Plaster and cerate

Use in the book

The synopsis places plasters and cerotes among externally used medicines. The later catalogue supplies the fuller distinction: Emplaisters combine vegetable materials with oils and other liquids, whereas the following poultices use softened or pounded fresh herbs. The condition “when the body is empty” belongs to the poultice clause, not unambiguously to every external preparation. Burton then distinguishes cerotes applied to various parts from frontals, associated with relief of pain, distress and heat and with obtaining sleep. The catalogue organizes methods of preparation, body sites and proposed uses rather than offering one interchangeable substance.

Plaster does not invariably mean something soothing. In the surgical catalogue, plasters raise blisters and accompany “eating medicines,” corrosive applications. Burton presents these as alternatives to the frightening instruments and burnings just named; being an alternative does not make them gentle. The subsequent issue is an intentionally maintained outlet, a separately owned procedure. Later abdominal treatment again includes pitch and mustard applications, alongside cerots for the spleen, liver and upper abdominal regions. The margin narrows one wax preparation to an old man with melancholy and the liver, another plaster to the spleen: the local patient and site should not be generalized into a universal recipe.

The sleep discussion makes location especially clear. A frontlet is applied to the temples, and the next paragraph makes two small plasters from a mixture containing castoreum, opium and aqua vitae for the same location. This is an external application, not the swallowing of its ingredients. The neighbouring head and foot washes constitute other procedures. The distinction matters lexically because a medicinal substance, a dressing made with it and the site receiving that dressing are three different things. These passages describe historical practice, not present-day treatment.

Plasters also enter arguments about the limits of treatment. Burton takes from Seneca the wound that cannot heal under constantly changed remedies and uses it to recommend constancy toward the physician. The next paragraph develops the criticism of patients trying one practitioner after another. “Severall plasters” therefore means repeated changes here, not simply several dressings used simultaneously. The edition notes that Seneca’s original medical comparison supports steadiness in reading, whereas Burton turns it into medical counsel.

In the jealousy section, the Ariosto stanza denies that any plaster or potent liquid can relieve the passion’s wound. The preceding Ovid couplet already makes the heroic physician’s help barely sufficient. Yet Burton immediately follows the stanza’s “incurable” with a qualified possibility of cure or mitigation through opposing passion, counsel and persuasion, if resistance begins in time. A quoted declaration of medical helplessness is therefore not his last, unconditional verdict.

Related entries

Epithemes retains the moist linen dressing and its own vocabulary; Cautery and Chirurgery retain the surgical alternatives and maintained wounds. Aqua vitae owns the distilled spirit used in the temple plaster. Compare Fomentation (Fomentation) for liquid applications and Topick and topicks (Topick and topicks) for the broader external-medicine category.

Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.

Places to read

1. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 17Plasters and cerotes in the synopsis’s external-medicine list.
2. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 34Repeated changes of plaster in Burton’s use of Seneca.
3. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 35The continuation criticizes serial changes of physician. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
4. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 29Emplaisters distinguished from the following softened-herb poultices.
5. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 30Cerotes and frontals distinguished by preparation and location.
6. Member 3 Surgical Remedies · paragraph 9Blister-raising plasters beside corrosive medicines.
7. Member 3 Surgical Remedies · paragraph 10Maintained issues follow the catalogue. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
8. Subsection 6 Remedies for Accompanying Symptoms: To Bring Sleep, and Against Fearful Dreams, Redness and So On · paragraph 46Frontlets applied to the temples.
9. Subsection 6 Remedies for Accompanying Symptoms: To Bring Sleep, and Against Fearful Dreams, Redness and So On · paragraph 47Two small external temple plasters.
10. Subsection 6 Remedies for Accompanying Symptoms: To Bring Sleep, and Against Fearful Dreams, Redness and So On · paragraph 48Other local applications remain distinct from plasters. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
11. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 43Cerots and plasters for abdominal regions, with cerotum and Emplastra in the margin.
12. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 44Pitch and mustard applications extend the external-treatment repertoire. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
13. The Cure of Jealousy: Avoiding Occasions for It, Keeping Occupied; Good Counsel; Disregarding It, Not Watching Women or Locking Them Up; Concealing It, and So On · paragraph 17Ovid’s jealousy sufferer scarcely cured by heroic medicine. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
14. The Cure of Jealousy: Avoiding Occasions for It, Keeping Occupied; Good Counsel; Disregarding It, Not Watching Women or Locking Them Up; Concealing It, and So On · paragraph 18The Ariosto stanza denies relief from any plaster.
15. The Cure of Jealousy: Avoiding Occasions for It, Keeping Occupied; Good Counsel; Disregarding It, Not Watching Women or Locking Them Up; Concealing It, and So On · paragraph 19Burton’s immediate qualification permits timely cure or mitigation. [Context, not a headword attestation.]

In this edition

The modern column renders Emplaisters and Emplaster simply as “Plasters” and “a plaster.” Cerotes becomes “Wax-based dressings,” while Cerots becomes “wax ointments”; the common wax base is the lexical connection, not proof of one fixed consistency. Frontals and Frontlets become “forehead dressings,” although the concrete frontlet application is to both temples. Burton’s Latin marginal Emplastra pro splene means “Plasters for the spleen”; the English anatomical list is broader. The edition preserves “or any plaister” in the Ariosto stanza rather than silently substituting the “nor any plaster” reported in its Harington comparison.

Emplaisters; Emplaster; plaisters; plasters

Medicinal preparations made to be applied externally as dressings.

Original wording: “Emplaisters of herbs, flowers, roots, &c. with oyls, and other liquors mixt and boiled together”

Modern wording: “Plasters consist of herbs, flowers, roots and so on, mixed and boiled together with oils and other liquids”

The preparation is distinguished from the following fresh-herb poultice. Emplaster and plaster are not different treatments merely because the prefixed spelling varies. Further checked occurrences: the passage, the passage. Lookup: plaster; plaister; emplaster; Emplaisters.

cerotes; Cerotes; Cerots

Wax-based medicinal dressings or ointments for external application.

Original wording: “Cerotes, are applyed to several parts”

Modern wording: “Wax-based dressings are applied to various parts”

The wax base is supplied explicitly by the edition’s note, the accompanying note. The body stresses application to several parts; a later abdominal list supplies particular organs without defining one universal formulation. Further checked occurrences: the passage, the passage. Lookup: cerate [dictionary access form]; cerote; cerotes; cerots; wax-based dressing.

Frontals; Frontlets

Medicinal dressings placed at the forehead or temples.

Original wording: “Frontlets are well known to every good wife”

Modern wording: “Forehead dressings are well known to every housewife”

The ensuing application is to both temples. This location-based name differs from cerote, which names the wax-based preparation; one should not infer wax from frontlet alone. Further checked occurrences: the passage. Lookup: frontal; frontlet; forehead dressing.

plaisters to raise blisters [phrase]

External applications intended to produce blisters.

Original wording: “by plaisters to raise blisters”

Modern wording: “plasters to raise blisters”

The purpose clause changes the expected soothing association of a dressing. Burton presents these alongside corrosive medicines as alternatives to frightening surgical procedures; the words do not claim that the applications are harmless. Lookup: blistering plaster; plaisters to raise blisters.

severall plasters [phrase]

Different dressings or remedies applied in repeated succession.

Original wording: “a wound can never be cured that hath severall plasters”

Modern wording: “a wound can never heal when one plaster after another is applied to it”

The preceding criticism of changing physicians and the Latin margin’s frequent changes of remedies establish succession. The modern expansion makes that relation explicit rather than giving severall an isolated numerical meaning. Lookup: several plasters; successive remedies.

any plaister [jealousy image]

Any medicinal dressing, imagined as powerless against jealousy’s wound.

Original wording: “No liquors force prevailes, or any plaister”

Modern wording: “No potent liquid or plaster can relieve”

The negative belongs to the quoted Ariosto stanza. Burton’s next paragraph allows timely cure or mitigation, so the image cannot be detached as his final assertion of incurability. Lookup: plaister [jealousy]; plaster [figurative wound].

cerotum

A wax-based medicinal preparation, here an ointment for the liver.

Original wording: “cerotum pro sene melancholico ad jecur optimum”

Note translation: “an excellent wax ointment for the liver, for an old man with melancholy”

The Latin identifies both an elderly melancholic patient and an anatomical target. Neither qualification should be lost when the preparation is indexed under the more general dictionary form cerate. Lookup: cerotum; cerate [Latin-linked access form].

Emplastra pro splene [phrase]

Plasters intended for application to the spleen’s region.

Original wording: “Emplastra pro splene”

Note translation: “Plasters for the spleen”

This marginal Fernel citation is narrower than the body’s list of spleen, liver and hypochondries. Emplastra is plural; pro splene specifies the target rather than an ingredient. Lookup: emplastra; plasters for the spleen.