An Amber Julep.
Take Waters of Parsley, and Fennel, each 4 ounces; Magistral Worm, and Horse-Radish compound Waters, each 1 ounce; Syrup of the 5 Roots 2 ounces; Salt of Amber half a Dram, mix.
Aperients, Dissolvents, and Diuretics, do much in an Anasarca (tho' not in an Ascites). For this Malady ariseth from a morbose Redundancy of Lympha, soaked into the minute hollownesses, and interstices of the Fibrillae, of which (disposed like little Pipes) the whole System of the Body is wove up and constituted: And 'tis increased by that Lympha's growing thick, gelatinous and sizy; whereupon it dams up the small Aqueducts, and occasions the rest of the Lympha, that comes streaming after, to break over its Banks, and lay all under Water about it.
Therefore such things as have the power to liquifie and thin that same Size, thrust it out from the filaments, bring it back into the circulating Mass, and at last turn it out by Urine, are apparently of mighty Efficacy and Advantage.
Which things being to be expected especially from Aperients, and volatile Diuretics, this present Julep must be looked upon as a Medicine of much avail against and Universal Dropsie; provided it have not gone too far, and be as yet only as Affusion in, or among the fleshy Fibres, and have not burst the Lymphatics, and fallen into the Cavity of the Abdomen.
Due Purging not omitted, 4 ounces are to be drank thrice a day.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710