— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785, 54.
[For palsy] Live on Turnips for a month. Or,
take Tar-water, morning and evening, for three months. Or, three spoonfuls of Nettle-juice
every morning. Tried. Or, decoction of burdock. Boil three ounces of the dried root
in two quarts of water to three pints. Take half a pint daily; unless it purge too
much, if so, take less. A decoction of the leaves (boiling one leaf four minutes
in a quart of water) has the same effect. Or, take a cupful of the juice of Goosegrass,
in a morning, fasting, for a month… Last year I knew many persons cured by it. Or,
pound into a pulp, of Seville Oranges, sliced, rind and all, and powdered sugar,
equal quantities. Take a tea-spoonful three or four times a-day. Tried. Or, squeeze
the juice of half a Seville orange into a pint of milk over the fire. Sweeten the
whey with loaf-sugar, and drink it every morning, new-milk warm. To make any whey,
milk should be skimmed, after it is boiled.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
93.
And hence the whole Order of Physick which had
been obtained to that time, came gradually to be inverted. Men of learning began
to set experience aside: to build physick upon hypotheses: to form theories of disease
and their cure, and to substitute these in the place of experiments, until at length
Physick became an abstruse Science, quite out of the reach of ordinary men. Profit
attended their employ as well as honour; they increased the mysteries of the profession
by design, and … those who understood only how to restore the sick to health, they
branded with the ignominious name of Empiricks.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
vi.
[For asthma] Or take an ounce of Quicksilver
every Morning, and a Spoonful of Aqua Sulphureta, or fifteen Drops of Elixir of
Vitriol, in a large Glass of Spring Water, at five in the evening. — This has cured
an inveterate Asthma.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
28.
Cures were equally varied, and in 1785, the indefatigable
John Wesley's suggested:
In the last Stage, suck a healthy Woman daily.
This cured my Father.
Or, every morning cut up a little Turf of fresh
Earth, and lying down, breathe into the Hole for a Quarter of an Hour. — I have
known a deep consumption cured thus.
In this course of time, I have likewise had occasion
to collect several other remedies, tried either by myself or others, which are inserted
under their proper heads. Some of these I have found to be of uncommon virtue, equal
to any of those which were before published; and one, I must aver, from personal
knowledge, grounded on a thousand experiments, to be far superior to all the other
medicines I have known; I mean Electricity. I cannot but entreat all those who are
well-wishers to mankind, to make full proof of this Certainly it comes the nearest
an universal medicine of any yet known in the world.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
xix.
[For Headache] Rub the head for a quarter of
an hour. Tried. Or, be Electrified. Tried.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
69.
[For Nervous disorders] But I am firmly persuaded,
there is no remedy in nature for nervous disorders of every kind, comparable to
the proper and constant use of the electrical machine.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
81.
[For toothache] Be electrified through the teeth.
Tried. Or apply to the aching tooth, an artificial magnet. Or rub the cheek a quarter
of an hour. Or lay roasted parings of turnips as hot as may be behind the ear. Or
put a leaf of Betony bruised, up the nose. Or lay bruised or boiled nettles to the
cheek. Tried.
— John Wesley, Primitive Physic, 1785,
103–4.
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