NOT in the human family alone does eccentricity 

 win credit for unusual and transcendent talents. 

 Innumerable trees and plants have for years imposed 

 on a credulous and trusting world by means of 

 peculiarities in dress and habits. Prescriptions of the 

 present day are not like the medicine our mothers 

 used to make. And when a nauseating remembrance 

 of the horrible decoctions brings back the sinking, 

 vacant sensations of early childhood, the thought that 

 the ill-flavoured herbs were imposing on confiding 

 motherhood by their eccentricities provokes a feeling 

 of indignation. No wonder the present generation 

 delights in exposing the pretences of alleged medicinal 

 herbs whose reputations were sustained by unusual 

 habits alone. The memory of catnip tea, wormwood, 

 elecampane, senna, and other nauseating tastes on 

 the sensitive palate of early childhood can never be 

 effaced. And it is irritating to reflect that the faith 

 of our good grandmothers had no foundation except 

 161 L 



