Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])
section 63
63
Anthrax480 is a poisonous imposthume formed from
p.211
burnt humours, and felon is its name in English; the humours in this do not burn as much as in the imposthume called carbuncle. In it are many colours, such as yellow, red, blueblack, and black like a wheel (rainbow?)481 because of burnt sanguine humour482 and burnt choler which turn to the nature of poison and melancholy, and form ulcers. And for this it is called anthrax; antrum in Latin is the same as umha or clais483 in Gaelic, for they make a furrow in the place wherein they are. Their cure is similar to the above and consists of blood-letting and purgatives, and it is necessary to purge all the humours, for they are all to blame in this case. Understand it is not proper to open them (the imposthumes) until the matter is purged, for it does not find a channel for evacuation because of the amount of matter, therefore it goes to the heart, and because of the excessive pain, it kills;484 as I once saw a man die on whom was a black pustule of this kind, on opening it with a needle.