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

subsection 9

9. Accetum, oxiren, oxiriun: i.e. the three names of vinegar; the doctors say that it is cold in the first degree and dry in the second degree; it has attenuating, penetrating, dissolving and glutinous virtues; the doctors say to boil red rose and the apples of the foliage of oak in vinegar and it will help with every vomiting and flux; boil mint in vinegar and put it on the opening of the stomach and it will stop the vomiting; boil gromwell in the same way and apply it as a poultice to the kidneys and it will stop the flux of the urine. Item, boil the rhizome of the royal fern and the root of meadowsweet in vinegar and apply it as a poultice to the navel and it will stop the flux of the abdomen (diarrhoea); take note, according to Avicenna, that if the seed of leek be put in strong wine for twenty four hours it will become vinegar. Item, boil the bark of oak in

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vinegar until a third or a half of it is gone, dip wool in that juice, apply it to the navel and it will stop the flux of the abdomen. Item, he says to mix vinegar with sugar to make an acid syrup and give it against tertiana and the quotidian fever that is caused by the sweet phlegmatic humour or by the salty phlegmatic humour, and against every acute illness, and give it with warm water. Item, to make a simple oximel of vinegar i.e. two parts of vinegar and one part of honey, boil until it be of the thickness of honey, and it will serve to digest every cold matter. Compound oximel i.e. take the root of fennel, celery and parsley, pound them and leave them to rest for a day and a night in vinegar, and the following day boil them and strain them, put one third of cleaned honey into it, and that oximel will serve to digest every cold matter; take note, according to Avicenna, if vinegar be given after a meal, it acts as a laxative on the abdomen, and if it be taken before the meal it will have a drying effect. Item, take vinegar and pour it on a loaf or other hot bread, give it to take, and it will serve to comfort the digestion after illness; Platearius says to rub vinegar to the veins or arteries called the pulse, and it will comfort the heart and help with fainting. Item, rub vinegar and salt to the soles of the feet and it will comfort lithariga and phrenesis patients; Platearius says to put the dregs of vinegar on the navel or groin of the woman suffering from the flux of menstruation and it will stop it immediately.