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

subsection 75

75. Codion: i.e. the white poppy; it is hot and wet in the third degree; this is what the medicine known as opium is made from, and this is how it is made: there are globes that grow on the top of this herb, and they should be gathered in the month of July, pounded in a mortar, pressed through a linen cloth, and put in the sun; when they are dry, they should be preserved; if they be rubbed on the face and forehead, they will provoke sleep. There are two sorts of this herb, i.e. the white poppy and the black poppy; the black poppy has a red flower, and it is what the oil that serves in many illnesses is made from, and especially for headache; this is the poppy that is called pobol righ, and it is cold and dry in the fourth degree; an oil is made from it as we have said, and if this be rubbed on the head after it has been shaved, it will provoke sleep. There is also a sort of this herb which has a yellow flower; it is good to dip the seed of this sort in water and it will provoke sleep, and whichever of these sorts is boiled in water will provoke sleep, unless death is near to the patient. If poppy be boiled in wine or in ale, it will stop the flux of menstruation; the seed of this herb should not be given in quantity greater than the equivalent of a half-penny. If the foliage of this herb be pounded and put as a plaster on erysipelas, it will cure it. Item, take the foliage of this herb, boil it in water, and put it hot on the throat, and it will help with the roughness of voice, from whatever cause it may come. Item, if the juice of this herb be rubbed on the joints, it will help with the podagra that comes from hotness; Platearius says to pound the white poppy, put white of egg or woman's milk through it, and put it as a plaster on the


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forehead, and it. will help with headache, and will provoke sleep. Item, the seed of this herb, or its foliage, should be mixed with oil of roses, and put to abate hot boils, and used against excessive heat of the liver. Item, the same man says that, if the poppy be mixed with white wine and rubbed on the joints of the back, it will help with dryness of the members, and with their thinness, as is seen in the case of patients with hectic fever. Item, if the electuary known as diapapaver, i.e. the electuary of the white poppy, and juice of liquorice, gum arabic, and tragacanth, be mixed together, they will serve well against the hectic fever and dryness of the members, as is seen in the case of peripneumonia and in the consuming fevers.