CHAPTER IIl (Part 14)

only held his post for a very short time. For the rest of his life he was a wanderer on the face of the earth, and he died in comparative poverty at Salzburg in 1541. Text-fig. 108. Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493—1541) [From a medal, see F. P. Weber, Appendix IT]. The character and writings of Paracelsus are full of the strangest contradictions. Browning’s poem perhaps gives a better idea of his career than any prose account aiming at historical accuracy. His life was so strange that the imagination of a poet is needed to revitalise it for us to-day. His almost incredible boastfulness is the main characteristic that everyone remembers—the word “ bom- bast” being, in all probability, coined from his name. In Vit] Doctrine of Signatures 207 one of his works, after contemptuously dismissing all the great physicians who had preceded him—Galen, Avicenna and others—he remarks, ‘‘I shall be the Monarch and mine shall the monarchy be’.” The conclusion that he was something of a quack can hardly be avoided, but at the same time it must be confessed that his writings were occasionally illumined with real scientific insight, and that he infused new life into chemistry and medicine. Paracelsus’ actual knowledge of botany appears to have been meagre, for not more than a couple of dozen plant names are found in his works. ‘To understand his views on the properties of plants it is necessary to turn for a moment to his chemical theories. He regarded ‘‘ sulphur,” “salt,” and ‘““mercury” as the three fundamental principles of all bodies. The sense in which he uses these terms is symbolic, and thus differs entirely from that in which they are employed to-day. ‘‘Sulphur” appears to embody the ideas of change, combustibility, volatilisation and growth ; “salt,” those of stability and non-inflammability ; “mercury,” that of fluidity. The “virtues” of plants depend, according to Paracelsus, upon the proportions in which they contain these three principles. The medicinal properties of plants are thus the outcome of qualities that are not obvious at sight. How, then, is the physician to be guided in selecting herbal remedies to cure the several ailments of his patients? The answer to this question given by Paracelsus is summed up in what is known as the Doctrine of Signatures, According to this doctrine, many medicinal herbs are stamped, as it were, with some clear indication of their uses. This may perhaps be best understood by means of a quotation from Paracelsus himself (in the words of a seventeenth-century English translation). ‘I have oft- times declared, how by the outward shapes and qualities of things we may know their inward Vertues, which God hath put in them for the good of man. So in St Johns wort, we may take notice of the form of the leaves and flowers, the porosity of the leaves, the Veins. 1. The porositie or 1 “ch wirdt Monarcha, unnd mein wird die Monarchey sein.” Vorred in das Buch Paragranum. [Theophrastus Paracelsus, ‘Das Buch Paragranum,’ Herausgegeben...von Dr phil. Fr. Strunz, Leipzig, 1903. ] 208 Signatures and Astrology [CH. holes in the leaves, signifie to us, that this herb helps both inward and outward holes or cuts in the skin.... 2. The flowers of Saint Johns wort, when they are putrified they are like blood; which teacheth us, that this herb is good for wounds, to close them and fill them up” ete. It is sometimes held that the real originator of the theory of signatures, in any approximation to a scientific form, was Giambattista Porta, who was probably born at Naples shortly before the death of Paracelsus. He wrote a book about human physiognomy, in which he endeavoured to find, in the bodily form of man, indications as to his character and spiritual qualities. This study suggested to him the idea that the inner qualities, and the healing powers of the herbs might also be revealed by external signs, and thus led to his famous work, the ‘ Phytognomonica,’ which was first published at Naples in 1588. Porta developed his theory in detail, and pushed it to great lengths. He supposed, for example, that long-lived plants would lengthen a man’s life, while short-lived plants would abbreviate it. He held that herbs with a yellow sap would cure jaundice, while those whose surface was rough to the touch would heal those diseases that destroy the natural smoothness of the skin. The resemblance of certain plants to certain animals opened to Porta a vast field of dogmatism on a basis of conjecture. Plants with flowers shaped like butterflies would, he supposed, cure the bites of insects, while those whose roots or fruits had a jointed appearance, and thus remotely suggested a scorpion, must necessarily be sovereign remedies for the sting of that creature. Porta also detected many obscure points of resemblance between the flowers and fruits of certain plants, and the limbs and organs of certain animals. In such cases of resemblance he held that an investigation of the tem- perament of the animal in question would determine what kind of disease the plant was intended to cure. It will be recognised from these examples that the doctrine of signa- tures was remarkably elastic, and was not fettered by any rigid consistency. The illustrations of the ‘Phytognomonica’ are of great interest as interpreting Porta’s point of view. The part of man’s body which is healed by a particular herb, or the VIII] Doctrine of Signatures 209 animal whose bites or stings can be cured by it, are repre- sented in the same wood-cut as the herb. For example, the back view of a human head with a thick crop of hair is introduced into the block with the Maidenhair Fern, which son 1) @ @ > Ley US th WD 4, MI 3B tp, os Get xq 2 Pagel cece si Cs ‘ Ni SR (RIN: AN ¥/ Ni oN ' a t SIE AY [7 My ‘Y us) DRA ces Text-fig. 109. Herbs of the Scorpion [Porta, Phytognomonica, 1 591]. is an ancient specific for baldness ; a Pomegranate with its seeds exposed, and a plant of “ Toothwort,” with its hard, white scale-leaves, are represented in the same figure as a set of human teeth; a drawing of a scorpion accom- panies some pictures of plants with articulated seed-vessels A. 14 210 Szonatures and Astrology (cH. (Text-fig. 109) and an adder’s head is introduced below the drawing of the plant known as the ‘“‘ Adder’s tongue.” It would serve little purpose to deal in detail with the various exponents of the doctrine of signatures, such, for example, as Johann Popp, who in 1625 published a herbal written from this standpoint, and containing also some astrological botany. We will only now refer to one of the later champions of the signatures of plants, an English herbalist of the seventeenth century, who made the subject peculiarly his own. This was William Cole’, a Fellow of New College, Oxford, who lived and botanised at Putney in Surrey. He seems to have been a person of much character, and his vigorous arguments would often be very telling, were it possible to admit the soundness of his premisses. | William Cole carried the doctrine of signatures to as extreme a point as can well be imagined. His account of the Walnut, from his work ‘Adam in Eden,’ 1657, may be quoted as an illustration: “ Wal/-nuts have the perfect Signature of the Head: The outer husk or green Covering, represent the Pericrantum, or outward skin of the skull, whereon the hair groweth, and therefore salt made of those husks or barks, are exceeding good for wounds in the head. The inner wooddy shell hath the Signature of the Skull, and the little yellow skin, or Peel, that covereth the Kernell of the hard MWenznga and Pza-mater, which are the thin scarfes that envelope the brain. The Kerne/ hath the very figure of the Brain, and therefore it is very profitable for the Brain, and resists poysons; For if the Kernel be bruised, and moystned with the quintessence of Wine, and laid upon the Crown of the Head, it comforts the brain and head mightily.” In Cole’s writings we meet with instances of a curious confusion of thought, which characterised the doctrine of signatures. The signature in some cases represents an animal injurious to man, and is taken to denote that the plant in question will cure its bites or stings... For instance, “That Plant that is called Adders tongue, because the stalke of it represents one, is a soveraigne wound Herbe to cure the 1 The name of this botanist is spelt “Coles” on the title-pages of his works, but the spelling “ Cole” appears to be more correct. Vit] Doctrine of Signatures 211 biting of an Adder.” In other cases, the signature represents one of the organs of the human body, and indicates that the plant will cure diseases of that organ. For example, “Heart Trefoyle is so called, not onely because the Leafe is Tri- angular like the Heart of a Man, but also because each Leafe containes the perfect Icon of an Heart, and that in its proper colour, vzz. a flesh colour. It defendeth the Heart against the noisome vapour of the Spleen.” Cole seems to have possessed a philosophic mind, and to have endeavoured to follow his theories to their logical con- clusion. He was much exercised because a large propor- tion of the plants with undoubted medicinal virtues have no obvious signatures. He concluded that a certain number were endowed with signatures, in order to set man on the right track in his search for herbal remedies; the remainder were purposely left blank, in order to encourage his skill and resource in discovering their properties for himself. A further ingenious argument is that a number of plants are left without signatures, because if all were signed, ‘the rarity of it, which is the delight, would be taken away by too much harping upon one string.” Our author was evidently a keen and enthusiastic collector of herbs. In his book ‘The Art of Simpling’ (1656) he complains bitterly that physicians leave the gathering of herbs to the apothecaries, and the latter ‘‘rely commonly upon the words of the silly Hearb-women, who many times bring them Quzd for Quo, then which nothing can be more sad.” Another strong supporter in this country of the doctrine of signatures was the astrological botanist, Robert Turner. He definitely states that “God hath imprinted upon the Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, as it were in Hieroglyphicks, the very signature of their Vertues.” It is interesting to find that the doctrine of signatures was repudiated by the best of the sixteenth-century herbalists. _Dodoens, for instance, wrote in 1583 that “the doctrine of the Signatures of Plants has received the authority of no ancient writer who is held in any esteem: moreover it is so changeable and uncertain that, as far as science or learning is concerned, it seems absolutely un- 1” worthy of acceptance’. 1 “Doctrina verd de signaturis stirpium, a nullo alicuius estimationis 14—2 252 Szgnatures and Astrology [cH. A later writer, Guy de la Brosse, criticised the theory very acutely, pointing out that it was quite easy to imagine any resemblance between a plant and an animal that happened to be convenient. ‘C’est comme des nuées,” he writes, “que l’on fait ressembler a4 tout ce que la fantaisie se represente, 4 une Grué, a une Grenoiiille, 4 un homme, a une armee, et autres semblables visions’.” Both Paracelsus and Porta deprecate the use of foreign drugs, on the ground that in the country where a disease arises, there nature produces means to overcome it. This idea is one which constantly recurs in the herbals. In 1664 Robert Turner wrote, ‘‘ For what Climate soever is subject to any particular Disease, in the same Place there grows a Cure.” There is ample evidence of the survival of this theory even in the nineteenth century ; for instance, in the preface to Thomas Green’s ‘ Universal Herbal’ of 1816 we find the remark, “ Nature has, in this country, as well as in all others, provided, in the herbs of its own growth, the remedies for the several diseases to which it is most subject.” The notion persists indeed to the present day; there is a wide-spread belief among children, for example, that Docks always grow in the neighbourhood of Stinging Nettles, in order to provide a cure zx setu! Whether this view contains any grain of truth or not, it certainly deserves our gratitude, since it led to Dr Mac- lagan’s discovery of Salicin as a cure for rheumatic fever. On the ground that in the case of malarial diseases ‘“‘the poisons which cause them and the remedy which cures them are naturally produced under similar climatic con- ditions,’ Maclagan sought and found, in the bark of the Willow, which inhabits low-lying, damp situations, this drug, which has proved so valuable in the treatment of rheumatism’, The doctrine of signatures is not the only piece of botanical mysticism associated with the name of Paracelsus. He was also a firm believer in the influence of the heavenly veterum testimonium accepit: deinde tam fluxa et incerta est, ut pro scientia aut doctrina nullatenus habenda videatur.” ‘Pemptades,’ Book 1. Cap. XI. 1583. 1 ‘De la nature, vertu, et utilité des plantes,’ p. 278, 1628. 2 Maclagan, T. J. ‘Influenza and Salicin, The Nineteenth Century, Vol. XXXI. p. 337, 1892. VII] Astrological Botany 213 bodies upon the vegetable world, or, in other words, in botanical astrology. He considered that each plant was under the influence of some particular star, and that it was this influence which drew the plant out of the earth when the seed germinated. He held each plant to be a terrestrial star, and each star, a spiritualised plant. Giambattista quia, — Ze Yip. (tt? Ww Q x Wing SAE PATRON SO CS > \ | Rey ~ $ Text-fig. 110, Lunar Herbs [Porta, Phytognomonica, 1591]. Porta also believed in a relation between certain plants and corresponding stars or planets. A figure in his ‘ Phyto- gnomonica’ here reproduced (Text-fig. 110) shows a number of “lunar plants.” In order to appreciate the attitude in which Paracelsus 214 Signatures and Astrology [cH. and his followers approached the subject of the relation between plants and stars, it is necessary to realise the position which Astrology had come to occupy in the Middle Ages’. It was in ancient Babylon that this pseudo-science mainly took its rise. Here the five planets which we now call Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Mercury, and also the Sun and Moon, were identified, in certain senses, with seven great Gods. The movements of these heavenly bodies were supposed to represent in symbolic fashion the deeds of these Gods, It was thought possible to interpret the movements and relative positions of the planets and the sun and moon, in a way that threw light upon the fate of mankind, in so far as it depended upon the Gods in question. Some centuries before the Christian era, Babylonian astrology began to influence the nations farther to the West. In Greece, the subject took a more personal turn and it was believed that the fate, not only of nations but of individuals, was determined in the skies, and could be foretold from the position of the planets at the time of a man’s birth. Ata later period, speculation on the subject was carried further and further, until finally not only men, but all animals, vegetables and minerals were associated, either with par- ticular planets, or with the constellations of the Zodiac. That a belief in the influence of the moon upon plants dates back to very early times in western Europe, is shown by the statement, in Pliny’s ‘Natural History,’ that the Druids in Britain gathered the Mistletoe for medical purposes, with many rites and ceremonies, when the moon was six days old. ‘To trace the history of astrology in detail is altogether beyond our province, but, as an example of its universal acceptance, we may recall the reference to the supreme influence of the stars in the preface of the Herbarius zu Teutsch of 1485 (see p. 19). Astrological ideas were familiar in Elizabethan England, and are reflected in many passages in Shakespeare’s plays, never perhaps more charmingly than in Beatrice’s laughing words—“ there was a star danced, and under that I was born.” Paracelsus, though his name is so well known in this 1 See article on ‘Astrology,’ The Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edn. Cambridge, 1gIo. vit] Astrological Botany 215 connection, was by no means the first writer on botanical astrology. A book called ‘De virtutibus herbarum,’ errone- ously attributed to Albertus Magnus, had a wide circulation from early times, being first printed in the fifteenth century. It was translated into many languages, one English version appearing about 1560 under the title ‘ The boke of secretes of Albartus Magnus, of the vertues of Herbes, stones and certaine beastes.’ It does not contain very much informa- tion about plants, being mostly occupied with animals and minerals, but there are very definite references to astrology. For instance we are told that if the Marigold “be gathered, the Sunne beynge in the sygne Leo, in August, and be wrapped in the leafe of a Laurell, or baye tree, and a wolves tothe be added therto, no man shal be able to have a word to speake agaynst the bearer therof, but woordes of peace.” Concerning the Plantain we read, ‘The rote of this herbe is mervalous good agaynst the payne of the headde, because the signe of the Ramme is supposed to be the house of the planete Mars, which is the head of the whole worlde.” The herbal of Bartholomzeus Carrichter (1575), in which the plants are arranged according to the signs of the Zodiac, is considerably more complete