The Common Decoction.
Take of camomile flowers, one ounce; elder flowers, and sweet fennel seeds, of each half an ounce; water, two quarts. Boil them for a little, and then strain the decoction.
A medicine equally good may be prepared by infusing the ingredients for some hours in boiling water.
This decoction is chiefly intended as the basis for clysters, to which other ingredients may be occasionally added. It will likewise serve as a common fomentation, spirit of wine or other things being added in such quantity as the case may require.
William Buchan
Domestic Medicine 2nd edition 1785