Dr Butler’s Cordial water

Take Pimpernel, Carduus, Angelica, Scordium, Scabious, Dragon, and still these severally in a Rose-still; and when you have a pint of the water of every of these sorts of Herbs, then mingle all thse together very well, and dissolve in it half a pound of Venice Treacle, then still all these together, and mingle the stronger water with the small; six spoonfuls of this water, made blood warm, given to one sick of the Plague, driveth all venome from the heart. It is excellent so used, for the Small Pox, or for any pestilent Feaver.

Source: The Queens Cabinet Opened: Or, The Pearle of Practice. Accurate, Physical and Chirurgical Receipts, Nathaniel Brooke

Palpitation of the Heart, Hot Foot Bath and Camphor for

“Place the feet in hot mustard water and give two grains camphor every two or three hours, or two drops aconite every hour. This remedy is very good and is sure to give relief.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Ingredients: Borage

The Borage, with its gallant blue flower, is cultivated in our gardens as a pot herb, and is associated in our minds with bees and claret cup. It grows wild in abundance on open plains where the soil is favourable, and it has a long-established reputation for cheering the spirits. Botanically, it is the Borago officinalis, this title being a corruption of cor-ago, i.e., cor, the heart, ago, I stimulate — quia cordis affectibus medetur, because it cures weak conditions of the heart. An old Latin adage says: Borago ego gaudia semper ago — “I, Borage, bring always courage”; or the name may be derived from the Celtic, Borrach, “a noble person.” This plant was the Bugloss of the older botanists, and it corresponds to our Common Bugloss, so called from the shape and bristly surface of its leaves, which resemble bous-glossa, the tongue of an ox. Chemically, the plant Borage contains potassium and calcium combined with mineral acids. The fresh juice affords thirty per cent., and the dried herb three per cent. of nitrate of potash. The stems and leaves supply much saline mucilage, which, when boiled and cooled, likewise deposits nitre and common salt. These crystals, when ignited, will burn with a succession of small sparkling explosions, to the great delight of the schoolboy. And it is to such saline qualities the wholesome, invigorating effects and the specially refreshing properties of the Borage are supposed to be mainly due. For which reason, the plant, “when taken in sallets,” as says an old herbalist, “doth exhilarate, and make the mind glad,” almost in the same way as a bracing sojourn by the seaside during an autumn holiday. The flowers possess cordial virtues which are very revivifying, and have been much commended against melancholic depression of the nervous system. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1676), wrote with reference to the frontispiece of that book:–

“Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes,
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart
Of those black fumes which make it smart;
The best medicine that God e’er made
For this malady, if well assaid.”

“The sprigs of Borage,” wrote John Evelyn, “are of known virtue to revive the hypochondriac and cheer the hard student.”

According to Dioscorides and Pliny, the Borage was that famous nepenthe of Homer which Polydamas sent to Helen for a token “of such rare virtue that when taken steep’d in wine, if wife and children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should die before thy face, thou could’st not grieve, or shed a tear for them.” “The bowl of Helen had no other ingredient, as most criticks do conjecture, than this of borage.” And it was declared of the herb by another ancient author: Vinum potatum quo sit macerata buglossa moerorum cerebri dicunt auferre
periti:–

“To enliven the sad with the joy of a joke,
Give them wine with some borage put in it to soak.”

The Romans named the Borage Euphrosynon, because when put into a cup of wine it made the drinkers of the same merry and glad.

Parkinson says, “The seed of Borage helpeth nurses to have more store of milk, for which purpose its leaves are most conducing.” Its saline constituents promote activity of the kidneys, and for this reason the plant is used in France to carry off catarrhs which are feverish. The fresh herb has a cucumber-like odour, and when compounded with lemon and sugar, added to wine and water, it makes a delicious “cool tankard,” as a summer drink. “A syrup concocted of the floures,” said Gerard, “quieteth the lunatick person, and the leaves eaten raw do engender good blood.” Of all nectar-loving insects, bees alone know how to pronounce the “open sesame” of admission to the honey pots of the Borage.

Source: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, William Thomas Fernie

Rheumatism in Children

Rheumatic fever in young children is generally the result of inherited tendency. The symptoms are redness and swelling of the larger joints, with pain, perspiration, and fever. The fever is not, as a rule, high, seldom rising above 102 degrees Fahr., and is not long continued; but when it rises even thus, it is generally due to the heart being affected, and affections of the heart are those which have to be dreaded whenever a child suffers from this complaint. Where there is a hurried breathing, a dry cough, or uneasiness or pain about the heart, the case should be looked upon as serious from this point of view. Pleurisy is also a common sequel to rheumatic fever, and one of the diseases most closely associated with it is St. Vitus’s dance, which seems in some way dependent upon the affection of the heart to which this disease gives rise.

Eruptions on the skin, such as nettle rash, or a rash resembling red gum, are very common, and seem to be caused by the intense acidity and poverty of the blood, which are common in rheumatic children, and last for a long time after an attack.

The disease, as a rule, lasts from two to three weeks, slight cases getting well in between ten and fourteen days. The child should be kept at rest, and well protected from every possibility of chill. It should lie in bed in a flannel nightgown between the blankets. Food should at first be farinaceous with bread and milk, and later on broths and fish may be added. The affected joints should be wrapped in cotton wool, and when they are painful a solution may be made of one drachm of nitrate of potash and twenty drops of laudanum in an ounce of water, and a flannel soaked in this applied. The rubbing in of iodine ointment is of service for the swelling which lingers during convalescence.

Any internal remedies will, of course, be prescribed by the doctor in attendance; but the most important part of the treatment is that by the nurse or mother, as so much care is necessary with reference to the warmth of the clothing, the digestibility of the food, the avoidance of exposure to cold and damp, and saving the child from much fatigue, over-exercise, and over-excitement.

Muscular Rheumatism is found in the form of stiff neck or lumbago, and in the muscles of the arms and those of the head. Treatment consists in rest, the application of warmth by hot fomentation and the use of liniments, such as the compound camphor liniment; while perspiration should be assisted by the use of sweet spirits of nitre, and keeping the child in bed between the blankets. If the case lasts, bromide of ammonium is a useful remedy. Chronic rheumatism is rare in childhood, and is best treated by warm baths with plenty of carbonate of soda in them, and massage, while iodine may be painted on the affected joints.

Source: Home Notes, 1895

Palpitation of the Heart, Valuable Herb Tea for

“All excitement must be avoided. Where there is organic disease, all that can be done is to mitigate the severity of the symptoms. For this take the following herb tea: One ounce each of marigold flowers, mugwort, motherworth, century dandelion root, put in, two quarts of water and boil down to three pints; pour boiling hot upon one-half ounce of valerian, and one-half ounce of skullcap. Take a wineglassful three times a day. Let the bowels be kept moderately open and live principally upon vegetable diet, with plenty of outdoor exercise.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Palpitation of the Heart, Tea of Geranium Root for

“Make an infusion of geranium root, half an ounce in pint of boiling water, strain, cool, and give wine glass full three or four times a day.” The geranium root will be found to be an excellent remedy where female weakness has caused the palpitation of the heart.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Conserves of red Roses the Italian manner

[Well, this one seemed appropriate for Valentine’s Day — Ed.]

Take fresh red Roses not quite ripe, beat them in a stone Mortar, mix them with double their weight of Sugar, and put them in a glass close stopped, being not full, let them remain before you use them three months, stirring of them once a day.

The Vertues

The Stomach, Heart, and Bowels it cooleth, and hindreth vapours, the spitting of blood and corruption for the most part (being cold) it helpeth. It will keep many years.

Source: A Queen’s Delight: Or, The Art of Preserving, Conserving and Candying, Nathaniel Brooke

Ingredients: Asparagus

The Asparagus, belonging to the Lily order of plants, occurs wild on the coasts of Essex, Suffolk, and Cornwall. It is there a more prickly plant than the cultivated vegetable which we grow for the sake of the tender, edible shoots. The Greeks and Romans valued it for their tables, and boiled it so quickly that velocius quam asparagi coquuntur — “faster than asparagus is cooked” — was a proverb with them, to which our “done in a jiffy” closely corresponds. The shoots, whether wild or cultivated, are succulent, and contain wax, albumen, acetate of potash, phosphate of potash, mannite, a green resin, and a fixed principle named “asparagin.” This asparagin stimulates the kidneys, and imparts a peculiar, strong smell to the urine after taking the shoots; at the same time, the green resin with which the asparagin is combined, exercises gently sedative effects on the heart, calming palpitation, or nervous excitement of that organ. Though not producing actual sugar in the urine, asparagus forms and excretes a substance therein which answers to the reactions used by physicians for detecting sugar, except the fermentation test. It may fairly be given in diabetes with a promise of useful results. In Russia it is a domestic medicine for the arrest of flooding.

Asparagin also bears the chemical name of “althein,” and occurs in crystals, which may be reduced to powder, and which may likewise be got from the roots of marsh mallow, and liquorice. One grain of this given three times a day is of service for relieving dropsy from disease of the heart. Likewise, a medicinal tincture is made (H.) from the whole plant, of which eight or ten drops given with a tablespoonful of water three times a day will also allay urinary irritation, whilst serving to do good against rheumatic gout. A syrup of asparagus is employed medicinally in France: and at Aix-les-Bains it forms part of the cure for rheumatic patients to eat Asparagus. The roots of Asparagus contain diuretic virtues more abundantly than the shoots. An infusion made from these roots will assist against jaundice, and congestive torpor of the liver. The shrubby stalks of the plant bear red, coral-like berries which, when ripe, yield grape sugar, and spargancin. Though generally thought to branch out into feathery leaves, these are only ramified stalks substituted by the plant when growing on an arid sandy soil, where no moisture could be got for the maintenance of leaves. The berries are attractive to small birds, who swallow them whole, and afterwards void the seeds, to germinate when thus scattered about. Thus there is some valid reason for the vulgar corruption of the title Asparagus into Sparrowgrass, or Grass. Botanically the plant is a lily which has seen better days. In the United States of America, Asparagus is thought to be undeniably sedative, and a palliative in all heart affections attended with excited action of the pulse. The water in which asparagus has been boiled, if drunk, though somewhat disagreeable, is beneficial against rheumatism. The cellular tissue of the plant furnishes a substance similar to sago. In Venice, the wild asparagus is served at table, but it is strong in flavour and less succulent than the cultivated sort. Mortimer Collins makes Sir Clare, one of his characters in Clarisse say: “Liebig, or some other scientist maintains that asparagin — the alkaloid in asparagus — develops form in the human brain: so, if you get hold of an artistic child, and give him plenty of asparagus, he will grow into a second Raffaelle!”

Gerard calls the plant “Sperage,” “which is easily concocted when eaten, and doth gently loose the belly.” Our name, “Asparagus,” is derived from a Greek word signifying “the tearer,” in allusion to the spikes of some species; or perhaps from the Persian “Spurgas,” a shoot.

John Evelyn, in his Book of Salads, derives the term Asparagus in easy fashion, ab asperitate, “from the sharpness of the plant.” “Nothing,” says he, “next to flesh is more nourishing; but in this country we overboil them, and dispel their volatile salts: the water should boil before they are put in.” He tells of asparagus raised at Battersea in a natural, sweet, and well-cultivated soil, sixteen of which (each one weighing about four ounces) were made a present to his wife, showing what “solum, coelum, and industry will effect.” The Asparagus first came into use as a food about 200 B.C., in the time of the elder Cato, and Augustus was very partial to it. The wild Asparagus was called Lybicum, and by the Athenians, Horminium. Roman cooks used to dry the shoots, and when required these were thrown into hot water, and boiled for a few minutes to make them look fresh and green. Gerard advises that asparagus should be sodden in flesh broth, and eaten; or boiled in fair water, seasoned with oil, pepper, and vinegar, being served up as a salad. Our ancestors in Tudor times ate the whole of the stalks with spoons. Swift’s patron, Sir William Temple, who had been British Minister at the Hague, brought the art of Asparagus culture from Holland; and when William III. visited Sir William at Moor Park, where young Jonathan was domiciled as Secretary, his Majesty is said to have taught the future Dean of St. Patrick’s how to eat asparagus in the Dutch style. Swift afterwards at his own table refused a second helping of the vegetable to a guest until the stalks had been devoured, alleging that “King William always ate his stalks.” When the large white asparagus first came into vogue, it was known as the “New Vegetable.” This was grown with lavish manure and was called Dutch Asparagus. For cooking the stalks should be cut of equal lengths, and boiled standing upwards in a deep saucepan with nearly two inches of the heads out of the water. Then the steam will suffice to cook these tender parts, whilst the hard stalky portions may be boiled long enough to become soft and succulently wholesome. Two sorts of asparagus are now grown — the one an early kind, pinkish white, cultivated in France and the Channel Islands; the other green and English. At Kynance Cove in Cornwall, there is an island called Asparagus Island, from the abundance in which the plant is found there.

In connection with this popular vegetable may be quoted the
following riddle:–

“What killed a queen to love inclined,
What on a beggar oft we find,
Show–to ourselves if aptly joined,
A plant which we in bundles bind.”

Source: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, William Thomas Fernie