23 HOC) AS OF SECRETS. 



The ladies and housewives had not only the nursing to do, but they 

 had to prepare the medicines also, and as by tradition these were almost 

 exclusively vegetable, it followed that in every garden were cultivated 

 familiar medicinal herbs, which were supplemented by others that grew 

 naturally in the woods and fields, by the roadsides and ditches. 



This gave rise to another branch of medical literature, the pharma- 

 ceutical, and one of its earliest forms was the " herbal," of which there 

 were many varieties, and which in recent years have afforded much sport 

 to collectors, and especially to booksellers. 



As a consequence, part of the equipment of a house of any size was a 

 " still " room, in which were prepared the spirits, oils, extracts, cordials, 

 perfumes, essences and medicines in common use. The products were 

 more or less secret and were kept in a special room, the " Closet " as it 

 seems to have been called, access to which the lady reserved to herself, 

 perhaps because some of her preparations were too active — shall we 

 say ? — to fall into either ignorant or too skilful hands, or because some 

 of the preparations were scarce, or costly, or of her own invention, and 

 she had no mind to disclose them. They were her " Secrets," in fact. 



These developments were not without their influence upon the litera- 

 ture, not merely of medicine, but of connected subjects. As illustrations 

 of the herbal for popular use may be cited that ascribed to Aemilius Macer, 

 though it is not the work of Virgil's predecessor or elder contemporary, but 

 is of a later period. It was translated into English and published by Banckes 

 in 1525, then in 1526, and by several others immediately afterwards. There 

 were Jerome Brunswick's " Vertuose boke of Distyllacyon of the waters of all 

 maner of Herbes," printed by Lawrence Andrewe at London in 1527; the 

 "Treasure" of Evonymus, published in 1552 in Latin, translated into Eng- 

 lish and published by Day about 1559, with plates of the plants and distil- 

 ling apparatus. It was one of the most popular of the books and appeared 

 in various editions in Latin and in translations in French, German and 

 Italian. The bibliography which 1 have investigated is interesting. 



