Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 50

Or some similar form of charm.

Gerard said of folk, in his day: "They are wont to drink it in wine (with the powder of acorns) against the pain in the side, st.i.tches, and such like." But according to Dr. Prior, the herb is named rather because curing the sting (in German _stich_) of venomous reptiles.

In country places the St.i.tchwort is known as Adder's meat, and the Satin Flower: also Miller's Star, s.h.i.+rtb.u.t.ton, and Milk Maid, in Yorks.h.i.+re: the early English name was Bird's Tongue.

[536] About, Plymouth, it is dedicated to the Pixies; whilst the lesser variety is called White Sunday, because of its delicate white blossoms, with golden-dusted stamens. These were a.s.sociated with the new converts baptised in white garments on Low Sunday--the first Sunday after Easter--named, therefore, White Sunday.

But in some parts of Wales the St.i.tchwort bears the names of Devil's-eyes and Devil's-corn. Boys in Devons.h.i.+re nickname the herb Snapjack, Snapcrackers, and Snappers.

Parkinson tells us that in former days it was much commended by some to clear the eyes of dimness by dropping the fresh juice into them. Again, Galen said: "The seed is sharp and biting to him that tastes it."

As a modern curative Simple, the St.i.tchworts, greater and less, stand related to silica, a powerfully remedial preparation of highly pulverised flint. This is because of the exquisitely subdivided flint found abundantly dispersed throughout the structures of St.i.tchwort plants; which curative principle is eminently useful in chronic diseases, such as cancer, rickets, and scrofula. It exercises a deep and slow action, such as is remedially brought to bear by the Bethesda waters of America, and the powdered oyster sh.e.l.ls of Sir Spencer Wells.

The fresh infusion should be steadily taken, a tea-cupful three times daily, for weeks or months together. It may be made with a pint of boiling water to an ounce of the fresh herb. Likewise, the fresh plant should be boiled and eaten as "greens," so as to secure medicinally the insoluble parts of the silica. This further serves against alb.u.men, and sugar in the urine.

[537] STONE CROP (_See House Leek, page 273_).

STRAWBERRY.

Properly, our familiar Strawberry plant is a native of cold climates, and so hardy that it bears fruit freely in Lapland. When mixed with reindeer cream, and dried in the form of a sausage, this const.i.tutes Kappatialmas, the plum pudding of the Polar regions.

"Strawberry" is from the Anglo-Saxon _Strowberige_, of which the first syllable refers to anything strewn. The wild woodland Strawberry (_Fragaria vesca_) is the progenitor of our highly cultivated and delicious fruit. This little hedgerow and sylvan plant has a root which is very astringent, so that when held in the mouth it will stay any flow of blood from the nostrils. Its berries are more acid than the garden Strawberry, and make an excellent cleanser of the teeth, the acid juice dissolving incrustations of tartar without injuring the enamel.

A medicinal tincture is ordered (H.) from the berries of this Woodland Strawberry, which is of excellent service for nettle rash, or allied erysipelas: also for a suffocative swelling of the swallowing throat. "_Ipsa tuis manibus sylvestri nata sub umbraa: mollia fraga leges_," says Ovid. An infusion of the leaves is of excellent service in Dysentery.

It is incorrect to call the fruit a berry, because the edible, succulent pulp is really a juicy cus.h.i.+on over which numerous small seeds are plentifully dotted; whilst the name Strawberry is a corruption of Strayberry, in allusion to the trailing runners, which stray in all directions from the parent stock.

Being of very ancient date, the Strawberry is found widely diffused throughout most parts of the world. [538] Among the Greeks its name _Komaros_, "a mouthful," indicated the compact size of the fruit. By the Latins it was termed _Fragaria_, because of its delicate perfume.

Virgil ranked it with sweet-smelling flowers; Ovid gave it a tender epithet; Pliny mentions the Strawberry as one of the native fruits of Italy; Linnaeus declared he kept himself free from gout by eating plentifully of the fruit; and Hoffman says he has known consumption cured by the same means.

From Shakespeare we learn that in his day the fruit was grown in Holborn, now the centre of London. Gloster, when contemplating the death of Hastings, wishes to get the Bishop of Ely temporarily out of the way, and thus addresses him:--

"My Lord of Ely--when I was last in Holborn I saw good Strawberries in your garden there; I do beseech you send for some of them."

In Elizabeth's time doctors made a tea from the leaves to act on the kidneys, and used the roots as astringent.

All former Herbalists agreed in p.r.o.nouncing strawberries wholesome and beneficial beyond every other English fruit. Their smell is refres.h.i.+ng to the spirits; they abate fever, promote urine, and are gently laxative. The leaves may be used in gargles for quinsies and sore mouths, but, "if anyone suffering from a wound in the head should partake of this fruit, it would certainly prove fatal,"

in accordance with a widespread superst.i.tion.

So wholesome are Strawberries, that if laid in a heap and left by themselves to decompose, they will decay without undergoing any acetous fermentation; nor can their kindly temperature be soured even by exposure to the acids of the stomach. They are const.i.tuted entirely of soluble matter, and leave no residuum to [539] hinder digestion. It is probably for this reason, and because the fruit does not contain any actual nutriment as food, that a custom has arisen of combining rich clotted cream with it at table, whilst at the same time the sharp juices are thus agreeably modified.

"Mella que erunt epulis, et lacte fluentia fraga":--

"Then sit on a cus.h.i.+on, and sew up a seam; And thou shalt have Strawberries, sugar, and cream."

Cardinal Wolsey regaled off this delicate confection with the Lords of the Star Chamber; and Charles Lamb is reported to have said, "Doubtless, G.o.d Almighty could have made a better berry, but He never did."

Parkinson advised that water distilled from strawberries is good for perturbation of the spirits, and maketh the heart merry.

The fruit especially suits persons of a bilious temperament, being "a surprising remedy for the jaundice of children, and particularly helping the liver of pot companions, wetters, and drammers." "Some also do use thereof to make a water for hot inflammations in the eyes, and to take away any film that beginneth to grow over them.

Into a closed gla.s.s vessel they put so many strawberries as they think meet for their purpose, and let this be set in a bed of hot horse manure for twelve or fourteen days, being afterwards distilled carefully, and the water kept for use."

The chemical const.i.tuents of the Strawberry are--a peculiar volatile aroma, sugar, mucilage, pectin, citric and malic acids in equal parts, woody fibre, and water.

The fruit is mucilaginous, somewhat tart and saccharine. It stimulates perspiration, and imparts a violet scent to the urine.

When fermented for the purpose it yields an ardent spirit. If beaten into a pulp [540] when ripe, and with water poured thereupon, it makes a capital cooling drink which is purifying, and somewhat laxative.

Strawberries are especially suitable in inflammatory and putrid fevers, and for catarrhal sore throats. French herbalists direct that when fresh, and recently crushed, the fruit shall be applied on the face at night for heat spots and freckles by the sun. From the juice, with lemon, sugar, and water, they concoct a most agreeable drink, _Bavaroise a la grecque_; also they employ the roots and leaves against pa.s.sive hemorrhages, and in chronic diarrhoea.

In Germany, stewed strawberries, and strawberry jam are taken at dinner with roasted meats, or with chicken. This jam promotes a free flow of urine.

It is to be noticed that though most commonly wholesome and refres.h.i.+ng, yet with some persons, particularly those of a strumous bodily habit, Strawberries will often disagree. The late Dr.

Armstrong held a very strong opinion that the seed grains which lie sprinkled allover the outer surface of each pulpy berry are p.r.o.ne to excite much intestinal irritation, and he advised his patients to suck their Strawberries through muslin, in order to prevent these diminutive seeds from being swallowed.

German legends dedicate Strawberries to the Virgin, with whom they are reputed to have been a favourite fruit. She went a berrying with the children on St. John's morning; and therefore no mother who has lost a young child, will taste the delicacy then. The Strawberries symbolise little children who have died when young, and the mothers suppose they ascend to heaven concealed in the fragrant pulp.

From the French, _fraise_, signifying the Strawberry [541] leaves borne on the family s.h.i.+eld, is derived in Scotland the name of the Frazers. And eight of these (so called) leaves wrought in ornamental gold form a part of the coronet which our English dukes claim as one of their proud insignia, conferred by Henry the Fourth. Being desirous of adding fresh splendour to the Coronation of a Lancastrian Prince he introduced these leaves into the regal Crown.

An earl's coronet has eight leaves: that of a marquis four.

SUCCORY.

The Wild Succory (_Cichorium intybus_) is a common roadside English plant, white or blue, belonging to the Composite order, and called also Turnsole, because it always turns its flowers towards the sun.

It blows with a blue blossom somewhat paler than the Cornflower, but "bearing a golden heart."

Its fresh root is bitter, and a milky juice flows from the rind, which is somewhat aperient and slightly sedative, so that this specially suits persons troubled with bilious torpor, and jaundice combined with melancholy. An infusion of the herb is useful for skin eruptions connected with gout. If the root and leaves are taken freely, they will produce a gentle diarrhoea, their virtue lying chiefly in the milky juice; and on good authority the plant has been p.r.o.nounced useful against pulmonary consumption. In Germany it is called Wegwort, or "waiting on the way." The Syrup of Succory is an excellent laxative for children.

The Succory or Cichorium was known to the Romans, and was eaten by them as a vegetable, or in salads. Horace writes (_Ode_ 31):

"Me pasc.u.n.t olivae, Me chicorea, levesque malvae."

[542] And Virgil, in his first _Georgic_, speaks of _Amaris intuba fibris_. When cultivated it becomes large, and const.i.tutes Chicory, of which the taproot is used extensively in France for blending with coffee, being closely allied to the Endive and the Dandelion.

This is the _Chicoree frisee_ when bleached, or the _Barbe de Capucin_. The cortical part of the root yields a milky saponaceous juice which is very bitter and slightly sedative. Some writers suppose the Succory to be the h.o.r.ehound of the Bible. In the German story, _The Watcher of the Road_, a lovely princess, abandoned for a rival, pines away, and asking only to die where she can be constantly on the watch, becomes transformed into the wayside Succory.

This Succory plant bears also the name of _Rostrum porcinum_. Its leaves, when bruised, make a good poultice for inflamed eyes, being outwardly applied to the grieved place. Also the leaves when boiled in pottage or broths for sick and feeble persons that have hot, weak, and feeble stomachs, do strengthen the same.

It is said that the roots, if put into heaps and dried, are liable to spontaneous combustion. The taproot of the cultivated plant is roasted in France, and mixed with coffee, to which, when infused, it gives a bitterish taste and a dark colour.

The chemical const.i.tuents of Succory and Chicory are--in addition to those ordinarily appertaining to vegetables--inulin, and a special bitter principle not named.

Chicory, when taken too habitually or too freely, causes venous pa.s.sive congestion in the digestive organs within the abdomen, and a fulness of blood in the head. Both it and Succory, if used in excess as a medicine, will bring about amaurosis, or loss of visual power in [543] the retina of the eyes. Therefore, when given in a much diluted form they are remedial for these affections.