Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])
section 27
27
693 If the sick man be weak give him any remedy, except that boiled in whey of goat's milk. Nevertheless I maintain, rhubarb does not avail much in this case, for, if taken, it purges choler especially; therefore, only a little is meet to give thereof, unless he be jaundiced in the dropsy, or have a fever from choleric humours, or a hot imposthume, when the greatest amount may be given, and it is proper to give it, as it is said
p.291
to be life to the liver.694 It is a clear error for cold people, unless it happen to suit them as regards complexion, and then only a little thereof. And I have often seen it, taken with whey, relax them who suffer from jaundice, because of the amount of choler in them; yet Avicenna says in the chapter on the flux called dysentery, that rhubarb is binding to the bowels. This is true when a little is roasted with fire,695 or else it has that effect per accidens, by comforting696 the liver, or by drawing the choler which causes the flux.