S.A. Printed by John
Day annotated, and translatedA Cautionary Herbal,
a compendium of plants harmful to the
health
by
London, 1560
into 21st century English
by
Kathy Lynn Emerson
S.A. Printed by John
Day annotated, and translatedA Cautionary Herbal,
a compendium of plants harmful to the
health
by
London, 1560
into 21st century English
by
Kathy Lynn Emerson
The plants described in this little
volume can kill. Do not experiment with any herbal remedy mentioned herein.
This text is meant to represent the writings of a fictional character living in
the 16th century, when even the most learned herbalists were
ignorant of the chemical composition of plants. The author (“editor”) will not
be responsible for harm caused to or by persons who ignore this warning.
A Note on apothecary’s measures:
1
drachm=60 grains=1/8 of an ounce
Banewort
A
most deceitful poison, for its great soft, round berries appear to the unwary
to be black cherries. Eating even one of this sweet and beautiful fruit may
prove fatal, especially to a child, although rabbits appear to be immune to the
poison. First the victim will be stricken with a great thirst. Within a half
hour he will be wild-eyed and raving and may then suffer loss of speech,
dilation of the pupils, and dizziness. Numbness in the limbs follows
convulsions, then dead sleep, and finally death. The skin may appear dry and
red. Banewort can kill in a few hours or take several days. The root is the
most poisonous part, the berry least poisonous, but all parts are dangerous.
Description: This herb grows wild in waste places
and is cultivated in herb gardens, flourishing in spring and summer and
flowering from late June until early September. In shade on wooded hills its
broad dark green leaves may grow as long as six inches and its round black
stalks into a bush three to six feet high. The root is long, thick, and
branching, and of a whitish color. The flowers are hollow and bell shaped, of a
dull, pale purple or blue color. The fruit ripens from green to black and
contains purple juice full of seeds.
Antidote: honey and water mixed to cause the
victim to vomit up the poison Other names: belladonna, deadly
nightshade, death’s herb, devil’s berries, devil’s cherries, devil’s herb,
dwale, dwale berry, dwayberry, fair lady, great morel, morelle mortelle,
morette, naughty man’s cherries, poison cherry, Satan’s cherries, sleeping
nightshade, sorcerer’s berry, sorcerer’s herb, and witch’s berry.
Recipes:
To
use as a sleep aid:
Green leaves laid to the temple cause sleep, especially if moistened with wine
vinegar. This is also useful to ease headache but may leave a rash.
To
prevent miscarriage:
make a powder from the leaves and roots and apply externally as a poultice but
take care to use no more than five grains.
To
make the eyes large and luminous:
squeeze the juice from the berries into the eyes.
Cowbane
The
short, thick, hollow rootstock of cowbane may be mistaken for parsnips,
artichokes, or other edible roots with deadly result. Eating of it can result
in convulsions, paralysis, and death in less than a half hour. The poison
speeds the heart and the victim experiences restlessness, anxiety, and pain in
the stomach, followed by nausea, violent vomiting, salivation, diarrhea, labored breathing, weak, rapid pulse, frothing at the mouth,
violent convulsions, and delirium. The pupils dilate. Poisonings are most
common during the early spring. It is also fatal to cattle.
Description: The plant has an odor similar to
parsley and its leaves can be mistaken for that herb. It is most often found
growing in stagnant ditches. It has a stout, hollow stem that grows up to four
feet in height and lower leaves that resemble hemlock. The flowers are white.
Antidote: To counteract poisons that speed the
heart, force the victim to vomit up the evil, then
dose him a few minutes later with two ounces of a mixture that contains nettle
root, columbine, wormwood, dried saffron, burdock root, dandelion root, and a
large quantity of poppy syrup.
Other
names: water hemlock
Recipes:
To
make a deadly ointment:
mix cowbane, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat’s blood, banewort, and oil.
Dog’s Mercury
Common
in woods and shady places, the entire plant is poisonous when eaten fresh and
it is fatal to sheep as well as men. Dried or boiled it is said not to be
poisonous, but children have died eating soup made from it. When boiled and
eaten with fried bacon in mistake for Good King Henry, it produces sickness,
drowsiness, and twitching. Dog’s Mercury is emetic and purgative with narcotic
symptoms and has a cumulative effect, needing several hours reaction time to
cause death.
Description: Dog’s mercury grows about a foot high
and each stem has large, rough leaves and small green flowers. It flowers from
the end of March to the middle of May and seeds in summer. It has a
disagreeable, acrid odor. The stems are a bright blue and may be used to make
dye.
Other
names: dog’s cole,
English mercury, herb mercury, mercury grass
Recipes:
To
cure lousiness: make
an ointment of oil of bay and mercury mortified by the spittle of a fasting
man.
To
cure warts: apply the
juice of the whole plant, freshly collected when in flower and mixed with sugar
or vinegar.
Hellebore
Used
to kill wolves and foxes, this poison is also fatal to cattle and to humans.
The entire plant is poisonous, causing blisters in the mouth, diarrhea,
vomiting, and death. Symptoms appear within a half hour but the victim takes
several hours to die. Applied locally, the fresh root will cause a rash.
Description: This herb is low-growing with dark
shiny leaves and pure white blossoms in the middle of winter. The root has a
slight odor when cut or broken and a bitter-sweet and acrid taste.
Antidote: henbane
Other
names: bearfoot, black
hellebore, Christmas rose, lion’s foot, melampode, piedelyon
Recipes:
To
cure a poisoned animal:
draw a piece of the root through a hole made in the beast’s ear and take it out
the next day at the same hour. The plant is also used to bless cattle and keep
them from evil spells.
To
ease the pain of toothache:
wash the mouth with hellebore and acetum.
To
kill foxes and wolves:
take the root of black hellebore and dry thoroughly, but not in the sun. Mix
this powder with one fifth part of glass, well ground, and one fourth part of
lily leaf. Take honey and fresh fat and mix with this and make into a hard,
stiff paste, rolling it into round balls the size of a hen’s egg.
Hemlock
Hemlock
is a poison with many medicinal uses. The concentrated juice expressed from
hemlock leaves, with poppy juice added to make the results certain, was used as
the Athenian state poison in ancient times. It causes gradual weakening of
muscles, rapid and weak pulse, pain in the muscles, and blindness. The mind
remains clear. First symptoms appear in fifteen minutes to a half hour and
death follows several hours later. Humans may also be poisoned by eating fowl
that have eaten hemlock seeds. Diarrhea, vomiting, and paralysis appear three
hours after eating. Most poisonings occur from eating the leaves for parsley,
the roots for parsnips, or the seeds in mistake for anise. The most powerful
poison comes from juice extracted just as the fruit begins to form, toward the
end of June. It has a bitter taste. When cut and dried,
hemlock loses much of its poisonous nature. Cooking destroys it.
Description: a tall (two to four feet high) plant
with white flowers, shining dark green leaves, and a smooth stem marked with
purplish red. Both flowers and fruit resemble caraway but have ridges. The
entire plant has a disagreeable mousy odor.
Antidote: There is no sure antidote. Some say
that nettle seeds, taken inwardly can counteract the poison. Others say
wormwood will.
Other
names: deadly hemlock,
herb bennet, persil, poison parsley, spotted cowbane
Recipes:
To
cure the bite of a mad dog:
mix hemlock with betony.
To
destroy the hot podagra
(gout): temper hemlock juice with swine’s grease.
To
make a deadly ointment:
Mix hemlock, juice of monkshood, poplar leaves, and soot.
To
stop a nosebleed: beat
hemlock seed into water and insert in the nostrils.
Henbane
The
root of henbane can kill in a quarter of an hour. The leaves, seeds, and juice
are also deadly. Taken internally it will cause unquiet sleep followed by dead
sleep that may end in death. Be certain the victim is dead before you bury him.
Description: This plant grows by highways and is
out of the ground in May. It has great soft stalks, broad, wooly, and somewhat
jagged leaves, and faint yellow-white, bell-shaped, trumpet-like flowers that
are brown within. It flowers in August. Hard knobby husks like small boxes
contain small brown seeds that ripen in October.
Antidote: nettle, goat’s milk, honey water, and
mustard seed
Other
names: black
nightshade, black henbane, common henbane, devil’s eye, hogsbean, insane root,
stinking nightshade
Recipes:
To
alleviate gout: stamp
leaves with the ointment populeon (made of poplar buds).
To
induce drowsiness:
smell the flowers.
Monkshood
The
dried root is the usual source of this poison, which can cause death in as
little as ten minutes. It is used to poison the tips of arrows. Symptoms are
palpitations and dizziness, tingling and numbness in the mouth, a crawling
sensation on the skin, nausea, vomiting, and pain. The skin becomes cold and
clammy, the pulse irregular and weak. The victim staggers,
loses all color, and experiences numbness, but the mind remains clear.
One-fiftieth grain of aconite will kill a sparrow in a few seconds. One-tenth
grain will kill a rabbit in five minutes. It is fatal to cattle and goats when
they eat it fresh but does no harm to horses when it is dried. The juice applied
to a wounded finger affects the whole body, causing pains in the limbs and a
sense of suffocation. Eating the leaves in a salad results in swelling of the
lips and tongue, loss of wits, stiffening of limbs, numbness in the mouth and
throat, obstructed breathing, pains in the stomach, vomiting, and convulsions.
The breathing becomes feebler until death arrives, leaving the body with a
slightly blue tinge, clammy skin, and clenched hands.
Description: The root can be mistaken for horse
radish, the top for parsley. The plant also resembles the delphinium. The stem
is about three feet high with dark green glossy leaves and dark blue flowers in
the form of a hood. For medicinal purposes, the roots should be gathered in
autumn, after the stem dies down but before the bud begins to develop, and
dried in the open, taking care that the roots not touch.
Antidote: I have heard suggested yew, quick
lime, iron rust, and melted gold, but more effective is a dose of horehound to
counteract the damage, followed by tincture of thimble flower, followed by
stimulants. The victim should be made to lie down. Another method of
counteracting the poison is to induce vomiting, then
make the victim swallow a mixture made of two ounces terralemnia, two ounces
bayberries, two ounces mithridate, and twenty-four flies that have taken their
repast upon wolfsbane, honey, and olive oil. Those who are treated and survive
are almost fully recovered twenty-four hours later.
Other
names: aconite,
aconitum, helmet flower, mousebane, wolfsbane
Recipes:
To
kill rats: make cakes
of paste, toasted cheese, and powdered monkshood and set near rat holes.
To
relieve pain: mix
ground dried roots with oil and rub into aching joints.
Poppy
The
opium poppy is not native to
Description: The poppy varies in the color of its
flowers from pure white to reddish purple. The seeds yield a
pale yellow oil.
Antidote: monkshood
Other
names: black poppy,
Oriental poppy, Paynim poppy, poppies of Lethe, white poppy
Recipes:
To
lower fever: anoint
the small of the back with a heated ointment of powder of poppy seed and oil of
violet.
To
cure insomnia: take
three drachms of seeds.
To
cure insomnia: make a
plaster with poppy, woman’s milk, and the white of an egg and lay it to the
temples.
To
take away pain: drink
of poppy syrup. The seeds of the
native field poppy can also be used to make a syrup to
ease pain but are not as effective.
Thimble Flower
Cooking
does not lessen the potency of this poison. It shows effects in twenty to
thirty minutes, although it generally takes longer than that to kill. In large
doses, thimble flower causes the victim to see all objects as blue and makes
the pulse slow and irregular. The heartbeat may become rapid.
Description: First year plants can be mistaken for
comfrey. If the leaves are eaten the victim will die within twenty-four hours.
In the second year the flowering stems grow three to four feet in height with
long spikes of drooping flowers. The flowers, which bloom in the early summer,
are bell-shaped and up to 2 ½ inches long, crimson on the outside with long
hair inside and marked with numerous dark crimson spots with white borders.
Antidote: henbane
Other
names: fairy caps,
foxglove
Recipes:
To
use as an expectorant:
Rembert Dodoens suggests boiling thimble flower in wine for this purpose.
To
treat scrofula: apply
externally.
Editor’s
Note: Digitalis purpurea was used to treat dropsy in the 16th
century but was not discovered to be a treatment for heart disease until the 18th.
Thornapple
Though
rare in
Description: stalks are 1 ½ cubits high and an
inch thick with few branches and flowers that have long-toothed cups and great,
white, bell shapes, sharp-cornered at the brims. The fruit is round and full of
short, blunt pickles the bigness of a green walnut. The seeds are as big as
mandrake seeds. The root is small and thready. The smell is offensive and
strong.
Antidote: purgative followed by sedative for
convulsions
Recipes:
To
cure inflammations and burns:
boil the juice with hog’s grease to the form of an unguent or salve or stamp
the leaves small, then boil in olive oil until the herbs are burnt, then strain
and set to the fire again with some wax, rosin, and a little turpentine and
make into a salve.
To
relieve asthma: smoke
dried leaves, though this may cause giddiness and delirium.
© 2004 Kathy Lynn Emerson. All rights reserved.
This material was originally published, without illustrations, as an offprint included in the hardcover edition of Murders and Other Confusions, The Chronicles of Susanna, Lady Appleton, 16th Century Gentlewoman, Herbalist, and Sleuth (Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru, 2004).