caused Hermophilus
to compare it to a stout captain (as Codroneus observes _cap. 7. comment.
de Helleb._) that will see all his soldiers go before him and come _post
principia_, like the bragging soldier, last himself; [4197]when other helps
fail in inveterate melancholy, in a desperate case, this vomit is to be
taken. And yet for all this, if it be well prepared, it may be [4198]
securely given at first. [4199]Matthiolus brags, that he hath often, to the
good of many, made use of it, and Heurnius, [4200]"that he hath happily
used it, prepared after his own prescript," and with good success.
Christophorus a Vega, _lib. 3. c. 41_, is of the same opinion, that it may
be lawfully given; and our country gentlewomen find it by their common
practice, that there is no such great danger in it. Dr. Turner, speaking of
this plant in his Herbal, telleth us, that in his time it was an ordinary
receipt among good wives, to give hellebore in powder to ii'd weight, and
he is not much against it. But they do commonly exceed, for who so bold as
blind Bayard, and prescribe it by pennyworths, and such irrational ways, as
I have heard myself market folks ask for it in an apothecary's shop: but
with what success God knows; they smart often for their rash boldness and
folly, break a vein, make their eyes ready to start out of their heads, or
kill themselves. So that the fault is not in the physic, but in the rude
and indiscreet handling of it. He that will know, therefore, when to use,
how to prepare it aright, and in what dose, let him read Heurnius _lib. 2.
prax. med_. Brassivola _de Catart_. Godefridus Stegius the emperor
Rudolphus' physician, _cap. 16._ Matthiolus in Dioscor. and that excellent
commentary of Baptista Codroncus, which is _instar omnium de Helleb. alb._
where we shall find great diversity of examples and receipts.

Antimony or stibium, which our chemists so much magnify, is either taken in
substance or infusion, &c., and frequently prescribed in this disease. "It
helps all infirmities," saith [4201]Matthiolus, "which proceed from black
choler, falling sickness, and hypochondriacal passions;" and for farther
proof of his assertion, he gives several instances of such as have been
freed with it: [4202]one of Andrew Gallus, a physician of Trent, that after
many other essays, "imputes the recovery of his health, next after God, to
this remedy alone." Another of George Handshius, that in like sort, when
other medicines failed, [4