Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure | Page 7

. 526 Sowbread . . . 450 Sow Thistle . . . 559
Spearmint . . . 342 Speedwell . . . 527 Spinach . . . 529 " Sea . . . 506
Spindle Tree . . . 530 Spurge Wood . . . 532 " Petty . . . 602
Stitchwort . . . 535 Stonecrop (House Leek) . . . 276 Strawberry . . . 538
" Wild . . . 537 Succory . . . 541 Sundew . . . 543 Sunflower . . . 546
Tamarind . . . 550 Tansy . . . 552 Tar . . . 580 Tarragon . . . 554 Teasel,
Fuller's . . . 559 " Wild . . . 559 Thistles . . . 555 Thyme . . . 560
Thymol . . . 563 Toadflax . . . 565 Toadstool . . . 372 Tomato . . . 567

Tormentil . . . 573 Truffle . . . 371 Turnip . . . 574 Turpentine . . . 576
Tutsan . . . 290
Valerian, Red . . . 585 " Wild . . . 583 Verbena (Vervain) . . . 586
Verguice . . . 29, 238 Vernal grass . . . 241 Vine . . . 240, 588 Violet,
Sweet . . . 592 " Wild . . . 589 Viper's Bugloss . . . 594
Wallflower . . . 595 Walnut . . . 597 " American . . . 601 Wartwort . . .
602 Watercress . . . 129 Water Dropwort . . . 603 " Figwort . . . 198 "
Horehound . . . 269 " Lily, White . . . 605 " Yellow . . . 605 " Pepper . . .
606 Whitethorn . . . 245 Whortleberry . . . 52 Woodruff, Sweet . . . 608
" Squinancy . . . 609 Wood Sorrel . . . 161, 610 Wormwood . . . 355,
612 Woundwort, Hedge . . . 615
Yarrow 616 Yew 619

[1] INTRODUCTION.
The art of Simpling is as old with us as our British hills. It aims at
curing common ailments with simple remedies culled from the soil, or
got from home resources near at hand.
Since the days of the Anglo-Saxons such remedies have been chiefly
herbal; insomuch that the word "drug" came originally from their verb
drigan, to dry, as applied to medicinal plants.
These primitive Simplers were guided in their choice of herbs partly by
watching animals who sought them out for self-cure, and partly by
discovering for themselves the sensible properties of the plants as
revealed by their odour and taste; also by their supposed resemblance to
those diseases which nature meant them to heal.
John Evelyn relates in his Acetaria (1725) that "one Signor Faquinto,
physician to Queen Anne (mother to the beloved martyr, Charles the
First), and formerly physician to one of the Popes, observing scurvy
and dropsy to be the epidemical and dominant diseases [2] of this
nation, went himself into the hundreds of Essex, reputed the most

unhealthy county of this island, and used to follow the sheep and cattle
on purpose to observe what plants they chiefly fed upon; and of these
Simples he composed an excellent electuary of marvellous effects
against these same obnoxious infirmities." Also, in like manner, it was
noticed by others that "the dog, if out of condition, would seek for
certain grasses of an emetic or purgative sort; sheep and cows, when ill,
would devour curative plants; an animal suffering from rheumatism
would remain as much as it could in the sunshine; and creatures
infested by parasites would roll themselves frequently in the dust."
Again, William Coles in his Nature's Paradise, or, Art of Simpling
(1657), wrote thus: "Though sin and Sathan have plunged mankinde
into an ocean of infirmities, jet the mercy of God, which is over all His
works, maketh grass to grow upon the mountaines, and Herbes for the
use of men; and hath not only stamped upon them a distinct forme, but
also given them particular signatures, whereby a man may read even in
legible characters the use of them."
The present manual of our native Herbal Simples seeks rather to justify
their uses on the sound basis of accurate chemical analysis, and precise
elementary research. Hitherto medicinal herbs have come down to us
from early times as possessing only a traditional value, and as
exercising merely empirical effects. Their selection has been
commended solely by a shrewd discernment, and by the practice of
successive centuries. But to-day a closer analysis in the laboratory, and
skilled provings by experts have resolved the several plants into their
component parts, and have chemically determined the medicinal nature
of these parts, both [3] singly and collectively. So