Such instances might be multiplied to almost any extent.
There is, doubtless, a good deal of scattered information respecting old English wild flowers to be met with, not only in books, but also among our rural population, stored up by village sages. Contributions of this description would surely be welcome in "N. & Q."
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Herbs of all kinds were, some two hundred years ago, esteemed of much value as medicine; for in a curious, and I believe rather scarce, pharmacopœia by Wm. Salmon, date 1693, I find some 414 pages devoted to their uses. This pharmacopœia, or Compleat English Physician, was dedicated to Mary, second Queen of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, &c., and appears to have been the first. The preface says "it was the first of that kind extant in the world, a subject for which we have no precedent."
"I have not trusted," he says, "to the reports of authors, but have wrote as an eye-witness in describing most things therein; and it is nothing but what I know and have learnt by daily experience for thirty years together, so that my prescriptions may in some measure plead a privilege above the performances of other men."
1. Capsella (Bursa pastoris) he describes as cold 1o, and dry in 2o, binding and astringent. Good against spitting of blood or hæmorrhage of the nose, and other fluxes of the bowels. The leaves, of which ʒj. in powder may be given. The juice inspissate, drunk with wine, helps ague. A cataplasm applied in inflammations, Anthony's fire, &c., represses them.
2. Veronica Chamædrys he calls Euphrasia, Euphrosunee, and says it is much commended by Arnoldus de Villa Nova, who asserts that it not only helps dimness of the sight, but the use of it
makes old men to read small letters without spectacles, who could scarcely read great letters with spectacles before; but that it did restore their sight who had been a long time blind. Truly a most wonderful plant; and, if he freely used it, must have been a great drawback to spectacle-makers.
3. Primula veris, he says, more properly belongs to the primrose than cowslip. The root is haumatic, and helps pains in the back. The herb is cephalic, neurotic, and arthritic. The juice or essence, with spirits of wine, stops all manner of fluxes, is excellent against palsy, gout, and pains, and distempers of the nerves and joints. A cataplasm of the juice, with rye meal, is good against luxations and ruptures. The flowers are good against palsy, numbness, convulsions, and cramps, being given in a sulphurous or a saline tincture, or an oily tincture, or an essence of the juice with spirits of wine. The juice of the flowers, or an ointment of the flower or its juice, cleanses the skin from spots, though the worthy old physician only gives a receipt for making essence as follows: Beat the whole plant well in a mortar; add to it an equal quantity of brandy or spirits of wine; close up tight in a large bolt-head, and set it to digest in a very gentle sand-heat for three months. Strain out all the liquor, which close up in a bolt-head again, and digest in a gentle sand-heat for two months more. Rather a troublesome and slow process this.