Simple Vinegars

Vinegar of Rose

  Dried Rose buds                      1 lb.
  Vinegar                                    12 lbs.

Set in the Sun for 40 days, strain, and add an equal amount of fresh Rose buds.
    ‘It comforts the Head and Stomach, represses Inflammations, and cools the Heat of Fevers, whether used outwardly or inwardly’.
    It was long considered specific for Headaches coming from heat, and especially excess exposure to the Sun. Soak cloths in the vinegar and apply to the head.
    ‘As much used in diet as it is in Physic. It cuts, cleanses, tempers, it gives an appetite, it provokes sleep being applied to the fore head, it removes the Acrimony of the Fixed Salts, it moderates the activity of the volatile; it kills worms, stays vomitings, stays the operation of Purgatives, cools inflammations, assists expectoration, and loosens Phlegm, stops the Piles being taken inwardly, and applied outwardly resists Putrefaction and is good to smell to in noisome and Pestilential Seasons’.

After the same manner may be prepared Vinegar of Elder flower, Rosemary, Sage, Calendula etc.


Vinegar of Elder Flowers

    ‘It is good against the Scurvy and Dropsy, and to expel Watery Humours’.


Vinegar of Rosemary

    ‘It is excellent against Epilepsy, Apoplexy, Vertigo, Migraine, and most other Diseases of the Head, especially Sleepy and Drowsy diseases’.

Vinegar of Squill

Take Squill bulbs, remove the outer layers and the bottom, cut in thin slices, and dry them 30 or 40 days in the Sun or some other gentle heat. To one part (by weight) of the dried Squill, add 6 parts of the best Vinegar. Close the vessel, and let it sit in the Sun for 30 or 40 days; then strain and keep for use.

Some used a ratio of 1:8.
Dose: 1–3, or 4 spoonfuls, taken in the morning fasting, and walking afterwards.

    ‘Galen commends this Medicament to be very wholesome, and that it preserves the body sound and healthful to extreme old age: It causes a good complexion, suffering no evil matter to remain in the body, whether Wind, Phlegm, Water, Choler, Melancholy, or Excrements’.
    ‘It cures the Pthisic, hardness or Obstruction of the Liver and Spleen, Asthma, Peripneumonia, Pleurisy, Catarrhs, Falling Sickness, Apoplexy, Migraine, Vertigo, Gout; diseases and Tumours of the Joints, bringing forth filth, although lying in the bones’. (S)
    ‘It will preserve a Man many years in perfect health ... that all parts of the body shall do their Offices; that he shall be always fit for business ... shall digest whatever he eats and turn it into good nourishment, and have a kindly evacuation of the excrements’.
    It was often advised to be taken two or more times yearly to prepare Phlegm in susceptible people, then purging them with Hiera Picra with a little Chebulic Myrobalan and Polypody root added.