The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1894-06-22
HERBS FOR MEDICAL USE.
OLD-FASHIONED FOLKS WHO
TRUST TO SIMPLE REMEDIES.


OLD-FASHIONED FOLKS WHO
TRUST TO SIMPLE REMEDIES.
Plants Which Bring Healing and Res
toration to the Sick Without the
Doctors Prescriptions:
q EVERAL large wholesale drug
houses down town find it worth
while to keep in stock large
assortment Of herbs for medi-
cal use, and at least one such house,
more than fifty. years in existence,
deals in such articles alone. These
houses supply druggists all over the
East with the raw materials of which
many standard medicines are made,
and with the traditional herbs, roots
and barks of our grandmothers. The
trade in these things even in this city
is large, and they are sold wherever
household remedies still have place
of honor.
One of these Wholesale houses issues
a catalogue that is in some sort rough
guide to the art and mystery Of herb
doctoring. 1t is these remedies that
are compounded by the so-celled boz
tanic druggists, or "botanists," as
they are sometimes styled. Many of
these remedies are well-recognized
medicines, unhesitatinSly prescribed
by physicians of scientific education,
and some such physicians still cling to
inherited formulas and traditional
herbs.
Nearly five hundred herbs, roots,
seeds, flowers and barks are kept in
stock by the largest botanic druggists,
and new remedies are still from time
to time added to the list. The plants
thus kept are not ouly those known to
the pharmacopea rs containing the
active principles of standard drugs,
nearly every familiar flower and plant,
wild or cultivated. Not only the dan
deliou, May apple, boneset and pepsis.
ewny Of our grandmothers and the
liuuorice root, slippe y elm and gin
sing of the orthodox mnteria medica
must be kept on hand, but us we'll hun
Ireds of others known to those deeply
read in the science of simples.
Favorite flowers and famous plants
take roles strangely unfamiliar &c
The bark of the tulip tree, according
to the catalogue, cures Mysteries and
dyspepsia. Thistle tea Strengthens
the system and excites perspiration.
Water lilies Of one sort or another
are good for pectorat complaints and
scrofula. Watermelon seed is "cx-
cellent for dropsy," doubtless on the
homeopathic principle. The white
willow is n substitute for Peruvian
bark. The wild suniiowcr is set down
ms "invaiuable in bilious colic" and
like complaints. Sweet clover lis for
swellings. The strawberry, no longer
table delicacy, furnishes in its leaves
remedy for sore throat, and in its
wandering stem cure for jaundicc
and fevcrs. Seven kinds of snake root
furnish remedies for rheumatism,
scrofuln, hives, Group, fevers and
some complaints Of the stomach.
The Irish shamrock, losing it's cm-
blcmatic Significance, is used to
make An infusion for scurvy. The
familiar skunk cabbage, earliest and
most ill-smelling of blossoms, is good
for hemorrhage of the lungs, coughs
and asthma. Rosemary and rue figure
in this materia medica, the former not
for remembrance rs according to
Ophelia, but for nervous and hysteri.
cal affections. Ophelia's rue. called
herb of grace O. Sundays" lays the
unpoetic part of cure for epilepsy,
Mysteries, hiccough and disorders of
the stomach. Galen, according to
the commentators of Shakespeare,
ascribed somewhat different curative
properties to rue. Ophelia's pansies,
under the name Of hearts case, are
not "for thoughts, but are excellent
for asthma, and good in colds and
fevers.
Many plants are enumerated rs hav-
ing the properties Of quinino in great.
er or less degree; there are several
substitutes for opiurl and like doubles
for other familiar drugs. Tho num-
Der of plants that cure rheumatism is
marvellous, and there are moro than
two dozen remedies for incipicnt con.
sumption Of the lungs. Boxwood
bnrk is "nearly equal to quininc. {"
Cednr apples. which Walt Whitman
discourses upon rs cedar piums, are
"S'i"i III " 'oituioIl VI CUik>
! dren, and cedar berries, the aromatic
and slightly sweet little blue fruit Of
the cedar tree, are rccomp: lndcd in
tincture or infusion for 1ropsy. Four
parts Of varieties Of the dogwood nre
enumerated rs ofmedicinnl value, and
rs many ferris arc named. The male
form is 2. remedy for tapeworm, and
the fomale fern is good for lumbngo
and coughs.
All the d-fashionel flowers and
several table vegetables find plnco in
the list Of remedies. The lady slip
per is for the nerves, especially in
hysteria, and tho lNrkspur scod is for
dropty. Lettuce is for colics and
coughs, and asparagus root for tho
kidneys. The blossom of the ox-eyed
daisy is recommended for asthma, con
sumption and dropsical complaints.
The peony is for weak nerves and the
red rose is for "nassik homorrhages
| and catarrhs.
Most of the patent medicines are