butler's ale

missanthropist commented on the word butler's ale

Take Sena and polypodium, each four ounces, agrimony and maidenhair, of each a small handful, scurvygrass, a quarter peck, bruise them grossly in a stone mortar, put them into a thin canvass bag, and hang the bag in nine or ten gallons of ale; when it has worked, and when it is three o four days old, it is ripe enough to be drawn off and bottled, or as you see fit; a pint at a time enough purges by sweat and urine, expelling scorbutick humours and dropsies, removing slimy matter, gravel and sand, and prevents the stone, sweetens the blood, and is god against pricking pains and the headache.

Thomas Lupton, A Thousand Notable Things, 1579

February 4, 2009