SC - modern math

[LrdRas@aol.com]

Marilyn Traber wrote:

>marshmallow is a demulcent, meaning it softens up and slimes,
>which is used for sore throats and certain forms of upset
>stomachs

Also bowel and colon upset.

>and iirc was mentioned in one of the various healing scrolls
>that the egyptians were noted for.

If I had to guess, Smith or Ebers, as those are the two most
popular and the two largest. Probably Ebers, as Smith doesn't
really have recipes in it. But not having read both in their
entirety....

>Whether or not it could have also been
>used wither topically or as a clyster/suppository is another matter.

I'm certain they did. Gerard's herbal sez at least in part:

   "The musilage or slimie iuice of the roots, is mixed very
   effectually with all oils, ointments, and plaisters that
   slacken and mitigate paine" (p. 935, 1633 Johnson-Gerard
   facsimile)

But I only wrote down that scrap of info as I was cruising through
the second book in the facsimile looking for balm and ointment
ingredient varieties. I didn't really read for use in candying,
so I don't know what Gerard said about it. I'd have to look.

>i really dont thing it woul dbe untoward to make the little
>critters and use them for all 3 uses, though the way they were
>made [sap, not the replacement sygar and flavor ones] is found
>in various books, including tacitum sanitas as well.

Ah, I didn't look in Tacitum Sanitas. I'll have to do that. But it
seems odd to me that the same process would be used for both the
edible and the "plaister-wise" product. I've got this picture in
my head of single-serving balls that a doctor might use or an
apothecary might store, but somehow I don't make the connection to
something edible. Where am I stumbling here? Perhaps it's that
darn Stay-Puff man walking through the city.... :)

>other demulcents still in use today, slippery elm for example that are
>ysed internally and topically, and in candy as well

Agreed. And I'm certain that at least part of my problem picturing
the use of the marshmallow sap stems from a 20th-century bias against
eating something that (1) tastes like complete and utter crap, and
(2) looks like uncooked dough. Now, plenty of the demulcents that
were used did use a simple honey base, and Gerard does recommend some
of these things as part of a regular diet, per se. So it would be
interesting to trace the whole marshmallow-as-medicine thing from
that standpoint, I suppose.

>[i used to get a brand of horehound drops with it in that was by
>a company who put the same ones out with a menthol-eucalyptus medicated
>>version. the advertising ploy was it was a candy not a med for those
>who liked the taste of the horehound.

Thayers, perhaps?

>I hate the things unless i am really sick and have a stuffy nose
>otherwise they are too strong to nosh on.

*chuckle* It even makes you wonder if the people in the Middle Ages
didn't think the same thing. "You want me to eat WHAT? No way, that
stuff tastes like crap!" (Although, I admit to liking my home-made
horehound cough syrup a damn site better than that Robitussin stuff.)

Jasmine, jasmine at infoengine.com
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