How to Cure Bad Breath, 1664

grim-looking figure with hands clasped over mouth Allegories of the Senses (1651), Wellcome Library

The Breathing is faulty when it stinketh. As when the Breath smells of Excrements or of dead fish, or rotten Cheese or the like… This is troublesome, and better known to the standers by then the Patient… the Breath that comes forth at the Nose, when it stinks, causeth the Disease called the Stink of the Nose, which is intolerable to the Standers by, and makes them that are troubled therewith to be shunned…

You must hold sweet things in the mouth, and chew, and sometimes swallow them… Citron peels, Roses, Bayes, Marjoram, Smallage of Parsley chewed, taketh away the stink of Garlick and the like, and conceals that which is from the mouth… We use such things to be snuffed, or poured into the Nose to cause a sweet Scent, as Spanish Wine in which Basil, Marjoram, Calamints, Bayes, Lavender-flowers, Cinnamon, and Cloves have been infused.

Platerus Golden Practice

If the Past offers you a citron peel, take it.

The Past recommends