Medicinal Practices of Early Herbals

than the present ; they incline one to echo the words, “ There were giants in the earth in those days.” But apparently the sixteenth century held an exactly corresponding view of its predecessors, for under the heading of ‘whyte elebore’ we read, “In olde tyme it was commely used in medycyns as we use squamony. For the body of man was stronger than it is now, and myght better endure the vyolence of elebore, for man is weyker at this time of nature.” It is somewhat remarkable that both Christianity and Greek mythology find a place in the Grete Herball. The discovery of Artemisia and its virtues is attributed to Diana and the Centaurs, but in the event of being bitten by a mad dog, the sufferer is recommended to appeal to the Virgin Mary before employing any remedy. Quite a number of medicines enumerated in the Grete Herball still hold their own in modern practice. Liquorice is recommended for coughs; laudanum, henbane, opium and lettuces as narcotics; olive oil and slaked lime for scalds ; cuttle-fish bone for whitening the teeth, and borax and rose water for the complexion. This book throws an interesting light on the early names of British plants. The Primrose is called ‘ Prymer-olles’ or “‘saynt peterworte.” Duckweed is called “Lentylles of the water” or ‘‘frogges fote,” while Cuckoo-pint is known by the picturesque name of “prestes hode,” and Wood-sorrel is called ‘‘ Alleluya” or “ cukowes meate.’’ One of the most noticeable features of the herbal is the exposure of methods of “faking” drugs, for the protection of the public. Another work, which was illustrated with the same figures as those of the Grete Herball, was ‘The vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes,’ which appeared in 1527. This was a translation by Laurence Andrew from the ‘Liber de arte distillandi’ of Hieronymus Braunschweig, to which we have already referred. It was almost entirely occupied with an account of methods of distillation, but occasionally there is a picturesque touch of description. For example, in speaking of the Mistletoe, the author says, ‘“‘ This herbe hath a longe slender lefe nother full grene, nor ful yelowe, and bereth a small whyte berye.” The book was printed ‘‘in the flete strete by me Laurens Andrewe, in the sygne of the golden Crosse.” CHAriEnW [V THe BOTANICAL “RENAISSANCE OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEETH. CEN- TURIES I. THe HERBAL IN GERMANY. N his History of Botany, Kurt Sprengel : Wig first used the honoured title, ‘The German Fathers of Botany,” to describe a group of herbalists—Brunfels, Bock, Fuchs and Cordus—whose work belongs principally to the first half of the sixteenth century. The earliest of these was Otto Brunfels [Otho Brunfelsius], who is said to have been born in 1464. His surname is derived from the fact that his father, who was a cooper, came from Schloss Brunfels, near Mainz. When Otto grew up, he became a Carthusian monk. We do not know how long his monastic career lasted, but eventually his health appears to have broken down, and, at the same time, his faith in the Roman Catholic Church was undermined by the acquaintance which he began to make with protestant doctrines. He fled from the monastery, and took up his abode in Strasburg, where he was for nine years headmaster of the grammar school. <Callout type=