A Peruvian Epileptic Electuary.
Take powder'd Bark 6 drams; Virginia Snake root 2 drams; Syrup of Piony as much as needs, mix it up into a soft Electuary.
I (i.e. Dr. A.) have Experimentally found it a most prevalent and most certain Remedy.
It (after due Evacuations) 1 dram be given to adult Persons (and less a Dose to others) Morning and Evening, for three or four Months, and afterwards three of four days before change and full of the Moon, it absolutely eradicates Epileptic and Hysteric Diseases; and also those odd Epileptic Saltations called St. Vitus's Dance, in which the Affected are vexed with a thousand ridiculous Gesticulations and Leapings, after the manner of those in Apulia, that are bitten by a Tarantula, as the most ingenious Roman Physician, Dr. Baglivi hath decrib'd it.
But though the said excellent Author accuse the Bark, as being th cause of incurable Mesenteric Obstructions, for my part I could never yet observe any such Effect, provided the body were rightly prepared for it. Yet I must acknowledge, that in continual, malignant, petechial Fevers, Jaundice and Child bed Women, (during the flowing of the Lochia) its accounted destructive. Thus far as Dr. A. but Dr. Morton is of another Opinion (De Morbis acutis, p. 139.) saying, Cortex in Puerperio salubriter Ministratur. The Bark is an wholesome Medicine for Child-bed Women.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710