Sternutatory Powder.
Take Florentine Orris 1 scruple; white Hellebore half a scruple; Oil of Nutmeg 1 drop, make a Powder.
Sternutatories purge and cleanse the Head, because they irritate the Spirits nidulating in, and irradiating those Nerves that are disseminated into the internal Membranes of the Nostrils. For the Spirits being provok'd into Spasms and tumultuary Transports, loosen the impacted viscous Humours, shake them out of their Places, and eliminate them through the Infundibulum and Pituitary Gland, out of the confines of the Brain into the Veins. And so its all inward and out of sight. But as to that Pus and Putrilage, that is cast out of the Nose by Sternutation, it comes no further than from the Neighbouring Glands and Caverns, and not from the Brain it self.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710