Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 11
11. Affodillus, centum capita, aillium agreiste: i.e. the three names of ransoms, the wild garlic; Platearius says that the roots of this are more appropriate for use in medicine than its foliage; it serves better when fresh than when dried and kept; it has the virtue of provoking the urine and cleansing the kidneys; this herb is hot and dry in the second degree; if the juice of this herb be put on the burn or scald of fire or water, it will cure; if this herb be chewed, it will help with disease of the mouth. Item, take the outer skin of the root of dwarf elder, and as much again of the outer skin of the root of elder, boil them in the juice of this herb, and it will help with the form of dropsy called leucophlegmasia; if its juice be put in an
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eye-lotion, it will help with disease of the eyes. Item, Platearius says that only its flower is appropriate for use in medicine, and it can be preserved for two years in its efficacy and operation; it has a considerable dissolving virtue; the same man says to give the wine or water, in which this herb was boiled, to drink, and it will clear the breathing organs of the viscous phlegmatic humour; he says also that if there be pain or windiness in the stomach or in the intestines from the coldness or oppilation of the spleen and the liver, this being caused by cold matter, this herb should be boiled in wine and given to drink and it will cure. Item, boil the same herb in salt water and give it to drink against stranguria and dysuria; pound the same herb and make a poultice of it against stomach pains that come from coldness and windiness; to take it serves against the colic. Item, boil the same herb in water, make a bath of it, let the steam under the woman, and it will cleanse the womb and provoke menstruation in women.