y
were not able to bear arms. Notwithstanding all these cavils and
objections, most of our late writers do much approve of it. [4229]
Gariopontus _lib. 1. cap. 13._ Codronchus _com. de helleb._ Fallopius _lib.
de med. purg. simpl. cap. 69. et consil. 15._ Trincavelii, Montanus 239.
Frisemelica _consil. 14._ Hercules de Saxonia, so that it be opportunely
given. Jacobus de Dondis, Agg. Amatus, Lucet. _cent. 66._ Godef. Stegius
_cap. 13._ Hollerius, and all our herbalists subscribe. Fernelius _meth.
med. lib. 5. cap. 16._ "confesseth it to be a [4230] terrible purge and
hard to take, yet well given to strong men, and such as have able bodies."
P. Forestus and Capivaccius forbid it to be taken in substance, but allow
it in decoction or infusion, both which ways P. Monavius approves above all
others, _Epist. 231. Scoltzii_, Jacchinus in _9. Rhasis_, commends a
receipt of his own preparing; Penottus another of his chemically prepared,
Evonimus another. Hildesheim _spicel. 2. de mel._ hath many examples how it
should be used, with diversity of receipts. Heurnius _lib. 7. prax. med.
cap. 14._ "calls it an [4231]innocent medicine howsoever, if it be well
prepared." The root of it is only in use, which may be kept many years, and
by some given in substance, as by Fallopius and Brassivola amongst the
rest, who [4232]brags that he was the first that restored it again to its
use, and tells a story how he cured one Melatasta, a madman, that was
thought to be possessed, in the Duke of Ferrara's court, with one purge of
black hellebore in substance: the receipt is there to be seen; his
excrements were like ink, [4233]he perfectly healed at once; Vidus Vidius,
a Dutch physician, will not admit of it in substance, to whom most
subscribe, but as before, in the decoction, infusion, or which is all in
all, in the extract, which he prefers before the rest, and calls _suave
medicamentum_, a sweet medicine, an easy, that may be securely given to
women, children, and weaklings. Baracellus, _horto geniali_, terms it
_maximae praestantia medicamentum_, a medicine of great worth and note.
Quercetan in his _Spagir Phar_. and many others, tell wonders of the
extract. Paracelsus, above all the rest, is the greatest admirer of this
plant; and especially the extract, he calls it _Theriacum, terrestre
Balsamum_, another treacle, a terrestrial balm, _instar omnium_, "all in
all, the [4234]sole and last refuge to cure this malady, the gout,
epilepsy, lepros