A Gargle for Phlegm.
Take Hysop water 10 ounces; Rectify'd Spirit of Wine 1 ounce; Spirit of Scurvy grass half an ounce; Spirit of Castor 2 drams; Spirit of Salt Armoniac 4 scruples; powder'd Pellitory of Spain 1 dram; Honey 4 ounces, mix and use it cold.
By Attenuating, Inciding, Vellicating and Irritating, it powerfully draws and evacuates Saliva and viscous Phlegm out of the Glands and Emunctories of the Mouth: And therefore justly claims place in Phlegmatic, cold, chronical, cephalic Diseases, in torpid, soporose Maladies. In the Lethargy. gravative Headach, Palsy (especially of the Tongue) Toothach, Elongation of the Uvulas, Tumor of the Tonsils, Quinsy, &c.
And no Body here need fear increasing of the begun Inflammation, by the use of so acrid and brisk a Medicine, for as much as its caused (generally speaking) by gross, clammy Phlegm, impacted in the spongy Parts; which damming up the Blood, and stopping its course, occasions an Inflammatory Inundation: And therefore most certain it is, that in the Eliquation and Eduction of that same stagnation and obstructing Phlegm.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710