A Paralytic Liniment.
Take Ointment called Martiatum 2 ounces; Oil of Spike, petroleum, each 3 drams; powdered Euphorbium 1 scruple; Oil of Amber 1 dram and half; Oil of Rosemary half a dram, mix.
Let the relaxed Member be rubbed strongly with this Liniment two or three times a day; namely, to remove Dams and obstacles in the Nerves, stopped up with viscid Juice, redintegrate the wonted Irradiation of the Spirits, bring the slack Fibres into order, and recover their Tonic Tension, exagitate the Blood, and give it a rapid Motion through the part, and so resuscitate natural Heat, Sense and Motion.
But here it's to be heedfully observed, that sometime the paralytic Part, by the ill use of Externals, too intensly hot, shrinks up and withers, to the irretrievable Damage of the Patient. And this happens mostly (as I conceive) when the Temperament is hot, and the cause of the Resolution not in the relaxed part itself, but in the Brain, or some Member at Distance, whence the part, which is found enough of itself, and rightly conformed, suffers by way of Eclipse, being deprived of the Rays of the Spirits: For in that case, if such heating and drying Things be administered, as are immoderate, and beyond what the Temper of the part can bear; then they scorch, dry, and shrink up the Fibrae Motrices dissipate their indwelling Spirits, and occasion an incurable Contraction: For these Fibrae Motrices are not fit to perform the Function of Motion, unless, they remain soft, flexible, moist and slippery.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710