externally as a poultice.
Horse-radish, crane's-bill, strawberry, and herb-gerard are old remedies
for gout, and in Westphalia apple-juice mixed with saffron is
administered for jaundice; while an old remedy for boils is dock-tea.
For ague, cinquefoil and yarrow were recommended, and tansy leaves are
worn in the shoe by the Sussex peasantry; and in some places common
groundsel has been much used as a charm. Angelica was in olden times
used as an antidote for poisons. The juice of the arum was considered
good for the plague, and Gerarde tells us that Henry VIII. was, "wont to
drink the distilled water of broom-flowers against surfeits and diseases
thereof arising." An Irish recipe for sore-throat is a cabbage leaf tied
round the throat, and the juice of cabbage taken with honey was formerly
given as a cure for hoarseness or loss of voice. [24] Agrimony, too, was
once in repute for sore throats, cancers, and ulcers; and as far back as
the time of Pliny the almond was given as a remedy for inebriety. For
rheumatism the burdock was in request, and many of our peasantry keep a
potato in their pocket as charms, some, again, carrying a chestnut,
either begged or stolen. As an antidote for fevers the carnation was
prescribed, and the cowslip, and the hop, have the reputation of
inducing sleep. The dittany and plantain, like the golden-rod, nicknamed
"wound-weed," have been used for the healing of wounds, and the
application of a dock-leaf for the sting of a nettle is a well-known
cure among our peasantry, having been embodied in the old familiar
adage:--

"Nettle out, dock in--
Dock remove the nettle-sting,"

Of which there are several versions; as in Wiltshire, where the child
uses this formula:--

"Out 'ettle
In dock.
Dock shall ha'a a new smock,
'Ettle zbant
Ha' nanun."

The young tops of the common nettle are still made by the peasantry into
nettle-broth, and, amongst other directions enjoined in an old Scotch
rhyme, it is to be cut in the month of June, "ere it's in the blume":--

"Cou' it by the auld wa's,
Cou' it where the sun ne'er fa'
Stoo it when the day daws,
Cou' the nettle early."

The juice of fumitory is said to clear the sight, and the kennel-wort
was once a popular specific for the king's-evil. As disinfectants,
wormwood and rue were much in demand; and hence Tusser says:--

"What savour is better, if physicke be true,
For places infected, t