Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure

Herbal Simples Approved for
Modern Uses of
by William
Thomas Fernie

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Uses of
Cure, by William Thomas Fernie
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Title: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure
Author: William Thomas Fernie

Release Date: September 22, 2006 [eBook #19352]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HERBAL
SIMPLES APPROVED FOR MODERN USES OF CURE***

Transcribed by Ruth Hart [email protected]

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.

HERBAL SIMPLES APPROVED FOR MODERN USES OF CURE
by
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!"

[vii]
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
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."
In our own nursery days, as we now fondly remember, it was: "Simple
Simon met a pieman going to the fair; said Simple Simon to the pieman,
'Let me taste your ware.'" That ingenuous youth had but one idea,
connected simply with his stomach; and his sole thought was how to
devour the contents of the pieman's tin. We venture to hope our readers
may be equally eager to stock their minds with the sound knowledge of
Herbal Simples which this modest Manual seeks to provide for their
use.
Healing by herbs has always been popular both [xviii] with the classic
nations of old, and with the British islanders of more recent times. Two
hundred and sixty years before the date of Hippocrates (460 B.C.) the
prophet Isaiah bade King Hezekiah, when sick unto death, "take a lump
of Figs, and lay it on the boil; and straightway the King recovered."
Iapis, the favourite pupil of Apollo, was offered endowments of skill in
augury, music, or archery. But he preferred to acquire a knowledge of

herbs for service of cure in sickness; and, armed with this knowledge,
he saved the life of AEneas when grievously wounded by an arrow. He
averted the hero's death by applying the plant "Dittany," smooth of leaf,
and purple of blossom, as plucked on the mountain Ida.
It is told in Malvern Chase that Mary of Eldersfield (1454), "whom
some called a witch," famous for her knowledge of herbs and
medicaments, "descending the hill from her hut, with a small phial of
oil, and a bunch of the 'Danewort,' speedily enabled Lord Edward of
March, who had just then heavily sprained his knee, to avoid danger by
mounting 'Roan Roland' freed from pain, as it were by magic, through
the plant-rubbing which Mary administered."
In Shakespeare's time there was a London street, named Bucklersbury
(near the present Mansion House), noted for its number of druggists
who sold Simples and sweet-smelling herbs. We read, in [ix] The
Merry Wives of Windsor, that Sir John Falstaff flouted the effeminate
fops of his day as "Lisping hawthorn buds that smell like Bucklersbury
in simple time."
Various British herbalists have produced works, more or less learned
and voluminous, about our native medicinal plants; but no author has
hitherto radically explained the why