Ioannis Vuieri medicarum observationum rararum Liber I

to be used rashly. Likewise goat milk, or in its absence, fresh cow milk, in which watercress sisymbrium cardamine cuckoo-flower or lady's smock has been boiled, or garden nasturtium with broader leaves, which they call winter-cress, or scurvy-grass cochlearia scurvy-grass; many use these not without success, especially those who have been accustomed to milk and are affected by it, or those who can tolerate it innocuously. They should stay in a room that is dry, warm, clean, and well-lit; let them exclude sadder emotions of the mind.

CURE.

The cure should be initiated with bloodletting at the beginning, if there is a fullness of it, and the strength, age, and other things allow. However, I would discourage copious extraction here. If it is evacuated legitimately through the hemorrhoids, it will be convenient. If the spleen is affected in a peculiar way, the splenic vein or the median vein in the left arm should be opened; but if the liver is more, or equally burdened, and the body is found to be redundant with blood, then the liver vein or the basilica or the median of the right arm should be pierced. However, since a physician is rarely called in until the malady has driven deep roots and gained strength, and the disease has betrayed itself by stains on the shins, I would advise refraining from bloodletting.

From there, the body should be lightly evacuated with the leaves of Alexandrian senna, as they call it, purged to a half-ounce or two drachms, or less, if you add just as much dodder epithymum a parasitic plant, often dodder, with a few Corinthian raisins, and seeds of fennel and ginger, half a drachm of each, which should boil lightly together at the evening hour in a sufficient quantity of whey, and be macerat-