Note 81 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
Plaister of Spinders. Venice Turpentine [dram]iii, melt it; then adde live Spiders No. XXX mix them with a Pestle till the Turpentine be of an Ash colour, and the Spiders appear not; then heat it, and adde of small Spiders No. XL. Stir them again, adding powder of Asphaltum, and white Sal Armoniack, [dram]iii. grinde them till the matter be cold and very black; keep it 14 dayes, then soften it at the fire, and with your hands dipt in oyl, make it up. Make Plaisters thereof, and cover them with leaf-silver or gold, and lay them to the pulses of both wrists an hour before the fit of a Feaver or Ague comes, leave them on nine days, then at the same hour cast them into running water; by this means the Pliaster cures all Feavers or Agues.—Compendium of Physick (Salmon), London, 1671.
Herring in Pickle is often prescribed in a Cataplasm to the Feet in Feavers; because it is reckoned to draw the Humours downward and thereby relieve the Head.—English Dispensatory (Quincy), London, 1742.