Read The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbal Remedies (Third Edition) Online
Authors: Mary Killian
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbal Remedies (Third Edition) (52 page)
SAGE
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Our garden Sage, a familiar occupant of the English herb bed, was formerly celebrated as a medicine of great virtue. This was the Elalisphakos of the Greeks, so called from its dry and withered looking leaves. It grows wild in the South of Europe, but is a cultivated Simple in England, France, and Germany. Like other labiate herbs it is aromatic and fragrant, because containing a volatile, camphoraceous, essential oil.
All parts of the plant have a strong-scented odour, and a warm, bitter, astringent taste. The Latin name, Salvia, has become corrupted through Sauja, sauge, to Sage, and is derived from salvere, "to be sound," in reference to the medicinally curative properties of the plant.
A well-known monkish line about it ran to this effect: Cur moriatur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto? "Why should a man die whilst Sage grows in his garden?" And even at this time, in many parts of England, the following piece of advice is carefully adopted every year:--
"He that would live for aye
Must eat Sage in May."
During the time of Charlemagne, the school of Salerno thought so highly of Sage that they originated the dictum quoted above of Saracenic old pharmacy, but they wisely added a second line:--
"Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis."
The essential oil of the herb may be more readily dissolved in a spirituous than in a watery vehicle. Of this, the active principle is "salviol," which confers the power of resisting putrefaction on animal substances; whilst the bitterness and condimentary pungency of the herb enable the stomach to digest rich, luscious meats and gravies, if it be eaten therewith.
Hence has arisen the custom of stuffing ducks for the table, and geese, with the conventional Sage and onions. Or there is no better way of taking Sage as a stomachic wholesome herb than by eating it with bread and butter. In Buckinghamshire a tradition maintains that the wife rules where Sage grows vigorously in the garden: and it is believed that this plant will thrive or wither, just as the owner's business prospers or fails. George Whitfield, when at Oxford (1733), took only Sage-tea, with sugar, and coarse bread.
Old sayings tell of the herb, as Salvia salvatrix; naturoe conciliatrix; and the line runs:--
"Salvia cum rutâ faciunt tibi pocula tuta."
recommending to plant Rue among the Sage so as to keep away noxious toads.
The Chinese are as fond of Sage as we are of their fragrant teas; and the Dutch once carried on a profitable trade with them, by exchanging a pound of Sage leaves for each three-pound parcel of tea.
It was formerly thought that Sage, if used in the making of cheese, improved its flavour.
"Marbled with Sage the hardening cheese she pressed."
--Gay.
"Sage," says Gerard, "is singular good for the head and brain; it quickeneth the senses and memory; strengtheneth the sinews; restoreth health to those that hath the palsy; and takes away shaky trembling of the members." Agrippa called it "the holy herb," because women with child, if they be likely to come before their time, "do eat thereof to their great good."
Pepys, in his well-known Diary says, "between Gosport and Southampton we observed a little churchyard where it is customary to sow all the graves with Sage." In Franche Comte the herb is supposed to mitigate grief, mental and bodily.
"Salvia comfortat nervos, manuumque tremorem
Tollit; et ejus ope febris acuta fugit."
"Sage helps the nerves, and by its powerful might
Palsy is cured, and fever put to flight."
But if Sage be smelt for some time it will cause a sort of intoxication, and giddiness. The leaves, when dried and smoked in a pipe as tobacco, will lighten the brain.
In Sussex, a peasant will munch Sage leaves on nine consecutive mornings, whilst fasting, to cure ague.
A strong infusion of the herb has been used with success to dry up the breast milk for weaning; and as a gargle Sage leaf tea, when sweetened with honey, serves admirably. This decoction, when made strong, is an excellent lotion for ulcers, and to heal raw abrasions of the skin. The herb may be applied externally ill bags as a hot fomentation. Some persons value the Wormwood Sage more highly than either of the other varieties.
In the Sage flower the stamens swing round their loosely-connected anther cells against the back of any blundering bee who is in search of honey, just as in olden days the bag of sand caught the shoulders of a clumsy youth when tilting at the Quintin.
Wild Meadow Sage (Salvia verbenaca), or Meadow Clary, grows in our dry pastures, but somewhat rarely, though it is better known as a cultivated herb in our kitchen gardens. The leaves and flowers afford a volatile oil, which is fragrant and aromatic.
Some have attributed the name Salvia sclarea, Clary (Clear eye) to the fact of the seeds being so mucilaginous, that when the eye is invaded by any small foreign body, their decoction will remove the same by acting as an emulsion to lubricate it away. The leaves and flowers may be usefully given in an infusion for hysterical colic and similar troubles connected with nervous weakness. Also they make a pleasant fermented wine. The Wood Sage is the Wood Germander, Teucrium scorodinia, a woodland plant with sage-like leaves, containing a volatile oil, some tannin, and a bitter principle. This plant has been used as a substitute for hops. It was called "hind heal" from curing the hind when sick, or wounded, and was probably the same herb as Elaphoboscum, the Dittany, taken by harts in Crete. A snuff has been made from its powder to cure nasal polypi: also the infusion (freshly prepared), should be given medicinally, two tablespoonfuls for a dose: or, of the powder, from thirty to forty grains. The name "Germander" is a corruption from Chamoedrys, chamai, ground, and drus, oak, because the leaves are like those of the oak.
Savin, the Juniper Savin (Sabina), or Saffern, is a herb which grows freely in our bed of garden Simples, if properly cared for, and which possesses medicinal virtues of a potential nature. The shrub is a native of southern Europe, being a small evergreen plant, the twigs of which are densely covered with little leaves in four rows, having a strong, peculiar, unpleasant odour of turpentine, with a bitter, acrid, resinous taste. The young branchlets are collected for medicinal use. They contain tannin, resin, a special volatile oil, and extractive matters.
A medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the fresh leaves, and the points of the shoots of the cultivated Savin. But this is a powerful medicine, and must be used with caution. In small doses of two or three drops with a tablespoonful of cold water it is of singular efficacy for arresting an active florid flux from the womb at the monthly times of women when occurring too profusely, the remedy being given every two, three, or four hours. Or from one to four grains of powdered Savin may be taken instead of each dose of the tincture.
The stimulating virtues of Savin befit it for cleansing carbuncles, and for benefiting baldness. When mixed with honey it has removed freckles with success; the leaves, dried and powdered, serve, when applied, to dispel obstinate warty excrescences about the genitals.
Rubbed together with cerate, or lard, powdered Savin is used for maintaining the sores of blisters, and of issues, open when it is desired to keep up their derivative action.
The essential oil will stimulate the womb to functional activity when it is passively congested and torpid. As to its elementary composition this oil closely resembles the spirit of turpentine; and when given in small well diluted doses as a tincture (made of the oil mixed with spirit of wine), such medicine does good service in relieving rheumatic pains and swellings connected with impaired health of the womb. For these purposes the ordinary tincture (H.) of Savin should be mixed, one part thereof with nine parts of spirit of wine, and given in doses of from six to ten drops with a tablespoonful of water. Dr. Pereira says about the herb: "According to my own observation, Savin is the most certain and powerful stimulator of the monthly courses in the whole of our Materia Medica; and I never saw any ill effects result from its administration." The essential oil may be preferred in a dose of from one to four drops on sugar, or in milk, when this functional activity is sought.
Savin was known of old as the "Devil's Tree," and the "Magician's Cypress," because much affected by witches and sorcerers when working their spells.
One of the roost useful, but not best known, of the Cruciferous wild plants which are specifics against Scrofula is our English Scurvy Grass.
It grows by choice near the sea shore, or in mountainous places; and even when found many miles from the sea its taste is Salt. It occurs along the muddy banks of the Avon; also in Wales, and in Cumberland, more commonly near the coast, and likewise on the mountains of Scotland; again it may be readily cultivated in the garden for medicinal uses. If eaten as a salad in its fresh state it is the most effectual of all the antiscorbutic plants.
The herb is produced with an angular smooth shilling stem, twelve or fourteen inches high, having narrow green leaves, and terminating in thick clusters of white flowers. Its leaves are good and wholesome when eaten in spring with bread and butter. The juice, when diluted with water, makes a good mouth-wash for spongy gums.
The whole plant contains tannin, and a bitter principle, which is butyl-mustard oil, and on which the medicinal properties depend. This oil is of great volatility and penetrating power; one drop instilled on sugar, or dissolved in spirit, communicates to a quart of wine the taste and smell of Scurvy Grass.
The fresh plant taken as such, or the expressed fresh juice, confers the benefits of the herb in by far the most effectual way. A distilled water, and a conserve prepared with the leaves, were formerly dispensed by druggists; and the fresh juice mixed with that of Seville oranges went by the name of "spring drinks," or "juices."
The plant is found in large quantities at Lymington (Hants), on low banks almost dipping into the sea. Its expressed juice was formerly taken in beer, or boiled in milk as a decoction, flavoured with pepper, aniseed, etc.
This Scurvy Grass has the botanical name Cochlearia, or, in English, Spoonwort, so named from its leaves resembling in shape the bowl of an old-fashioned spoon. It is supposed to be the famous Herba Britannica of the ancients. Our great navigators have borne unanimous testimony to its never-failing value in scurvy; and it has been justly noticed that the plant grows most plentifully in altitudes where scurvy is specially troublesome and frequent. The green herb bruised may be applied as a poultice.
For making a decoction of the plant as a blood purifier, and against scurvy, put two ounces of the whole plant and its roots into a quart jug, and fill up with boiling water, taking care to keep this well covered. When it is cold take a wineglassful thereof three, or four times in the day.
Another name for the plant is Scruby grass. The fresh herb has a strong pungent odour when bruised, and a warm bitter taste. Its beneficial uses in scurvy, are due to the potash salts which it contains. Externally, the juice will cleanse and heal foul ulcers, and ill-favoured eruptions.
Of marine plants commonly found, the Samphire and the Sea Holly have certain domestic and medicinal uses which give them a position as Simples; and of the more ordinary Sea Weeds (cryptogamous, or flowerless plants) some few are edible, though sparingly nutritious, whilst curative and medicinal virtues are attributed to several others, as Irish Moss, Scotch Dulse, Sea Tang, and the Bladderwrack. It may be stated broadly that the Sea Weeds employed as remedial Simples owe their powers to the bromine, iodine, and sulphate of soda which they contain. Pliny and Dioscorides in their days extolled the qualities of various Sea Weeds; and practitioners of medicine on our sea coasts are now unanimous in pronouncing Sea Weed liniments, and poultices, as of undoubted value in reducing glandular swellings, and in curing obstinate sprains; whilst they administer the Bladderwrack, etc., internally for alterative purposes with no little success. Bits of Sea Weed, called Ladies' trees, are still to be seen as chimney ornaments in many a Cornish cottage, being fixed on small stands, and supposed to protect the dwelling from fire, or other mishaps.
Samphire, of the true sort, is a herb difficult to be gathered, because it grows only out of the crevices of lofty perpendicular rocks which cannot be easily scaled. This genuine Samphire (Crithmum maritimum) is a small plant, bearing yellow flowers in circular umbels on the tops of the stalks, which flowers are followed by seeds like those of the Fennel, but larger.
The leaves are juicy, with a warm aromatic taste, and may be put into sauce; or they make a good appetising condimentary pickle, which is wholesome for scrofulous subjects. Persons living by the coast cook this plant as a pot herb. Formerly, it was regularly cried in the London streets, and was then called Crest Marine.
Shakespeare alludes in well-known lines to the hazardous proceedings of the Samphire gatherer's "dreadful trade":--
"How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles: half-way down
Hangs one that gathers Samphire: dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems to bigger than his head."--King Lear.
And Evelyn has praised the plant for excellence of flavour, as well as for aromatic virtues against the spleen. Pliny says Samphire is the very herb that the good country wife Hecate prepared for Theseus when going against the Bull of Marathon.
Its botanic name is from the Greek crithe, "barley," because the seeds are thought to resemble that grain. The title Samphire is derived from the French Herbe de St. Pierre, because the roots strike deep in the crevices of rocks. St. Peter's Wort has become corrupted to Sampetre, Sampier, and Samphire.
A spurious Samphire, the Inula crithmoides, or Golden Samphire, is often supplied in lieu of the real plant, though it has a different flavour, and few of the proper virtues. This grows more abundantly on low rocks, and on ground washed by salt water. Also a Salicornia, or jointed Glasswort, or Saltwort, or Crabgrass, is sold as Samphire for a pickle, in the Italian oil shops.
Gerard says of Samphire: "It is the pleasantest sauce, most familiar, and best agreeing with man's body." "Preferable," adds Evelyn, "for cleansing the passages, and sharpening appetite, to most of our hotter herbs, and salad ingredients."
The Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum), or Sea Hulver, is a well-known prickly sea-green plant, growing in the sand on many parts of our coasts, or on stony ground, with stiff leaves, and roots which run to a great length among the sand, whilst charged with a sweetish juice.
A manufactory for making candied roots of the Sea Holly was established at Colchester, by Robert Burton, an apothecary, in the seventeenth century, as they were considered both antiscorbutic, and excellent for health.
Gerard says: "The roots, if eaten, are good for those that be liver sick; and they ease cramps, convulsions, and the falling sickness. If condited, or preserved with sugar, they are exceeding good to be given to old and aged people that are consumed and withered with age, and which want natural moisture." He goes on to give an elaborate receipt how to condite the roots of Sea Holly, or Eringos (which title is, according to Liddell and Scott, the diminutive of eerungos, "the beard of a goat." Or, Eryngo has been derived from the Greek eruggarein, to eructate, because the plant is, according to herbalists, a specific against belching). With healthy provers, who have taken the Sea Holly experimentally in toxical doses of varying strength the sexual energies and instincts became always depressed.
This accounts for the fact that during the Elizabethan era, the roots of the plant used in moderation were highly valued for renovating masculine vigour, such as Falstaff invoked, and which classic writers have extolled:--
"Non male turn graiis florens eryngus in hortis
Quaeritur; hunc gremio portet si nupta virentem
Nunquam inconcessos conjux meditabitur ignes."
--Rapinus.
These Eryngo roots, prepared with sugar, were then called "Kissing Comfits." Lord Bacon when recommending the yolks of eggs for giving strength if taken with Malmsey, or sweet wine, says: "You shall doe well to put in some few slices of Eringium roots, and a little Ambergrice: for by this means, besides the immediate facultie of nourishment, such drinke will strengthen the back."
Plutarch writes: "They report of the Sea Holly, if one goat taketh it into her mouth, it causeth her first to stand still, and afterwards the whole flock, until such time as the shepherd takes it from her." Boerhaave thought the root "a principal aperient."
Irish Moss, or Carraigeen, is abundant on our rocky coasts, and is collected on the north western shores of Ireland, while some of it comes to us from Hamburg. Its chief constituent is a kind of mucilage, which dissolves to a stiff paste in boiling water, this containing some iodine, and much sulphur. But before being boiled in water or milk, the Moss should be soaked for an hour or more in cold water. Officinally, a decoction is ordered to be made with an ounce of the Moss to a pint of water: of which from one to four fluid ounces may be taken for a dose.
This Lichen contains starchy, heat-giving nourishment, about six parts of the same to one of flesh-forming food; therefore its jelly is found to be specially sustaining to persons suffering from pulmonary consumption, with an excessive waste of the bodily heat. At one time the Irish Moss fetched as high a price as half-a-crown for the pound. It bears the botanical name of Chondrus crispus, and varies much in size and colour. When growing in small pools, it is shallow, pale, and stunted; whilst when found at the bottom of a deep pool, or in the shadow of a great rock, it occurs in dense masses of rich ruddy purple, with reddish green thick fronds.
Iceland Moss contains the form of starch called "lichenin." It is a British lichen found especially in Wales and Scotland. Most probably the Icelanders were the first to learn its helpful properties. In two kinds of pulmonary consumption this lichen best promotes a cure-that with active bleeding from the lungs, and that with profuse purulent expectoration. The Icelanders boil the Moss in broth, or dry it in cakes used as bread. They likewise make gruel of it mixed with milk: but the first decoction of it in water, being purgative, is always thrown away. An ounce of the Iceland Moss boiled for a quarter-of-an-hour in a pint of milk, or water, will yield seven ounces of thick mucilage. This has been found particularly useful in dysentery. Also contained in the Moss are cetrarin, uncrystallizable sugar, gum, and green wax; with potash, and phosphate of lime. It affords help in diabetes, and for general atrophy; being given also in powder, or syrup, or mixed with chocolate. Francatelli directs for making Iceland Moss Jelly. Boil four ounces of the Moss in one quart of water: then add the juice of two lemons, and a bit of the rind, with four ounces of sugar (and perhaps a gill of sherry?). Boil up and remove the scum from the surface. Strain the jelly through a muslin bag into a basin, and set it aside to become cold. It may be eaten thus, but it is more efficacious when taken warm. A Sea-Moss, the Lichen marinum, is "a singular remedy to strengthen the weakness of the back." It is called "Oister-green."
In New England the generic term "Moss" is a cant word signifying money: perhaps as a contraction of Mopuses, or as a play on the proverb, "a rolling stone gathers no moss."
The Dulse is used in Scotland and Ireland both as food and medicine. Botanically it bears the name of Iridea edulis, or Rhodymenia palmata (the sugar Fucus of Iceland).
There is a saying in Scotland: "He who eats of the Dulse of Guerdie, and drinks of the wells Kindingie, will escape all maladies except black death." This marine weed contains within its cellular structure much iodine, which makes it a specific remedy for scrofulous glandular enlargements, or morbid deposits.
In Ireland the Dulse is first well washed in fresh water, and exposed in the air to dry, when it gives out a white powdery substance, which is sweet and palatable, covering the whole plant. The weed is presently packed in cases, and protected from the air, so that being thus preserved, it may either be eaten as it is, or boiled in milk, and mixed with flour of rye. The powdery substance is "mannite," which is abundant likewise on many of our Sea Weeds.
Cattle and sheep are very fond of Dulse, for which reason in Norway it is known as Soudsell, or Sheep's Weed. This Iridea edulis is pinched with hot irons by the fishermen in the south west of England, So as to make it taste like an oyster. In Scotland it is roasted in the frying-pan.
The Maritime Sea Tang (Laminaria digitata) was belauded in the Proverbial Philosophy of Martin Tupper:--
"Health is in the freshness of its savour; and it cumbereth the beach with wealth;
Comforting the tossings of pain with its violet tinctured Essence."
Tang signifies Anglo-Saxon "thatch," from Sea Weed having been formerly used instead of straw to cover the roofs of houses. When bruised and applied by way of a poultice to scrofulous swellings and glandular tumours, the Sea Tang has been found very valuable. The famous John Hunter was accustomed to employ a poultice of sea-water and oatmeal.
This weed is of common marine growth, consisting of a wide smooth-brown frond, with a thick round stem, and broad brown ribbons like a flag at the end of it. It is familiarly known as Seagirdles, Tangle, Sea Staff, Sea Wand, and Cows' Tails. Fisher boys cut up the stems as handles for knives, or hooks, because, after the haft of the blade is inserted within the stem, this dries, and contracts on the iron staple, becoming densely hard and firm.
The absorbent stem power of the Laminaria for taking up iodine is very large; and this element is afterwards brought out by fire in the kelp kilns of Ireland and Scotland. Sea Tang acts most beneficially against the various forms of scrofulous disease; and signally relieves some rheumatic affections. It is also used largely in the making of glass.
Likewise for scrofula, seawater, being rich in chlorides and iodides, has proved both curative and preventive. Dr. Sena, of Valencia, gave bread made with sea-water in the Misericordia Hospital for cases of scrofulous disease, and other states of defective nutrition, with singular success.
Another Laminaria (Saccharina), with a single olive yellow semi-transparent frond, yields an abundance of sweet "mannit" when boiled and evaporated.
The Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus), Kelpware, or Our Lady's Wrack, is found on most of our sea coasts in heavy brown masses of coarse-looking Sea Weed, which cover, and shelter many small algae. Kelp is an impure carbonate of soda containing sulphate, and chloride of sodium, with a little charcoal.
By its characteristic bladders, or vesicles studded about the blades of the branched narrowish fronds, this Sea Weed may be easily known.
These bladders are full of a glutinous substance, which makes the weed valuable both as a remedy for the glandular troubles of scrofula, and, when bottled in rum, as an embrocation, such as is specially useful for strengthening the limbs of rickety, or bandy-legged children. Against glandular swellings also the weed is taken internally as a medicine, when burnt to a black powder. An analysis of the Bladderwrack has shown it to contain an empyreumatic oil, sulphur, earthy salts, some iron, and iodine freely. Thus it is very rich in anti-scrofulous elements.
The fluid extract of this Sea Weed has the long standing reputation of safely diminishing an excess of personal fat. It is given for such a purpose three times a day, shortly after meals, in doses of from one to four teaspoonfuls. The remedy should be continued perseveringly, whilst cutting down the supplies of fat, starchy foods, sugar, and malt liquors. When thus taken (as likewise in the concentrated form of a pill, if preferred) the Bladderwrack will especially relieve rheumatic pains; and the sea pod liniment dispensed by many druggists at our chief marine health resorts, proves signally efficacious towards the same end. Furthermore, they prepare a sea-pod essence for applying on a wet compress beneath waterproof tissue to strumous tumours, goitre, and bronchocele; also for old strains and bruises.