Ripening Cataplasm.
Take of white lily root, four ounces; fat figs and raw onions, bruised, of each one ounce; yellow basilicum ointment, two ounces; gum galbanum, half an ounce; linseed meal, as much as necessary. Boil the roots along with the figs in a sufficient quantity of water; then bruise and add to them the other ingredients, so as to form the whole into a soft cataplasm. The galbanum malt be previously dissolved with the yolk of an egg.
Where it is necessary to promote suppuration, this cataplasm may be used by those who chuse to be at the trouble and expence of making it. For my part, l have never found any application more proper for this purpose than a poultice of bread and milk, with a sufficient quantity of either boiled or raw onion in it, and softened with oil or fresh butter.
William Buchan
Domestic Medicine 2nd edition 1785