This essay reinserts friars into the story of alchemy and medicine in late medieval England. Much of the evidence for the activity of friars, mostly Franciscans, is to be found in a Latin text compiled in 1416–1425, the Tabula medicine. Here friars appear as sources for remedies, and a significant number of these remedies are alchemical. The quintessence found in the writings of John of Rupescissa is used for a variety of medical complaints. Some of the alchemical remedies are selected for closer examination here. These include distillations of human blood which are recommended by brother Robert Winstanton for use in surgery, either to knit flesh together or to cut through it. Natural balsam was in very short supply in Western Europe, though it served as a panacea for multiple ailments. The friars offer a number of different recipes to make artificial balsam, ranging from comparatively simple distillations through to the use of multiple fractional distillations to produce the finest of all balsams. The friars found that distilled waters made with herbs were more effective than herbal simples without distillation in the treatment of many different complaints.

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Frater Medicus 的生存？英国修士和炼金术，约。约 1370 年 1425

这篇文章将修道士重新插入中世纪晚期英格兰炼金术和医学的故事中。修道士（主要是方济会修士）活动的大部分证据可以在 1416-1425 年编纂的拉丁文《Tabula 医学》中找到。在这里，修道士作为治疗的来源出现，而这些治疗中的很大一部分是炼金术。在鲁佩西萨的约翰的著作中发现的精髓被用于各种医疗投诉。这里选择了一些炼金术疗法进行仔细检查。这些包括人类血液的蒸馏，罗伯特·温斯坦顿兄弟推荐用于手术，将肉编织在一起或切开。天然香脂在西欧非常短缺，尽管它是治疗多种疾病的灵丹妙药。修士们提供了许多不同的配方来制作人造香脂，从相对简单的蒸馏到使用多次分馏来生产最好的香脂。修士们发现用草药制成的蒸馏水在治疗许多不同的疾病方面比未经蒸馏的简单草药更有效。