Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)

subsection 4

4. Abrotanum, camphorata; i.e. the two Latin names of the southernwood, and, according to Platearius, this herb is hot in the

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second and dry in the first degree. Boiled in water, it will help in stricture of the chest and with the cough that comes from cold matter. Item, pound it, boil it in wine, give it as a drink, and it will provoke the urine and menstruation. Item, boil this herb in wine, and it will serve very well against pain of the kidneys and the guts called ilon and colon, and against coldness of the nerves, as a drink and as a poultice. Item, this herb is appropriate against every poison, external and internal. Item, pound the same herb, rub it in water, and give it before the paroxysm of quotidian or quartan fever, and it will cure them. Item, make an ointment of this herb and of pig lard and olive oil, rub it to the joints of the back, and it will prevent the paroxysm of the fevers we have mentioned. Item, pound the same herb, rub it in cow's milk, and drink it fasting, and it will kill every worm that occurs in horses and oxen. Item, pound this herb, mix it with pig lard, and put it as a poultice on the thorn that is in the hand or the foot, and it will draw the thorn to itself. Item, boil this herb in wine, pound finely and put pig lard through it, and it will certainly help with sciatica. And Platearius says to boil this herb and give it to drink, and it will expel the dead foetus and provoke menstruation. Item, it will help with ulcers of the womb and of the vulva, it will greatly relieve stranguria and every pain that occurs in the womb, and as for the putrid humours that multiply there, to consume this herb in the proper manner will expel them. Item, make powder of this herb, and put it along with old oil on the baldness, and it will produce hair without delay. Item, pound this herb and extract the juice from it, dip a new linen cloth in that juice and put it on the pulses, and it will help in the

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rigor of intermittent fever. Item, put a poultice of this herb on the member in which there is blood between flesh and skin from a contusion, and it will help with it.