Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 14
14. Agnus castus: i.e. tutsan; it is a hot and dry herb in the fourth degree; the doctors call this herb a tree; agnus castus means a chaste lamb, and the reason it is called this is it causes the reduction of desire; the flower of this herb is best for use in medicine; it should be collected in the Spring, and it preserves its virtue for a year; if a bed be made of its foliage, and a person lie on it with no clothes between them, he will be as chaste as a lamb; make a wet fomentation of the foliage of this herb on the female or male genitalia and the desire and libido will be suppressed thereby. Pound this herb, rub between the palms of the hands in water, strain
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it thereafter, boil a little castorium in this juice, and this will prevent every conception if it be drunk. Make a poultice of the foliage of this herb and it will prevent the illness known as gonorrhoea. Note that it contains a remedy which prevents the erection of the penis, and a remedy which renders the sperm gross and thick, and another remedy which dissolves and consumes the wetness; these are the remedies which render the sperm gross: the seed of lettuce, flea-bane, citrul, melon, pumpkin, cucumber, coltsfoot(?), prickly lettuce, vinegar, sumac, and camphor; these are the remedies which dry the sperm, and reduce the spirits, that is rue, tutsan, mullein, calamint, cumin and dill, and the like, because these are consuming and dissolving, preventing the windiness which is the cause of the erection of the penis. Item, take the juice of fennel and the juice of tutsan, boil in it three ounces of petty spurge, strain, and give to drink to dropsy patients, and it will help with every dropsy. Item, take tutsan and clary, boil them in water, make a wet fomentation of them to the testicles and the vagina, and it will dry the superfluity of the vagina and will narrow the orifice of the vagina so as to bring on menstruation violently, and compress it, as we have said. Item, take tutsan, celery, and sage, boil them in salt water, shave the head, and rub it to the back of the head, and it will help with the disease known as lithariga.