HERB - Menstrual Cramps -- the disertation

[Kathleen H. Keeler]

Lady Jasmine further wrote

> Do you know if John Riddle's _Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine_
> includes this?
I just looked and no, basically Riddle talks about patterns in Dioscorides,
does not repeat it much.  He's got a bunch on contraceptives but doesn't
talk about other women's medicine.

> I admit to not having read Dioscorides at all
Borrow it on interlibrary loan.  Robert Gunther edited an edition in 1934
(Oxford U. Press) that most big university libraries have.  My U. doesn't
particularly value it: its in the stacks.  Since it was the source of most
Period herbalism, its worth looking at. In particular, you'll recognize the
phrases everyone repeats.  Its long out of print and out of copyright: I
xeroxed.  I'd buy a nicer copy if I could.

Opening randomly I get: Hollyhock ...it mollifies Insession for the
womb...brings out milke; Orach nothing, Cabbage it expells the menstrua
(two methods) and the flower being applyed in a Pessum after childe birth,
doth hinder Conception; Wild Cabbage nothing;  sea crambe (I have no idea)
nothing; beet nothing; andrachne; none; purslane none; asparagus hanged
about as amulet and the decoction of it dranck, mkes one barren; plantain
...should be dranck against the Stranglings of the womb and for a womb
troubled with a flux...sion nodiflorum also called Anagalis aquatica
"expells the embrya and the menstrua..."; sisymbrium (nothing) cardamine
none; samphire move the menstua..; bird's foot trefoil none; sow-thistle
...draws down the milke, doth help inflammations of the womb...; chicory
none; condrilla none; cucumber none; melon none; pepon

ooh! the various scientists who worked on this edition of Dioscorides
(1934) list Pepon (Dioscorides' word) as Cucurbita pepo, and Pompion - !

to continue talking about women's treatments: none for pompion; lettuce
draws down the milk; wild lettuce: dries out the menstrua; gingidon
(something like awild parsnip): none; wild chervil: none; Handquistia
aegyptiaca none; rocket "eaten in any great quantities doth provoke venery"
; basil: none; dodder none; goat's beard none; ornithogalon none; truffle:
none; smilax none; lucern none; yellow-pea none; leek expells menstrua,
good for things that stop the breast, ampeloprason: expels menstrua; onion:
move and expel menstrua, garlic leaf decoction brings down menstrua & the
secondas (?); Allium descendens none; white mustard none; cress move
menstrua, killing embrya, inciting copulation; shepherd's purse moves
menstrua, and destroies the Embrya.

So if you add those up about (math problems) 17 of the 44 herbs had a use
in treating complaints specific to women.

Macer, probably early 11th century, wrote On the virtues of herbs, a 2269
line Latin poem giving the properties of some 77 herbs.
The translation I have is by Daniel P. O'Hanlon, Macer's the virtues of
herbs, published by Hemkunt Press, New Delhi, 1981 but fairly recently it
was still available from Auromere, 1291 Weber St., Pomona CA 91768(714)
629-8255.
Less than $20.
Very New Age introduction but a good discussion of the humors and elements
and degrees of hotness.
Nice set of indices: including of Diseases, and O'Hanlon found 14 kinds of
female problems in the poem: general to induces menstruation to induces the
dead child to be expelled.  But I also find that "6. painless menstruation"
takes me to celery,
and good grief, the quote is "Some men suppose that this herb, celery or
smallage, was called _apium_ because women have so often sat on it to have
their mansturation [sic.] painlessly."

Matching Macer to Dioscorides: of the above list that are in Macer
Orach nothing, Cabbage (cole): fills the nursing mother with milk, induces
menstruation, seed will induce abortion ; beet nothing; purslane none;;
plantain Wet wool in lukewarm juice of plantain fasten it to the underparts
and it will restrain the blood which runs out of a woman there; drink the
juice of lesser plantain and it will expel an afterbirth  lettuce nursing
mother who eats lettuce will have plenty of milk; ;  chervil: induces
menstruation; leek staunches blood of running or flowing vagina,woemn who
ofttimes eat leeks conceive easily; eat raw leeks to increase sexual
desire, and soften a hard womb; onion: induce menstruation, garlic expels
afterbirth; white mustard: none.

If anyone knows where there's a copy of the actual poem Macer wrote I'd
like to see it.  There ought to be a section thAt's very easy because of
the similarity of parts of English to Latin that I could learn to rattle
off as a Medieval Physician might have :-)

Cheers: thanks for asking about the women's stuff. I noted its abundance as
one of my first impressions of these herbals and found no particular use
for them in the SCA--and a lot more entertaining lore:  drink catnip in
wine to cure hiccups; whoever eats too much lettuce will go blind; juice of
sage will dye hair black if fubbed in often in the heat of the sun; Eat
garlic for breakfast and drink wine with it; and you will be safe in
drinking unknown water in any strange countries you may travel to that
day.--all from Macer

Agnes

Mistress Agnes deLanvallei, O.L., Mag Mor, Calontir
Dedicated to promoting the study and safe re-creation of the use of plants
in the Middle Ages; If I can assist you investigations, i'd be honored to
do so.
kkeeler1 at unl.edu


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