ELECTUARIES.

An Electuary is a preparation made up of powdered drugs made up with treacle, honey or syrup.That you may make Electuaries when you need them, it is requisite that you always keep herbs, roots, flowers, seed, &c. ready dried in your house, to beat them into a powder when you need them. It is better to keep them whole than beaten ; for beaten, they are more subject to lose their strength ; as the air soon penetrates them. Having beaten them, sift them through a fine sieve, that no great pieces may be found in your Electuary. To one ounce of your powder add three ounces of clarified honey ; If you would make more or less Electuary, vary your proportions accordingly. Mix them well together in a mortar, you cannot mix them too much.

The way to clarify honey, is to set it over the fire in a con­venient vessel, till the scum rise, and when the scum is taken off, it is clarified. The usual dose of cordial Electuaries, is fromhalf a drachm to two drachms ; of purging Electuaries, from half an ounce to an ounce. Keep them in a jar. The time for taking them, is either in a morning fasting, and fasting an hour after them ; or at night going to bed, three or four hours after supper.