Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 47

The Sanicle is popularly employed in Germany and France as a remedy for profuse bleeding from the lungs, bowels, womb, and urinary organs; also for the staying of dysenteric diarrhoea. The fresh juice of the herb may be given in tablespoonful doses.

As yet no a.n.a.lysis has been made of this plant; but evidence of tannin in its several parts is afforded by the effects produced when these are remedially applied.

The _Prunella vulgaris_ is a distinct plant from the Self Heal, or Sanicle, and belongs to the l.a.b.i.ate order of herbs. It grows commonly in waste places about England, and bears pink flowers, being sometimes called Slough heal. This is incorrect, as the surgical term "slough" was not used until long after the Prunella and the Sanicle became named Self-heal. Each of these was applied as a vulnerary, not to sloughing sores, but to fresh cut wounds.

[510] The _Prunella Vulgaris_ has a flattened calyx, and whorls of purplish blue flowers, which are collected in a head. It is also known as Carpenter's Herb, perhaps, from its corolla, when seen in profile, being shaped like a bill hook; and therefore, on the doctrine of signatures, it was supposed to heal wounds inflicted by edge tools; whence it was likewise termed Hook-heal and Sicklewort, arid in Yorkshire, Black man.

By virtue of its properties as a vulnerary it has also been called _Consolida_; but the daisy is the true _Consolida minor_.

"The decoction of Prunell," says Gerard, "made with wine and water, doth join together and make whole and sound all wounds, both inward and outward, even as Bugle doth. To be short, it serveth for the same that the Bugle serveth; and in the world there are not two better wound herbs, as bath been often proved."

The Bugle, or middle Comfrey, is also a Sanicle, because of its excellence for healing wounds, in common with the Prunella and the true Sanicle. It grows in almost every wood, and copse, and moist shadowy place, being constantly reckoned among the Consounds.

This herb (_Ajuga reptans_) is of the l.a.b.i.ate order, bearing dark blue or purple flowers, whorled, and crowded into a spike. Its decoction, "when drunk, healeth and maketh sound all wounds of the body." "It is so singular good for all sorts of hurts that none who know its usefulness will be ever without it. If the virtues of it make you fall in love with it (as they will if you be wise), keep a syrup of it, to take inwardly, and an ointment and plaister of it to use outwardly, always by you."

The chemical principles of the Prunella and the Bugle [511]

resemble those of other l.a.b.i.ate herbs, comprising a volatile oil, some bitter principle, tannin, sugar, and cellulose. The Ladies' Mantle, Alchemilla--a common inconspicuous weed, found everywhere--is called Great Sanicle, also Parsley-breakstone, or Piercestone, because supposed to be of great use against stone in the bladder. It contains tannin abundantly, and is said to promote quiet sleep if placed under the pillow at night. "_Endymionis somnum dormire_."

SHEPHERD'S PURSE.

The small Shepherd's Purse (_Bursa Capsella Pastoris_) is one of the most common of wayside English weeds. The name _Capsella_ signifies a little box, in allusion to the seed pods. It is a Cruciferous plant, made familiar by the diminutive pouches, or flattened pods at the end of its branching stems. This herb is of natural growth in most parts of the world, but varies in luxuriance according to soil and situation, whilst thickly strewn over the whole surface of the earth, facing alike the heat of the tropics, and the rigours of the arctic regions; even, if trodden underfoot, it rises again and again with ever enduring vitality, as if designed to fulfil some special purpose in the far-seeing economy of nature. It lacks the winged valves of the _Thlaspi_.

Our old herbalists called it St. James's Wort, as a gift from that Saint to the people for the cure of various diseases, St. Anthony's Fire, and several skin eruptions. In France, too, the plant goes by the t.i.tle of _Fleur de Saint Jacques_. It flowers from early in Spring until Autumn, and has, particularly in Summer, an acrid bitter taste. Other names for the herb are, "Case weed," "Pick pocket," and "Mother's heart," as called so by [512] children.

If a pod is picked they raise the cry, "You've plucked out your mother's heart." Small birds are fond of the seeds.

Bombelon, a French chemist, has reported most favourably about this herb as of prompt use to arrest bleedings and floodings, when given in the form of a fluid extract, one or two teaspoonfuls for a dose. He explains that our hedge-row Simple contains a tannate, an alkaloid "bursine," (which resembles sulphocyansinapine), and bursinic acid, this last const.i.tuent being the active medicinal principle. English chemists now prepare and dispense the fluid extract of the herb. This is given for dropsy in the U. S. America as a diuretic; from half to one teaspoonful in water for a dose.

Dr. Von Ehrenwall relates a recent case of female flooding, which had defied all the ordinary remedies, and for which, at the suggestion of a neighbour, he tried an infusion of the Shepherd's Purse weed, with the result that the bleeding stopped after the first teacupful of the infusion had been taken a few minutes. Since then he has used the plant in various forms of haemorrhage with such success that he considers it the most reliable of our medicines for staying fluxes of blood. "Shepherd's Purse stayeth bleeding in any part of the body, whether the juice thereof be drunk, or whether it be used poultice-like, or in bath, or any way else."

Besides the ordinary const.i.tuents of herbs, it is found to contain six per cent. of soft resin, together with a sulphuretted volatile oil, which is identical with that of Mustard, as obtained likewise from the bitter Candytuft, _Iberis amara_.

Its medicinal infusion should be made with an ounce of the plant to twelve ounces of water, reduced by [513] boiling to half-a-pint; then a winegla.s.sful may be given for a dose.

The herb and its seeds were employed in former times to promote the regular monthly flow in women.

It bears, further, the name of Poor Man's Permacetty (or Spermaceti), "the sovereignst remedy for bruises;"--"perhaps," says Dr. Prior, "as a joke on the Latin name _Bursa pastoris_, or 'Purse,'

because to the poor man this is always his best remedy." And in some parts of England the Shepherd's Purse is known as Clapper Pouch, in allusion to the licensed begging of lepers at our crossways in olden times with a bell and a clapper. They would call the attention of pa.s.sers-by with the bell, or with the clapper, and would receive their alms in a cup, or a basin, at the end of a long pole. The clapper was an instrument made of two or three boards, by rattling which the wretched lepers incited people to relieve them. Thus they obtained the name of Rattle Pouches, which appellation has been extended to this small plant, in allusion to the little purses which it hangs out by the wayside. Because of these miniature pockets the herb is also named Toy Wort; and Pick Purse, through being supposed to steal the goodness of the land from the farmer. In Queen Elizabeth's time leper hospitals were common throughout England; and many of the sufferers were banished to the Lizard, in Cornwall.

The Shepherd's Purse is now announced as the chief remedy of the seven "marvellous medicines" prepared by Count Mattaei, of Bologna, which are believed by his disciples to be curative of diseases otherwise intractable, such as cancer, internal aneurism, and destructive leprosy.

Count Mattaei professed to extract certain vegetable [514]

electricities found stored up in this, and some other plants, and to utilize them for curative purposes with almost miraculous success.

His other herbs, as revealed by a colleague, Count Manzetti, are the Knotgra.s.s, the Water Betony, the Cabbage, the Stonecrop, the Houseleek, the Feverfew, and the Watercress. Lady Paget, when interviewing Count Mattaei, gathered that Shepherd's Purse is the herb which furnishes the so-called "blue electricity," of extraordinary efficacy in controlling haemorrhages. Small birds are fond of the seeds: and the young radical leaves are sold in Philadelphia as greens in the Spring.

SILVERWEED.

Two _Potentillas_ occur among our common native plants, and possess certain curative virtues (as popularly supposed), the Silverweed and the Cinquefoil. They belong to the Rose tribe, and grow abundantly on our roadsides, being useful as mild astringents.

The _Potentilla anserina_ (Silverweed) is found, as its adjective suggests, where geese are put to feed.

Country folk often call it Cramp Weed: but it is more generally known as Goose Tansy, or Goose Gray, because it is a spurious Tansy, fit only for a goose; or, perhaps, because eaten by geese.

Other names for the herb are Silvery Cinquefoil, and Moorgra.s.s. It occurs especially on clay soils, being recognised by its pinnate white silvery leaves, and its conspicuous golden flowers.

In Yorkshire the roots are known as "moors," which boys dig up and eat in the winter; whilst swine will also devour them greedily. They have then a sweet taste like parsnips. In Scotland, also, they are eaten roasted, or boiled; and sometimes, in hard seasons, [515]

when other provisions were scanty, these roots have been known to support the inhabitants of certain islands for months together.

Both the roots and the leaves are mildly astringent; so that their infusion helps to stay diarrhoea, and the fluxes of women; making also with honey a useful gargle. The leaf is of an exquisitely beautiful shape, and may be seen carved on the head of many an old stall in Church, or Cathedral. By reason of its five leaflets, this gives to the plant the t.i.tle "five leaf," or five fingered gra.s.s, _Pentedaktulon_. _Potentilla_ comes from the Latin _potens_, as alluding to the medicinal virtues of the species.

In former days the Cinquefoil was much affected as a heraldic device through the number of the leaflets answering to the five senses of man; whilst the right to bear Cinquefoil was considered an honourable distinction to him who had worthily mastered his senses, and conquered his pa.s.sions.

Silverweed tea is excellent to relieve cramps of the belly; and compresses, wrung out of a hot decoction of the herb, may at the same time be helpfully applied over the seat of the cramps. A potent Anglo-Saxon charm against crampy bellyache was to wear a gold ring with a Dolphin engraved on it, and bearing in Greek the mystic words:--"Theos keleuei mee keneoon ponois," "_G.o.d forbids the pains of colic_." This acted doubtless by mental suggestion, as in the cure of warts. The knee-cap bone, or patella, of a sheep, known locally as the "cramp-bone," is worn in Northamptonshire for a like purpose; also the application of a gold wedding ring (first wetted with saliva, an ingredient in the holy salve of the Saxons), to a stye threatened in an eyelid is often found to disperse the swelling; but in this case [516] it may be, that a sulphocyanide of gold is formed with the spittle, which promotes the cure by absorption.

A strong infusion, if used as a lotion, will check the bleeding of piles, the ordinary infusion being meantime taken as a medicine.

The good people of Leicestershire were accustomed in bygone days to prevent pitting by small-pox with the use of Silverweed fomentations. A distilled water of the herb takes away freckles, spots, pimples in the face, and sunburnings; whilst all parts of the plant are found to contain tannin.

The Creeping Cinquefoil (_Potentilla replans_) grows also abundantly on meadow banks, having astringent roots, which have been used medicinally since the times of Hippocrates and Dioscorides.

They were found to cure intermittent fevers, such as used to prevail in marshy or ill-drained lands much more commonly than now in Great Britain; though country folk still use the infusion or decoction for the same purpose in some districts; also for jaundice.

Likewise, because of the tannin contained in the outer bark of the roots, their decoction is useful against diarrhoea; and their infusion as a gargle for relaxed sore throats. But, except in mild cases, other more positively astringent herbs are to be preferred. The roots afford a useful red dye.

SKULLCAP.

A useful medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the Skullcap (_Scutellaria_), which is a l.a.b.i.ate plant of frequent growth on the banks of our rivers and ponds, having bright blue flowers, with a tube longer than the calyx. This is the greater variety (_Galericulata_). There is a lesser variety (_Scutellaria minor_), which is [517] infrequent, and grows in bogs about the West of England, with flowers of a dull purple colour. Each kind gets its name from the Latin _scutella_, "a little cap," which the calyx resembles, and is therefore called Hood Wort, or Helmet flower.

The upper lip of the calyx bulges outward about its middle, and finally closes down like a lid over the fruit. When the seed is ripe it opens again.

Provers of the tincture (H.) in toxic doses experienced giddiness, stupor, and confusion of mind, twitchings of the limbs, intermission of the pulse, and other symptoms indicative of the epileptiform "pet.i.t mal"; for which morbid affection, and the disposition thereto, the said tincture, of a diluted strength, in small doses, has been successfully given.

The greater Skullcap contains, in common with most other plants of the same order, a volatile oil, tannin, fat, some bitter principle, sugar, and cellulose.

If a decoction of the plant is made with two ounces of the herb to eight ounces of water, and is taken for some weeks continuously in recent epilepsy, or when the disease has only functional causes, it will often prove very beneficial. Likewise, this decoction, in common with an extract of the herb, has been given curatively for intermittent fever and ague, as well as for some depressed, and disordered states of the nervous system.

A dried extract of the lesser Skullcap (_Lateriflora_) is made by chemists, and given in doses of from one to three grains as a pill to relieve severe hiccough, and as a nervine stimulant; also for the sleeplessness of an exhausted brain.

SLOE.

The parent tree which produces the Sloe is the Blackthorn, our hardy, th.o.r.n.y hedgerow shrub (_Prunus_ [518] _spinosa_), Greek _Prounee_, common everywhere, and starting into blossom of a pinky white about the middle of March before a leaf appears, each branchlet ending in a long thorn projecting beyond the flowers at right angles to the stem. From the conspicuous blackness of its rind at the time of flowering, the tree is named Blackthorn, and the spell of harsh unkindly cold weather which prevails about then goes by the name of "blackthorn winter."