Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure

Transcribed by Ruth Hart ruthhart@twilightoracle.com
Transcriber's notes:
While most of the book titles and non-English words are italicized, not all of them are, and I have left the non-italicized terms as is.
Page numbers have been placed in sqare brackets to facilitate the use of the table of contents and the index.
W. T. FERNIE, M.D. Author of Botanical Outlines, etc_
Second Edition.
Medicine is mine; what herbs and Simples grow In fields and forests, all their powers I know. DRYDEN.
Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1897.
Jamque aderat Phoebo ante alios dilectus lapis Iasides: acri quondam cui captus amore Ipse suas artes, sua munera, laetus Apollo Augurium, citharamque dabat, celeresque sagittas Ille ut depositi proferret fata clientis, Scire potestates herbarum, usumque medendi Maluit, et mutas agitare inglorius artes. VIRGIL, AEnid : Libr. xii. v. 391-8.
And now lapis had appeared, Blest leech! to Phoebus'-self endeared Beyond all men below; On whom the fond, indulgent God His augury had fain bestowed, His lyre-his sounding bow! But he, the further to prolong A fellow creature's span, The humbler art of Medicine chose, The knowledge of each plant that grows, Plying a craft not known to song, An unambitious man!
It may happen that one or another enquirer taking up this book will ask, to begin with, What is a Herbal Simple? The English word Simple, composed of two Latin words, Singula plica (a single fold), means Singleness, whether of material or purpose.
From primitive times the term Herbal Simple has been applied to any homely curative remedy consisting of one ingredient only, and that of a vegetable nature. Many such a native medicine found favour and success with our single-minded forefathers, this being the reverent simplicity of ancienter times.