---- Rectory, Hereford.
Herbs of all kinds were, some two hundred years ago, esteemed of much value
as medicine; for in a curious, and I believe rather scarce, pharmacopoeia
by Wm. Salmon, date 1693, I find some 414 pages devoted to their uses. This
pharmacopoeia, or _Compleat English Physician_, was dedicated to Mary,
second Queen of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, &c., and appears to
have been the first. The preface says "it was the first of that kind extant
in the world, a subject for which we have no precedent."
"I have not trusted," he says, "to the reports of authors, but have
wrote as an eye-witness in describing most things therein; and it is
nothing but what I know and have learnt by daily experience for thirty
years together, so that my prescriptions may in some measure plead a
privilege above the performances of other men."
1. _Capsella_ (_Bursa pastoris_) he describes as cold 1^o, and dry in 2^o,
binding and astringent. Good against spitting of blood or haemorrhage of
the nose, and other fluxes of the bowels. The leaves, of which [dr.]j. in
powder may be given. The juice inspissate, drunk with wine, helps ague. A
cataplasm applied in inflammations, Anthony's fire, &c., represses them.
2. _Veronica Chamaedrys_ he calls _Euphrasia_, _Euphrosunee_, and says it
is much commended by Arnoldus de Villa Nova, who asserts that it not only
helps dimness of the sight, but the use of it {37} makes old men to read
small letters without spectacles, who could scarcely read great letters
with spectacles before; but that it did restore their sight who had been a
long time blind. Truly a most wonderful plant; and, if he freely used it,
must have been a great drawback to spectacle-makers.
3. _Primula veris_, he says, more properly belongs to the primrose than
cowslip. The root is haumatic, and helps pains in the back. The herb is
cephalic, neurotic, and arthritic. The juice or essence, with spirits of
wine, stops all manner of fluxes, is excellent against palsy, gout, and
pains, and distempers of the nerves and joints. A cataplasm of the juice,
with rye meal, is good against luxations and ruptures. The flowers are good
against palsy, numbness, convulsions, and cramps, being given in a
sulphurous or a saline tincture, or an oily tincture, or an essence of the
juice with spirits of wine. The juice of the flowers, or an ointment of the
_flower_ or its juice, cleanses the skin from spots, though the worthy old
physician only gives a receipt for making essence as follows: Beat the
whole plant well in a mortar; add to it an equal quantity of brandy or
spirits of wine; close up tight in a large bolt-head, and set it to digest
in a very gentle sand-heat for three months. Strain out all the liquor,
which close up in a bolt-head again, and digest in a gentle sand-heat for
two months more. Rather a troublesome and slow process this.
4. _Geum urbanum_ he calls _Caryophyllata_, _Herba benedicta_, and _Geum
Plinii_, and should be gathered, he says, in the middle of March, for then
it smells sweetest, and is most aromatic. Hot and dry in the 2^o, binding,
strengthening, discussive, cephalic, neurotic, and cardiac. Is a good
preservative against epidemic and contagious disease; helps digestion. The
powder of the root, dose [dr.]j. The decoction, in wine, stops spitting of
blood, dose [dr.]ss to [dr.]jss. The saline tincture opens all obstructions
of the viscera, dose [dr.]j to [dr.]iij.
Should ENIVRI wish to know the medical virtues of our wild plants, I have
no doubt but that this worthy old physician will tell him what virtues they
were considered to possess in his day, at least by himself; and I can
assure him that 1195 of the _English Physician's_ pages ascribe marvellous
properties, not only to plants, but to animals, fish, and even the bones of
a stag's heart.