Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 41

"A Roman meal Such as the mistress of the world once found Delicious, when her patriots of high note, Perhaps by moonlight at their humble doors, Under an ancient Oak's domestic shade, Enjoy'd spare feast, a RADISH AND AN EGG."

RAGWORT.

The Ragwort (_Senecio Jacoboea_) is a very common plant in our meadows, and moist places, closely allied to the [458] Groundsel, and well known by its daisy-like flowers, but of a golden yellow colour, with rays in a circle surrounding the central receptacle, and with a strong smell of honey. This plant goes popularly by the name of St. James's wort, or Canker wort, or (near Liverpool) Fleawort, and in Yorkshire, Seggrum; also Jacoby and Yellow Top. The term Ragwort, or Ragweed, is a corruption of Ragewort, as expressing its supposed stimulating effects on the s.e.xual organs. For the same reason the _pommes d'amour_ (Love Apples, or Tomatoes) are sometimes caned Rage apples. The Ragwort was formerly thought to cure the staggers in horses, and was hence named Stagger wort, or because, says Dr. Prior, it was applied to heal freshly cut young bulls, known as Seggs, or Staggs. So also it was called St. James's wort, either because that great warrior and saint was the patron of horses, or because it blossoms on his day, July 25th: sometimes also the plant has been styled Stammer wort. Furthermore it possesses a distinct reputation for the cure of cancer, and is known as Cankerwort, being applied when bruised, either by itself, or combined with Goosegra.s.s.

Probably the lime which the whole plant contains in a highly elaborated state of subdivision has fairly credited it with anti-cancerous powers. For just such a reason Sir Spencer Wens commended powdered egg sh.e.l.ls and powdered oyster sh.e.l.ls as efficacious in curing certain cases under his immediate observation of long-standing cancer, when steadily given for some considerable time.

A poultice made of the fresh leaves, and applied externally two or three times in succession "will cure, if ever so violent, the old ache in the hucklebone known as sciatica." Chemically the active principle of the [459] Ragwort is "senecin," a dark resinous substance, of which two grains may be given twice or three times in the day.

Also the tincture, made with one part of the plant to ten parts of spirit of wine (tenuior), may be taken in doses of from five to fifteen drops, with a spoonful of water three times in the day.

Either form of medicine will correct monthly irregularities of women where the period is delayed, or difficult, or arrested by cold.

It must be given steadily three times a day for ten days or a fortnight before the period becomes re-established. In suitable cases the Senecio not only antic.i.p.ates the period, but also increases the quant.i.ty: and where the monthly time has never been established the Ragwort is generally found useful.

This herb--like its congener, the common Groundsel--has lancinated, juicy leaves, which possess a bitter saline taste, and yield earthy potash salts abundantly. Each plant is named "Senecio"

because of the grey woolly pappus of its seeds, which resemble the silvered hair of old age. In Ireland the Ragwort is dedicated to the fairies, and is known as the Fairies' Horse, on the golden blossoms of which the good little people are thought to gallop about at midnight.

RASPBERRY.

The Raspberry (_Rubus Idoeus_) occurs wild plentifully in the woods of Scotland, where children gather the fruit early in summer.

It is also found growing freely in some parts of England--as in the Suss.e.x woods--and bearing berries of as good a quality as that of the cultivated Raspberry, though not so large in size.

Another name for the fruit is _Framboise_, which is [460] a French corruption of the Dutch word _brambezie_, or brambleberry.

Again, the Respis, or Raspberry, was at one time commonly known in this country as Hindberry, or the gentler berry, as distinguished from one of a harsher and coa.r.s.er sort, the Hartberry. "Respberry"

signifies in the Eastern Counties of England a shoot, or sucker, this name being probably applied because the fruit grows on the young shoots of the previous year. Raspberry fruit is fragrant and cooling, but sugar improves its flavour. Like the strawberry, if eaten without sugar and cream, it does not undergo any acetous fermentation in the stomach, even with gouty or strumous persons. When combined with vinegar and sugar it makes a liqueur which, if diluted with water, is most useful in febrile disorders, and which is all excellent addition to sea stores as preventive of scurvy.

The Latins named this shrub "the bramble of Ida," because it grew in abundance on that cla.s.sic mountain where the shepherd Paris adjudged to Venus the prize for beauty--a golden apple--on which was divinely inscribed the words, _Detur pulchriori_--"Let this be awarded to the fairest of womankind."

The fresh leaves of the Raspberry are the favourite food of kids.

There are red, white, yellow, and purple varieties of this fruit. Heat develops the richness of its flavour; and Raspberry jam is the prince of preserves.

Again, a wine can be brewed from the fermented juice, which is excellent against scurvy because of its salts of potash--the citrate and malate.

Raspberry vinegar, made by pouring vinegar repeatedly over successive quant.i.ties of the fresh fruit, is a capital remedy for sore throat from cold, or of the [461] relaxed kind; and when mixed with water it furnishes a most refreshing drink in fevers. But the berries should be used immediately after being gathered, as they quickly spoil, and their fine flavour is very evanescent. The vinegar can be extemporised by diluting Raspberry jelly with hot vinegar, or by mixing syrup of the fruit with vinegar.

In Germany a conserve of Raspberries which has astringent effects is concocted with two parts of sugar to one of juice expressed from the fruit. Besides containing citric and malic acids, the Raspberry affords a volatile oil of aromatic flavour, with crystallisable sugar, pectin, colouring matter, mucus, some mineral salts, and water.

Gerard says: "The fruit is good to be given to them that have weake, and queasie stomackes."

A playful example of the declension of a Latin substantive is given thus:--

_Musa, Musoe_, The G.o.ds were at tea: _Musoe, Musam_, Eating Raspberry jam: _Musa, Musah_, Made by Cupid's mamma.

RHUBARB (Garden). _see_ Dock, _page_ 159.

RICE.

Rice, or Ryse, the grain of _Oryza sativa_, a native cereal of India, is considered here scarcely as a Herbal Simple, but rather as a common article of some medicinal resource in the store cupboard of every English house-hold, and therefore always at band as a vegetable remedy.

Among the Arabs Rice is considered a sacred food: [462] and their tradition runs that it first sprang from a drop of Mahomet's perspiration in Paradise.

Being composed almost exclusively of starch, and poorer in nitrogen, as well as in phosphoric acid, than other cereals, it is less laxative, and is of value as a demulcent to palliate irritative diarrhoea, and to allay intestinal distress.

A mucilage of Rice made by boiling the well-washed grain for some time in water, and straining, contains starch and phosphate of lime in solution, and is therefore a serviceable emollient. But when needed for food the grain should be steamed, because in boiling it loses the little nitrogen, and the greater part of the lime phosphate which it has scantily contained.

Rice bread and Rice cakes, simply made, are very light and easy of digestion. The gluten confers the property of rising on dough or paste made of Rice flour. But as an article of sustenance Rice is not well suited for persons of fermentative tendencies during the digestion of their food, because its starch is liable to undergo this chemical change in the stomach.

Dr. Tytler reported in the _Lancet_ (1833), cases resembling malignant cholera from what he termed the _morbus oryzoeus_, as provoked by the free and continued use of Rice as food. And Boutins, in 1769, published an account of the diseases common to the East Indies, in which he stated that when Rice is eaten more or less exclusively, the vision becomes impaired. But neither of these allegations seems to have been afterwards authoritatively confirmed.

Chemically, Rice consists of starch, fat, fibrin, mineral matter such as phosphate of lime, cellulose, and water.

A spirituous liquor is made in China from the grain of Rice, and bears the name "arrack."

[463] Rice cannot be properly subst.i.tuted in place of succulent green vegetables dietetically for any length of time, or it would induce scurvy. The Indians take stewed Rice to cure dysentery, and a decoction of the grain for the purpose of subduing inflammatory disorders.

Paddy, or Paddee, is Rice from which the husk has not been removed before crushing. It has been said by some that the cultivation of Rice lowers vitality, and shortens life.

In Java a special Rice-pudding is made by first putting some raw Rice in a conical earthen pot wide at the top, and perforated in its body with holes. This is placed inside another earthen pot of a similar shape but not perforated, and containing boiling water. The swollen Rice soon stops up the holes of the inner pot, and the Rice within becomes of a firm consistence, like pudding, and is eaten with b.u.t.ter, sugar, and spices.

An ordinary Rice-pudding is much improved by adding some rosewater to it before it is baked.

This grain has been long considered of a pectoral nature, and useful for persons troubled with lung disease, and spitting of blood, as in pulmonary consumption. The custom of throwing a shower of Rice after and over a newly married couple is very old, though wheat was at first the chosen grain as an augury of plenty. The bride wore a garland of ears of corn in the time of Henry the Eighth.

ROSES.

Certain curative properties are possessed both by the Briar, or wild Dog Rose of our country hedges, and by the cultivated varieties of this queen of flowers in our Roseries. The word Rose means red, from the Greek [464] _rodon_, connected also with _rota_, a wheel, which resembles the outline of a Rose. The name Briar is from the Latin _bruarium_, the waste land on which it grows. The first Rose of a dark red colour, is held to have sprung from the blood of Adonis. The fruit of the wild Rose, which is so familiar to every admirer of our hedgerows in the summer, and which is the common progenitor of all Roses, is named Hips. "Heps maketh," says Gerard, "most pleasant meats or banquetting dishes, as tarts and such like, the concoction whereof I commit to the cunning cook, and teeth to eat them in the rich man's mouth."

Hips, derived from the old Saxon, _hiupa, jupe_, signifies the Briar rather than its fruit. They are called in some parts, "choops," or "hoops." The woolly down which surrounds the seeds within the Hips serves admirably for dispelling round worms, on which it acts mechanically without irritating the mucous membrane which lines the bowels.

When fully ripe and softened by frost, the Hips, after removal of their hard seeds, and when plenty of sugar is added, make a very nice confection, which the Swiss and Germans eat at dessert, and which forms an agreeable subst.i.tute for tomato sauce. Apothecaries employ this conserve in the preparing of electuaries, and as a basis for pills. They also officinally use the petals of the Cabbage Rose (_Centifolia_) for making Rose water, and the petals of the Red Rose (_Gallica_) for a cooling infusion, the brilliant colour of which is much improved by adding some diluted sulphuric acid; and of these petals they further direct a syrup to be concocted.

Next in development to the Dog Rose, or Hound's Rose, comes the Sweetbriar (Eglantine), with a delicate perfume contained under its glandular leaves. [465] "_Fragrantia ejus olei omnia alia odoramenta superest_." This (_Rosa rubiginosa_) grows chiefly on chalk as a bushy shrub. Its poetic t.i.tle, Eglantine, is a corruption of the Latin _aculeius_, p.r.i.c.kly. A legend tells that Christ's crown of thorns was made from the Rose-briar, about which it has been beautifully said:--

"Men sow the thorns on Jesus' brow, But Angels saw the Roses."

Pliny tells a remarkable story of a soldier of the Praetorian guard, who was cured of hydrophobia, against all hope, by taking an extract of the root of the _Kunoroddon_, Dog Rose, in obedience to the prayer of his mother, to whom the remedy was revealed in a dream; and he says further, that it likewise restored whoever tried it afterwards. Hence came the t.i.tle _Canina_. "_Parceque elle a longtemps ete en vogue pour guerir de la rage_."