Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 23

Queen Elizabeth was particularly fond of mead, and had it made every year according to a special recipe of her own, which included the leaves of sweet briar, with rosemary, cloves, and mace.

Honey derived from cruciferous plants, such as rape, ladies' smock, and the wallflower, crystallizes quickly, often, indeed, within the comb before it is removed from the hive; whilst Honey from l.a.b.i.ate plants, and from fruit trees in general, remains unchanged for several months after being extracted from the comb.

As a heat producer, if taken by way of food, one pound of Honey is equal to two pounds of b.u.t.ter; and when cod liver oil is indicated, but cannot be tolerated by the patient, Honey may sometimes be most beneficially subst.i.tuted.

In former times it was employed largely as a medicine, and applied externally for the healing of wounds. When mixed with flour, and spread on linen, or leather, it has long been a simple remedy for bringing boils to maturity. In coughs and colds it makes a serviceable adjunct to expectorant medicines, whilst acting at the same time as sufficiently laxative. For sore throats it may be used in gargles with remarkable benefit; and [260] when mixed with vinegar it forms the old-fashioned oxymel, always popular against colds of the chest and throat.

"Honeywater" distilled from Honey, incorporated with sand, is an excellent wash for promoting the growth of the hair, either by itself, or when mixed with spirit of rosemary. Rose Honey (_rhodomel_) made from the expressed juice of rose petals with Honey, was formerly held in high esteem for the sick.

Bee propolis, or the glutinous resin manufactured by bees for fixing the foundations of their combs, will afford relief to the asthmatic by its fumes when burnt. It consists largely of resin, and yields benzoic acid.

Basilicon, kingly ointment, or resin ointment, is composed of bees wax, olive oil, resin, Burgundy pitch, and turpentine. This is said to be identical with the famous "Holloway's Ointment," and is highly useful when the stimulation of indolent sores is desired.

A medicinal tincture of superlative worth is prepared by h.o.m.oeopathic pract.i.tioners from the sting of the Honey bee. This makes a most valuable and approved medicine for obviating erysipelas, especially of the head and face; likewise, for a puffy sore throat with much swelling about the tonsils; also for dropsy of the limbs which has followed a chill, or is connected with pa.s.sive inactivity of the kidneys. Ten drops of the diluted tincture, first decimal strength, should be given three or four times in the day, with a tablespoonful of cold water. This remedy is known as the tincture of _Apis mellifica_. For making it the bees are seized when emerging from the hive, and they thus become irritated, being ready to sting. They are put to death with a few drops of chloroform, and then have their Honey-bags severed. These are bruised in a mortar [261] with glycerine, and bottled in spirit of wine, shaking them for several days, and lastly filtering the tincture.

Boiling water poured on bees (workers) when newly killed makes bee-tea, which may be taken to relieve strangury, and a difficult pa.s.sage of urine, as likewise for dropsy of the heart and kidneys.

Also of such bees when dried and powdered, thirty grains will act as a dose to promote a free flow of the urine.

Honey, especially if old, will cause indigestion when eaten by some persons, through an excessive production of lactic acid in the stomach; and a superficial ulceration of the mouth and tongue, resembling thrush, will ensue; it being at the same time a known popular fact, that Honey by itself, or when mixed with powdered borax (which is alkaline) will speedily cure a similar sore state within the mouth arising through deranged health.

As long ago as when Sora.n.u.s lived, the contemporary of Galen (160 A.D.) Honey was declared to be "an easy remedy for the thrush of children," but he gravely attributed its virtues in this respect to the circ.u.mstance that bees collected the Honey from flowers growing over the tomb of Hippocrates, in the vale of Tempe.

The sting venom of bees has been found helpful for relieving rheumatic gout in the hands, and elsewhere through toxicating the tender and swollen limbs by means of lively bees placed over the parts in an inverted tumbler, and then irritating the insects so as to make them sting. A custom prevails in Malta of inoculation by frequent bee stinging, so as to impart at length a protective immunity against rheumatism, this being confirmatory of the fact known to beekeepers elsewhere, that after exposure to attacks from bees, often repeated [262] throughout a length of time, most persons will acquire a convenient freedom from all future disagreeable effects. An Austrian physician has based on these methods an infallible cure for acute rheumatism.

In Shakespeare's _Twelfth Night_, Sir Toby Belch asks to have a "song for sixpence," the third verse of which has been thought to run thus:--

"The King was in his counting house Counting out his money, The Queen was in the parlour Eating bread and Honey."

"Mel mandit, panemque, morans regina culina, Dulcia plebeia non comedenda nuru."

A plain cake, currant or seed, made with Honey in place of sugar is a pleasant addition to the tea-table and a capital preventive of constipation.

"All kinds of precious stones cast into Honey become more brilliant thereby," says St. Francis de Sales in _The Devout Life_, 1708, "and all persons become more acceptable when they join devotion to their graces."

HOP.

The Hop (_Humulus lupulus_) belongs to the Nettle tribe (_Cannabineoe_) of plants, and grows wild in our English hedges and copses; but then it bears only male flowers. When cultivated it produces the female catkins, or strobiles which are so well known as Hops, and are so largely used for brewing purposes.

The plant gets its first name _Humulus_ from _humus_, the rich moist ground in which it chooses to grow, and its affix _lupulus_ from the Latin _lupus_ a wolf, because (as Pliny explained), when produced among osiers, it [263] strangles them by its light climbing embraces as the wolf does a sheep.

The word Hop comes from the Anglo-saxon _hoppan_ to climb.

The leaves and the flowers afford a fine brown dye, and paper has been made from the bine, or stalk, which sprouts in May, and soon grows luxuriantly; as said old Tusser (1557):--

"Get into thy Hop-yard, for now it is time To teach Robin Hop on his pole how to climb."

The Hop, says c.o.c.kayne, was known to the Saxons, and they called it the _Hymele_, a name enquired-for in vain among Hop growers in Worcestershire and Kent.

Hops were first brought to this country from Flanders, in 1524:--

"Turkeys, Carp, Hops, Pickerel, and Beer, Came into England all in one year."

So writes old Izaak Walton! Before Hops were used for improving and preserving beer our Saxon ancestors drank a beverage made from malt, but clarified in a measure with Ground Ivy which is hence named Ale-hoof. This was a thick liquor about which it was said:--

"Nil sp.i.s.sius est dum bibitur; nil clarius dum mingitur, Unde constat multas faeces in ventre relinqui."

The Picts made beer from heather, but the secret of its manufacture was lost when they became exterminated, since it had never been divulged to strangers. Kenneth offered to spare the life of a father, whose son had been just slain, if he would reveal the method; but, though pardoned, he refused persistently. The inhabitants of Tola, Jura, and other outlying districts, now brew a potable beer by mixing two-thirds of heath tops with one of malt. Highlanders think it very lucky to [264] find the white heather, which is the badge of the Captain of Clan Ronald.

At first Hops were unpopular, and were supposed to engender melancholy. Therefore Henry the Eighth issued an injunction to brewers not to use them. "Hops," says John Evelyn in his _Pomona_, 1670, "trans.m.u.ted our wholesome ale into beer, which doubtless much altered our const.i.tutions. This one ingredient, by some suspected not unworthily, preserves the drink indeed, but repays the pleasure with tormenting diseases, and a shorter life."

Hops, such as come into the market, are the chaffy capsules of the seeds, and turn brown early in the autumn. They possess a heavy fragrant aromatic odour, and a very bitter pungent taste. The yellow glands at the base of the scales afford a volatile strong-smelling oil, and an abundant yellow powder which possesses most of the virtues of the plant. Our druggists prepare a tincture from the strobiles with spirit of wine, and likewise a thickened extract.

Again, a decoction of the root is esteemed by some as of equal benefit with Sarsaparilla.

The la.s.situde felt in hot weather at its first access, or in early spring, may be well met by an infusion of the leaves, strobiles and stalks as Hop tea, taken by the winegla.s.sful two or three times in the day, whilst sluggish derangements of the liver and spleen may be benefited thereby.

_Lupulin_, the golden dust from the scales (but not the pollen of the anthers, as some erroneously suppose), is given in powder, and acts as a gentle sedative if taken at bedtime. This is specific against s.e.xual irritability and its attendant train of morbid symptoms, with mental depression and vital exhaustion. It contains [265] "lupulite,"

a volatile oil, and a peculiar resin, which is somewhat acrid, and penetrating of taste.

Each of the Simples got from the Hop will allay pain and conduce to sleep; they increase the firmness of the pulse, and reduce its frequency.

Also if applied externally, Hops as a poultice, or when steeped in a bag, in very hot water as a stupe, will relieve muscular rheumatism, spasm, and bruises.

Hop tea, when made from the flowers only, is to be brewed by pouring a pint of boiling water on an ounce of the Hops, and letting it stand until cool. This is an excellent drink in delirium tremens, and will give prompt ease to an irritable bladder. Sherry in which some Hops have been steeped makes a capital stomachic cordial. A pillow, _Pulvinar Humuli_, stuffed with newly dried Hops was successfully prescribed by Dr. Willis for George the Third, when sedative medicines had failed to give him sleep; and again for our Prince of Wales at the time of his severe typhoid fever, 1871, in conjunction then with a most grateful draught of ale which had been heretofore withheld. The crackling of dry Hop flowers when put into a pillow may be prevented by first sprinkling them with a little alcohol.

Persons have fallen into a deep slumber after remaining for some time in a storehouse full of hops; and in certain northern districts a watery extract from the flowers is given instead of opium. It is useful to know that for sound reasons a moderate supper of bread and b.u.t.ter, with crisp fresh lettuces, and light home-brewed ale which contains Hops, is admirably calculated to promote sleep, except in a full-blooded plethoric person. _Lupulin_, the glandular powder from the dried strobiles, will induce sleep without causing constipation, or headache. The dose is from two to four grains at bedtime [266] on a small piece of bread and b.u.t.ter, or mixed with a spoonful of milk.

The year 1855 produced a larger crop of cultivated Hops than has been known before or since. When Hop poles are shaken by the wind there is a distant electrical murmur like thunder.

Hop tea in the leaf is now sold by grocers, made from a mixture of the Kentish and Indian plants, so as to combine in its infusion, the refreshment of the one herb with the sleep-inducing virtues of the other. The hops are brought direct from the farmers, just as they are picked. They are then laid for a few hours to wither, after which they are put under a rolling apparatus, which ill half-an-hour makes them look like tea leaves, both in shape and colour. They are finally mixed with Indian and Ceylon teas.

The young tops of the Hop plant if gathered in the spring and boiled, may be eaten as asparagus, and make a good pot-herb: they were formerly brought to market tied up in small bundles for table use.

A popular notion has, in some places, a.s.sociated the Hop and the Nightingale together as frequenting the same districts.

Medicinally the Hop is tonic, stomachic, and diuretic, with antiseptic effects; it prevents worms, and allays the disquietude of nervous indigestion. The popular nostrum "Hop Bitters" is thus made: Buchu leaves, two ounces; Hops, half-a-pound; boil in five quarts of water, in an iron vessel, for an hour; when lukewarm add essence of Winter-green (_Pyrola_), two ounces, and one pint of alcohol. Take one tablespoonful three times in the day, before eating. White Bryony root is likewise used in making the Bitters.

[267] h.o.r.eHOUND (White and Black).

The herb h.o.r.ehound occurs of two sorts, white and black, in our hedge-rows, and on the sides of banks, each getting its generic name, which was originally Harehune, from _hara_, h.o.a.ry, and _hune_, honey; or, possibly, the name h.o.r.ehound may be a corruption of the Latin _Urinaria_, since the herb has been found efficacious in cases of strangury, or difficult making of water.

The White h.o.r.ehound (_Marrubium_) is a common square-stemmed herb of the l.a.b.i.ate order, growing in waste places, and of popular use for coughs and colds, whether in a medicinal form, or as a candied sweetmeat. Its botanical t.i.tle is of Hebrew derivation, from _marrob_, a bitter juice. The plant is distinguished by the white woolly down on its stems, by its wrinkled leaves, and small white flowers.

It has a musky odour, and a bitter taste, being a much esteemed Herbal Simple, but very often spuriously imitated. It affords chemically a fragrant volatile oil, a bitter extractive "marrubin,"

and gallic acid.