The inner bark of the oak is an excellent tonic. It should be kept, dried and powdered, as well as simply well dried, so that it may be at hand when needed, in either form. It is excellent when taken in ale, or as a decoction in all cases of debility, in all fevers, whether continued or inflammatory, in tertian or quartan intermittants, or when eruptive poison is present in the blood or humors. A decoction of the fresh bark boiled in ale, or the milk of kine or goats, is very good in the same diseases.

Take ripe acorns, let them be very crisply roasted, and kept in a well covered oak vessel. Take a spoonful on your drink night and morning. Whenever a man or woman is the subject of functional or seminal weakness, three table spoonfuls of this powder should be boiled in a good draught of goat's or kine's milk, then drank mixed with honey night and morning, for it will remove the complaint. It is useful for all the before mentioned diseases, for uterine hemorrhage in women, for eruptions in all manner of men, and for diseased lungs. It is an excellent ordinary diet, (mixed with well baked wheaten bread) for all weak persons, or those subject to affections of the lungs, or bodily or constitutional debility of any kind.

Malt some acorns and make ale therewith. It is the best and most healthy of any, and an excellent tonic in cases of debility, or diseases proceeding therefrom.

Gather the leaves of the oak in August or September, dry well, and keep covered. If applied to any contused integument, or watery excoriation, they will heal it.

Take roasted acorns, or the inner bark roasted, ground with bread corn, and make bread therewith. This bread is the best of any to strengthen a man's body, and to remove all complaints resulting from the winter cold or humidity.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE VIRTUES OF THE VERVAIN.

$ 798. Should you be affected with scrophula, take a decoction or infusion of vervain, gathering the entire plant when in seed; roast it well and powder. Keep this very

carefully in a well covered vessel; mix it with your ordinary drink for habitual use. Boil the entire plant, root and seed included, in ale, mead, goat's or kine's milk, and let it be your habitual drink. Mix the powder also with your bread, and let it be your habitual diet, with goat's milk, or with cow's milk, when you have no goat's. If one is affected with running sores, the powder should be sprinkled thereon; and take the plant, root and all, pound, and boil with fresh butter, and a little wax, strain well, and apply it; and take the juice of the entire plant, and rub it on your chest daily, as long as the plants can be procured. In Winter mix the powder with honey, and anoint in the same way. The whole plant is good for all diseases proceeding from the poison of scrophula, whether affecting the lungs, liver, kidneys, brain, eyes, or any other part. Gather this, and every other herb in the name of God, and give no heed to those who say that it should be gathered in the name of the devil, as the devil has nothing to do with goodness.

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXPOSITION OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF MAN; WHENCE PROCEED THE FOUR CONSTITUTIONS OR TEMPERAMENTS OF MAN, VIZ., THE SANGUINEOUS, THE CHOLERIC, THE PHLEGMATIC, AND THE

MELANCHOLIC.

$799. To recognise persons of a sanguineous constitution. A person of sanguineous constitution will be naturally fat, but he is not simply fat, as that would show a cold nature; for as Avicenna* says, an abundance of flesh indicates a hot nature; and plenty of flesh is the result of an abundance of blood, as Avicenna says. Every ruddy red haired spare man, is of a sanguine temperament, as Galen says. Sanguineous men will be merry, and fond of listening to tales and merriment, and for the same cause they are incontinent, and apt to give way to their animal propensities. They will

Avicenna, or Abou-Ali-Alhussein-Ben-Abdallah-Ebn-Sina, the Prince of Arabian Philosophers and Physicians, was born in the neighbourhood of Bokhara, in 910, and died of intemperance, A.D. 1038, after having experienced the vicissitudes of fortune, and being reduced from the post of Grand Vizier to the Sultan Mahmoud to the condition of a fugitive. He wrote "Canorum Medicine"; "De Medicinis Cordialibus "; "Cantica" "Opera Philosophica " &c., of which different versions have been made in Hebrew and Latin. ED.

also drink wine jovially. A sanguineous man will have his food of the best kind, for sanguineous people will seek that which corresponds mostly with their nature. A sanguineous man will also be apt to play, for his blood will have merriment. He will also be fair, from the nature of his constitution, eloquent of speech, apt to acquire all knowledge, arts, and deep systems. He will be poetically inclined, and will delight in imagination, and ambitious projects. He will not easily be instigated to anger; will be of a generous disposition, not covetous, amiable, of an affectionate behaviour, and kindly conduct. He will be of ruddy complexion, for as Avicenna observes, a ruddy complexion of the skin indicates an abundance of blood. It should be of a clear transparent red, not livid red, as is the case with those whose countenances are florid in consequence of drinking to excess, or subsisting upon a vegetable diet; for such a complexion indicates lepra, scurvy, excess of humour and blood. He will sing sweetly and amiably with his voice, he will delight in music, and social intercourse with singers, and with the merry and poetical. He will delight in the harp, and all instrumental music; will be quick and industrious in work, or on errand; he will also be brave and confident from heat of blood, and will be gentlemanly in his deportment from activity of circulation. When uneducated, he will be apt to become conceited of his own parts, as well as cross grained, impertinent and disagreeable, in consequence of the over excited state of the blood. He will be more disposed to fix his mind, and act upon the near than the distant. He will also learn from genius rather than study, and will be satirical and curt in what he says or does. He is apt to laugh and be jolly without reason, save the excited and untameable tendency of the sanguineous temperament.

TO RECOGNISE THE PHLEGMATIC TEMPERAMENT.

§ 800. One who is of a phlegmatic temperament will have brown hair, because his constitution is but weak. In the second place, phlegmatic persons will be short and fat,

as their natural strength is not such as to permit them to continue growing. They will be also less energetic than persons of the other temperaments, in consequence of their coldness, which will render them more sleepy also. They will be a prudent people. They will be also idle, and that in consequence of cold, for as heat renders a man light and brisk, so cold makes him heavy and idle; phlegmatic people will also be fat in consequence of bodily impurity. They will also be sluggish in mind, or sleepy, or given to much sleep. If instructed they will be intelligent, and will acquire what will be expected of them; but in consequence of their sluggishness, they will come off but indifferently in all competitive efforts, and will soon succumb. The memory will be bad, and they will not love, but from selfish motives. They will not seek merriment, song, or jollity, and when possessing knowledge, they will be found wanting in genius. But when there is a mixture of the sanguineous in the constitution, then we may often find him a man wise in knowledge, and of strong genius; being patient, long suffering, and discreet. He will not love contention, mimicry, nor flippancy, because he will not love, save what is seemly and substantial.

TO RECOGNISE THE VAPOURISH CONSTITUTION, AND THE PERSONS WHO ARE OF THAT TEMPERAMENT.

§ 801. He who is of a vapourish or choleric constitution, will be impatient, in consequence of a superfluity of heat, disposing him to precipitancy. One of this constitution will be very ambitious of obtaining superiority, dignity, and authority over others, in as much as natural heat disposes the mind of the man to folly. Vapourish persons will also have a facility of acquiring learning in consequence of the heat of bile, but they will not retain what they have learnt. They will also be high spirited, that is, they will not patiently suffer injustice, in consequence of their heat. They will aspire to great eminence, official position, and social elevation. A choleric man will be as voluptuous as a goat,

and passion, rather than love, will direct him in every thing. He will be a deceiver, and will be soon angry on account of trifles, exhibiting in this the heat of vapour, and sanguineous ebullition about the heart. He will be cunning, quick, and imprudent in his policy and plans; being more distinguished for violence than constancy in what he does and thinks. He will be slender in his limbs, ungracious in his address, and yellow as saffron in his complexion. As Avicenna says, this complexion indicates haughtiness, one of slender body and limbs, and one who sees a fault in others where it does not exist, and is blind to his own imperfections. He will be kind to those who honour him, cold and haughty to those who do not, and revengeful towards those who wrongly and falsely injure him. The phlegmatic character cannot be commingled with this constitution; and if it could, a sanguineous temperament will be unfaithful and capricious. Of the four constitutions of man, this is the least capable of amelioration and improvement. Rhys the Physician has termed this the vapourish temperament, as it is occasioned by cardiac ebullition, and the bitterness of the bile in man.

THE FOLLOWING ARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE RECOGNITION OF THE NATURE AND CONSTITUTION OF MELANCHOLY, AND OF THE TEMPERAMENT OF THE PERSONS WHO ARE MELANCHOLIC.

§ 802. He who is of a melancholic constitution, will be surly and unmanly, as if at war with himself. Most melancholic people will be also sad and unsociable in consequence of their coldness. They will be also studious, meditative, and thoughtful, as well as disposed to seek solitude. In consequence of the dryness of the brain, their sleep will not be sound, being broken and disturbed with dreams. Of studious minds, their memory will be good. They will be difficult to please, envious, covetous, apt to evil from moral weakness, little able to follow up their good intentions, consequently bad paymasters and cheats. A melancholic man will be a great reader, abstemious, fearful, and his complexion will be earthlike, which, if it has a shade of green, will indicate dignity, as the wise Cassius says. All men of this