Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])
section 23
23
The milk should be drunk from the breast by sucking, and if this be loathsome to the patient, let him take it as hot as possible.169 Take a vessel full of hot water, and put another vessel washed with hot water on top of it, and milk the milk into the latter; let it be drunk in haste, and it should be taken fasting, as much thereof as a man will be expected
p.95
to digest, because it turns to curds easily in the stomach, and then it is nothing but poison. Therefore it is best only to give a little of it at first, and increase it by degrees until it reaches a pound, according to Averroes. Otherwise bring it to the boil, and add a little water, and honey, and salt, or else add mint, or its juice, and quench red hot river stones or hot iron therein, and thereby so much the longer it will be without corruption; it will not curdle,170 and so much the quicker will it leave the stomach; if it curdle, that will be known by the pulse, which is then weak and tight; if it does not curdle, then the pulse is strong and full, according to Galen. He says it is recognised by the smallness of the belly, that the milk is digested, and if it be ass's milk it is longer in curdling there. He teaches that the ass should be fattened with barley and lettuce and the like.