Simples

Use in the book

Burton sorts both alterative and purgative remedies into simples and compounds. His attack on the expense, confusing names and excessive ingredients of shop medicines initially favours a few well-understood simples. He then reverses direction: mixed diseases may need mixed remedies, individual substances can cause harm, and compounds become necessary where simples cannot do the work. Neither half of this argument should be made his unconditional verdict.

The foreign-remedy digression likewise combines local preference with qualifications. The supposed equivalence of domestic herbs depends on their adjustment and preparation; the extreme promise of universal European cures is attributed to Voschius. Burton also admits acclimatization and praises the public gardens of Padua, Nuremberg, Leiden, Montpellier and the developing Oxford garden for teaching students about imported plants. The good physician must know the substance and the patient, not merely copy a name from a book.

The in-substance examples make this knowledge consequential. An exceptional shepherd’s alleged tolerance illustrates habit; Burton’s own friend nearly comes to harm by trying hellebore from a printed receipt. Later physicians disagree over whether the root itself or a decoction or infusion is permissible. The dietary “noxious simples” and the fumigation ingredients at the end of the work extend the noun beyond narrowly internal medicines. All these uses belong to historical explanatory and therapeutic practices.

Related entries

Physick

Herbal

Receipt

Corrected medicines

Alteratives

Purging

Helleborism

Decoction

Places to read

1. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraph 44Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
2. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraph 45The dietary catalogue turns from individual allegedly harmful foods to compounded dishes; this is not exclusively pharmacy vocabulary.
3. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraph 46Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
4. Subsection 3 Habit in Diet, Pleasure, Appetite and Necessity How They Cause Or… · paragraph 52Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
5. Subsection 3 Habit in Diet, Pleasure, Appetite and Necessity How They Cause Or… · paragraph 53Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
6. Subsection 3 Habit in Diet, Pleasure, Appetite and Necessity How They Cause Or… · paragraph 54The shepherd attributed to Theophrastus is an example of supposed habituation; it does not license ordinary ingestion.
7. Subsection 3 Habit in Diet, Pleasure, Appetite and Necessity How They Cause Or… · paragraph 55Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
8. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 3Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
9. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 4This inherited synopsis reference supplies the larger branch within which medicinal simples are classified; it does not itself repeat the noun simples.
10. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 5Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
11. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 13The synopsis puts simples under alterative treatment and introduces the foreign-remedy digression.
12. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 14Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
13. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 15Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
14. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 39Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
15. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 40Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
16. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 41Burton’s friend dangerously experiments with a book recipe and is found by visitors; the phrase names the form taken, not its safety.
17. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 42Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
18. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 29Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
19. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 34Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
20. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 35Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
21. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 36Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
22. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 37Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
23. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 38Burton prefers familiar local alternatives, but makes equivalence conditional on proportion, preparation and suitability; he later praises botanical gardens and acclimatized foreign plants.
24. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 39Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
25. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 40Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
26. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 41Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
27. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 42Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
28. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraph 43Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
29. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 3Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
30. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 4Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
31. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 5The preference for a few understood simples belongs to the attack on confused shop compounds; the subsequent argument admits compounds where necessary.
32. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 6Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
33. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 7Further arguments and analogies in the attack on overloaded compounds, before Burton’s necessity-based reply.
34. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 8Further arguments and analogies in the attack on overloaded compounds, before Burton’s necessity-based reply.
35. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 9Further arguments and analogies in the attack on overloaded compounds, before Burton’s necessity-based reply.
36. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 10Further arguments and analogies in the attack on overloaded compounds, before Burton’s necessity-based reply.
37. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 11Further arguments and analogies in the attack on overloaded compounds, before Burton’s necessity-based reply.
38. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 12Further arguments and analogies in the attack on overloaded compounds, before Burton’s necessity-based reply.
39. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 13Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
40. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 14A simple remains an individual ingredient even when combined: mixtures can temper or strengthen different affected parts.
41. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 15Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
42. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 16Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
43. Subsection 2 Single Substances That Purge Melancholy Downwards · paragraph 29Foreest and Capivaccius reject this form of hellebore while allowing decoction or infusion; the next paragraph reports contrary practice.
44. Subsection 2 Single Substances That Purge Melancholy Downwards · paragraph 30Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
45. Subsection 2 Single Substances That Purge Melancholy Downwards · paragraph 34Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
46. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 10Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
47. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 11The listed aromatic, mineral and plant materials belong to a reported fumigation against haunting spirits.
48. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 12Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.

In this edition

The modern column explains the technical noun when necessary: “A few simples well prepared and understood” becomes “A few single medicinal substances, properly prepared and understood”. It can retain simples once the category is clear, as in “rare imported simples”; elsewhere it uses “harmful single ingredients” or “many similar individual ingredients”. These are contextual renderings of individual constituents, not interchangeable claims about medicinal function.

The material-form distinction is also preserved. Solid form in the shepherd example and the substance itself in the hellebore controversy both explain in substance, but the surrounding reported tolerance and danger remain different. The synopsis references the passage, the two passages and the garden discussion remain routes into the classification even where the exact noun is not repeated.

exotic simple

Printed “Exotick simples” (English; phrase).

An individual medicinal substance obtained from abroad.

Here: Burton prefers familiar local alternatives, but makes equivalence conditional on proportion, preparation and suitability; he later praises botanical gardens and acclimatized foreign plants.

Context: An assertive preference qualified by practical conditions, followed by a broader defence of botanical knowledge.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rare Exotick simples

Modern rendering: rare imported simples

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies an individual medicinal substance obtained from abroad in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

in substance

Printed “in substance” (English; phrase).

As the medicinal material itself, rather than a liquid preparation or extract of it.

Here: The shepherd attributed to Theophrastus is an example of supposed habituation; it does not license ordinary ingestion.

Context: A reported exceptional case within Burton’s argument about custom.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Hellebor in substance

Modern rendering: hellebore in its solid form

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies as the medicinal material itself, rather than a liquid preparation or extract of it in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “in substance” (English; phrase).

Citation key: in substance.

Here: Burton’s friend dangerously experiments with a book recipe and is found by visitors; the phrase names the form taken, not its safety.

Context: Burton expressly claims personal knowledge of this warning example.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Hellebor in substance

Modern rendering: hellebore itself

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies as the medicinal material itself, rather than a liquid preparation or extract of it in this expression.

Sense relation: A further significant local use of this same defined sense; its attribution and argumentative force remain specified separately.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “in substance” (English; phrase).

Citation key: in substance.

Here: Foreest and Capivaccius reject this form of hellebore while allowing decoction or infusion; the next paragraph reports contrary practice.

Context: Conflicting named physicians, not an agreed method.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: taken in substance

Modern rendering: taking the substance itself

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies as the medicinal material itself, rather than a liquid preparation or extract of it in this expression.

Sense relation: A further significant local use of this same defined sense; its attribution and argumentative force remain specified separately.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

pharmaceutical

Printed “Pharmaceuticall” (English; lemma).

Treatment by medicinal preparations, as distinguished here from dietetic or surgical treatment.

Here: This inherited synopsis reference supplies the larger branch within which medicinal simples are classified; it does not itself repeat the noun simples.

Context: Burton’s synoptic division; the modern column supplies the governing noun treatment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Pharmaceuticall

Modern rendering: Pharmaceutical treatment

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies treatment by medicinal preparations, as distinguished here from dietetic or surgical treatment in this expression.

Alignment qualification: The original adjective is a nominal category in the synopsis; the modern phrase explicitly supplies its understood treatment.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

simple · Simples

Printed “Simples” (English; lemma).

An individual medicinal substance, distinguished from a compound of ingredients.

Here: The synopsis puts simples under alterative treatment and introduces the foreign-remedy digression.

Context: Burton’s organizational category, not a claim that an unmixed substance is harmless.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Simples altering melancholy

Modern rendering: Simple substances that alter melancholy

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies an individual medicinal substance, distinguished from a compound of ingredients in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

simple · simples · local use 1

Printed “simples” (English; lemma).

An individual medicinal substance used on its own or as an ingredient.

Here: The preference for a few understood simples belongs to the attack on confused shop compounds; the subsequent argument admits compounds where necessary.

Context: Burton’s initial polemical preference, subsequently qualified by the case for mixed remedies.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: A few simples well prepared and understood

Modern rendering: A few single medicinal substances, properly prepared and understood

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies an individual medicinal substance used on its own or as an ingredient in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “simples” (English; lemma).

Citation key: simple.

Here: A simple remains an individual ingredient even when combined: mixtures can temper or strengthen different affected parts.

Context: Burton’s reply to the preceding attack, invoking Cardano and Brasavola on the harm possible even from a single medicine.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: such simples are commonly mixt as have reference to the part affected

Modern rendering: The substances commonly combined relate to the affected part

Word and construction: Simples supplies substances; are commonly mixt becomes commonly combined, while have reference to becomes relate to and part affected becomes affected part.

Sense relation: A further significant local use of this same defined sense; its attribution and argumentative force remain specified separately.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

simple · simples · local use 2

Printed “simples” (English; lemma).

An individual food ingredient considered separately from a prepared mixture.

Here: The dietary catalogue turns from individual allegedly harmful foods to compounded dishes; this is not exclusively pharmacy vocabulary.

Context: Burton’s adverse dietary classification, not a current food-safety judgement.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: noxious simples

Modern rendering: harmful single ingredients

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies an individual food ingredient considered separately from a prepared mixture in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

simple · simples · local use 3

Printed “simples” (English; lemma).

An individual material used as an ingredient in a preparation.

Here: The listed aromatic, mineral and plant materials belong to a reported fumigation against haunting spirits.

Context: Burton reports practices collected by Wecker; the surrounding discussion does not establish supernatural or therapeutic efficacy.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: many such simples

Modern rendering: many similar individual ingredients

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies an individual material used as an ingredient in a preparation in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.