embrocation

Noun

embrocation (countable and uncountable, plural embrocations)

1. (obsolete) The act of moistening and rubbing a diseased part with spirit, oil, etc.
   • The best cure of those who be in a frensie, is by sleepe: and that may be procured easily by the juice of Peucedanum & vineger together infused vpon the head by way of imbrocation, or by rubbing the same with it:1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXVI.] 11.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus....
   • The Observations of the Effects of these Waters on Persons who use them in Drinking, Bathing, Pumping, Washing, Embrocation, &c. are reserv’d for the Physicians, whose Duty it is to know the Particular Constitutions of those Persons, and the State of their Health Declining or Improving.1684, uncredited translator, Observations on the Mineral Waters of France, made in the Royal Academy of the Sciences by Samuel Du Clos, London: Henry Faithorne and John Kersey, “Advertisements and...
2. The liquid or lotion with which an affected part is rubbed.
   • “Oh! my dear sir, her throat is so much better that I have hardly any uneasiness about it. Either bathing has been of the greatest service to her, or else it is to be attributed to an excellent embrocation of Mr. Wingfield’s, which we have been applying at times ever since August.”1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 12, in Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC
   • You are hereby notified that my embrocations burn and tingle as if distilled from liquid flame. My medicines taste vilely, of cimiter, dogbane and gall: the body quickly returns to robust health so that it need assimilate no more of my foul concoctions! That is the secret of my success.1983, Jack Vance, chapter 25, in Suldrun’s Garden, New York: Berkley