An Ecphractic Mixture.
Take Pine tops cut small 6 handfulls; boil in Water 2 quarts to 1; strain, wringing it hard through a Cloth; add to the Liquor depurated Juice of Scurvy-grass 1 pint; of Brooklime, Water- cresses and Dandelion, each half a pint; Radish water compound 1 pint and half. In this whole Mixture dissolve Vitriol of Mars 8 scruples; set it by a Night, 'till the yellow Faces are settled, then decant the clear Liquor, to which add Salt of Wormwood 4 scruples, white Sugar 12 ounces, mix.
It enricheth the Blood when impoverish'd, depurateth it when feculent, new mixeth it, when run asunder into parts, and quickeneth it when sluggish.
Also it dissolves scorbutic or atrabilarious Feculencies, deposited and fixing obstructions in the Mesentery, Spleen, Liver, Ureters, or Habit of the Body: Opens the Pores, and Passages for the Fliuds, scours the common Sewers, procures a free Circulation through the minutest Conveyances of the Humane Machine, sets all the Offices of the vital Functions at work again, and enables them to do it well. The Dose is 4 ounces Mornings and Afternoons.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710