Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])

section 24

24

Item when a remedy is applied to the sick limb, it is proper to observe and change it frequently; for it sometimes ulcerates and heats overmuch, but with the cold of the limb it is not noticed. If the member be red and swollen, and when lain on become white, that is a good sign, but if it do not that, and its own redness remain therein, it shows the limb has been too much617 heated, and if there be sores on it, so much


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the more certain that the cure should be changed. If he can endure it, rub the limb with fenugreek, and ground ivy, together with urine, as the unnatural things should be drawn to dryness. So things roasted with spices are good for them,618 and moist meat powdered, and let them consume but little food and drink, for the space of six days. Then take calamint, and camphor,619 sage, onions, wild sage, avens, primrose, ground ivy, plenty of them, bruise them, and add gander's lard, that of a dog and a black cat; pepper, drachm1½.620 Then place them in the belly of a black cat, having removed the inwards and its skin from it. Roast the whole, and collect the juice that comes out of it in this way, and rub it on the sick limb. The comfort derived therefrom is marvellous, and the ointment is named after the cat.621 Ointment of gander is good in a cold disease, as in cold gout.622