, which myself hath often proved, and gained thereby both
crownes and credit." Also, "The paring of an Apple cut somewhat
thick, and the inside whereof is laid to hot, burning or running
eyes at night when the party goes to bed, and is tied or bound to
the same, doth help the trouble very speedily, and, contrary to
expectation, an excellent secret." A poultice made of rotten Apples
is commonly used in Lincolnshire for the cure of weak, or
rheumatic eyes. Likewise in the _Hotel des Invalides_, at Paris, an
Apple poultice is employed for inflamed eyes, the apple being
roasted, and its pulp applied over the eyes without any intervening
substance To obviate constipation two or three Apples taken at
night, whether baked or raw, are admirably efficient. It was said
long ago: "They do easily and speedily pass through the belly,
therefore they do mollify the belly," and for this reason a modern
maxim teaches that:--

"To eat an Apple going to bed
Will make the doctor beg his bread."

[29] There was concocted in Gerard's day an ointment with the
pulpe of Apples, and swine's grease, and rosewater, which was
used to beautifie the face, and to take away the roughnesse of the
skin, and which was called in the shops "pomatum," from the
apples, "poma," whereof it was prepared. As varieties of the
Apple, mention is made in documents of the twelfth century, of
the pearmain, and the costard, from the latter of which has come
the word costardmonger, as at first a dealer in this fruit, and now
applied to our costermonger. Caracioli, an Italian writer, declared
that the only ripe fruit he met with in Britain was a _baked_ apple.
The juices of Apples are matured and lose their rawness by
keeping the fruit a certain time. These juices, together with those
of the pear, the peach, the plum, and other such fruits, if taken
without adding cane sugar, diminish acidity in the stomach rather
than provoke it: they become converted chemically into alkaline
carbonates, which correct sour fermentation. It is said in
Devonshire that apples shrump up if picked when the moon is on
the wane. From the bark of the stem and root of the apple, pear
and plum trees, a glucoside is to be obtained in small crystals,
which possesses the peculiar property of producing artificial
diabetes in animals to whom it is given.

The juice of a sour Apple, if rubbed on warts first pared away to
the quick, will serve to cure them. The wild "Scrab," or Crab
Apple,