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

subsection 5

5. Acalife, urtica: i.e. the two names of the nettle, and this herb is dry in the third degree and hot in the fourth; and Avicenna says that this herb is to be praised against coldness of the lung, and against a chronic cough which a person has for a long time; and it is appropriate against swelling and pain of the abdomen to boil nettle seed in honey, to strain it through a cloth, and to give a spoonful of it to drink fasting. And it will also serve to pound the herb itself, to rub it in wine, and to give it to take as a drink. Item, pound the same herb, extract the juice from it, and put that juice in the dirty, suppurating, wounds, or in the bite of a mad dog, or in an ulcer, and it will cure. Item, pound this herb finely with salt, and put it as a poultice on the mumps, and it will help them; and this herb has a drying and cleansing virtue, and the virtue of producing new tissue in wounds; and this herb serves against hardness and swelling of the spleen, if it be applied as a poultice. And Gilbertinus says to pound this herb finely, to mix it with vinegar, and apply it as a poultice to the joints, and it will help with podagra and arthritis that come from coldness. Pound the seed of this herb, boil it in the drink known as mulsa, and it will provoke menstraution and the urine powerfully. According to Avicenna, mulsa consists of eight parts of white wine, a ninth part of pure spring water, and a tenth part of clean honey: mix them, boil them together, and strain them, and that is the drink known as mulsa, according to


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Avicenna. Item, it is good to boil this herb in wine and to keep this wine for a long time in the mouth, and this is good for the elongation and swelling of the uvula. Platearius says to boil this herb in wine, and to give it against the jaundice, and it will cure, and it is also appropriate against colic; and this herb will provoke the libido if it be taken in the appropriate manner. Platearius says that this herb when pounded prevents the flux of blood from wounds, and it is appropriate for the cure of pleurisy, and to clean the chest and the womb of every exudation that occurs in them.