92 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



But they that smell to muche of the apples become dum . . . 

 thys herbe diverse wayes taken is very jepardus for a man and 

 may kill hym if he eat it or drynk it out of measure and have 

 no remedy from it. ... If mandragora be taken out of measure 

 by and by slepe ensueth and a great lousing of the streyngthe 

 with a forgetf ulness." 



Turner is one of the few herbalists who cautions against 

 the excessive use of any herb. " Onions eaten in meat largely 

 make the head ake, they make them forgetfull whiche in the 

 tyme of syknes use them out of mesure." " Cole engendreth 

 euell and melancholic juice. It dulleth the syght and it 

 troubleth the slepe wyth contrary thynges which are sene in 

 the dreme." Of nigella he writes : " Take hede that ye take 

 not to muche of this herbe, for if ye go beyonde the mesure it 

 bryngeth deth." " Hemp seed," he says, " if it be taken out of 

 measure taketh men's wyttes from the as coriander doth." " If 

 any person use saffron measurably it maketh in them a good 

 colour, but if thei use it out of mesure it maketh hym loke 

 pale, and maketh the hede ache and hurteth the appetite." For 

 those who have taken an overdose of opium there is a surprising 

 remedy. " If the pacient be to much slepi put stynkynge 

 thynges unto hys nose to waken hym therewith." As in all 

 herbals of this period, there are an astonishing number of 

 remedies against melancholy and suggestions for those whose 

 weak brains will not stand much strong drink; but, while 

 remedies for broken heads, so common in the older herbals, are 

 conspicuously absent, we find that walnuts are recommended 

 " for the by tings both of men and dogges " ! 



As in the Crete Herball, there are many descriptions of other 

 substances besides herbs, some of the longest being of dates, 

 rice, olives, citron, pomegranates and lentils. The account of 

 citron it would be pleasant to transcribe in full, not for the sake 

 of the story but for the manner of the telling. One could listen 

 to a sermon of considerable length from a divine who, in a book 

 intended for grown-ups, has a tale of " two naughty murthering 

 robbers, condemned for theyr murder and robery to be flayn and 



