The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-05-29
HERBS AS MEDICINE.
Traditions Regarding Their Po.
tency In Diseases
Country Praetitionsrs Who Were Ex-
peF3eneed In the Use Of Noturo's Rem.
odioo for Human ulA - oom0
Extraordinary potto0as

Baring-Gould has contributed to the
Sunday Magazine curious paper en-
titled Country Remedies" from which
we learn that in spite of the revolution
which has taken place in the materia
medica of the British pharmacopeia in
modern times in favor OF mineral med
ieines and other more powerful drugs,
village 'swise men" and women still
"cull simples" here and there, and even
continue to inspire neighbors with faith
in their power of healing by divers
superstitious practices Nor is the coun-
try peoples confidence in the village
herbalist, in Mr. Gould's opinion, alto
Rether misplaced. The old race OF these
irregular practitioners were, he be-
lieves, endowed with very considerable
and wholesome experience, and they
were the repositories of traditions re-
garding the properties OF certain herbs
in the treatment of certain maladies
which were sometimes far from being
mere fanciful. It is noteworthy that to
this day many of our field and wood
plants derive their names from the pop
ular belief in their virtues as specifics
for certain complaints.
Mr.. Gould gives . remarkable &C.
count Of one of the last remaining
"wise women" who has long been
known to him. Judging from certain
indications, she belongs to the west
country. Her recipe for sprain will
hardly, we fear, receive respectful con-
sideration. 1t is as follows: "Two
ounces oil of turpentine, two ditto
suillowes, two ditto earthworms, two
ditto nerve, two ditto oppidillidock, two
ditto Spanish feas." Mr.. Gould opines
that the turpentine, the opodeldoc and
the Spanish flies mot feas) are the
valuable part of this remarkable pre-
scription. "Suillowes" is supposed to
stand for squills, which is not OF much
use as an external application.
OF the potency of ''earthworms" it is
more difficult to Judge, but Mr.. Gould
assures us that it is precisely this de-
coction of wriggling worms which i'm
presses the west country rustic into
the conviction that the remedy must be
something very wonderful, and the oil
of nerves strikes him as reasonable.
His nerves are suffering; therefore he
must decoct the nerves OF bullocks to
supply what he lacks. The rationale
of the thing seems not unlike that OF
the 'soil of crowbars" which Mr..
Punch's hairdresser recommended to
the customer whose hair was getting
rather weak" When Mr.. Gould's chill
dren had the whooping cough his
coachman's wife entreated Mrs. Gould
to let her doctor them. She brought
little silk bags to be tied round the
sufferers necks, each containing some
hair cut from the cross on donkey 8
back. This she had learned to believe
was sovereign against whooping cough.
For remedies of THE class Mr.. Gould
has no apology to offer: nor has he any
thing to say for the "charms" and
cabalistic formula which are still In
some favor in the country-some
samples which he cites certainly do not
say much for enlightenment in the west
of England Fits, when they are "ter-
rible bad" are, in the belief OF some,
only to be cured by wearing silver
ring, manufactured from coins which
have come out of seven parishes.
Gold, it appears, is not eficacious. Mr..
Gould knows q parish in which the
parish clerk draws-or did till lately
q revenue for the cure Of children with
fits. This is what he does, or did: He
takes the little sufferer up to the church
tower, holds it out at each of the angle
pinnacles and pronounces certain
words. What the words are Mr.. Gould
has not learned. Profitable trade Sc
crets are apt to be jealously guarded,
but he knows that for these mysterious
practices the parish clerk receives an