186. Mel: i.e. honey; hot in the first degree and dry in the second degree; there are two sorts of it, white honey and red honey. The white honey is found in beehives, and the red honey is found in the trees. The white honey is put into the cold medicines, and the red honey is put into the hot medicines. It has the cleaning, smoothing and preservative virtues; it preserves anything that is put into it in its own efficacy and nature. If it be kept raw, it will retain its efficacy for forty years; it is hot and diuretic; there are three reasons why it is used for medical purposes. The first reason is that it is penetrating in bringing the virtue and power of the medicine to the parts of the body. The second reason is that it is sweet and overcomes the bitterness of any medicine. The third reason is that it has the virtue of preserving the characteristics of everything, whether hotness or coldness; honey serves better for people of cold complex than for those of hot complex, because it greatly increases the choleric humour; it serves well against the cold humours that occur in the stomach; this is how it serves: make the drink called mulsa, i.e. eight parts water and one part honey, because this dissolves and expels the cold humours from the internal organs. Item, honey and bile of bull rubbed on the face cleans it of exudations and drives away pimples from the face; it also serves to rub warm water and honey on the face as this will clean it in the same way. Item, Platearius says to mix honey and wine together and this will help with