specifies gentle laxative action.

Context: Burton’s regimen reports medical authorities and supplements natural evacuation with art, within the preceding qualification about a middle course.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: lenitive electuaries

Modern rendering: laxative electuaries

Word and construction: The indexed form supplies a medicinal compound commonly made into a paste with a sweet vehicle in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

electuary of epithyme

Printed “Electuarie de Epithymo” (English and Latin; phrase).

A named compound electuary associated with epithyme.

Here: The mixed English-Latin label preserves an ingredient and an attributed pharmaceutical preparation within the solid-purger list.

Context: Burton names Wecker; no recipe or verified modern species identity is supplied by this name alone.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Weckers Electuarie de Epithymo

Modern rendering: Wecker’s electuary of epithyme

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a named compound electuary associated with epithyme in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

electuary of gems

Printed “Electuarium de gemmis” (Latin; phrase).

A named electuary containing or associated with medicinal gems.

Here: It occurs among warming aromatic solid confections, not as the name of every electuary.

Context: Burton’s historical preparation label; the supplied note does not establish an exact modern formula.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Electuarium de gemmis

Modern rendering: The electuary of gems

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a named electuary containing or associated with medicinal gems in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

lenitive electuary

Printed “Electuarium lenitivum” (Latin; phrase).

A named gentle laxative electuary.

Here: It exemplifies the lenitives placed before preparatives and stronger purgers.

Context: Burton reports the common sequence after mentioning Bruel’s differing initial enema; purges are subsequently restricted to necessity.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Electuarium lenitivum

Modern rendering: the lenitive electuary

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a named gentle laxative electuary in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.