Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 25

HYSSOP.

The cultivated Hyssop, now of frequent occurrence in the herb-bed, and a favourite plant there because of its fragrance, belongs to the l.a.b.i.ate order, and possesses cordial qualities which give it rank as a Simple. It has pleasantly odorous striped leaves which vary in colour, and possess a camphoraceous odour, with a warm aromatic bitter taste. This is of comparatively recent introduction into our gardens, not having been [278] cultivated until Gerard's time, about 1568, and not being a native English herb.

The _Ussopos_ of Dioscorides, was named from _azob_, a holy herb, because used for cleansing sacred places. Hence it is alluded to in this sense scripturally: "Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm li. 7).

Solomon wrote "of all trees, from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall." The healing virtues of the plant are due to a particular volatile oil which admirably promotes expectoration in bronchial catarrh and asthma. Hyssop tea is a grateful drink well adapted to improve the tone of a feeble stomach, being brewed with the green tops of the herb. The same parts of the plant are sometimes boiled in soup to be given for asthma. The leaves and flowers are of a warm pungent taste, and of an agreeable aromatic smell; therefore if the tops and blossoms are reduced to a powder and added to cold salad herbs they give a comforting cordial virtue.

There was formerly made a distilled water of Hyssop, which may still be had from some druggists, it being deemed a good pectoral medicine. In America an infusion of the leaves is used externally for the relief of muscular rheumatism, as also for bruises and discoloured contusions. The herb was sometimes called Rosemary in the East, and was hung up to afford protection from the evil eye, as well as to guard against witches.

To make Hyssop tea, one drachm of the herb should be infused in a pint of boiling water, and allowed to become cool. Then a winegla.s.sful is to be given as a dose two or three times in the day.

Of the essential oil of Hyssop, from one to two drops [279] should be the dose. Pliny said: "Hyssop mixed with figs, purges; with honey, vomits." If the herb be steeped in boiling water and applied hot to the part, it will quickly remove the blackness consequent upon a bruise or blow, especially in the case of "black" or blood-shot eyes.

Parkinson says that in his day "the golden hyssop was of so pleasant a colour that it provoked every gentlewoman to wear them in their heads, and on their arms with as much delight as many fine flowers can give." The leaves are striped conspicuously with white or yellow; for which reason, and because of their fragrance, the herb is often chosen to be planted on graves. The green herb, bruised and applied, will heal cuts promptly. Its tea will a.s.sist in promoting the monthly courses for women. Hyssop grows wild in middle and southern Europe.

The Hedge Hyssop (_Gratiola officinalis_), or Water Hyssop, is quite a different plant from the garden pot-herb, and belongs to the scrofula-curing order, with far more active medicinal properties than the Hyssop proper. The commonly recognized Hedge Hyssop bears a pale yellow, or a pale purple flower, like that of the Foxglove; and the whole plant has a very bitter taste. A medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the entire herb, of which from eight to ten drops may be taken with a tablespoonful of cold water three times in the day. It will afford relief against nervous weakness and shakiness, such as occur after an excessive use of coffee or tobacco. The t.i.tle "gratiola," is from _dei gratia_, "by the grace of G.o.d."

The juice of the plant purges briskly, and may be usefully employed in some forms of dropsy. Its decoction is milder of action, and proves beneficial [280] in cases of jaundice. In France the plant is cultivated as a perfume, and it is said to be an active ingredient in the famous _Eau medicinale_ for gout.

Of the dried leaves from five to twenty-five grains will act as a drastic vermifuge to expel worms. The root resembles ipecacuanha in its effects, and in moderate quant.i.ties, as a powder or decoction, helps to stay b.l.o.o.d.y fluxes and purgings. The flowers are sometimes of a blood-red hue, and the whole plant contains a special essential oil.

"Whoso taketh," says Parkinson, "but one scruple of _Gratiola_ (Hedge Hyssop) bruised, shall perceive evidently his effectual operation and virtue in purging mightily, and that in great abundance, watery, gross, and slimy tumours." _Caveat qui sumpserit_. On the principle of affinities, small diluted doses of the tincture, or decoction, or of the dried leaves, prove curative in cases of fluxes from the lower bowels, where irritation within the fundament is frequent, and where there is considerable nervous exhaustion, especially in chronic cases of this sort.

IVY, Common (_Araliaceoe_).

The clergyman of fiction in the sixth chapter of d.i.c.kens' memorable _Pickwick_, sings certain verses which he styles "indifferent" (the only verse, by the way, to be found in all that great writer's stories), and which relate to the Ivy, beginning thus:--

"Oh! a dainty plant is the Ivy green, That creepeth o'er ruins old."

The well known common Ivy (_Hedera helix_), which clothes the trunks of trees and the walls of old buildings so picturesquely throughout Great Britain, gets its botanical name most probably from the Celtic word _hoedra _[281] "a cord," or from the Greek _hedra_ "a seat," because sitting close, and its vernacular t.i.tle from _iw_ "green," which is also the parent of "yew." In Latin it is termed _abiga_, easily corrupted to "iva"; and the Danes knew it as Winter-grunt, or Winter-green, to which appellation it may still lay a rightful claim, being so conspicuously green at the coldest times of the year when trees are of themselves bare and brown.

By the ancients the Ivy was dedicated to Bacchus, whose statues were crowned with a wreath of the plant, under the name Kissos, and whose wors.h.i.+ppers decorated themselves with its garlands. The leaves have a peculiar faintly nauseous odour, whilst they are somewhat bitter, and rough of taste. The fresh berries are rather acid, and become bitter when dried. They are much eaten by our woodland birds in the spring.

A crown of Ivy was likewise given to the cla.s.sic poets of distinction, and the Greek priests presented a wreath of the same to newly married persons. The custom of decorating houses and churches with Ivy at Christmastide, was forbidden by one of the early councils on account of its Pagan a.s.sociations. Prynne wrote with reference to this decree:--

"At Christmas men do always Ivy get, And in each corner of the house it set, But why make use then of that Bacchus weed?

Because they purpose Bacchus-like to feed."

The Ivy, though sending out innumerable small rootlets, like suckers, in every direction (which are really for support) is not a parasite. The plant is rooted in the soil and gets its sustenance therefrom.

Chemically, its medicinal principles depend on the special balsamic resin contained in the leaves and stems, as well as const.i.tuting the aromatic gum.

[282] Ivy flowers have little or no scent, but their yield of nectar is particularly abundant.

When the bark of the main stems is wounded, a gum will exude, and may be collected: it possesses astringent and mildly aperient properties. This was at one time included as a medicine in the Edinburgh _Pharmacopoeia_, but it has now fallen out of such authoritative use. Its chemical principle is "hederin." The gum is anti-spasmodic, and promotes the monthly flow of women.

An infusion of the berries will relieve rheumatism, and a decoction of the leaves applied externally will destroy vermin in the heads of children.

Fresh Ivy leaves will afford signal relief to corns when they shoot, and are painful. Good John Wesley, who dabbled in "domestic medicine," and with much sagacity of observation, taught that having bathed the feet, and cut the corns, and having mashed some fresh Ivy leaves, these are to be applied: then by repeating the remedial process for fifteen days the corns will be cured.

During the Great Plague of London, Ivy berries were given with some success as possessing antiseptic virtues, and to induce perspiration, thus effecting a remission of the symptoms. Cups made from Ivywood have been employed from which to drink for disorders of the spleen, and for whooping cough, their method of use being to be kept refilled from time to time with water (cold or hot), which the patient is to constantly sip.

Ivy gum dissolved in vinegar is a good filling for a hollow tooth which is causing neuralgic toothache: and an infusion of the leaves made with cold water, will, after standing for twenty-four hours, relieve sore and smarting eyes if used rather frequently as a lotion.

A decoction of the leaves and berries will mitigate a [283] severe headache, such as that which follows hard drinking over night. And it may have come about that from some rude acquaintance with this fact the baccha.n.a.ls adopted goblets carved out of Ivywood.

This plant is especially hardy, and suffers but little from the smoke and the vitiated air of a manufacturing town. Chemically, such medicinal principles as the Ivy possesses depend on the special balsamic resin contained in its leaves and stems; as well as on its particular gum. Bibulous old Bacchus was always represented in cla.s.sic sculpture with a wreath of Ivy round his laughing brows; and it has been said that if the foreheads of those whose potations run deep were bound with frontlets of Ivy the nemesis of headache would be prevented thereby. But legendary lore teaches rather that the infant Bacchus was an object of vengeance to Juno, and that the nymphs of Nisa concealed him from her wrath, with trails of Ivy as he lay in his cradle.

At one time our taverns bore over their doors the sign of an Ivybush, to indicate the excellence of the liquor supplied within. From which fact arose the saying that "good wine needs no bush," "_Vinum vendibile hedera non est opus_." And of this text Rosalind cleverly avails herself in _As You Like It_, "If it be true" says she, "that good wine needs no bush,"--"'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue."

IVY (Ground).

This common, and very familiar little herb, with its small Ivy-like aromatic leaves, and its striking whorls of dark blue blossoms conspicuous in early spring time, comes into flower pretty punctually about the third or fourth of April, however late or early the season may be. Its name is attributed to the resemblance borne [284] by its foliage to that of the true Ivy (_Hedera helix_). The whole plant possesses a balsamic odour, and an aromatic taste, due to its particular volatile oil, and its characteristic resin, as a fragrant l.a.b.i.ate herb. It remaineth green not only in summer, but also in winter, at all times of the year.

From the earliest days it has been thought endowed with singular curative virtues chiefly against nervous headaches, and for the relief of chronic bronchitis. Ray tells of a remarkable instance in the person of a Mr. Oldacre who was cured of an obstinate chronic headache by using the juice or the powdered leaves of the Ground Ivy as snuff: _Succus hujus plantoe naribus attractus cephalalgiam etiam vehementissimam et inveteratam non lenit tantum, sed et penitus aufert_; and he adds in further praise of the herb: _Medicamentum hoc non satis potest laudari; si res ex usu oestimarentur, auro oequiparandum_. An infusion of the fresh herb, or, if made in winter, from its dried leaves, and drank under the name of Gill tea, is a favourite remedy with the poor for coughs of long standing, accompanied with much phlegm. One ounce of the herb should be infused in a pint of boiling water, and a winegla.s.sful of this when cool is to be taken three or four times in the day. The botanical name of the plant is _Nepeta glechoma_, from _Nepet_, in Tuscany, and the Greek _gleechon_, a mint.

Resembling Ivy in miniature, the leaves have been used in weaving chaplets for the dead, as well as for adorning the Alestake erected as a sign at taverns. For this reason, and because formerly in vogue for clearing the ale drank by our Saxon ancestors, the herb acquired the names of Ale hoof, and Tun hoof ("tun" signifying a garden, and "hoof" or "hufe" a coronal or chaplet), [285] or Hove, "because,"

says Parkinson, "it spreadeth as a garland upon the ground." Other t.i.tles which have a like meaning are borne by the herb, such as "Gill go by the ground," and Haymaids, or Hedgemaids; the word "gill"

not only relating to the fermentation of beer, but meaning also a maid. This is shown in the saying, "Every Jack should have his Gill, or Jill"; and the same notion was conveyed by the sobriquet "haymaids." Again in some districts the Ground Ivy is called "Lizzy run up the hedge," "Cat's-foot" (from the soft flower heads), "Devil's candlesticks," "Aller," and in Germltny "Thundervine," also in the old English ma.n.u.scripts "Hayhouse," "Halehouse," and "Horshone."

The whole plant was employed by our Saxon progenitors to clarify their so-called beer, before hops had been introduced for this purpose; and the place of refreshment where the beverage was sold bore the name of a "Gill house."

In _A Thousand Notable Things_, it is stated, "The juice of Ground Ivy sniffed up into the nostrils out of a spoon, or a saucer, purgeth the head marvellously, and taketh away the greatest and oldest pain thereof that is: the medicine is worth gold, though it is very cheap."

Small hairy tumours may often be seen in the autumn on the leaves of the Ground Ivy occasioned (says Miss Pratt) by the punctures of the _cynips glech.o.m.oe_ from which these galls spring. They have a strong flavour of the plant, and are sometimes eaten by the peasantry of France. The volatile oil on which the special virtues of the Ground Ivy depend exudes from small glandular dots on the under surface of the leaves. This is the active ingredient of Gill tea made by country persons, and sweetened with honey, sugar, or liquorice. Also the expressed juice of the herb is [286] equally effectual, being diaph.o.r.etic, diuretic, and somewhat astringent against bleedings.

Gerard says that in his day "the Ground Ivy was commended against the humming sound, and ringing noises of the ears by being put into them, and for those that are hard of hearing. Also boiled in mutton broth it helpeth weak and aching backs." Dr. Thornton tells us in his _Herbal _(1810) that "Ground Ivy was at one time amongst the 'cries' of London, for making a tea to purify the blood," and Dr.

Pitcairn extolled this plant before all other vegetable medicines for the cure of consumption. Perhaps the name Ground Ivy was transferred at first to the _Nepeta_ from the Periwinkle, about which we read in an old distich of Stockholm:--

"Parvenke is an erbe green of colour, In time of May he bereth blo flour, His stalkes are so feynt and feye That nevermore groweth he heye: On the grounde he rynneth and growe As doth the erbe that _hyth tunhowe_; The lef is thicke, schinende and styf As is the grene Ivy leef: Uniche brod, and nerhand rownde; Men call it the _Ivy of the grounde_."

In the _Organic Materia Medica_ of Detroit, U.S.A., 1890, it is stated, "Painters use the Ground Ivy (_Nepeta glechoma_) as a remedy for, and a preventive of lead colic." An infusion is given (the ounce to a pint of boiling water)--one winegla.s.sful for a dose repeatedly. In the relief which it affords as a snuff made from the dried leaves to congestive headache of a pa.s.sive continued sort, this benefit is most probably due partly to the special t.i.tillating aroma of the plant, and partly to the copious defluxion of mucus and tears from the nasal pa.s.sages, and the eyes.

[287] JOHN'S WORT.

The wild Saint John's Wort (_Hyperic.u.m peiforatum_) is a frequent plant in our woods and hedgebanks, having leaves studded with minute translucent vesicles, which seem to perforate their structure, and which contain a terebinthinate oil of fragrant medicinal virtues.

The name _Hyperic.u.m_ is derived from the two Greek words, _huper eikon_, "over an apparition," because of its supposed power to exorcise evil spirits, or influences; whence it was also formerly called _Fuga doemoniorum_, "the Devil's Scourge," "the Grace of G.o.d," "the Lord G.o.d's Wonder Plant." and some other names of a like import, probably too, because found to be of curative use against insanity. Again, it used to be ent.i.tled _Hexenkraut_, and "Witch's Herb," on account of its reputed magical powers.

Matthiolus said, _Scripsere quidam Hyperic.u.m adeo odisse doemones, ut ejus suffitu statim avolent_, "Certain writers have said that the St. John's Wort is so detested by evil spirits that they fly off at a whiff of its odour."

Further names of the herb are "Amber," "Hundred Holes," and _Sol terrestris_, the "Terrestrial Sun," because it was believed that all the spirits of darkness vanish in its presence, as at the rising of the sun.

For children troubled with incontinence of urine at night, and who wet their beds, an infusion, or tea, of the St. John's Wort is an admirable preventive medicine, which will stop this untoward infirmity.