[LMB] AKICIF: herbology OT:

[Tracy MacShane]

On Wed, July 5, 2006 5:08 am, Tzivia Adler wrote:
> sadly, yet another list member is commiting, or attempting to commit, a
> novel.

Yay!

> so, does anyone know how to go about thatching a roof?  also, what about
> herbs people used to use as medication?  i know willow bark tea was used
> to bring down fever, was it also used as headache tea?  what was good for
> arthritis?  what kinds of stuff were used in  poltices?
>

A lot of herbal knowlege was regional. So Maori 300 years ago were using
things quite different to the English at the same time. And the
differences could be between groups only a few score miles from each
other.

However, for the "usual" kind of herbalism, you can't go beyond Culpeper's
Complete Herbal. It's online in full, here:
http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/66/113/frameset.html

The willow:

 Both the leaves, bark, and the seed, are used to stanch bleeding of
wounds, and at mouth and nose, spitting of blood, and other fluxes of
blood in man or woman, and to stay vomiting, and provocation thereunto,
if the decoction of them in wine be drank. It helps also to stay thin,
hot, sharp, salt distillations from the head upon the lungs, causing a
consumption. The leaves bruised with some pepper, and drank in wine,
helps much the wind cholic. The leaves bruised and boiled in wine, and
drank, stays the heat of lust in man or woman, and quite extinguishes it,
if it be long used. ...