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Introduction: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern [1897] Uses of Cure
The art of _Simpling _is as old with us as our British hills. It aims
at curing common ailments with simple remedies culled from the
soil, or got from home resources near at hand.
Since the days of the Anglo-Saxons such remedies have been
chiefly herbal; insomuch that the word "drug" came originally
from their verb _drigan_, to dry, as applied to medicinal plants.
These primitive Simplers were guided in their choice of herbs
partly by watching animals who sought them out for self-cure, and
partly by discovering for themselves the sensible properties of the
plants as revealed by their odour and taste; also by their supposed
resemblance to those diseases which nature meant them to heal.
John Evelyn relates in his _Acetaria_ (1725) that "one Signor
Faquinto, physician to Queen Anne (mother to the beloved martyr,
Charles the First), and formerly physician to one of the Popes,
observing scurvy and dropsy to be the epidemical and dominant
diseases [2] of this nation, went himself into the hundreds of
Essex, reputed the most unhealthy county of this island, and used
to follow the sheep and cattle on purpose to observe what plants
they chiefly fed upon; and of these Simples he composed an
excellent electuary of marvellous effects against these same
obnoxious infirmities." Also, in like manner, it was noticed by
others that "the dog, if out of condition, would seek for certain
grasses of an emetic or purgative sort; sheep and cows, when
ill, would devour curative plants; an animal suffering from
rheumatism would remain as much as it could in the sunshine; and
creatures infested by parasites would roll themselves frequently in
the dust." Again, William Coles in his _Nature's Paradise, or, Art
of Simpling_ (1657), wrote thus: "Though sin and Sathan have
plunged mankinde into an ocean of infirmities, jet the mercy of
God, which is over all His works, maketh grass to grow upon the
mountaines, and Herbes for the use of men; and hath not only
stamped upon them a distinct forme, but also given them particular
signatures, whereby a man may read even in legible characters the
use of them."
The present manual of our native Herbal Simples seeks rather to
justify their uses on the sound basis of accurate chemical analysis,
and precise elementary research. Hitherto medicinal herbs have
come down to us from early times as possessing only a traditional
value, and as exercising merely empirical effects. Their selection
has been commended solely by a shrewd discernment, and by the
practice of successive centuries. But to-day a closer analysis in the
laboratory, and skilled provings by experts have resolved the
several plants into their component parts, and have chemically
determined the medicinal nature of these parts, both [3] singly and
collectively. So that the study and practice of curative British
herbs may now fairly take rank as an exact science, and may
command the full confidence of the sick for supplying trustworthy
aid and succour in their times of bodily need.
Scientific reasons which are self-convincing may be readily
adduced for prescribing all our best known native herbal
medicines. Among them the Elder, Parsley, Peppermint, and
Watercress may be taken as familiar examples of this leading fact.
Almost from time immemorial in England a "rob" made from the
juice of Elderberries simmered and thickened with sugar, or
mulled Elder wine concocted from the fruit, with raisins, sugar,
and spices, has been a popular remedy in this country, if taken hot
at bedtime, for a recent cold, or for a sore throat. But only of late
has chemistry explained that Elderberries furnish "viburnic acid,"
which induces sweating, and is specially curative of inflammatory
bronchial soreness. So likewise Parsley, besides being a favourite
pot herb, and a garnish for cold meats, has been long popular in
rural districts as a tea for catarrh of the bladder or kidneys; whilst
the bruised leaves have been extolled as a poultice for swellings
and open sores. At the same time, a saying about the herb has
commonly prevailed that it "brings death to men, and salvation to
women." Not, however, until recently has it been learnt that the
sweet-smelling plant yields what chemists call "apiol," or
Parsley-Camphor, which, when given in moderation, exercises a quieting
influence on the main sensific centres of life--the head and the
spine. Thereby any feverish irritability of the urinary organs
inflicted by cold, or other nervous shock, would be subordinately
allayed. Thus likewise the Parsley-Camphor (whilst serving, [4]
when applied externally, to usefully stimulate indolent wounds)
proves especially beneficial for female irregularities of the womb,
as was first shown by certain French doctors in 1849.
Again, with respect to Peppermint, its cordial water, or its
lozenges taken as a confection, have been popular from the days of
our grandmothers for the relief of colic in the bowels, or for the
stomach-ache of flatulent indigestion. But this practice has
obtained simply because the pungent herb was found to diffuse
grateful aromatic warmth within the stomach and bowels, whilst
promoting the expulsion of wind; whereas we now know that an
active principle "menthol" contained in the plant, and which may
be extracted from it as a camphoraceous oil, possesses in a marked
degree antiseptic and sedative properties which are chemically
hostile to putrescence, and preventive of dyspeptic fermentation.
Lastly, the Watercress has for many years held credit with the
common people for curing scurvy and its allied ailments; while its
juices have been further esteemed as of especial use in arresting
tubercular consumption of the lungs; and yet it has remained for
recent analysis to show that the Watercress is chemically rich in
"antiscorbutic salts," which tend to destroy the germs of tubercular
disease, and which strike at the root of scurvy generally. These
salts and remedial principles are "sulphur," "iodine," "potash,"
"phosphatic earths," and a particular volatile essential oil known as
"sulphocyanide of allyl," which is almost identical with the
essential oil of White Mustard.
Moreover, many of the chief Herbal Simples indigenous to Great Britain
are further entitled for a still stronger reason to the fullest
confidence of both doctor [5] and patient. It has been found that
when taken experimentally in varying quantities by healthy
provers, many single medicines will produce symptoms precisely
according with those of definite recognized maladies; and the
same herbs, if administered curatively, in doses sufficiently small
to avoid producing their toxical effects, will speedily and surely
restore the patient to health by dispelling the said maladies. Good
instances of such homologous cures are afforded by the common
Buttercup, the wild Pansy, and the Sundew of our boggy marshes.
It is widely known that the field Buttercup (_Ranunculus
bulbosus_), when pulled from the ground, and carried in the palm
of the hand, will redden and inflame the skin by the acrimony of its
juices; or, if the bruised leaves are applied to any part they will
excite a blistering of the outer cuticle, with a discharge of watery
fluid from numerous small vesicles, whilst the tissues beneath
become red, hot, and swollen; and these combined symptoms
precisely represent "shingles,"--a painful skin disease given to
arise from a depraved state of the bodily system, and from a faulty
supply of nervous force. These shingles appear as a crop of sore
angry blisters, which commonly surround the walls of the chest
either in part or entirely; and modern medicine teaches that a
medicinal tincture of the Buttercup, if taken in small doses, and
applied, will promptly and effectively cure the same troublesome
ailment; whilst it will further serve to banish a neuralgic or
rheumatic stitch occurring in the side from any other cause.
And so with respect to the Wild Pansy (_Viola tricolor_), we read
in Hahnemann's commentary on the proved plant: "The Pansy
Violet excites certain cutaneous eruptions about the head and face,
a hard thick scab being formed, which is cracked here and there,
and [6] from which a tenacious yellow matter exudes, and hardens
into a substance like gum." This is an accurate picture of the
diseased state seen often affecting the scalp of unhealthy children,
as milk-crust, or, when aggravated, as a disfiguring eczema, and
concerning the same Dr. Hughes of Brighton, in his authoritative
modern treatise, says, "I have rarely needed any other medicine
than the Viola tricolor for curing milk-crust, which is the plague of
children," and "I have given it in the adult for recent impetigo (a
similar disease of the skin), with very satisfactory results."
Finally, the Sundew (_Drosera rotundifolia_), which is a common
little plant growing on our bogs, and marshy places, is found to act
in the same double fashion of cause or cure according to the
quantity taken, or administered. Farmers well know that this small
herb when devoured by sheep in their pasturage will bring about a
violent chronic cough, with waste of substance: whilst the Sundew
when given experimentally to cats has been found to stud the
surface of their lungs with morbid tubercular matter, though this is
a form of disease to which cats are not otherwise liable. In like
manner healthy human provers have become hoarse of voice
through taking the plant, and troubled with a severe cough,
accompanied with the expectoration of abundant yellow mucus,
just as in tubercular mischief beginning at the windpipe. Meantime
it has been well demonstrated (by Dr. Curie, and others) that at the
onset of pulmonary consumption in the human subject a cure may
nearly always be brought about, or the symptoms materially
improved, by giving the tincture of Sundew throughout several
weeks--from four to twenty drops in the twenty-four hours. And it
has further become an established fact that the same tincture [7]
will serve with remarkable success to allay the troublesome
spasms of Whooping Cough in its second stage, if given in small
doses, repeated several times a day.
From these several examples, therefore, which are easy to be
understood, we may fairly conclude that positive remedial actions
are equally exercised by other Herbal Simples, both because of
their chemical constituents and by reason of their curing in many
cases according to the known law of medicinal correspondence.
Until of late no such an assured position could be rightly claimed
by our native herbs, though pretentions in their favour have been
widely popular since early English times. Indeed, Herbal physic
has engaged the attention of many authors from the primitive days
of Dioscorides (A.D. 60) to those of Elizabethan Gerard, whose
exhaustive and delightful volume published in 1587 has remained
ever since in paramount favour with the English people. Its quaint
fascinating style, and its queer astrological notions, together with
its admirable woodcuts of the plants described, have combined to
make this comprehensive Herbal a standing favourite even to the
present day.
Gerard had a large physic-garden near his house in Old Bourne
(Holborn), and there is in the British Museum a letter drawn up
by his hand asking Lord Burghley, his patron, to advise the
establishment by the University of Cambridge in their grounds of
a Simpling Herbarium. Nevertheless, we are now told (H. Lee, 1883)
that Gerard's "ponderous book is little more than a translation
of Dodonoeus, from which comparatively un-read author whole
chapters have been taken verbatim without acknowledgment."
No English work on herbs and plants is met with prior to the
sixteenth century. In 1552 all books on [8] astronomy and
geography were ordered to be destroyed, because supposed to be
infected with magic. And it is more than probable that any
publications extant at that time on the virtues of herbs (then
associated by many persons with witchcraft), underwent the same
fate. In like manner King Hezekiah long ago "fearing lest the
Herbals of Solomon should come into profane hands, caused them
to be burned," as we learn from that "loyal and godly herbalist,"
Robert Turner.
During the reigns of Edward the Sixth and Mary, Dr. William
Bulleyn ranked high as a physician and botanist. He wrote the first
_Boke of Simples_, which remains among the most interesting
literary productions of that era as a record of his acuteness and
learning. It advocates the exclusive employment of our native
herbal medicines. Again, Nicholas Culpeper, "student in physick,"
whose name is still a household word with many a plain thinking
English person, published in 1652, for the benefit of the
Commonwealth, his "Compleat Method whereby a man may cure
himself being sick, for threepence charge, with such things only as
grow in England, they being most fit for English bodies."
Likewise in 1696 the Honourable Richard Boyle, F.R.S., published
"_A Collection of Choice, Safe, and Simple English Remedies_,
easily prepared, very useful in families, and fitted for
the service of country people."
Once more, the noted John Wesley gave to the world in 1769 an
admirable little treatise on _Primitive Physic, or an Easy and
Natural Method for Curing most Diseases_; the medicines on
which he chiefly relied being our native plants. For asthma, he
advised the sufferer to "live a fortnight on boiled Carrots only";
for "baldness, to wash the head with a decoction of Boxwood"; [9]
for "blood-spitting to drink the juice of Nettles"; for "an open
cancer, to take freely of Clivers, or Goosegrass, whilst covering
the sore with the bruised leaves of this herb"; and for an ague, to
swallow at stated times "six middling pills of Cobweb."
In Wesley's day tradition only, with shrewd guesses and close
observation, led him to prescribe these remedies. But now we have
learnt by patient chemical research that the Wild Carrot possesses
a particular volatile oil, which promotes copious expectoration for
the relief of asthmatic cough; that the Nettle is endowed in its
stinging hairs with "formic acid," which avails to arrest bleeding;
that Boxwood yields "buxine," a specific stimulant to those nerves
of supply which command the hair bulbs; that Goosegrass or
Clivers is of astringent benefit in cancer, because of its "tannic,"
"citric," and "rubichloric acids"; and that the Spider's Web is of
real curative value in ague, because it affords an albuminous
principle "allied to and isomeric with quinine."
Long before this middle era in medicine, during quite primitive
British times, the name and office of "Leeches" were familiar to
the people as the first doctors of physic; and their _parabilia_ or
"accessibles" were worts from the field and the garden; so that
when the Saxons obtained possession of Britain, they found it
already cultivated and improved by what the Romans knew of
agriculture and of vegetable productions. Hence it had happened
that Rue, Hyssop, Fennel, Mustard, Elecampane, Southernwood,
Celandine, Radish, Cummin, Onion, Lupin, Chervil, Fleur de
Luce, Flax (probably), Rosemary, Savory, Lovage, Parsley,
Coriander, Alexanders, or Olusatrum, the black pot herb, Savin,
and other useful herbs, were already of common growth for
kitchen uses, or for medicinal purposes.
[10] And as a remarkable incidental fact antiquity has bequeathed
to us the legend, that goats were always exceptionally wise in the
choice of these wholesome herbs; that they are, indeed, the
herbalists among quadrupeds, and known to be "cunning in
simples." From which notion has grown the idea that they are
physicians among their kind, and that their odour is wholesome to
the animals of the farmyard generally. So that in deference,
unknowingly, to this superstition, it still happens that a single
Nanny or a Betty is freakishly maintained in many a modern
farmyard, living at ease, rather than put to any real use, or kept for
any particular purpose of service. But in case of stables on fire, he
or she will face the flames to make good an escape, and then the
horses will follow.
It was through chewing the beans of Mocha, and becoming stupefied
thereby, that unsuspicious goats first drew the attention
of Mahomedan monks to the wonderful properties of the Coffee
berry.
Next, coming down to the first part of the present century, we find
that purveyors of medicinal and savoury herbs then wandered over
the whole of England in quest of such useful simples as were in
constant demand at most houses for the medicine-chest, the
store-closet, or the toilet-table. These rustic practitioners of the
healing art were known as "green men," who carried with them their
portable apparatus for distilling essences, and for preparing their
herbal extracts. In token of their having formerly officiated in this
capacity, there may yet be seen in London and elsewhere about the
country, taverns bearing the curious sign of "The Green Man and
(his) Still."
It is told of a certain French writer not long since, that whilst
complacently describing our British manners [11] customs, he
gravely translated this legend of the into "_L'homme vert, et
tranquil_."
Passing on finally to our own times at the close of the nineteenth
century, we are able now-a-days, as has been already said, to avail
ourselves of precise chemical research by apparatus far in advance
of the untutored herbalist's still. He prepared his medicaments and
his fragrant essences, merely as a mechanical art, and without
pretending to fathom their method of physical action. But the
skilled expert of to-day resolves his herbal simples into their
ultimate elements by exact analysis in the laboratory, and has
learnt to attach its proper medicinal virtue to each of these curative
principles. It has thus come about that Herbal Physic under
competent guidance, if pursued with intelligent care, is at length a
reliable science of fixed methods, and crowned with sure results.
Moreover, in this happy way is at last vindicated the infinite
superiority felt instinctively by our forefathers of home-grown
herbs over foreign and far-fetched drugs; a superiority long since
expressed by Ovid with classic felicity in the passage:--
"AEtas cui facimus _aurea_ nomen,
Fructibus arbuteis, et humus quas educat herbis
Fortunata fuit."--_Metamorphos., Lib. XV_.
"Happy the age, to which we moderns give
The name of 'golden,' when men chose to live
On woodland fruits; and for their medicines took
Herbs from the field, and simples from the brook."
or, as epitomised in the time-worn Latin adage:--
"Qui potest mederi _simplicibus_ frustra quaerit composita."
"If _simple_ herbs suffice to cure,
'Tis vain to compound drugs endure."
In the following pages our leading Herbal Simples [12] are
reviewed alphabetically; whilst, to ensure accuracy, the genus and
species of each plant are particularised.
Most of these herbs may be gathered fresh in their proper season
by persons who have acquired a knowledge of their parts, and who
live in districts where such plants are to be found growing; and to
other persons who inhabit towns, or who have no practical
acquaintance with Botany, great facilities are now given by our
principal druggists for obtaining from their stores concentrated
fresh juices of the chief herbal simples.
Again, certain preparations of plants used only for their specific
curative methods are to be got exclusively from the Homoeopathic
chemist, unless gathered at first hand. These, not being officinal,
fail to find a place on the shelves of the ordinary Pharmaceutical
druggist. Nevertheless, when suitably employed, they are of
singular efficacy in curing the maladies to which they stand akin
by the law of similars. For convenience of distinction here, the
symbol H. will follow such particular preparations, which number
in all some seventy-five of the simples described. At the same time
any of the more common extracts, juices, and tinctures (or the
proper parts of the plants for making these several medicaments),
may be readily purchased at the shop of every leading druggist.
It has not been thought expedient to include among the Simples
for homely uses of cure such powerfully poisonous plants as
Monkshood (_Aconite_), Deadly Nightshade (_Belladonna_),
Foxglove (_Digitalis_), Hemlock or Henbane (except for some
outward uses), and the like dangerous herbs, these being beyond
the province of domestic medicine, whilst only to be administered
under the advice and guidance of a qualified prescriber.
[13] The chief purpose held in view has been to reconsider those
safe and sound herbal curative remedies and medicines which
were formerly most in vogue as homely simples, whether to be
taken or to be outwardly applied. And the main object has been to
show with what confidence their uses may be now resumed, or
retained under the guidance of modern chemical teachings, and of
precise scientific provings. This question equally applies, whether
the Simples be employed as auxiliaries by the physician in
attendance, or are welcomed for prompt service in a household
emergency as ready at hand when the doctor cannot be immediately had.
Moreover, such a Manual as the present of approved Herbal
Remedies need not by any means be disparaged by the busy
practitioner, when his customary medicines seem to be out of
place, or are beyond speedy reach; it being well known that a sick
person is always ready to accept with eagerness plain assistant
remedies sensibly advised from the garden, the store-closet, the
spice-box, or the field.
"Of simple medicines, and their powers to cure,
A wise physician makes his knowledge sure;
Else I or the household in his healing art
He stands ill-fitted to take useful part."
So said Oribasus (freely translated) as long ago as the fourth
century, in classic terms prophetic of later times, _Simplicium
medicamentorum et facultatum quoe in eis insunt cognitio ita
necessaria est ut sine eā nemo rite medicari queat_.
But after all has been said and done, none the less must it be
finally acknowledged in the pathetic utterance of King Alfred's
Anglo-Saxon proverb, _Nis [14] no wurt woxen on woode ne on
felde, per enure mage be lif uphelden_.
"No wort is waxen in wood or wold,
Which may for ever man's life uphold."
Neither to be discovered in the quaint Herbals of primitive times,
nor to be learnt by the advanced chemical knowledge of modern
plant lore, is there any panacea for all the ills to which our flesh
is heir, or an elixir of life, which can secure for us a perpetual
immunity from sickness. _Contra vim mortis nullum medicamentum
in hortis_, says the rueful Latin distich:--
"No healing herb can conquer death,
And so for always give us breath."
To sum up which humiliating conclusion good George Herbert has
put the matter thus with epigrammatic conciseness:--
"St. Luke was a saint and a physician, yet he is dead!"
But none the less bravely we may still take comfort each in his
mortal frailty, because of the hopeful promise preached to men
long since by the son of Sirach, "A faithful friend is the Medicine
of life; they that fear the Lord shall find Him."
==================================
Source: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie
Philadelphia:
Boericke & Tafel.
1897
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