Aphorisms on Pectorals, collected by Culpeper, (Composita, 1656):
Medicines appropriated to the Breast and Lungs are not of one and the same kind; for some regard the parts themselves afflicted; others the matter afflicting
The Breast [Lungs] requires naturally Lenitives, both for freer breathing, and removing those things which stick to it.
Sometimes the matter is so thin, that it slips away, and cannot be expelled by the motion of the Breast [Lungs]. Sometimes so thick that it cannot be cast out by the straight arteries of the Lungs [Bronchi].
These then are genuine Principles, to make thick what is thin, and cut what is thick, that so they may the more easily be spit out
Of thickening Pectorals, some are milder which are appropriated to humors both hot and cold, others more vehement Cold, to bridle the fastness of the acrimony of the humor.
Thus you see what things are accidentally Pectoral, viz. such as are Emollient, or cut tough viscous Phlegm, or make thick thin defluctions, or qualify sharp humors, or ease the roughness of the Artery [Bronchi].
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