Poultices

POULTICES.

Poultices the Latins call Cataplasmata ; now sometimescalled Cataplasms. They are made of herbs and roots, fitted for the disease to which you are liable ; they are to be chopped small, and boiled in water almost to a jelly ; then adding a little barley-meal, or oatmeal, and a little oil, or rough sweet suet, spread upon a cloth and applied to the affected place.Their use is to ease pain, to break sores, to cool inflammations, to dissolve hardness, to ease the spleen, to concoct humours and dissipate swellings. Use no poultices that are of a healing nature, before you have first cleansed the body, because they are subject to draw the humours to them from every part of the body.

They are made thus : Take two drachms of fine gum tragacanth ; put it into a gallipot, and put half a quarter of a pint of any distilled water fitting for the purpose you would make your troches for, to cover it, let it remain ten hours, till it becomes a mucilage. With this you may make a powder into a paste, and that paste into a cake called troches. Dry them in the shade, and keep them in a pot for your use.

The video below illustrated how to make a garlic poultice:

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This page and the rest of the encyclopedia of medicinal herbs was reproduced from old herbals written in the 1700 and 1800s. They are of historical interest to show the traditional uses of various herbs based on folk medicine and ancient wisdom. However the traditional uses for these herbs have not been confirmed by medical science and in some cases may actually be dangerous. Do not use the these herbs for any use, medicinal or otherwise, without first consulting a qualified doctor.