MR. URBAN, Hartburn, June 9. ABOUT twenty years since, I procured several curious MSS. from a mass of papers which had belonged to Mr. William Pickering, an apparitor of the Consistory Court, at Durham; and among these was a neatly written folio book, with the title-page, "EDWARD POTTER. ijs. iiijd. HERE BEGINNETH A Booke of Phisicke and Chirurgery, with divers other things necessary to be knowne, collected out of sundry olde written bookes, and broughte into one order. The several things herein contayned may bee seene in the bookes and tables following. Written in the year of our Lorde God, 1610." The work commences with a list of the "thirty-three evil days" of the year, and a general calender; and on folio 2 has "A catalogue of all my books, and the prices they cost me, taken by me, Edward Potter, ye 30 of November 1594." This catalogue is in a different hand and ink to the rest of the book. Then follows seven folios, under the running title of "A Prognostication," which is a curious medley of rules about the weather, and astronomical calculations. "The first booke" begins on folio 11, a. and has this title " A coppye of all suche Medicines wherewt the noble Countisse of Oxenford most charitably, in her owne person, did manye great and notable Cures upon her poore Neighbours." "The second booke," beginning on folio 19, is entituled, "Here beginneth a true copye of such Medicines wherew Mris. Johan Ounsteade, daughter unto the worshipfull Mr. John Olliffe, Alder

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man of London, hath cured and healed many forlorne and deadlye diseases." "The thirde booke" begins on folio 48, b. and consists of "prety conceates of Cookery, as baked meats, gellies, conserves, sugar-plates, and others." "The fourthe booke," on folio 60, is headed, Here followeth a booke which was founde in the Parson's study of Warlingham, written in the Roman hande, and it wanteth both the beginning and endinge." "The fifthe booke" contains "Certayne medicines which were taken out of the vicar of Warlingham's booke, beinge, as he sayde, taught him by the fayries ;" and as specimens of the whole, I have, Mr. Urban, made the following extracts, supposing that many of your readers, unacquainted with the practice of medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, may find amusement, in perusing and contrasting them with the science that guides the medical practitioners of the present day.

1. To staunche bloude.

There were three Maryes went over the floude;

The one bid stande, the other ftente bloude:

Then bespake Mary that Jesus Christ bore,

Defende gods forbod thou shouldeste bleede anye more.

The three Marys here named were probably the Virgin Mary, the Egyptian Mary, and Mary Magdalene. Whether this is to be spoken as an exorcism, or worn as a charm, is not mentioned. The custom of wearing charms was probably adopted by the Christians from the phylacterics of the Jews, which were little cubical boxes, or as the word means, conservatories, of a cubical form, sewed upon long fillets, at given distances, each made of parchment, and containing a roll with portions of the law written upon it. They were worn chiefly on the left arm, or wrist, and wound round and round it.

I formerly knew a Dutch Jew, who left his lodgings, and staying from them a more than usual time, his hostess sent for another Jew, his friend, who knowing that he had been dispirited on account of the embarrassed state of his circumstances, immediately began to dread, that in his despondency, he had destroyed himself, soon confirmed in the conjecture, from finding that he had left his philactery behind him—a thing a Jew

and was

never does. His body was found a few days after in the river Wear. The philactery and his Bible I purchased, and found the former all made of parchment, as I have described. I loved the man for his most amiable, charitable disposition, as well as from his critical knowledge in the Hebrew language; but I will not mention his name, lest some one, consulting a disciple of the magicians of Egypt, take upon him to call upon his name, and disturb the repose of his soul.

6. A verye sure and perfect remedye to cure a man, &c. of the pestilence; and some there hath bene that have bene cured in a nighte; the same remedye is allso good for God's markes, boyles, carbuncles, blotches, &c. and such like, as St. Anthonye's fire, &c. Take the seed or berryes of ivye that groweth on trees or wails, and not of that which is founde lowe by the grounde: you must gather the sayde berryes very ripe, and of those

that growe towards the north, if it be possible; if not, then take them as you can get them, although they be not verye ripe; dry them in the shadowe, and keepe them in a boxe of wood, as you doe presious things; if any bee infected with the pestilence, take of the sayde berries, and beate them to powder in a fayre morter, and then give the sicke of the sayde powder in a glasse of white wine, so much as will lye on a groate or more; then rub him in his bed, and make him sweate well; this done, change his sheets, shirte, and other coverings of his bed, if it may bee; if not, let him at the leaste change his shirte and sheets. Some have taken of the sayd powder overnighte, and have founde themselves in the morninge very well, so that they rose up, and clothed themselves, and walked about the house, and finally were throughe cured.

To these wonder-working properties of ivy-berries, we may add some of the plant, from "Bartholome," a Franciscan friar, of the family of the Earls of Suffolk, who set forth his book "De Proprietatibus Rerum," in 1360; and he says that it is full wonderfull in know. ledge and assaieng of wine; for it is certain y if wine meddled with water be in a vessel of ivie, ye wine fleeteth over ye brink, and the water abideth." "And there is a manner-ivie, and deaw falleth on the leaves thereof, and waxeth gleymie, & turneth to glewe;" concerning which, Batman, in his additions to the text of our author, says, "the gum of ivy killeth lice and nits, and being laid to it, taketh away hair. It is unwholesome to sleepe under the iuie, or in an iuie-bush. It maketh the head light and dizzie." Malkin, in his South Wales, says that the stem of the ivy, on the north side of the castle of St. Anthan's,

is fire feet in girth, and in some years yields large quantities of gum; so that it may be certainly had of size sufficient to make vessels for assaying wine, and its gum, if of any use, obtained. Its berries have long held some repute as sudorifics; and I have seen it somewhere said that the powder of them was actually given with great success in vinegar, or white wine, in the great plague in Lon don; though it may be doubted whether the healing virtue was not more in the vehicle than in the powder of the ivyberries. Bartholomew's account of ivy. vessels being used for assaying wine, is

from Pliny, who says if the wine be mixed with water, the wine sokes through the wood, but the water remains.

8. To make a pretious water that Doctor Steuens did greate cures with, and kepte it secret tyll a little before his death, then taughte it to the Archbishop of Canterburye.-Take a gallon of white Gascoigne wine, ginger, gallingall, cynamon, nutmegs, graynes, cloves, annis seeds, fennel seedes, carraway seedes, of every of them like much, viz. a dram of each; then take sage, red mintes, red roses, time, pellitory of the wall, rosemarye, wilde time, and gromell, lavender (the flowers if you can get them), of every of them an handfull; then beate the spices small, and the hearbes allso; then put them all in ye wine, and let it stand therein twelve houres, stirringe it divers times; then still it in a lymbecke; and the first water being greene, put it by itselfe, for it is the best; the second water being white, is good, but not so good as the first; put that by itselfe; it is good for all manner of diseases, to drinke it fastinge, and at nighte laste, at every time a spoonefull; it is a presious and noble water, for a spoonefull is a preservative.

This, no doubt, was a precious cordial for the days it was in use. But we question whether water made of wine and spices, however skilfully combined, or slowly or coldly drawn, was half so exhilarating as ratafia or golden cordial, or eau-de-Cologne, or Geneva's famous water of juniper. We have never yet discovered the recipe for making the water of the gods, or seen a diagram of the "lymbecke" in which it was distilled; but we are certain that the Moors did no good to the beverage of Western Europe, when they brought with them into Spain the Egyptian art of distillation. Henry Earl of Cumberland, who was borne in 1517, and died in 1564, was, according to the Pembroke Memoirs, "much addicted to

alchemy and chemistry, and a great distiller of waters." Pindar was very right

when he said "Water is the best."

13. To make an akeing tooth fall out. Take wheate meale, and mixe therewith the milke of the hearbe called spurge, and make thereof past or doughe, with which ye shall fill the hollowe of the tooth, and let it be there a certayne time, and the tooth GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

will fall out of it selfe. Allso, if you washe your mouth and teethe once a month with wine wherein the roote of this hearbe hath bene sodden, you shall never have payne in your teethe.

There can be no doubt but the caustic

quality of the juice of almost every species of spurge, especially of Euphorbia peplus, applied to the human teeth, will corrode them rapidly. From its likeness to cream, and its severely acrid nature, the Irish call the plant that produces it, the "devil's churn." In England, from its being used to destroy warts, it is called wart-wort. Turner, the father of English botany, uses the name under peplis, and speaks of the burning taste of the seawart-wort which he saw growing in an island near Venice. Gerard also, who built his Herbal on foundations laid by Turner, tells of the horribly acrid quality of sea-spurge, which he experienced in company with Turner's ancient friend, Master Rich, in a walk along the seacoast, near Lee, in Essex.

15. For him that hath naturally a red face.-Take foure ownces of the kyrnells of peaches, and three ownces of gorde seedes, and make thereof an oyle, wherewith you shall anoynte his face morninge and eveninge; this will kill and destroye all redness. A thinge founde true by experience.

This recipe, if it was intended for the benefit of the fair sex, as well as of the gentlemen, might be found to furnish a very acceptable cosmetic for the toilettes of the blooming beauties of the country, who long to exchange the rosy hues of Hebe for the wan enchantments that lighten in the smiles of loveliness in fashionable life. We doubt its efficacy in removing the roseate hues that the liquor of cogniac suffuses over the face, much less in dimming the splendour of the crops of jewels that brandy produces on certain promontories, and, as their name implies, "shine in the dark, like a lighted coal."

19. To make the face fayre.-Take the blossomes of beanes, and distill them, and wash the face in that water, and it will be fair.

'The blossoms of beans!' Who that is

enamoured of the fields and nature, has not inhaled their delicious Persian perblackness of the beauty-spot on their cofume; and has not been struck with the rolle? We certainly recommend a place

on the toilette of the fair for this delicious

water, as the perfumer, on distillation, will really find that it retains the fragrance F