Of Oils

CHAPTER V

1. Oil Olive, which is commonly known by the name of Sallad Oil, I suppose because it is usually eaten with sallads by them that love it, if it be pressed out of ripe olives, according to Galen, is temperate, and exceeds in no one quality.

2. Of oils, some are simple, and some are compound.

3. Simple oils, are such as are made of fruits or seeds by expression, as oil of sweet and bitter almonds, linseed and rape-seed oil, &c. of which see in my Dispensatory.

4. Compound oils, are made of oil of olives, and other simples, imagine herbs, flowers, roots, &c.

5. The way of making them is this: Having bruised the herbs of flowers you would make your oil of, put them into an earthen pot, and to two or three handfuls of them pour a pint of oil, cover the pot with a paper, set it in the sun about a fortnight or so, according as the sun is in hotness; then having warmed it very well by the fire, press out the herb, &c. very hard in a press, and add as many more herbs to the same oil; bruise the herbs (I mean not the oil) in like manner, set them in the sun as before; the oftener you repeat this, the stronger your oil will be. At last when you conceive it strong enough, boil both herbs and oil together, till the juice be consumed, which you may know by its bubbling, and the herbs will be crisp; then strain it while it is hot, and keep it in a stone or glass vessel for your use.

6. As for chymical oils, I have nothing to say here.

7. The general use of these oils, is for pains in the limbs, roughness of the skin, the itch, &c. as also for ointments and plaisters.

8. If you have occasion to use it for wounds, or ulcers, in two ounces of oil, dissolve half an ounce of turpentine, the heat of the fire will quickly do it; for oil itself is offensive to wounds, and the turpentine qualifies it.