A French expression for trifling one's time away is s'amuser à la moutarde. The essential oil is an admirable deodorant and disinfectant, especially on an emergency.
But the "grain of Mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds" (_Mark _iv., 31), "which when it is grown up is the greatest among herbs," was a tree of the East, very different from our Mustard, and bearing branches of real wood.
The Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium, or Erisymum) grows by our roadsides, and on waste grounds, where it seems to possess a peculiar aptitude for collecting and retaining dust. The pods are downy, close pressed to the stem, and the leaves hairy with their points turned backwards. It is named by the French "St. Barbara's Hedge Mustard," and the Singer's Plant, "herbe au chantre," or "herbe au chanteur." Up to the time of Louis XIV, it was considered an infallible remedy for loss of the voice. Racine writing to Boileau recommended the syrup of Erysimum to him when visiting the waters of Bourbonne in order to be cured of voicelessness. "Si les eaux de Bourbonne ne vous guerissent pas de votre extinction de voix, le sirop d'Erysimum vous guerirait infalliblement. Ne l'oubliez pas, et à l'occasion vingt grammes par litre d'eau en tisane [382] matin et soir." It used to be called Flix, or Flux weed from being given with benefit in dysentery, a disease formerly known as the Flix. This herb has been commended for chronic coughs and hoarseness, using the juice mixed with an equal quantity of honey, or sugar. It has been designated "the most excellent of all remedies for diseases of the throat, especially in ulcerated sore throats, which it will serve to cure when all the advice of physicians and surgeons has proved ineffectual." A strong infusion of the herb is excellent in asthmas, and it may be made with sugar into a syrup which will keep all the year round. The Hedge Mustard contains chemically a soft resin, and a sulphuretted volatile oil. This herb with the vervain is supposed to form Count Mattaei's noted nostrum Febrifugo.
NETTLE.
No plant is more commonplace and plentiful in our fields and hedges throughout an English summer than the familiar stinging Nettle. And yet most persons unknowingly include under this single appellation several distinct herbs. Actually as Nettles are to be found: the annual Urtica dioica, or true Stinging Nettle; the perennial Urtica urens (burning); the White Dead Nettle; the Archangel, or Yellow Weasel Snout, and the Purple Hedge Nettle. This title "Urtica" comes ab urendo, "from burning."
The plant which stings has a round hairy stalk, and carries only a dull colourless bloom, whereas the others are labiate herbs with square stems, and conspicuous lipped flowers. As Simples only the great Stinging Nettle, the lesser Stinging Nettle, and the white Dead Nettle call for observation. Also another variety of our Stinging Nettle is the Urtica pilulifera, called by [383] corruption the Roman Nettle, really because found abundantly at Romney in Kent. But a legend obtains belief with some that Roman soldiers first brought with them to England the seeds of this plant, and sowed it about for their personal uses. They heard before coming that the climate here was so cold that it might not be endured without some friction to warm the blood, and to stir up the natural heat; and they therefore bethought them to provide Nettles wherewith to chafe their limbs when "stiffe and much benummed." Or, again, Lyte says, "They do call al such strange herbes as be unknown of the common people Romish, or Romayne herbes, although the same be brought direct from Sweden or Norweigh." The cure for Nettle stings has been from early times to rub the part with a dock leaf. The dead Nettles are so named as having no sting, but possessing nettle-like leaves. The stinging effect of the true Nettle is caused by an acrid secretion contained in minute vesicles at the base of each of the stiff hairs; and urtication, or flogging, with Nettles, is an old external remedy, which was long practised for chronic rheumatism, and loss of muscular power. Tacta quod exurat digitos urtica tenentis. —Macer. Tea made from the young tops is a Devonshire cure for Nettle-rash. Gerard says, "the Nettle is a good medicine for them that cannot breathe unless they hold their necks upright: and being eaten boiled with periwinkles it makes the body soluble."
The word Nettle is derived from net, meaning something spun, or sewn; and it indicates the thread made from the hairs of the plant, and formerly used among Scandinavian nations. This was likewise employed by Scotch weavers in the seventeenth century. Westmacott, the historian, says, "Scotch cloth is only the [384] housewifery of the Nettle." And the poet Campbell writes in one of his letters, "I have slept in Nettle sheets, and dined off a Nettle table cloth: and I have heard my mother say she thought Nettle cloth more durable than any other linen." Goldsmith has recorded the "rubbing of a cock's heart with stinging Nettles to make it hatch hen's eggs." Some think the word "Nettle" an alteration of the Anglo-Saxon "Needl," with reference to the needle-like stings. Spun silk is now made in England from "Ramie" the decorticated fibre of Nettles after washing away the glutinous juice from under their bark.
The seeds (dioica) contain a fine oil, and powerfully stimulate the sexual functions.
In Russia, as a recent mode of treatment, urtication is now enthusiastically commended, that is, slapping, or pricking with a bundle of fresh Nettle twigs for one or more minutes, once, or several times in the day. It is a superlative method of cure because harmless (neither irritating the kidneys nor disfiguring the skin), cleanly, simple in application, rapid in its effects, and cheap, though perhaps somewhat rude. For sciatica, for incipient wasting, for the difficult breathing of some heart troubles (where such stimulation along the backbone affords more prompt and complete relief than any other treatment), for some coughs palsy, suppression of the monthly flow in women, rheumatism, and for lack of muscular energy, this urtication is said to be an invaluable resuscitating measure which has been successfully resorted to by the peasantry of Russia from time immemorial. It will sometimes produce a crop of small harmless blisters.
The analysis of the fresh Nettle shows a presence of formic acid (the irritating principle of the stinging hairs), with mucilage, salts, ammonia, carbonic acid, and [385] water. A strong decoction of Nettles drunk too freely by mistake has produced severe burning over the whole body, with general redness, and a sense of being stung. The features became swollen, and minute vesicles appeared on the skin, which burst, and discharged a limpid fluid. No fever accompanied the attack, and after five or six days the eruption dried up. A medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the entire plant with spirit of wine: and this, as taught by the principle of similars, may be confidently given in small diluted doses to mitigate such a totality of symptoms as now described, whether coming on as an attack of severe Nettle rash, or assuming some more pronounced eruptive aspect, such as chicken pox. The same tincture also acts admirably in cases of burns, when the deep skin is not destructively involved. And again for relieving the itching of the fundament caused by the presence of threadworms.