Herbal Manual. The Medicinal, Toilet, Culinary and other Uses of 130 of the most Commonly Used Herbs - Harold Ward. 1936.pdf

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HERBAL MANUAL
The Medicinal, Toilet, Culinary and other Uses of 130 of the
most Commonly Used Herbs
By
HAROLD WARD
L. N. Fowler & Co. Ltd.
15 New Bridge Street London, E.C.4
Herbal Manual by Harold Ward - Page 1
The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine http://www.swsbm.com
FOREWORD
PRACTISING medical herbalists have long recognized the need, evidenced
in an increasing public demand, for a popular-priced manual containing
an exposition of their attitude towards problems of health and disease,
together with a comprehensive and descriptive cyclopaedia of the
remedies they use, with such other information as is likely to be of use or
interest to both general reader and more serious student.
This purpose the present author has thought to achieve by a preliminary
survey of the historical background of medical herbalism, followed by an
explanation and discussion of the philosophy upon which the herbal
practitioner of to-day bases his work. The greater part of the book is
devoted to the cyclopaedic dictionary of medicinal and other herbs, with
their natural order, botanical and common names and synonyms, their
habitats, distinctive features, the parts employed and the therapeutic
properties, with uses and dosage.
The better-known herbs, and those which are more commonly seen in
prescriptions, as well as those which, for any other reason, may be of
unusual interest, have been dealt with, it will be noticed, in greater detail
than the less frequently used and discussed plants. Quotations from the
writings of herbalists, from Culpeper to the twentieth century, are freely
inserted where these were thought to be especially apposite.
It will be observed that to most of the herbs are ascribed double or
multiple medicinal actions. Which particular virtue comes to the fore in
actual application depends largely on the other agents with which it is
combined. Thus, the alterative properties of a herb may be more
pronounced in one combination, while in a different prescription its value
as a diuretic might become more operative. In the effective allocation of
his various medicinal agents to meet precise individual requirements lies
an important department of the work of the skilled prescribing herbalist.
The index of therapeutic action will be found helpful in locating suitable
herbs in specific forms of ill-health, while the volume would not be
complete without the information concerning the gathering of herbs, the
glossary of botanical terms used and the very full index of the herbs
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The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine http://www.swsbm.com
themselves, under their common and botanical names and synonyms, with
which the book ends.
While it is considered that the work will not be without value to both
practitioner and student, it is the general public to whom it is primarily
addressed. An increasing number of people are turning to herbal healing,
many of them for reasons which will be apparent in the following pages.
HAROLD WARD. Scotts Hall,
Westleton,
Saxmundham Suffolk.
August, 1936.
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PART I
I—HISTORY OF HERBALISM
ALTHOUGH the use of plants in the alleviation and cure of bodily ills goes
as far back as the history of the human race itself, probably the first
official reference to herbalism as a definite art and the practice of a
distinct group of persons, is contained in no less important a document
than an Act of Parliament of the reign of King Henry VIII. The enactment
headed "Annis Tricesimo Quarto et Tricesimo Quinto, Henrici VIII Regis.
Cap. VIII" is still part of the Statute Law of England, and is popularly
known as "The Herbalists' Charter."
It seems that in the early years of the sixteenth century there was
considerable discontent concerning both the methods of practice of the
official school of medicine and the fees charged by its practitioners for
the conferring of dubious benefits. Further, the Act referred to makes it
fairly clear that the doctors of the period did not boggle at legal and other
persecution of those who disagreed with their theories and who used,
apparently with some success, a different method of healing to their own.
The abuses must have reached rather serious dimensions, and have
affected even the high and mighty of the land, as it is extremely unlikely
that a Tudor monarch and his advisers would have deigned to notice
officially a matter that oppressed only the poorer population.
The text of the Act first draws attention to the fact that in the third year
of the same king's reign it was enacted that no person within the City of
London or within a seven-miles radius should practise as a physician and
surgeon without first being "examined, approved and admitted" by the
Bishop of London and others. Since then, the new Act tells us, "the
Company and Fellowship of Surgeons of London, minding only their own
Lucres, and nothing the Profit or Ease of the Diseased or Patient, have
sued, troubled and vexed divers honest Persons, as well Men as Women,
whom God hath endued with the knowledge of the Nature, Kind and
Operation of certain Herbs, Roots and Waters, and the using and
ministering of them to such as been pained with customable Diseases. ..."
Further, "it is now well-known that the Surgeons admitted will do no Cure
to any Person but where they shall know to be rewarded with a greater
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Sum or Reward than the Cure extendeth unto ; for in case they would
minister their cunning unto sore people unrewarded, there should not so
many rot and perish to Death for Lack or Help of Surgery as daily do."
To this accusation of venality is added the charge of professional
incompetence, "for although the most Part of the Persons of the said Craft
of Surgeons have small cunning yet they will take great Sums of Money,
and do little therefor, and by Reason thereof they do sometimes impair
and hurt their Patients rather than do them good." With a view to
remedying this somewhat scandalous state of affairs it is then decreed "by
Authority of this present Parliament, That at all Time from henceforth it
shall be lawful to every Person being the King's subject, having Knowledge
and Experience of the Nature of Herbs, Roots and Waters, or of the
Operation of the same, by Speculation or Practice, within any part of the
Realm of England, or within any other the King's Dominions, to practice,
use and minister in and to any outward Sore, Uncome Wound,
Apostemations . . . any Herb or Herbs," etc.; "or drinks for the Stone,
Strangury or Agues, without Suit, Vexation, Trouble, Penalty, or Loss of
their Goods; the foresaid Statute in the foresaid Third Year of the King's
most gracious Reign, or any other Act, Ordinance, or Statutes to the
contrary heretofore made in anywise, notwithstanding."
The happenings and subsequent outcry which must have preceded the
introduction of this Bill have tempted modern herbal enthusiasts to apply
the tag about history repeating itself to conditions hedging the treatment
of disease in our own times! However this may be, the unofficial healer of
to-day has not yet obtained his Charter from the Tudor king's successors,
although it may be argued that this would be unnecessary if proper
recognition of King Henry's Act, still part of the present law of the land,
could be enforced.
The first name to be associated with herbal practice and to be attached to
writings on the subject is that of Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), the
"father" of medical herbalism. This son of the Rev. Thomas Culpeper,
M.A., Rector of Oakley, Surrey, was by no means the untutored hind he is
alleged to be by uninformed or biased critics. Although his system is
regarded by the health philosopher of our day as "Culpeperism" rather
than medical herbalism as we know it, the independently-minded Nicholas
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