Poultice and cataplasm

Use in the book

The synopsis puts cataplasms in the outwardly used branch of compound medicines. This location matters as much as the ingredient-list: the remedies are applied, not swallowed, and sit beside preparations with other consistencies or modes of use. The expanded account first treats oils and ointments, then liniments and plasters, then the soft herbal cataplasms. The succeeding paragraph distinguishes wax dressings, forehead applications, sponges wetted in decoctions, moist medicines on linen, bags and scents. The shared external route does not cancel those material distinctions.

Burton’s actual definition gives alternatives in preparation and location. The herbs may be pounded or boiled in water until soft; the poultices are applied to the hypochondria or other parts. “Green” here means fresh plant material, not a requirement that the finished medicine have a particular colour. “When the body is empty” is an attached condition, but the editor expressly notes that Burton does not say what kind or degree of emptiness he means. It should therefore remain a textual limitation, not be converted into a modern fasting instruction or a fully specified evacuation protocol.

In the treatment of hypochondriacal melancholy, Octavius Horatianus is credited with “calastick Cataplasms.” The adjective means relaxing or loosening and identifies a proposed effect, not a different bodily route. Burton follows it with “or dry purging medicines,” but the editor cautions that this gloss does not establish exact equivalence. The surrounding remedies include pitch plasters, and the next paragraph moves to cauteries and deliberately maintained openings. Thus the list joins different procedures in a historical therapeutic catalogue; it does not authorize defining a poultice as every external means of evacuation. The dry-purging expression remains with its earlier owner.

A later paragraph again places cataplasms among external means, this time for expelling wind. Oils, warm applications, bags and ointments precede the poultices attributed to Aretaeus, whose named plant ingredients include camomile, fennel and aniseed. The attribution states their intended place in Burton’s regimen; it does not supply an independently tested effect, exact species for every ingredient, or a complete preparation. The printed Aretaeus book-and-chapter reference is explicitly left for collation by the editor. The neighbouring account of cupping is a separate procedure, even though it is also said to disperse wind.

The source-wide search also finds an editorial poultice that must not be counted as Burton’s printed word. A note on Hezekiah explains the biblical fig poultice behind the argument for combining prayer and medicine, whereas the body merely invokes Hezekiah’s practice. It can guide a reader to the episode, but its English noun is editorial evidence. The source Table, by contrast, actually prints “Cataplasmes and Cerots” and sends the reader to page 375. That spelling is a genuine original access route to the defined preparation.

Related entries

Epithemes retains moist linen-based applications and their distinction from the herb epithyme; Friction and embrocation retains rubbing and liquid applications. Purging owns the separately explained “dry purging medicines,” including the warning against exact equivalence with the relaxing poultices. Hypochondria supplies the bodily region, and Decoction the preparation made by boiling.

Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.

Places to read

1. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 17Cataplasms in the outwardly applied class.
2. Member 2. Lawful Cures, First From God · paragraph 10; note 4993Hezekiah invoked without the body word poultice; editorial note supplies it. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
3. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 28Preceding external oils and ointments. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
4. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 29Definition, preparation alternatives, applications and empty-body condition.
5. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 30Distinct neighbouring dressings, bags and scents. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
6. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 43External applications in hypochondriacal melancholy. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
7. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 44Relaxing cataplasms and the non-identical dry-purging gloss.
8. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 45The catalogue moves to cauteries and issues. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
9. Subsection 2 Corrective Medicines to Expel Wind. Against Constipation, and So On · paragraph 52Aretaeus’s poultices among means intended to expel wind.
10. Subsection 2 Corrective Medicines to Expel Wind. Against Constipation, and So On · paragraph 53Cupping as a separate neighbouring procedure. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
11. C · paragraph 85The Table’s spelling Cataplasmes and reference to page 375.

In this edition

The modern column renders cataplasms as “poultices,” and at the definition preserves the grouping as “Cataplasms, salves or poultices.” Green herbs becomes “fresh herbs”; sod becomes “boiled.” These are distinct components of the preparation description. “Relaxing poultices” renders the whole adjective-and-noun phrase calastick Cataplasms; relaxing belongs to calastick, not to the bare noun. Poultice is consequently a modern access form and, in the Hezekiah note, editorial wording, while pultises, Cataplasms and Cataplasmes are the checked original forms.

Cataplasms, salves, or pultises

Soft medicinal masses, here made from fresh herbs and applied externally.

Original wording: “Cataplasms, salves, or pultises made of green herbs, pounded, or sod in water till they be soft”

Modern wording: “Cataplasms, salves or poultices are made from fresh herbs, pounded or boiled in water until soft”

The alternatives pounded or boiled describe making the soft mass. The following empty-body condition remains unspecified in the source and does not justify adding a modern preparation instruction. Further checked occurrences: the passage; the passage; the passage. Lookup: poultice [modern access form]; pultises; Cataplasms; Cataplasmes; cataplasm [dictionary access form]; salves [local synonym].

calastick Cataplasms

Poultices intended to relax or loosen the parts to which they are applied.

Original wording: “prescribes calastick Cataplasms, or dry purging medicines”

Modern wording: “prescribes relaxing poultices, or dry purging medicines”

Calastick supplies relaxing, while Cataplasms supplies poultices. The following dry-purging expression is Burton’s gloss but is not an established exact synonym for the whole phrase. Lookup: calastick; calastick Cataplasms; relaxing poultices.

fig poultice [editorial access]

A soft fig-based application mentioned in the editor’s account of Hezekiah’s treatment.

Editorial wording: “a fig poultice is applied”

This is editorial English explaining the biblical episode, not a word printed in Burton’s body. It supplies an access route without being counted as an original lexical attestation. Lookup: fig poultice [editorial access form].