The suburban citizen., 1902-05-03
THE EFFICACY OF HERBS
FACTS LITTLE KNOWN CONCERN.
ING EVEN FAMILIAR FRUITS.

Straight Down From the Days when
Monks and Old Women Made a Study
of Doctoring.
Several large wholesale drug houses
down town, says the New York Jour.
nal, find it worth while to keep in stock
a large assortment Of herbs for medical
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 wher-
ever household remedies still have u
place Of honor.
One of these wholesale houses issues
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-called
botanic druggists, or "botanists,' as
they are sometimes styled. Many of
/
medicines, unhesitatingly prescribed by
physicians of scientific education, and
some such physicians still cling to in
herited formulas and traditional herbs.
Many of the botanical remedies
come straight down from the days
when monks, old women and all sorts
of mousing folks, good and bad, made
| it their business to study the properties
of roots and herbs. Some must have
been borrowed from the Indian medi-
cine men, and doubtless Roger Chilling
worth gathered in the Puritan grave
yards many Of the "simples" that now
figure in the catalogues Of the botanic
druggists. Some of the best known of
| these herbs are at least as old as Galen,
and scores of them have run for CEN
turies through history and literature.
The wholesale botanic druggists are
redolent Of their stock in trade.
Nearly 500 roots, herbs, seeds, fow-
ers and barks are kept in stock by
the largest botanic druggists, and new
remedies are still from time to time
added to the lists. The plants thus
kept are not only those known to the
pharmacopoeia as containing the active
principles Of standard drugs, but near
ly every familiar plant, wild or culti-
waited, Not only the dandelion, may
apple, boneset and pepsiseway of our
! grandmothers and the llcOrice root, slip
perry elm and ginseng of the orthodox
materia medica must be kept on hand,
! but as well hundreds Of others known
! TO those deeply read In the science of
| simples.
| Favorlte flowers and famous plants
takes roles strangely unfamiliar to
those unlearned in herbs and drugs
The bark of the tulip tree, according
to the catalogue, cures Mysteries and
| dyspepsia. Thistle tree strengthens
the system and excites perspiration."
Water lilies of one sort or another are
good for pectoral complaints and scrof-
ula. Watermelon seed is excellent
for dropsy," doubtless upon the homeo-
pathic principle. The white willow is
| a substitute for Peruvian bark. The
wild sun1ower is set down as "invalua-
bic in bilious collie" and like COM
plants. Sweet clover is for swellings.
The strawberry furnishes in its
leaves a remedy for sore throat and in
its wandering stem cure for jaundlce
and fevers. Seven kinds of snake root
furnish remedies for rheumatism, drop
sy hysteria, collie, backache, measles,
| ACprnfnl0 nd
complaints of the stomach.
Many plants are enumerated as hav-
ing the properties Of quinine in greater
or less degree. There are several sub
stitutes for opium, and like doubles for
other familiar drugs. The number of
plants that cure rheumatism is mar
vellous, and there are more than two
dozen remedies for inclpient consump-
ton Of the lungs. BoXwood bark is
nearly equal to quinine."
Cedar apples, which Walt Whitman
discourses upon as cedar plums," are
useful in common complaint of chill
dren, and cedar berries, the aromatic
and slightly sweet little blue fruit of
the cedar tree, are recommended In
tincture or infusion for dropsy. Four
parts or varieties o. the dogwood are
enumerated as Of medicinal value, and
as many ferns are named. The male
fern is remedy for tapeworm, and the
female fern is good for lumbago and
coughs.
All the old-fashloned flowers and sew
cradle table vegetables find place in the
list of remedies. The ladyslipper is
for the nerves, especially in hysteria,
and larkspur seed is for dropsy. Let
tuce is for COLES and coughs, and as
paragus roots for the kidneys. The
blossom Of the ox-eyed daisy is recon-
mended for asthma, consumption and
dropsical complaints. The peony is for
weak nerves, and the red rose Is for
"hassik hemorrhages and catarrhs.'
Most of the popular medicines are
represented in the stock Of the botanic
druggist by their original elements.
The makers Of such remedies deal
1aWg II.