in his Spagir Phar. and many others, tell wonders of the extract.  Paracelsus, above all the rest, is the greatest admirer of this plant; and especially the extract, he calls it Theriacum, terrestre Balsamum, another treacle, a terrestrial balm, instar omnium, “all in all, the [4234]sole and last refuge to cure this malady, the gout, epilepsy, leprosy,” &c.  If this will not help, no physic in the world can but mineral, it is the upshot of all.  Matthiolus laughs at those that except against it, and though some abhor it out of the authority of Mesue, and dare not adventure to prescribe it, [4235]"yet I” (saith he) “have happily used it six hundred times without offence, and communicated it to divers worthy physicians, who have given me great thanks for it.”  Look for receipts, dose, preparation, and other cautions concerning this simple, in him, Brassivola, Baracelsus, Codronchus, and the rest.

SUBSECT.  III.—­Compound Purgers.

Compound medicines which purge melancholy, are either taken in the superior or inferior parts:  superior at mouth or nostrils.  At the mouth swallowed or not swallowed:  If swallowed liquid or solid:  liquid, as compound wine of hellebore, scilla or sea-onion, senna, Vinum Scilliticum, Helleboratum, which [4236]Quercetan so much applauds “for melancholy and madness, either inwardly taken, or outwardly applied to the head, with little pieces of linen dipped warm in it.” Oxymel.  Scilliticum, Syrupus Helleboratus major and minor in Quercetan, and Syrupus Genistae for hypochondriacal melancholy in the same author, compound syrup of succory, of fumitory, polypody, &c.  Heurnius his purging cock-broth.  Some except against these syrups, as appears by [4237]Udalrinus Leonoras his epistle to Matthiolus, as most pernicious, and that out of Hippocrates, cocta movere, et medicari, non cruda, no raw things to be used in physic; but this in the following epistle is exploded and soundly confuted by Matthiolus:  many juleps, potions, receipts, are composed of these, as you shall find in Hildesheim spicel. 2. Heurnius lib. 2. cap. 14. George Sckenkius Ital. med. prax. &c.

Solid purges are confections, electuaries, pills by themselves, or compound with others, as de lapide lazulo, armeno, pil. indae, of fumitory, &c.  Confection of Hamech, which though most approve, Solenander sec. 5. consil. 22. bitterly inveighs against, so doth Rondoletius Pharmacop. officina, Fernelius and others; diasena, diapolypodium, diacassia, diacatholicon, Wecker’s electuary de Epithymo, Ptolemy’s hierologadium, of which divers receipts are daily made.