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

subsection 74

74. Conconidum: i.e. the seed of the spurge laurel; it is hot and dry in the fourth degree; the branch, bark and seed of this herb are suitable for medical use; it has the ability to purge the phlegmatic humour and the viscous humours from the peripheral members, such as the joints, and especially to purge unnatural choleric humour such as the lemon-coloured and the yoke-coloured choleras; and secondarily, to purge the melancholic humour, and this herb is therefore suitable to be given to people with sciatica, podagra,apoplexy, paralysis, epilepsy, and such-like other cold phlegmatic diseases; this herb is put into oxymel, because it should not be given on its own, because, on account of the great acuteness of this herb, it is prone to injure the intestines; it should be given with gum arabic and mastix, and with things that comfort the heart, such as saffron, cinnamon, or calamus, because whenever anything purges violently, there is weakness of the heart afterwards. This should not be given to people who cannot be easily put to stool, or to people with narrow intestines and


p.503

the like; it serves for people who have quotidian or tertian fever. Item, if this herb be boiled in olive oil and rubbed on the anus, it will stop tenesmon. Item, if the same herb be rubbed on the back, the kidneys and the testicles, it will stop dysuria and stranguria. Item, if the same herb be put in the ears, it will stop deafness. If the same herb be rubbed on the anus, it will serve against the piles.


p.504