Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by William Thomas Fernie (ebook reader with internet browser .TXT) 📖

Manchester, in 1880, as a cure for cancer of the womb, and for some other forms of cancerous disease. From five to ten grains were to be given in a pill, or mixed with mucilage as an emulsion, so that in all daily, after food, and in divided doses, one hundred and eighty grains of this Turpentine were swallowed; and the quantity was gradually increased until five hundred grains a day were taken. In many cases this method of treatment proved undoubtedly useful.

A small quantity of powdered sulphur was also incorporated by Dr. Clay in his Chian pills. About the fourth day the pain was relieved, and the cancerous growth would melt away in a period of from four to thirteen weeks. The arrest of bleeding and the continued freedom from glandular infection after a prolonged use of this Chian Turpentine were highly important points in the improvement produced.

From the Pinus Sylvestris an oil is distilled by steam, and of this from ten drops to a teaspoonful may be given for a dose, in milk, for chronic rheumatism or chronic bronchitis.

[580] It is most useful in the treatment of diphtheria to burn in the room, near the patient, a mixture of turpentine and tar in a pan or deep dish. The fumes serve to dissolve the false membrane, and have helped to effect a cure in desperate cases.

This tree had the Anglo-Saxon name Pimm, from pen, or pin, a sharp rock,—"ab acumine foliorum," or perhaps as a contraction of picinus—pitchy. It furnishes from its leaves an extract, and the volatile oil. Wool is saturated with the latter, and dried, being then made into blankets, jackets, spencers, and stockings, for the use of rheumatic sufferers. There are establishments in Germany where the Pine Cure is pursued by the above means, together with medicated baths. Pine cones were regarded of old by the Assyrians as sacred symbols, and were employed as such in the decoration of their temples. From the tops of the Norway Spruce fir a favourite invigorating drink is brewed which is known in the north as spruce beer. This has an excellent reputation for curing scurvy, chronic rheumatism, and cutaneous maladies. Laplanders make a bread from the inner bark of the Pine.

Tar (pix liquida) is furnished abundantly by the Pinus Sylvestris, or Scotch Fir, and is extracted by heat. The tree is cut into pieces, which are enclosed in a large oven constructed for the purpose: fire is applied, and the liquid tar runs out through an opening at the bottom. It is properly an empyreumatic oil of turpentine, and has been much used in medicine both externally and internally. Tar water was extolled in 1744, by Bishop Berkley, almost as a panacea. He gave it for scurvy, skin eruptions, ulcers, asthma, and rheumatism. It evidently promotes the secretions, especially the urine.

[581] Tar yields pyroligneous acid, oil of tar, and pitch: as well as guiacol and creasote.

Syrup of tar is an officinal medicine in the United States of America for chronic bronchitis, and winter cough. By this the expectoration is made easier, and the sleep at night improved. From one to two teaspoonfuls are given as a dose, with or without water. Also tar pills are prepared of pitch and liquorice powder in equal parts, five grains in the whole pill. Two or three of these may be taken twice or three times in the day.

Tar ointment is highly efficacious against some forms of skin disease; but in eczema and allied maladies of the skin, no preparation of tar should be employed as long as the skin is actively inflamed, or any exudation of moisture is secreted by it.

Dr. Cullen met with a singular practice respecting Tar. A leg of mutton was put to roast, being basted during the whole process with tar instead of butter. Whilst roasting, a sharp skewer was frequently thrust into the substance of the meat to let the juices escape, and with the mixture of tar and gravy found in the dripping pan, the body of the patient was anointed all over for three or four nights consecutively, throughout all this time the same body linen being worn. The plan proved quite successful in curing obstinate lepra.

A famous liquor called "mum" was concocted by the House of Brunswick, some of which was sent to General Monk. It was chiefly brewed from the rind and tops of firs, and was esteemed very powerful against the formation of stone, and to cure all scorbutick distempers. Various herbs, as best approved by the maker, were infused with the mum in concocting it, such as betony, birch, burnet, brooklime, elder-flowers, horse-radish, [582] marjoram, thyme, water-cress, pennyroyal, etc., together with several eggs, "the shells not cracked or broken"! The Germans, especially in Saxony, have so great a veneration for mum that they fancy their bodies can never decay as long as they are lined, and embalmed with so powerful a preserver. The Swedes call the fir "the scorbutick tree" to this day.

Tar is soluble in its own bulk of spirit of wine, rectified, but separates when water is added. Inhaled, its vapour is very useful in chronic bronchitis.

Tar water should be made by stirring a pint of tar with half a gallon of water for fifteen minutes, and then decanting it. From half-a-pint to a pint may be taken daily, and it may be used as a wash. Or from twenty to sixty drops of tar are to be swallowed for a dose several times in the day, whether for chronic catarrhal affections, or for irritable urinary passages. Tar ointment is prepared with five parts of tar to two pounds of yellow wax. It is an excellent application for scald head in a child.

Juniper tar oil is known as "oil of Cade," and Birch tar is got from the Butcher's Broom. A recognised plaster and an ointment are made with Burgundy pitch (from the Picus Picea) and yellow wax.

Probably the modern employment of carbolic acid, and its various combinations—all derived from tar—for neutralising the septic elements of disease, and for acting as germicides, was unknowingly forestalled by the sagacious Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Cloyne, in his Philosophical Reflections and Inquiries concerning the virtues of Tar Water, two centuries ago, when the cup which "cheers but not inebriates" was first told of by him, long before Cowper. Bishop Berkley said, "I do, verily, think there is not any other medicine whatsoever [583] so effectual to restore a crazy constitution and to cheer a dreary mind: or so likely to subvert that gloomy empire of the spleen which tyranniseth over the better sort."

In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, the wife of Joe Gargery is described as possessed of great faith in the curative virtues of Tar water.

VALERIAN.

The great Wild Valerian, or Heal-all (from valere, to be well), grows abundantly throughout this country in moist woods, and on the banks of streams. It is a Benedicta, or blessed herb, being dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as preservative against poisons; and it bears the name of Capon's tail, from its spreading flowers.

When found among bushes, in high pastures, and on dry heaths, it is smaller, with the leaves narrower, but the roots more aromatic, and less nauseous.

The Valerian family of plants is remarkable for producing aromatic and scented genera, which are known as "Nards" (the Spikenard of Scripture), and which are much favoured in Asiatic harems under several varieties, according to the situation of growth. Judas valued the box of ointment made from the Spikenard (Valeriana Jatamansi), with which Mary anointed the feet of our Saviour at two hundred denarii (£6: 9s: 2d.).

We have also the small Marsh Valerian, which is wild, and the cultivated Red Valerian, of our cottage gardens.

The roots of our Wild Valerian exercise a strange fascination over cats, causing an ecstasy of delight in these animals, who become almost intoxicated when brought into contact with the Simple. And rats strangely exhibit the same fondness for these roots [584] which they grub up. It has been suggested that the Pied Piper of Hamelin may have carried one of such roots in his wallet.

They have been given from an early period with much success for hysterical affections, and for epileptic attacks induced by strong emotional excitement, as anger or fear: likewise, they serve as a safe and effectual remedy against habitual constipation when active purgatives have failed to overcome this difficulty.

The plant is largely cultivated for the apothecary's uses about the villages near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. It is named Setwall in the North of England; and, says Gerard, "No broths, pottage, or physicall meats be worth anything if Setwall (a corruption from Zedoar), be not there":—

    "They that will have their heale,
    Must put Setwall in their keale."

The Greeks employed one kind of Valerian named Phu for hanging on doors and windows as a protective charm. But some suppose this to have been a title of aversion, like our English "faugh" against any thing which stinks. Dr. Uvedale introduced the Valerian into his garden, at Eltham Palace, before 1722; and Uvedale House still exists in Church Street, at Chelsea. The herb is sometimes called Cut-heal, not because, as Gerard thought, it is "useful for slight cuts and wounds," but from its attributed efficacy in disorders of the womb (kutte cowth). Joined with Manna, Valerian has proved most useful in epilepsy; and when combined with Guiacum it has resolved scrofulous tumours. In Germany imps are thought to be afraid of it.

At Plymouth, the broad-leaved Red Valerian goes by the name of Drunken Sailor, and Bovisand soldier, the [585] larger sort being distinguished as Bouncing Bess, whilst the smaller, paler kind is known as Delicate Bess throughout the West of Devon.

An officinal tincture is made from the rhizome of Valerian with spirit of wine, of which from one to two teaspoonfuls may be given for a dose, with a little water. Also a tincture (ammoniated) is prepared with aromatic spirit of ammonia on the rhizome, and this is considerably stronger; from twenty to forty drops is a sufficient dose with a spoonful or two of water.

The essential oil of Valerian lessens the sensibility of the spinal cord after primary stimulation of its nervous substance. A drop of this oil in a spoonful of milk will be a proper dose: especially in some forms of constipation.

Used externally, by friction, the volatile oil of Valerian has proved beneficial as a liniment for paralyzed limbs. The powdered root mixed in snuff is of efficacy for weak eyes.

The cultivated plant is less rich in the volatile oil than the wild herb. On exposure to the air Valerian oil becomes oxidised, and forms valerianic acid, which together with an alcohol, "borneol," constitutes the active medicinal part of the plant.

The root also contains malic, acetic, and formic acids, with a resin, tannin, starch, and mucilage. It is by first arousing and then blunting the reflex nervous activities of the spinal cord, that the oil of Valerian overcomes chronic constipation.

Preparations of Valerian act admirably for the relief of nervous headache associated with flatulence, and in a person of sensitive temperament. They likewise do good for infantine colic, and they diminish the urea; when the urine contains it in excess.

[586] The Greek Valerian is another British species, found growing occasionally in the North of England and in Scotland, being known as the blue Jacob's Ladder. It is also named "Make bate," because said to set a married couple quarrelling if put in their bed. This must be a play on its botanical name Polemonium, from the Greek polemos, war. It is called Jacob's Ladder from its successive pairs of leaflets.

VERBENA.

The Verbena, or Common Vervain, is a very familiar herb on waste ground throughout England, limited to no soil, and growing at the entrance into towns and villages, always within a quarter of a mile of a house, and hence called formerly the Simpler's joy. Of old, much credit for curative virtues attached itself to this plant, though it is without odour, and has no taste other than that of slight astringency. But a reputation clings to the vervain because it used to be held sacred, as "Holy Herb," and was employed in sacrificial rites, being worn also around the neck as an amulet. It was called "Tears of Isis" "Tears of Juno" "Persephonion" and "Demetria." The juice was given as a remedy for the plague. Vervain grew on Calvary: and Gerard says "the devil did reveal it as a secret, and divine medicine."

It is a slender plant with but few leaves, and spikes of small lilac flowers, when wild; but its cultivated varieties, developed by the gardener, are showy plants, remarkable for their brilliant colours.

The name Frogfoot has been applied to the Vervain because its leaf somewhat resembles in