HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP. 



273 



of all Christmas household decorations. Herrick, 

 in his " Hesperides," makes this a Candlemas 

 (Feb. 2) ceremony. And in Holstein and the neigh- 

 bouring districts it is believed that any one holding 

 a piece of mistletoe in his hand will have the power 

 of seeing spectres. 



The date of its use has, however, changed in the 

 greater part of Britain from New Year's Day to 

 Christmas. Coles, iu his "Art of Simpling," 1656, 

 says, " It is carried many miles to set up in houses 

 at Christmas time." What would Master Coles 

 have said to the following clipping from the Mal- 

 vern News of 1S60 ? — "The Hereford papers tell us 



tionary." The berries are to be boiled in water 

 until they burst ; they are then to be well beaten 

 in an iron mortar and thoroughly washed till the 

 branny husks are separated from the birdlime. This 

 birdlime is said by Dodonseus to be poisonous. 

 Gerarde gives a list of the uses of the plant, which 

 is copied almost verbatim by Culpeper, with the 

 addition of a quotation from Clusius to the effect 

 that a piece hung about the neck prevents witch- 

 craft, and a notice of its power in epilepsy or the 

 falling sickness. This use of the plant in epilepsy 

 is the best known, but seems to have taken its 

 rise within a comparatively recent period, as in 



Fig. 160. The Mistletoe (Viscum album). 



tons of mistletoe have been despatched from that 

 city by rail to Loudon ; and, as we know, lots of 

 barrels filled with the same mystic plant go every 

 year northward from Worcester for the merry 

 maids of the black country and for the Lancashire 

 witches." Christie, in his " Enquiry into the an- 

 cient Greek Game supposed to have been invented 

 by Palamedes," says, page 131, " We find by the 

 allusion of Virgil, who compared the golden bough 

 in Infernis to the mistletoe, that the use of this 

 plant was not unknown in the religious ceremonies 

 of the ancients, and particularly of the Greeks." 



The use of the berries for birdlime is mentioned 

 by " P. M." ; but there seems to be great diversity 

 of opinion as regards its qualities among old 

 writers,— a trivial but curious matter. One says 

 that it is the best, far superior to that made from 

 holly-bark ; and another says that it is inferior to 

 the latter. Directions for making it from these 

 berries are given in Miller's " Gardener's Dic- 



Gerarde's "Herbal" (Johnson's edition, 1636). 

 there is no mention at all of its use in this way, — 

 a strong presumptive proof that it was unknown 

 In the 18th century this use took its rise, and we 

 find it in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia for 1744 in 

 a pulvis antiepilepticus composed of dittany, peony, 

 valerian, and mistletoe of the oak, equal parts. 

 It was omitted, however, in the Edinburgh Phar- 

 macopeia published in 1792, and does not seem to 

 have been readmitted. In Beasley's " Pocket For- 

 mulary" are given two French receipts for the 

 same purpose, each containing mistletoe, but their 

 date is not given. I find it also in the Prussian 

 Pharmacopoeia for 1799, and in a French Manual 

 of Pharmacy published in 1803. In Hooper's 

 "Medical Dictionary" I find the following account 

 of its rise, progress, and decline in medicine : — 

 " The Viscus quercinus obtained a great reputation 

 for the cure of epilepsy, and a case of this disease 

 in a lady of quality, in which it proved remarkably 



