Chapter VIII · Of Emplasters.

By Emplasters, here, I do mean things glutinative, and they are quite contrary to things cleansing.

They are of a far more glutinous and tenacious substance.

They differ from things stopping because they do not stop the pores so much, as stick to them like Birdlime.

They have a certain glutinous heat, tempered both with coldness and moisture.

From these plasters take their names.

Their taste is either none at all, or not discernable whether hot or cold, but fat, insipid, or without taste, or sweet, and viscous in feeling.

Their use is to stop flowing of blood, and other fluxes, to cause suppuration, to continue the heat, that so tumours may be ripened.

Also they are mixed with other medicines, that they may the better be brought into the form of an emplaster, and may stick the better to the members.