Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 6

The common Buckthorn grows in our woods and thickets, and used to be popularly known because of the purgative syrup made from its juice and berries. It bears dense branches of small green flowers, followed by the black berries, which purge violently. If gathered before they are ripe they furnish a yellow dye. When ripe, if mixed with gum arabic and lime water, they form the pigment called "Bladder Green." Until late in the present century-- _O dura ilia messorum!_--English rustics, when requiring an aperient dose for themselves or their children, had recourse to the syrup of Buckthorn. But its action was so severe, and attended with such painful gripings, that as time went on the medicine was discarded, and it is now employed in this respect almost exclusively by the cattle doctor. Dodoeus taught about Buckthorn berries: "They be not meet to be administered but to young and l.u.s.ty people of the country, which do set more store of their money than their lives." The shrub grows chiefly on chalk, and near brooks. The name Buckthorn is from the German _buxdorn_, boxthorn, hartshorn. In Anglo-Saxon it was Heorot-bremble. It is also known as Waythorn, Rainberry Thorn, Highway Thorn and Rhineberries. Each of the berries contains four seeds: and the flesh of birds which eat thereof is said to be purgative. When the juice is given medicinally it causes a bad stomach-ache, with much dryness of the throat: for which reason Sydenham [70] always ordered a basin of soup to be given after it. Chemically the active principle of the Buckthorn is "rhamno-cathartine." Likewise a milder kind of Buckthorn, which is much more useful as a Simple, grows freely in England, the _Rhamnus frangula_ or so-called "black berry-bearing Alder," though this appellation is a mistake, because botanically the Alder never bears any berries. This black Buckthorn is a slender shrub, which occurs in our woods and thickets. The juice of its berries is aperient, without being irritating, and is well suited as a laxative for persons of delicate const.i.tution. It possesses the merit of continuing to answer in smaller doses after the patient has become habituated to its use. The berry of the _Rhamnus frangula _may be known by its containing only two seeds. Country people give the bark boiled in ale for jaundice; and this bark is the black dogwood of gunpowder makers. Lately a certain aperient medicine has become highly popular with both doctors and patients in this country, the same being known as Cascara Sagrada. It is really an American Buckthorn, the _Rhamnus Persiana_, and it possesses no true advantage over our black Alder Buckthorn, though the bark of this latter must be used a year old, or it will cause griping. A fluid extract of the English mild Buckthorn, or of the American Cascara, is made by our leading druggists, of which from half to one teaspoonful may be given for a dose. This is likewise a tonic to the intestines, and is especially useful for relieving piles.

Lozenges also of the Alder Buckthorn are dispensed under the name of "Aperient Fruit Lozenges;" one, or perhaps two, being taken for a dose as required.

There is a Sea Buckthorn, _Hippophoe_, which belongs to a different natural order, _Eloeagnaceoe_, a low shrubby tree, [71]

growing on sandhills and cliffs, and called also Sallowthorn. The fruit is made (in Tartary) into a pleasant jelly, because of its acid flavour, and used in the Gulf of Bothnia for concocting a fish sauce.

The name signifies "giving light to a horse," being conferred because of a supposed power to cure equine blindness; or it may mean "s.h.i.+ning underneath," in allusion to the silvery underside of the leaf.

The old-fas.h.i.+oned Cathartic Buckthorn of our hedges and woods has spinous th.o.r.n.y branchlets, from which its name, _Rhamnus_, is thought to be derived, because the shrub is set with thorns like as the ram. At one time this Buckthorn was a botanical puzzle, even to Royalty, as the following lines a.s.sure us:--

"Hic.u.m, peridic.u.m; all clothed in green; The King could not tell it, no more could the Queen; So they sent to consult wise men from the East.

Who said it had horns, though it was not a beast."

BURNET SAXIFRAGE (_see_ Pimpernel).

b.u.t.tERCUP.

The most common b.u.t.tercup of our fields (_Ranunculus bulbosis_) needs no detailed description. It belongs to the order termed _Ranunculaceoe_, so-called from the Latin _rana_, a frog, because the several varieties of this genus grow in moist places where frogs abound. Under the general name of b.u.t.tercups are included the creeping Ranunculus, of moist meadows; the _Ranunculus acris_, Hunger Weed, or Meadow Crowfoot, so named from the shape of the leaf (each of these two being also called King Cup), and the _Ranunculus bulbosus_ mentioned above. "King-Cob" signifies a resemblance between the unexpanded flowerbud and [72] a stud of gold, such as a king would wear; so likewise the folded calyx is named Goldcup, Goldk.n.o.b and Cuckoobud. The term b.u.t.tercup has become conferred through a mistaken notion that this flower gives b.u.t.ter a yellow colour through the cows feeding on it (which is not the case), or, perhaps, from the polished, oily surface of the petals.

The designation really signifies "b.u.t.ton cop," or _bouton d'or_; "the batchelor's b.u.t.ton"; this terminal syllable, _cup_, being corrupted from the old English word "cop," a head. It really means "b.u.t.ton head." The b.u.t.tercup generally is known in Wilts.h.i.+re and the adjoining counties as Crazy, or Crazies, being reckoned by some as an insane plant calculated to produce madness; or as a corruption of Christseye (which was the medieval name of the Marigold).

A burning acridity of taste is the common characteristic of the several varieties of the b.u.t.tercup. In its fresh state the ordinary field b.u.t.tercup is so acrimonious that by merely pulling up the plant by its root, and carrying it some little distance in the hand, the palm becomes reddened and inflamed. Cows will not eat it unless very hungry, and then the mouth of the animal becomes sore and blistered. The leaves of the b.u.t.tercup, when bruised and applied to the skin, produce a blistering of the outer cuticle, with a discharge of a watery fluid, and with heat, redness, and swelling.

If these leaves are masticated in the mouth they will induce pains like a st.i.tch between the ribs at the side, with the sharp catchings of neuralgic rheumatism. A medicinal tincture is made (H.) from the bulbous b.u.t.tercup with spirit of wine, which will, as a similar, cure _s.h.i.+ngles_ very expeditiously, both the outbreak of small watery pimples cl.u.s.tered together at the side, and the accompanying sharp pains between the ribs. Also this tincture will [73] promptly relieve neuralgic side-ache, and pleurisy which is of a pa.s.sive sort. From six to eight drops of the tincture may be taken with a tablespoonful of cold water by an adult three or four times a day for either of the aforesaid purposes. In France, this plant is called "jaunet." b.u.t.tercups are most probably the "Cuckoo Buds"

immortalised by Shakespeare. The fresh leaves of the Crowfoot (_Ranunculus acris_) formed a part of the famous cancer cure of Mr. Plunkett in 1794. This cure comprised Crowfoot leaves, freshly gathered, and dog's-foot fennel leaves, of each an ounce, with one drachm of white a.r.s.enic levigated, and with five scruples of flowers of sulphur, all beaten together into a paste, and dried by the sun in b.a.l.l.s, which were then powdered, and, being mixed with yolk of egg, were applied on pieces of pig's bladder. The juice of the common b.u.t.tercup (_Bulbosus_), known sometimes as "St.

Anthony's Turnip," if applied to the nostrils, will provoke sneezing, and will relieve pa.s.sive headache in this way. The leaves have been applied as a blister to the wrists in rheumatism, and when infused in boiling water as a poultice over the pit of the stomach as a counter-irritant. For sciatica the tincture of the bulbous b.u.t.tercup has proved very helpful.

The _Ranunculus flammata_, Spearwort, has been used to produce a slight blistering effect by being put under a limpet sh.e.l.l against the skin of the part to be relieved, until some smarting and burning have been sensibly produced, with incipient vesication of the outermost skin.

The _Ranunculus Sceleratus_, Marsh Crowfoot, or Celery-leaved b.u.t.tercup, called in France "_herbe sardonique_," and "_grenouillette d'eau_," when made into a tincture (H.) with spirit of wine, and given in small diluted doses, proves curative of st.i.tch in the side, and of neuralgic pains between the ribs, likewise of pleurisy without [74] feverishness. The dose should be five drops of the third decimal tincture with a spoonful of water every three or four hours. This plant grows commonly at the sides of our pools, and in wet ditches, bearing numerous small yellow flowers, with petals scarcely longer than the calyx.

CABBAGE.

"The time has come," as the walrus said in _Alice and the Looking Gla.s.s_, "to talk of many things"--

"Of shoes, and s.h.i.+ps, and sealing-wax; of _Cabbages_, and kings."

The Cabbage, which is fabled to have sprung from the tears of the Spartan lawgiver, Lycurgus, began as the Colewort, and was for six hundred years, according to Pliny and Cato, the only internal remedy used by the Romans. The Ionians had such a veneration for Cabbages that they swore by them, just as the Egyptians did by the onion. With ourselves, the wild Cabbage, growing on our English sea cliffs, is the true Collet, or Colewort, from which have sprung all our varieties of Cabbage--cauliflower, greens, broccoli, etc. No vegetables were grown for the table in England before the time of Henry the Eighth. In the thirteenth century it was the custom to salt vegetables because they were so scarce; and in the sixteenth century a Cabbage from Holland was deemed a choice present.

The whole tribe of Cabbages is named botanically _Bra.s.sicaceoe-- apo tou bra.s.sein_--because they heat, or ferment.

By natural order they are cruciferous plants; and all contain much nitrogen, or vegetable alb.u.men, with a considerable quant.i.ty of sulphur; hence they tend strongly to putrefaction, and when decomposed their odour is very offensive. Being cut into pieces, and pressed close in a tub with aromatic herbs and salt, so as to undergo an acescent fermentation (which is [75] arrested at that stage), Cabbages form the German _Saurkraut_, which is strongly recommended against scurvy. The white Cabbage is most putrescible; the red most emollient and pectoral. The juice of the red cabbage made into syrup, without any condiments, is useful in chronic coughs, and in bronchial asthma. The leaves of the common white Cabbage, when gently bruised and applied to a blistered surface, will promote a free discharge, as also when laid next the skin in dropsy of the ankles. All the Coleworts are called "Crambe," from _krambos_, dry, because they dispel drunkenness.

"There is," says an old author, "a natural enmitie between the Colewort and the vine, which is such that the vine, if growing near unto it, withereth and perisheth; yea, if wine be poured into the Colewort while it is boiling, it will not be any more boiled, and the colour thereof will be quite altered." The generic term Colewort is derived from _caulis_, a stalk, and _wourte_, as applied to all kinds of herbs that "do serve for the potte." "Good worts,"

exclaimed Falstaff, catching at Evans' faulty p.r.o.nunciation of _words_,--"good worts,"--"good cabbages." An Irish cure for sore throat is to tie Cabbage leaves round it; and the same remedy is applied in England with hot Cabbage leaves for a swollen face. In the Island of Jersey coa.r.s.e Cabbages are grown abundantly on patches of roadside ground, and in corners of fields, the stalks of which attain the height of eight, ten, or more feet, and are used for making walking sticks or _cannes en tiges de choux_. These are in great demand on the island, and are largely exported. It may be that a specially tall cabbage of this sort gave rise to the Fairy tale of "Jack and the bean stalk." The word Cabbage bears reference [76] to _caba (caput)_, a head, as signifying a Colewort which forms a round head. _Kohl rabi_, from _caulo-rapum_, cabbage turnip, is a name given to the _Bra.s.sica oleracea_. In 1595 the sum of twenty s.h.i.+llings was paid for six Cabbages and a few carrots, at the port of Hull, by the purveyor to the Clifford family.

The red Cabbage is thought in France to be highly anti-s...o...b..tic; and a syrup is made from it with this purpose in view. The juice of white Cabbage leaves will cure warts.

The _Bra.s.sica oleracea_ is one of the plants used in Count Mattaei's vaunted nostrum, "anti-scrofuloso." This, the sea Cabbage, with its pale cl.u.s.ters of handsome yellow flowers, is very ornamental to our cliffs. Its leaves, which are conspicuously purple, have a bitter taste when uncooked, but become palatable for boiling if first repeatedly washed; and they are sold at Dover as a market vegetable. These should be boiled in two waters, of which the first will be made laxative, and the second, or thicker decoction, astringent, which fact was known to Hippocrates, who said "_jus caulis solvit cujus substantia stringit_."

Sir Anthony Ashley brought the Cabbage into English cultivation.

It is said a Cabbage is sculptured at his feet on his monument in Wimbourne Minster, Dorset. He imported the Cabbage (Cale) from Cadiz (Cales), where he held a command, and grew rich by seizing other men's possessions, notably by appropriating some jewels entrusted to his care by a lady. Hence he is said to have got more by Cales (Cadiz) than by Cale (Cabbage); and this is, perhaps, the origin of our term "to cabbage." Among tailors, this phrase "to cabbage" is a cant saying which means to filch the cloth when cutting out for a customer. Arbuthnot writes "Your [77]

tailor, instead of shreds, cabbages whole yards of cloth." Perhaps the word comes from the French _caba.s.ser_, to put into a basket.

From the seed of the wild Cabbage (Rape, or Navew) rape-seed oil is extracted, and the residue is called rape-cake, or oil-cake.

Some years ago it was customary to bake bread-rolls wrapped in Cabbage leaves, for imparting what was considered an agreeable flavour. John Evelyn said: "In general, Cabbages are thought to allay fumes, and to prevent intoxication; but some will have them noxious to the sight." After all it must be confessed the Cabbage is greatly to be accused for lying undigested in the stomach, and for provoking eructations; which makes one wonder at the veneration the ancients had for it, calling the tribe divine, and swearing _per bra.s.sicam_, which was for six hundred years held by the Romans a panacea: though "_Dis crambee thanatos_"--"Death by twice Cabbage"--was a Greek proverb. Gerard says the Greeks called the Cabbage Amethustos, "not only because it driveth away drunkennesse; but also for that it is like in colour to the pretious stone called the amethyst." The Cabbage was Pompey's best beloved dish. To make a winter salad it is customary in America to choose a firm white Cabbage, and to shred it very fine, serving it with a dressing of plain oil and vinegar. This goes by the name of "slaw," which has a Dutch origin.

The free presence of hydrogen and sulphur causes a very strong and unpleasant smell to pervade the house during the cooking of Cabbages. Nevertheless, this sulphur is a very salutary const.i.tuent of the vegetable, most useful in scurvy and scrofula. Partridge and Cabbage suit the patrician table; bacon and Cabbage [78] better please the taste and the requirements of the proletarian. The nitrogen of this and other cruciferous plants serves to make them emit offensive stinks when they lie out of doors and rot.

For the purulent scrofulous ophthalmic inflammation of infants, by cleansing the eyes thoroughly every half-hour with warm water, and then packing the sockets each time with fresh Cabbage leaves cleaned and bruised to a soft pulp, the flow of matter will be increased for a few days, but a cure will be soon effected. Pliny commended the juice of the raw Cabbage with a little honey for sore and inflamed eyes which were moist and weeping, but not for those which were dry and dull.

In Kent and Suss.e.x, when a Cabbage is cut and the stalk left in the ground to produce "greens" for the table, a cottager will carve an x on the top flat surface of the upright stalk, and thus protect it against mischievous garden sprites and demons.

Some half a century ago medical apprentices were taught the art of blood-letting by practising with a lancet on the prominent veins of a Cabbage leaf.

Carlyle said "of all plants the Cabbage grows fastest to completion." His parable of the oak and the Cabbage conveys the lesson that those things which are most richly endowed when they come to perfection, are the slowest in their production and development.

CAPSIc.u.m (CAYENNE).

The _Capsic.u.m_, or Bird Pepper, or Guinea Pepper, is a native of tropical countries; but it has been cultivated throughout Great Britain as a stove plant for so many years (since the time of Gerard, 1636) as to have become practically indigenous.

Moreover, its fruit-pods are so highly useful, whether as a condiment, or as a medicine, [79] no apology is needed for including it among serviceable Herbal Simples. The Cayenne pepper of our tables is the powdered fruit of Bird Pepper, a variety of the Capsic.u.m plant, and belonging likewise to the order of Solanums; whilst the customary "hot" pickle which we take with our cold meats is prepared from another variety of the Capsic.u.m plant called "Chilies." This plant--the Bird Pepper--exercises an important medicinal action, which has only been recently recognized by doctors. The remarkable success which has attended the use of Cayenne pepper as a subst.i.tute for alcohol with hard drinkers, and as a valuable drug in _delirium tremens_, has lately led physicians to regard the Capsic.u.m as a highly useful, stimulating, and restorative medicine. For an intemperate person, who really desires to wean himself from taking spirituous liquors, and yet feels to need a subst.i.tute at first, a mixture of tincture of Capsic.u.m with tincture of orange peel and water will answer very effectually, the doses being reduced in strength and frequency from day to day. In _delirium tremens_, if the tincture of Capsic.u.m be given in doses of half-a-dram well diluted with water, it will reduce the tremor and agitation in a few hours, inducing presently a calm prolonged sleep. At the same time the skin will become warm, and will perspire naturally; the pulse will fall in quickness, but whilst regaining fulness and volume; and the kidneys, together with the bowels, will act freely.

Chemically the plant furnishes an essential oil with a crystalline principle, "capsicin," of great power. This oil may be taken remedially in doses of from half to one drop rubbed up with some powdered white sugar, and mixed with a winegla.s.sful of hot water.

The medicinal tincture is made with sixteen grains of [80] the powdered Capsic.u.m to a fluid ounce of spirit of wine; and the dose of this tincture is from five to twenty drops with one or two tablespoonfuls of water. In the smaller doses it serves admirably to relieve pains in the loins when depending on a sluggish inactivity of the kidneys. Unbroken chilblains may be readily cured by rubbing them once a day with a piece of sponge saturated with the tincture of Capsic.u.m until a strong tingling is induced. In the early part of the present century, a medicine of Capsic.u.m with salt was famous for curing severe influenza with putrid sore throat. Two dessert spoonfuls of small red pepper; or three of ordinary cayenne pepper, were beaten together with two of fine salt, into a paste, and with half-a-pint of boiling water added thereto. Then the liquor was strained off when cold, and half-a-pint of very sharp vinegar was mixed with it, a tablespoonful of the united mixture being given to an adult every half, or full hour, diluted with water if too strong. For inflammation of the eyes, with a relaxed state of the membranes covering the eyeb.a.l.l.s and lining the lids, the diluted juice of the Capsic.u.m is a sovereign remedy. Again, for toothache from a decayed molar, a small quant.i.ty of cayenne pepper introduced into the cavity will often give immediate relief.

The tincture or infusion given in small doses has proved useful to determine outwardly the eruption of measles and scarlet fever, when imperfectly developed because of weakness. Also for a scrofulous discharge of matter from the ears, Capsic.u.m tincture, of a weak strength, four drops with a tablespoonful of cold water three times a day, to a child, will prove curative.

A Capsic.u.m ointment, or "Chili paste," scarcely ever fails to relieve chronic rheumatism when rubbed in [81] topically for ten minutes at a time with a gloved hand; and an application afterwards of dry heat will increase the redness and warmth, which persist for some while, and are renewed by walking. This ointment, or paste, is made of the Oleo-resin--Capsicin--half-an-ounce, and Lanolin five ounces, the unguent being melted, and, after adding the Capsicin, letting them be stirred together until cold. The powder or tincture of Capsic.u.m will give energy to a languid digestion, and will correct the flatulency often incidental to a vegetable diet. Again, a gargle containing Capsic.u.m in a proper measure will afford prompt relief in many forms of sore throat, both by its stimulating action, and by virtue of its special affinities (H.); this particularly holds good for a relaxed state of the throat, the uvula, and the tonsils. Cayenne pepper is employed in the adulteration of gin.

The "Peter Piper" of our young memories took pickled pepper by the peck. He must have been a h.o.m.oeopathic prover with a vengeance; but has left no useful record of his experiments--the more's the pity--for our guidance when prescribing its diluted forms.

CARAWAY.

The common Caraway is a herb of the umbelliferous order found growing on many waste places in England, though not a true native of Great Britain. Its well-known aromatic seeds should be always at hand in the cupboard of every British housewife. The plant got its name from inhabiting Caria, a province of Asia Minor. It is now cultivated for commerce in Kent and Ess.e.x; and the essential oil distilled from the home grown fruit is preferred in this country. The medicinal properties of the Caraway are cordial and comforting to [82] the stomach in colic and in flatulent indigestion; for which troubles a dose of from two to four drops of the essential oil of Caraway may be given on a lump of sugar, or in a teaspoonful of hot water.

For earache, in some districts the country people pound up the crumb of a loaf hot from the oven, together with a handful of bruised Caraway seeds; then wetting the whole with some spirit, they apply it to the affected part. The plant has been long naturalised in England, and was known here in Shakespeare's time, who mentions it in the second part of _Henry IV_. thus: "Come, cousin Silence! we will eat a pippin of last year's graffing, with a dish of Caraways; and then to bed!" The seeds grow numerously in the small flat flowers placed thickly together on each floral plateau, or umbel, and are best known to us in seed cake, and in Caraway comfits. They are really the dried fruit, and possess, when rubbed in a mortar, a warm aromatic taste, with a fragrant spicy smell. Caraway comfits consist of these fruits encrusted with white sugar; but why the wife of a comfit maker should be given to swearing, as Shakespeare avers, it is not easy to see. The young roots of Caraway plants may be sent to table like parsnips; they warm and stimulate a cold languid stomach. These mixed with milk and made into bread, formed the _chara_ of Julius Caesar, eaten by the soldiers of Valerius. Chemically the volatile oil obtained from Caraway seeds consists of "carvol," and a hydro-carbon, "carvene," which is a sort of "camphor." Dioscorides long ago advised the oil for pale-faced girls; and modern ladies have not disregarded the counsel.

From six pounds of the unbruised seeds, four ounces of the pure essential oil can be expressed. In Germany the peasants flavour their cheese, soups, and household [83] bread--jager--with the Caraway; and this is not a modern custom, for an old Latin author says: _Semina carui satis communiter adhibentur ad condiendum panem; et rustica nostrates estant jusculum e pane, seminibus carui, et cerevisa coctum_.

The Russians and Germans make from Caraways a favourite liqueur "k.u.mmel," and the Germans add them as a flavouring condiment to their sawerkraut. In France Caraways enter into the composition of _l'huile de Venus_, and of other renowned cordials.