Herbal Simples. Approved for Modern Uses of Cure

672 Pages·1997·1.31 MB·English

by  W. T. Fernie (Auth.)

HERBAL SIMPLES
APPROVED
FOR MODERN USES OF CURE.
BY
W. T. FERNIE, M.D.
Author of " Botanical Outlines" etc., etc.
SECOND EDITION.
Medicine is mine ; what herbs and Simples grow
In fields and forests, all their powers I know."
DRYDEN.
BRISTOL: JOHN WRIGHT & CO.
LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD,
HIRSCHFELD BROS., 82, HIGH HOLBORN.
1897.
-* Jamque aderat Phœbo ante alios dilectus lapis
Iasides : acri quondam cui captus amorè
Ipse suas artes, sua munera, laetus Apollo
Augurium, citharamque dabat, celeresque sagittas :
Ille ut depositi proferret fata clientis,
Scire potestates herbarum, usumque medendi
Maluit, et mutas agitare inglorius artes."
VIRGIL, .Kneid: Libr. xii. v. 391—8.
"And now lapis had appeared,
Blest leech ! to Phœbus'-sell" endeared
Beyond all men below ;
On whom the fond, indulgent God
His augury had fain bestowed,
His lyre—his sounding bow!
But he, the further to prolong
A fellow creature's span,
The humbler art of Medicine chose,
The knowledge of each plant that grows,
Plying a craft not known to song,
An unambitious man!"
JOHN WRIGHT AND CO.,
PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, BRISTOL.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
IT may happen that one or another enquirer taking
up this book will ask, to begin with, " What is a
Herbal Simple?" The English word "Simple,"
composed of two Latin words, Singula plica (a
single fold), means " Singleness," whether of
material or purpose.
From primitive times the term " Herbal Simple "
has been applied to any homely curative remedy
consisting of one ingredient only, and that of a
vegetable nature. Many such a native medicine
found favour and success with our single-minded
forefathers, this being the " reverent simplicity of
ancien ter times."
In our own nursery days, as we now fondly
remember, it was : " Simple Simon met a pieman
going to the fair ; said Simple Simon to the pieman,
' Let me taste your ware.' " That ingenuous youth
had but one idea, connected simply with his
stomach ; and his sole thought was how to devour
the contents of the pieman's tin. We venture to
hope our readers may be equally eager to stock their
minds with the sound knowledge of Herbal Simples
which this modest Manual seeks to provide for
their use.
Healing by herbs has always been popular both
vin PREFACE.
with the classic nations of old, and with the British
islanders of more recent times. Two hundred and
sixty years before the date of Hippocrates (460 B.C.)
the prophet Isaiah bade King Hezekiah, when sick
unto death, " take a lump of Figs, and lay it on
the boil ; and straightway the King recovered."
lapis, the favourite pupil of Apollo, was offered
endowments of skill in augury, music, or archery.
But he preferred to acquire a knowledge of herbs
for service of cure in sickness ; and, armed with
this knowledge, he saved the life of iEneas when
grievously wounded by an arrow. He averted the
hero's death by applying the plant " Dittany,"
smooth of leaf, and purple of blossom, as plucked
on the mountain Ida.
It is told in Malvern Chase that Mary of Elders-
field (1454), " whom some called a witch," famous
for her knowledge of herbs and medicaments,
" descending the hill from her hut, with a small
phial of oil, and a bunch of the ' Danewort,'
speedily enabled Lord Edward of March, who had
just then heavily sprained his knee, to avoid danger
by mounting ' Boan Koland ' freed from pain, as it
were by magic, through the plant-rubbing which
Mary administered."
In Shakespeare's time there was a London street,
named Bucklersbury (near the present Mansion
House), noted for its number of druggists who sold
Simples and sweet-smelling herbs. We read, in
PREFACE. ix
The Merry Wives of Windsor, that Sir John
Falstaff flouted the effeminate fops of his day as
" Lisping hawthorn buds that smell like Bucklers-
bury in simple time.,,
Various British herbalists have produced works,
more or less learned and voluminous, about our
native medicinal plants ; but no author has hitherto
radically explained the why and wherefore of their
ultimate curative action. In common with their
early predecessors, these several writers have recog-
nised the healing virtues of the herbs, but have
failed to explore the chemical principles on which
such virtues depend. Some have attributed the
herbal properties to the planets which rule their
growth. Others have associated the remedial herbs
with certain cognate colours, ordaining red flowers
for disorders of the blood, and yellow for those of
the liver. "The exorcised demon of jaundice/'
says Conway, " was consigned to yellow parrots ;
that of inflammatory disease to scarlet, or red
weeds." Again, other herbalists have selected their
healing plants on the doctrine of allied signa-
tures, choosing, for instance, the Viper's Bugloss as
effectual against venomous bites, because of its
resembling a snake ; and the sweet little English
Eyebright, which shows a dark pupil in the centre
of its white ocular corolla, as of signal benefit for
sore and inflamed eyes.
Thus it has continued to happen that until the
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last half-century Herbal Physic has remained only
speculative and experimental, instead of gaining a
solid foothold in the field of medical science. Its
claims have been merely empirical, and its curative
methods those of a blind art :—
" Si vis curari, de morbo nescio quali,
Accipias herbani ; sed quale nescio ; nee qua
Ponas; nescio quo; curabere, nescio quando."
'· Your sore, I know not what, be not foreslow
To cure with herbs, which, where, I do not know ;
Place them, well pounc't, I know not how, and then
You shall be perfect whole, I know not when."
Happily now-a-days, as our French neighbours
would say, Nous avons change tout cela, " Old things
are passed away ; behold all things are become
new ! " Herbal Simples stand to-day safely deter-
mined on sure ground by the help of the accurate
chemist. They hold their own with the best, and
rank high for homely cures, because of their proved
constituents. Their manifest healing virtues are
shown to depend on medicinal elements plainly dis-
closed by analysis. Henceforward the curtain of
oblivion must fall on cordial waters distilled
mechanically from sweet herbs, and on electuaries
artlessly compounded of seeds and roots by a Lady
Monmouth, or a Countess of Arundel, as in the
Stuart and Tudor times. Our Herbal Simples are
fairly entitled at last to independent promotion
from the shelves of the amateur still-room, from
PREFACE. xi
the rustic ventures of the village grandam, and
from the shallow practices of self styled botanical
doctors in the back streets of our cities.
"I do remember au apothecary,—
And hereabouts he dwells,—whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of Simplex ; meagre were his looks ;
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes ; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses
Were thinly scattered to make up a show."
Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. 1.
Chemically assured, therefore, of the sterling
curative powers which our Herbal Simples possess,
and anxious to expound them with a competent
pen, the present author approaches his task with a
zealous purpose, taking as his pattern, from the
Cornus of Milton :—
"A certain shepherd lad
Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled
In every virtuous plant, and healing herb ;
He would beg me sing ;
Which, when I did, lie on the tender grass
Would sit, and hearken even to constancy ;
And in requital ope his leathern scrip,
And show me Simples, of a thousand names,
Telling their strange, and vigorous faculties."
Shakespeare said, three centuries ago, " throw
physic to the dogs." But prior to him, one Doctor
Key, self styled Caius, had written in the Latin
xii PREFACE.
tongue (tempore Henry VIIL), a Medical History
of the British Canine Kace. His book became
popular, though abounding in false concords ; inso-
much that from then until now medical classics
have been held by scholars in poor repute for
grammar, and sound construction. Notwithstand-
ing which risk, many a passage is quoted here of
ancient Herbal lore in the past tongues of Greece,
Eome, and the Gauls. It is fondly hoped that the
apt lines thus borrowed from old faultless sources
will escape reproach for a defective modern render-
ing in Dog Latin, Mongrel Greek, or the " French
of Stratford atte bo we."
Lastly, quaint old Fuller shall lend an appropri-
ate Epilogue. " I stand ready," said he (1672),
" with a pencil in one hand, and a spunge in the
other, to add, alter, insert, efface, enlarge, and
delete, according to better information. And if
these my pains shall be found worthy to passe a
second Impression, my faults I will confess with
shame, and amend with thankfulnesse, to such as
will contribute clearer intelligence unto me."
1895.