2i8 Signatures and Astrology [ch. 



roots and herbs and the gathering of seeds, he declares 

 that "it is absolutely essential that these operations should 

 be performed so as to correspond with the stations and 

 positions of the planets and heavenly bodies, to whose control 

 diseases are properly subject. And against disease we 

 have to employ herbs, with due regard of course to the sex, 

 whichever it be, of human beings ; and so herbs intended 

 to benefit the male sex should be procured when the Sun or 

 Moon is in some male sign [of the Zodiac], e.g. Sagittarius 

 or Aquarius, or if this is impossible, at least when they are 

 in Leo. Similarly herbs intended to benefit women should 

 be gathered under some female sign, Virgo, of course, or, 

 if that is impossible, in Taurus or Cancer." 



In the seventeenth century, England became strongly 

 infected with astrological botany. The most notorious 

 exponent of the subject was Nicholas Culpeper (1616 — 

 1654), who, about 1640, set up as an astrologer and physician 

 in Spitalfields. His portrait is reproduced in Plate XXI. 

 He created great Indignation among the medical profession 

 by publishing, under the name of ' A Physicall Directory,' 

 an unauthorised English translation of the Pharmacopoeia, 

 which had been issued by the College of Physicians. That 

 Culpeper was unpopular with orthodox medical practitioners 

 is hardly surprising, when we consider the way in which 

 he speaks of them in this book, as " a company of proud, 

 insulting, domineering Doctors, whose wits were born above 

 five hundred years before themselves." He goes on to ask 

 — " Is it handsom and wel-beseeming a Common-wealth to 

 see a Doctor ride in State, in Plush with a footcloath, and 

 not a grain of Wit but what was in print before he was 

 born ? " 



Many editions of the ' Physicall Directory ' were issued 

 under different names. As ' The English Physician en- 

 larged,' it enjoyed great popularity, and was reprinted as 

 late as the nineteenth century. The edition of 1653 is 

 described on the title-page as "Being an Astrologo- Physical 

 Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation : Containing 

 a Compleat Method of Physick, whereby a man may pre- 

 serve his Body in Health ; or Cure himself, being Sick, for 

 three pence Charge, with such things only as grow in 

 England, they being most fit for English Bodies." 



