IT?. 
POPULAR SCIE^TCE NEWS. 
[November, 1891. 
effectiug of those interchanges by placing the 
patient under conditions tliat tend to develop the 
lungs, and make good any deficiency that may re- 
main by causing compensatory action by one or 
more of the otlier organs. -We. shall proceed with 
measures for the restoration of the functions of 
any organ that may have been deranged, and 
when Vie. have obtained the arrest of the disease 
and effected an improvement of the general health 
we shall begin to develop the lungs. We must 
carefully select appropriate medicines and meas- 
ures for each purpose we have in view, use them 
at the right time and to the right extent, and 
watch their eflects, so that if there be any indica- 
tion of friction we may at once effect the necessary 
modification or use some other medicines or 
measures for that purpose. 
It is easy to cure consumption at the commence- 
ment, even when both lungs are affected. It can 
be cured when there is a large amount of disease, 
and it may be at least ameliorated when both 
lungs are extensively . diseased. I speak from 
practical experience, and I for one will not at- 
tempt to place a limit upon the great power of 
Nature when all her forces are called forth and 
aided. 
The links of evidence slowly forged by men 
who have gone and by others still with us I have 
put together. Test the chain thus formed where 
and how you please, and you will find that it is 
complete and unbreakable. We have performed 
our part of this work, and in the name of those 
who have taken part therein I now call upon you 
to give effect to it by uniting together in the great 
work of suppressing consumption. 
[Pharmaceutical Journal.] 
EARLY BOTANY AND MATERIA MEDICA 
IN ENGLAND— SAXON WORTCRAFT. 
The best view of Saxon wortcraf t preserved for 
the student is afforded by the Saxon version of 
the "Herbarium" of Apuleius and the Saxon 
" Leech Book," edited by Mr. Cockayne for the 
Rolls series. 
The MS. of the " Herbarium " selected by Mr. 
Cockayne as the basis of his text, Bibl. Cotton 
Vitellius, C. iii., dates from about the year 1250. 
It received considerable damage in the great fire 
at Ashburnham House, 1731, and to supply the 
lacunae in its text it has been carefully collated 
with the Bodleian and other MSS. of the " Her- 
barium." The latter part of the " Herbarium " 
contains a number of passages drawn- from a Latin 
version of Dioscorides. 
Apuleius, who is reported tc have flourished 
under the Antonines, gives in his " De Herbis, 
sive de Nominibus ac Virtutibus Ilerbarum " the 
names of medicinal herbs in the Greek, I>atin, 
Egyptian, Punic, Celtic and Dacian^ tongues. 
After each name follows a short description of 
the plant, its place of growth, and its properties, 
together with the diseases to which the plant is 
applicable. 
'ITie Saxon MSS. follow the general plan of " De 
Herbis," while giving only the Saxon and Latin 
names, many of which, however, are inaccurate. 
For. example, the " Centaurea major, i. e , churnel 
the greater," of the Herbarium is properly Chlora 
perfoUata, while " Centaurea minor, i. e., churnel 
the less," is Erythrea centaurium. Of " Betony 
the wort," the first plant treated of, we are told 
that " It is produced in meadows and on clean 
downlands, and in shady places. It is good 
whether for the man's soul or for his body. It 
shields him against monstrous nocturnal visitors 
and against frightful visions." The roots of this 
wort were' gathered in August and powdered for 
medicin.al use. It was then deemed a remedy for 
sores, dim and bleared eyes, tooth-ache, indiges- 
tion, nausea, snake-ijites, and for '"foot addle," or 
gout. A decoction of the powdered root seems to 
have been drunk in most cases, but poultices of 
betony are recommended for sore throat and gout. 
Other remedies for gout, which seems to have 
been a troublesome disease among the mead-drink- 
ing Saxons, were way-bread, tomentilla, pow- 
dered verbascum, groundsel, or pellitorj' pounded 
with lard and laid to the foot ; also of course the 
mandrake, Atropa mandragora, "the insane root 
that takes the reason prisoner." The directions 
for gathering the mandrake are taken from Dios- 
corides : "It shiueth at night altogether like a 
lamp ; when first thou seest its head, then inscribe 
thou it instantly with iron lest it fly from thee; 
its virtue is so mickle and so famous that it will 
immediately fly from an unclean man when lie 
Cometh to it, hence as we before said, do thou 
inscribe it with iron, and so shalt thou delve about 
as that thou touch it not with the iron, but thou 
shalt earnestly with an iron staff delve the earth. 
And when thou seest its hands and its feet" 
(alluding to the curious tendency of the mandrake 
to assume a similarity to the human figure by giv- 
ing off two lateral branches above and ending in 
two limbs below) " then tie thou it up. Then 
take the other end and tie it to a dog's neck, so 
that the hound be hungry ; next cast meat before 
him, so that he may not reach it except he jerk up 
the wort with him. Of this wort it is said that it 
hath so mickle might that what thing soever 
tnggeth it up, that it shall soon in the same 
manner be deceived. Therefore as soon as tbou 
see that it be jerked up and have possession of 
it, take it immediately in hand, and twist it and 
wring the ooze out of its leaves into a glass 
ampulla, or pitcher." 
These directions for plucking the mandrake are 
as old as Josephus, who says in' his " Wars of 
the Jews," " They dig a trench quite round about it, 
till the hidden part of the root be very small ; 
they then tie a dog to it, and when the dog tries 
hard to follow him that tied him, this root is 
easily plucked up, but the dog dies immediately, 
as if it were instead of the man that would take 
the plant awaj' ; nor after this need anyone be 
afraid of taking it into their hands," He goes on 
to say, " Yet after all this pains in getting, it 
is only valuable on account of one virtue it hath, 
that if it be only brought to sick persons, it 
quickly driveth away those called Demons, which 
are no other than the spirits of the wicked that 
enter into men that are alive, and kill them unless 
they can obtain some help against them." The 
Saxon leech held the mandrake to be a specific for 
" devil sickness " and the evil eye, as well as 
the periwinkle {Vinca) and Artemism vulgaris; 
but he was alive to its emetic, purgative and 
narcotic properties. 
The Saxon remedies for insanity 'are many and 
curious. The lunatic was given a decoction of 
Teucrium. polion mixed with vinegar, or Eanun- 
culus acris was tied with a red thread about his 
neck when the moon was on the wane in April 
or the early part of October. A more sovereign 
remedy was the paeony. If laid over the lunatic 
as he lies, we are told "Soon he upheaveth him- 
self whole, and if he hath this wort with him, the 
disease never again approaches him." The lieecli 
book contains another mode of cure, certainly 
sufficiently drastic. "In case a man be a lunatic, 
take the skin of a porpoise, work it into a whip, 
swinge the man therewith, and soon he will be 
well. Amen." 
Of Ranunculus sceleratus the Herbarium tells us 
gravely " Whatsoever man fasting eats this wort, 
leaves his life laughing." The leech made poul- 
tices of it CO purify wounds and running sores, 
and drive away swellings and warts. IltUa mon- 
tana. "herb of grace," was used by him for 
gastric troubles, as also were pennyroyal and 
rosemary. For the stone he administered in- 
fusions of Saxifraga granulata or Glechoma heder- 
acea. Heliotrope and woad he thought good for 
snake bite, though he gave way-bread for a mad 
dog's bite. Ivy, he held, cured the dropsy. For 
the dread disease of leprosy, it was his custum to 
take Euphorbia lathyris and smear the leper with 
the heads of this wort, sodden in tar. For sea 
sickness he gravely advised the vigorous smearing 
of the person with a decoction of pennyroyal 
and wormwood, pounded with oil and vinegar. 
It is interesting to note that the lily was already 
naturalized in England, and its pounded leaves 
used to reduce swellings. 
The Leech book, edited by Mr. Cockayne, is 
an earlier production than the Saxon version of 
Apuleius, dating as it does from the latter half of 
the tenth century. The author seems to have 
been acquainted with the writings of some of 
the Greek doctors, but for the most part, while 
adopting diagnosis and theory from the Greek 
medical writers, he doctors as a herborist, nor 
does he neglect the question of diet. The sick 
man is to take "light meats, and juicy broths, 
and beaten eggs, and bread broken in hot watei', 
and periw inkles removed from the shell." 
In a very interesting passage, we are told that 
King Alfred sent to Hellas, the patriarch of Jeru- 
salem, for new remedies. He recommended to the 
king various drugs sold in the Syrian drug shops 
or apothikae — seammony, gutta ammoniaca, a sort 
of liquid volatile salts, gum dragon, aloes, gal- 
banura, balsam, petroleum, the famous Greek 
pieparation "theriacum" and alabaster renowned 
for its magic virtues. 
A jejeune and ridiculous compilation is the 
translation of the ^ledicina de Quadrupedibus of 
Sextus Plautus, from which it would appear that 
the Saxon leech had faith in tiie medicinal virtues 
of neat, fox, hart, hare, he-goat, ram, boar, wolf, 
hound, lion, bull, and elephant. The raw beef 
steak, the schoolboy's remedy for a black eye, 
is anticipated by the recipe "To remove ugly 
mai-ks from the face, smear with bull's blood, it 
taketh away all the marks." But for the most 
part, the recipes are as useless as the one enjoin- 
ing the binding of a new goat's cheese round 
the head for the cure of headache. 
The Saxon leech trusted much in charms, of 
which a variety are given by Mr. Cockayne. But 
in this matter he was anticipated by Dioscorides. 
Following him, he says of Biciaus communis, " If 
thou hangest some seed of it in thyne house, oi- 
have it, or its seed, in any place whatsoever, it 
driveth away the tempcstuousuess of hail, and 
if thou hangest its seed on a ship, to that degree 
wonderful it is, that it smoothoth every tempest. 
This lierb thou shalt take, thus speaking, ' Wort 
Ricinus, I pray that thou be at my incantations 
and that thou turn away hail and lightning and 
all tempests, through the name of Almighty God, 
who bight the to be produced.' " 
The popularity of Apuleius lasted through the 
Middle Ages, and the Materia Medica of Dios- 
corides has given rise to a crowd of commentators. 
But of the seven hundred plants which Dioscorides 
describes a large number caunot be identified, for 
bis descriptions are chiefiy confined to color, size, 
mode of growth, and comparison of the leaf and 
root with those of other plauts well known and 
