Bonaventura, of Cardinal Richelieu. Among other popular remedies
were beetroot, box leaves, cabbage, cucumbers, black currants, digitalis,
and euphorbia. [23] A Russian remedy was Genista sentoria, and in
Greece rose-leaves were used internally and externally as a poultice.
Horse-radish, crane's-bill, strawberry, and herb-gerard are old remedies
for gout, and in Westphalia apple-juice mixed with saffron is
administered for jaundice; while an old remedy for boils is dock-tea. For
ague, cinquefoil and yarrow were recommended, and tansy leaves are
worn in the shoe by the Sussex peasantry; and in some places common
groundsel has been much used as a charm. Angelica was in olden times
used as an antidote for poisons. The juice of the arum was considered
good for the plague, and Gerarde tells us that Henry VIII. was, "wont to
drink the distilled water of broom-flowers against surfeits and diseases
thereof arising." An Irish recipe for sore-throat is a cabbage leaf tied
round the throat, and the juice of cabbage taken with honey was
formerly given as a cure for hoarseness or loss of voice. [24] Agrimony,
too, was once in repute for sore throats, cancers, and ulcers; and as far
back as the time of Pliny the almond was given as a remedy for inebriety.
For rheumatism the burdock was in request, and many of our peasantry
keep a potato in their pocket as charms, some, again, carrying a chestnut,
either begged or stolen. As an antidote for fevers the carnation was
prescribed, and the cowslip, and the hop, have the reputation of
inducing sleep. The dittany and plantain, like the golden-rod, nicknamed
"wound-weed," have been used for the healing of wounds, and the
application of a dock-leaf for the sting of a nettle is a well-known cure
among our peasantry, having been embodied in the old familiar adage:--
"Nettle out, dock in--
Dock remove the nettle-sting,"
Of which there are several versions; as in Wiltshire, where the child
uses this formula:--
"Out 'ettle
In dock.
Dock shall ha'a a new smock,
'Ettle zbant
Ha' nanun."
The young tops of the common nettle are still made by the peasantry
into nettle-broth, and, amongst other directions enjoined in an old Scotch
rhyme, it is to be cut in the month of June, "ere it's in the blume":--