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

subsection 140

140. Ficus: i.e. figs; hot and wet in the second degree; when old people make use of them, it reverses the distortion of their faces, and they become calm. Item, when irrational animals are tied to the tree on which they grow, they become very domesticated. The juice of the skin of the same tree congeals the milk for the purposes of cheese making, like rennet. Item, if the juice of the foliage of that tree be rubbed on the testicles, it will increase sexual desire; Ysaac says that of all fruits, there is no fruit that nourishes the body more than figs; the same man says that people who make frequent use of figs are lively, and natural humours are generated in them. If the stomach be full of corrupt humours, figs will increase that bad complex, but if [the stomach! be clean, they will comfort it, produce clean blood, clean the chest and lungs, and clean the kidneys and bladder of the gross humours that develop in them. As to what they should be taken


p.551

in, take them with powder of ginger or pepper, or almonds or walnuts. If figs and hyssop be boiled in wine, this will be powerful against illness of the chest and lungs. Item, if figs and flax seed be boiled in oil, it will mature apostumes promptly. Item, if mustard and figs be boiled in wine, it will help with tinnitus in the ears, and it will clean the brain.