94 Observations on some of the Medical Plants 
Plantago, Plantage, or Plantain, implying the similarity of 
the leaf in shape to the sole of the foot, may be more strictly 
applicable to the Plantago major, or the sweet-scented media; 
but the virtues of all are very imperfectly known to the scien- 
tific world. An individual who was bitten by a mad cat was 
not affected with a dread of water till the lapse of a long pe- 
riod of time, but she experienced a recurrence of pain and 
irritation at every change of the moon, and she was finally 
attacked by death, after the regular intermission of a month. 
I am therefore of opinion that Shakspeare was acquainted with 
the fact that hydrophobia is relieved by the Alisma. It might . 
be advantageous to our excellent Society, ifits learned members 
were to institute inquiries amongst the poor people of the 
country, relative to the properties of this and such like plants, 
and not reject hastily and with disdain the important know- 
ledge to he sometimes derived from their experience. It was 
by such inquiries that my late immortal friend made the dis- 
covery of vaccination, which, by philosophical reasoning and 
induction, he rendered more and more certain as a preventive 
of one of the most distressing “ ills that flesh is heir to.” The 
more common use of ordinary plantain as an application to 
wounds is likewise noticed by Shakspeare. 
“« Benvolio. Take thou some new infection to thy eye, 
And the rank poison of the old will die. 
Romeo. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. 
Benvolio, For what, I pray you? 
Romeo. For your broken shin.””— Romeo and Juliet, acti. sc. 2. 
I cannot refrain from mentioning here two instances of the 
use of medico-botanical knowledge. The first is the case of 
an acquaintance of mine who has long been a cunning work- 
man in British fancy woods: he walks rather lame, but occa- 
sionally goes a considerable distance. He broke his leg, and 
was confined to his chamber for four years. He informs me 
that the faculty considered his case as desperate, after trying 
all their skill without effect. He was recommended to a cer- 
tain plant, which he was directed to apply externally as a poul- 
tice. This succeeded; it brought away splinters of bones, 
&c., and effected so complete a cure, that in a few weeks he 
was enabled to walk and enjoy exercise in the open air as be-) 
fore. tis curious that he defied me as a professor of botany 
to mention the name of the plant which had afforded him re- 
lief; he kept it secret, and assured me he had operated in the 
same successful manner upon four other persons discharged 
as incurable from our infirmary. In his chuckling he said that 
nobody had ever guessed at the remedy but a Frenchman, 
who declared that the peasants of that country were well 
