Brewer's: Menstruum

means a monthly dissolvent (Latin, mensis), from the notion of the alchemists that it acted only at the full of the moon.

“All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction.”—Quincy.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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