The Project Gutenberg eBook, Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William ...

469 Pages·2012·2.53 MB·English

The Project Gutenberg eBook,
Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure,
by William Thomas Fernie

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with
this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure
Author: William Thomas Fernie
Release Date: September 22, 2006 [eBook #19352]
Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
HERBAL SIMPLES APPROVED FOR MODERN USES OF CURE***

Transcribed by Ruth Hart [email protected]
Transcriber's notes:
While most of the book titles and non-English words are italicized, not all of them are, and I have left
the non-italicized terms as is. Page numbers have been placed in square brackets to facilitate the use of
the table of contents and the index.

Converted to PDF for http://natural-remediesinfo.com
PDF file was converted from txt file, no revisions done except adding hyperlinks to table of contents for
easy navigation. Included in the zip file is the txt file.
HERBAL SIMPLES APPROVED FOR
MODERN USES OF CURE

by

W. T. FERNIE, M.D.
Author of "Botanical Outlines," etc_
Second Edition.

"Medicine is mine; what herbs and _Simples_ grow
In fields and forests, all their powers I know."
DRYDEN.

Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1897.
"Jamque aderat Phoebo ante alios dilectus lapis
Iasides: acri quondam cui captus amore
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, _AEnid_: Libr. xii. v. 391-8.

"And now lapis had appeared,
Blest leech! to Phoebus'-self 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!"

[vii]
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 ancienter
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 [xviii] 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."
Iapis, 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 AEneas 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 Eldersfield (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 'Roan Roland' 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 [ix]
_The Merry Wives of Windsor_, that Sir John Falstaff flouted the effeminate fops of his day as "Lisping
hawthorn buds that smell like Bucklersbury 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 where fore of their
ultimate curative action. In common with their early predecessors, these several writers have
recognised 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 signatures, 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 white ocular corolla, as of
signal benefit for inflamed eyes.
Thus it has continued to happen that until the [x] 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 herbam; sed quale nescio; nec quâ
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 changé tout cela_, "Old things
are passed away; behold all things are become new!" Herbal Simples stand to-day safely determined 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 disclosed 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 [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 an apothecary,--
And hereabouts he dwells,--whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
_Culling of Simples_; 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 _Comus_ 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, he 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] tongue (_tempore_ Henry VIII.), a Medical History of the British
Canine Race. His book became popular, though abounding in false concords; insomuch that from then
until now medical classics have been held by scholars in poor repute for grammar, and sound
construction. Notwithstanding which risk, many a passage is quoted here of ancient Herbal lore in the
past tongues of Greece, Rome; and the Gauls. It is fondly hoped that the apt lines thus borrowed from
old faultless sources will escape reproach for a defective modern rendering in Dog Latin, Mongrel Greek,
or the "French of Stratford atte bowe."
Lastly, quaint old Fuller shall lend an appropriate 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.
[xiii]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
On its First Reading, a Bill drafted in Parliament meets with acquiescence from the House on both sides
mainly because its merits and demerits are to be more deliberately questioned when it comes up again
in the future for a second closer Reading, Meanwhile, its faults can be amended, and its omissions
supplied: fresh clauses can be introduced: and the whole scheme of the Bill can be better adapted to the
spirit of the House inferred from its first reception.
In somewhat similar fashion the Second Edition of "Herbal Simples" is now submitted to a Parliament of
readers with the belief that its ultimate success, or failure of purpose, is to depend on its present revised
contents, and the amplified scope of its chapters.
The criticism which public journalists, not a few, thought proper to pass on its First Edition have been
attentively considered herein. It is true their comments were in some cases so conflicting as to be
difficult of practical appliance. The fabled old man and his ass stand always in traditional warning against
futile attempts to satisfy inconsistent objectors, or to carry into effect suggestions made by
irreconcilable censors. "_Quot homines, tot [xiv] sententioe_," is an adage signally verified when a fresh
venture is made on the waters of chartered opinion. How shall the perplexed navigator steer his course
when monitors in office accuse him on the one hand of lax precision throughout, and belaud him on the
other for careful observance of detail? Or how shall he trim his sails when a contemptuous Standard-
bearer, strangely uninformed on the point, ignores, as a leader of any repute, "one Gerard," a former
famous Captain of the Herbal fleet? With the would-be Spectator's lament that Gerard's graphic
drawings are regrettedly wanting here, the author is fain to concur. He feels that the absence of
appropriate cuts to depict the various herbs is quite a deficiency: but the hope is inspired that a still
future Edition may serve to supply this need. Certain botanical mistakes pointed out with authority by
the _Pharmaceutical Journal _have here been duly corrected: and as many as fifty additional Simples
will be found described in the present Enlarged Edition. At the same time a higher claim than hitherto
made for the paramount importance of the whole subject is now courageously advanced.
To all who accept as literal truth the Scriptural account of the Garden of Eden it must be evident how
intimately man's welfare from the first was made to depend on his uses of trees and herbs. The labour
of earning his bread in the sweat of his brow by tilling the ground: and the penalty of [xv] and thistles
produced thereupon, were alike incurred by Eve's disobedience in plucking the forbidden fruit: and a
signified possibility of man's eventful share in the tree of life, to "put forth his hand, and eat, and live for
ever," has been more than vaguely revealed. So that with almost a sacred mission, and with an exalted
motive of supreme usefulness, this Manual of healing Herbs is published anew, to reach, it is hoped, and
to rescue many an ailing mortal.
Against its main principle an objection has been speciously raised, which at first sight appears of
subversive weight; though, when further examined, it is found to be clearly fallacious. By an able but
carping critic it was alleged that the mere chemical analysis of old-fashioned Herbal Simples makes their
medicinal actions no less empirical than before: and that a pedantic knowledge of their constituent
parts, invested with fine technical names, gives them no more scientific a position than that which our
fathers understood.
But, taking, for instance, the herb Rue, which was formerly brought into Court to protect a and the
Bench from gaol fever, and other infectious disease; no one knew at the time by what particular virtue
the Rue could exercise this salutary power. But more recent research has taught, that the essential oil
contained in this, and other allied aromatic herbs, such as Elecampane, [xvi] Rosemary, and Cinnamon,
serves by its germicidal principles (stearoptens, methyl-ethers, and camphors), to extinguish bacterial
life which underlies all contagion. In a parallel way the antiseptic diffusible oils of Pine, Peppermint, and
Thyme, are likewise employed with marked success for inhalation into the lungs by consumptive
patients. Their volatile vapours reach remote parts of the diseased air-passages, and heal by destroying
the morbid germs which perpetuate mischief therein. It need scarcely be said the very existence of
these causative microbes, much less any mode of cure by their abolishment, was quite unknown to
former Herbal Simplers.
Again, in past times a large number of our native, plants acquired a well-deserved, but purely empirical
celebrity, for curing scrofula and scurvy. But later discovery has shown that each of these several herbs
contains lime, and earthy salts, in a subtle form of high natural sub-division: whilst, at the same time,
the law of cure by medicinal similars has established the cognate fact that to those who inherit a
strumous taint, infinitesimal doses of these earth salts are incontestably curative. The parents had first
undergone a gradual impairment of health because of calcareous matters to excess in their general
conditions of sustenance; and the lime proves potent to cure in the offspring what, through the parental
surfeit, was entailed as [xvii] a heritage of disease. Just in the same way the mineral waters of
Missisquoi, and Bethesda, in America, through containing siliceous qualities so sublimated as almost to
defy the analyst, are effective to cure cancer, albuminuria, and other organic complaints.
Nor is this by any means a new policy of cure. Its barbaric practice has long since obtained, even in
African wilds, where the native snake doctor inoculates with his prepared snake poison to save the life
of a victim otherwise fatally bitten by another snake of the same deadly virus. To Ovid, of Roman fame
(20 B.C.), the same sanative axiom was also indisputably known as we learn from his lines:--

"Tunc observatas augur descendit in herbas;
Usus et auxilio est anguis ab angue dato."

"Then searched the Augur low mid grass close scanned
For snake to heal a snake-envenomed hand."
And with equal cogency other arguments, which are manifold, might be readily adduced, as of
congruous force, to vindicate our claim in favour of analytical knowledge over blind experience in the
methods of Herbal cure, especially if this be pursued on the broad lines of enlightened practice by
similars.
So now, to be brief, and to change our allegory, "on the banks of the Nile," as Mrs. Malaprop would
have pervertingly put it, with "a nice [xviii] derangement of epitaphs," we invite our many guests to a
simple "dinner of herbs." Such was man's primitive food in Paradise: "every green herb bearing seed,
and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed:" "the green herb for meat for every beast
of the earth, and every fowl of the air." What better Preface can we indite than a grace to be said before
sitting down to the meal? "Sallets," it is hoped, will be found "in the lines to make the matter savoury."
Far be it from our object to preach a prelude of texts, or to weary those at our board I with a
meaningless long benediction. "'Tis not so plain as the old Hill of Howth," said tender-hearted witty Tom
Hood, with serio-comic truth, "a man has got his belly full of meat, because he talks with victuals in his
mouth." Rather would we choose the "russet Yeas and honest kersey Noes" of sturdy yeoman speech;
and cheerfully taking the head of our well-stocked table, ask in homely terms that "God will bless these
the good creatures of His Herbal Simples to our saving uses, and us to His grateful service."

1897.

[xix]