Physical Vinegars

Acetum distillatum
Or distilled Vinegar

College : Fill a glass or stone alembick with the best Vinegar to the third part, separate the flegm with a gentle fire, then increase the fire by degrees, and perform the work.

Acetum Rosarum
Or Rose Vinegar

College : Take of red Rose buds, gathered in a dry time, the whites cut off, dried in the shade three or four days, one pound, Vinegar eight sextaries, set them in the sun forty days, then strain out the Roses, and repeat the infusion with fresh ones.

After the same manner is made Vinegar of Elder flowers, Rosemary flowers, and Clove-gilliflowers.

Culpeper : For the virtues of all Vinegars, take this one only observation, They carry the same virtues with the flowers whereof they are made, only as we said of Wines, that they were better for cold bodies then the bare simples whereof they are made; so are Vinegars for hot bodies. Besides, Vinegars are often, nay, most commonly used externally, viz. to bathe the place, then look amongst the simples, and see what place of the body the simple is appropriated to, and you cannot but know both what Vinegar to use, and to what place to apply it.

Acetum Scilliticum
Or Vinegar of Squils

College : Take of that part of the Squill which is between the outward bark and the bottom, cut in thin slices, and placed thirty or forty days in the sun or some remiss heat, then a pound of them (being cut small with a knife made of ivory or some white wood) being put in a vessel, and six pounds of Vinegar put to them; set the vessel, being close stopped, in the sun thirty or forty days, afterwards strain it, and keep it for use.

Culpeper : A little of this medicine being taken in the morning fasting, and walking half an hour after, preserves the body in health, to extreme old age, (as Sanius tried, who using no other medicine but this, lived in perfect health till one hundred and seventeen years of age) it makes the digestion good, a long wind, a clear voice, an acute sight, a good colour, it suffers no offensive thing to remain in the body, neither wind, flegm, choler, melancholy, dung, nor urine, but brings them forth; it brings forth filth though it lie in the bones, it takes away salt and sour belchings, though a man be never so licentious in diet, he shall feel no harm. It hath cured such as have the phthisic, that have been given over by all Physicians. It cures such as have the falling sickness, gouts, and diseases and swellings of the joints. It takes away the hardness of the liver and spleen. We should never have done if we should reckon up the particular benefits of this medicine. Therefore we commend it as a wholesome medicine for soundness of body, preservation of health, and vigour of mind. Thus Galen.

Acetum Theriacale, Norimberg
Or Treacle Vinegar

College : Take of the roots of Celandine the greater, one ounce and a half: the roots of Angelica, Masterwort, Gentian, Bistort, Valerian, Burnet, white Dittany, Elecampane, Zedoary, of each one dram, of Plantain the greater one dram and a half, the leaves of Mousear, Sage, Scabious, Scordium, Dittany of Crete, Carduus, of each half an handful, barks and seeds of Citrons, of each half a dram, Bole Amoniac one dram, Saffron three drams, of these let the Saffron, Hart's-horn, Dittany, and Bole, be tied up in a rag, and steeped with the things before mentioned, in five pints of Vinegar, for certain days by a temperate heat in a glass well stopped, strain it, and add six drams of the best Treacle to it, shake it together, and keep it for your use.