Examination of Officinal Medicines

These are, especially insects, Vipers and Serpents, Earthworms, Toads, Skinks original: "Scinci marini," a type of lizard used in ancient medicine, Scorpions, Millipedes, Cochineal, Bees, and spiders with their webs: which are brought into use partly whole, and partly mixed with other things and prepared in various ways. The spines of vipers and their Magistery A "magistery" refers to a concentrated extract or precipitate of a substance, volatile salt and lozenges of viper, the shed skins of serpents, the oil, Essence, Spirit and volatile Salt of earthworms, and their powder in the "Powder for Increasing Milk" by Dr. Michaelis, simple and compound oil of scorpions, etc. Indeed, what rashness it is to number among medicines—and not only to apply externally to the body, but even to recommend for internal use and offer to the sick—those things whose contact we all flee from while they are alive, as if they were poisonous or even hateful to us; since even after death, when dried, they cannot be pleasing to the eyes, nose, or tongue.

§. 6.

Of the same standing are 3. the internal organs of beasts and parts that are often putrid and worm-ridden: The linings of chicken stomachs, wolf liver, stomach and intestines, fox lungs and tongue, calf lungs; and those things prepared from them, such as calf lung water with Mynsicht’s juice, linctus original: "lohoch," a thick, syrupy medicine to be licked of fox lung, etc. If a stomach heals a stomach: if eating a liver has any value in diseases of the liver, or if lungs are effective in afflictions of the chest, it would be better to prepare them in the Kitchen than in the Apothecary original: "Officina," the workshop or pharmacy. But I am ashamed to admit publicly that so many are found among Physicians, even learned ones, who think I know not what "specific powers" lie hidden in such rubbish, when nevertheless all their Virtue medicinal efficacy is entirely manifest. It escapes no one that in the membranous parts, stomachs, or intestines, there resides a great portion of glutinous substance which is able to entangle sharper humors. Who doubts that mucilaginous, gummy, or gelatinous things benefit those with consumption original: "Phthisicis" and coughs? For in this way the seeds of Cotton, Marshmallow, Quince, gum Arabic, and Tragacanth in the "Powder of Haly" A reference to Haly Abbas, a famous Persian physician against consumption—likewise the decoction and gelatin of ivory or burnt hartshorn—are most usefully employed all day long to temper the sharpness of the humors. In Jaundice and Li-