Helleborus quidem est radix calida: i.e. hellebore is a hot root. It is of two species, i.e. a bright species and a dark species. The bright species indeed is the skin of a root which resembles the root of althea. It is best when it has a smooth surface, and when it is bright and easily broken. Nature: hot and dry in the middle of the second degree. It purges thick phlegm, and should it be pulverized and put in the nose it clears the brain by dispelling the superfluities. It rids the stomach of phlegm by causing vomiting. The ancients were accustomed to put hellebore in their purgatives just as we now are accustomed to use scammony.
Dosage: it suffices as the maximum amount of it, singly or with another medicine up to one and one half scruples; and the minimum amount up to one half scruple. Before administering it, its malignancy is corrected by one dram of origanum or catnip which has been pulverized and compounded with it.