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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Subsection 3 Alteratives Herbs and Other Plant Remedies

Lupulus, the hop, is a sovereign remedy. Fuchs, chapter 58 of his History of Plants, praises it highly: “it purges all bile and purifies the blood.” Mattioli, chapter 140 of his commentary on Dioscorides, book 4, wonders why the physicians of his time made so little use of it, since it thins and cleanses. We use it for this purpose in our ordinary beer, which previously was thick and cloying.

Wormwood, centaury and pennyroyal are likewise praised and frequently prescribed, as I shall show later, especially for hypochondriac melancholy: they are to be used daily, boiled in whey. As Rufus of Ephesus and Aretaeus report, many melancholy patients have been cured by their frequent use alone, through dispersing wind and aiding digestion.

And because the spleen and blood are often disordered in melancholy, I must not omit endive, chicory, dandelion, fumitory and the like, which cleanse the blood; or scolopendria, dodder, ceterach, mugwort, liverwort, ash, tamarisk, broom, maidenhair and the like, which greatly help and relieve the spleen. To these I may add roses, violets, capers, feverfew, scordium, stoechas, rosemary, sundew, saffron, basil, sweet apples, wine, tobacco, sandalwood and so on.

That Peruvian chamico, “of prodigious power,” and so forth; Linshcosteus’s datera. And for those who are cold, the decoction or guaiacum, China root, sarsaparilla, sassafras, and the flowers of blessed thistle, which I find much used by Montanus in his consultations, Julius Alexandrinus, Lelius, Egubinus and others.

Bernardus Penottus prefers his herba solis, or Dutch sundew, to all the rest for this disease, “and allows no herb on earth to compare with it.” It surpasses Homer’s moly, cures this disorder, epilepsy and almost every other infirmity. The same Penottus, drawing on Aponensis, describes an excellent balm which, taken in the quantity of three drops in a cup of wine, “will bring a sudden change, drive away dejection and cheer the heart.”

Antonio Guaineri has many such remedies in his Antidotary. Jacobus de Dondis, the Compiler, includes ambergris, nutmegs and every kind of spice among the rest. But that cannot apply generally: amber and spice will drive a hot brain mad, though they are good for one that is cold and moist. Garcia da Orta lists many Indian plants whose powers he greatly praises against this disease.

Lemnius, Institutes, chapter 58, admires rue, praising its excellent power “to expel vain imaginings and devils, and relieve afflicted souls.” Writers also greatly praise other things: an old cock, a ram’s head, or a wolf’s heart carried on the person or eaten, which Mercurialis approves; the water of the Nile, praised by Prosper Altinus; all seawater, praised by Gomesius; and being seasick at suitable times; goats’ milk, whey and so on.

7525.The Latin margin says “both kinds of bile,” the yellow and black forms of humoral theory, where Burton writes “all choler.” Both are retained. “Rarifies” means thins or makes less dense; “fulsome” here means heavy or cloying. The observation about beer is Burton’s account, not a revised history of brewing.

7527.“Sod” means boiled. “Hypochondriac” melancholy is the bodily form associated in this work with the region beneath the ribs; it does not mean the modern preoccupation with having an illness. “Breaking wind” here is dispersing intestinal wind. The printed citation “Lib. 7. cap. 5” is retained without silently supplying a different book number.

7528.Several traditional plant names are retained because their historical usage need not select a single modern species. Scolopendria and ceterach are fern names; scordium and stoechas remain in their herbal forms. Ros solis is sundew, as documented in the Missouri Botanical Garden’s botanical Latin dictionary. Cuscuta, Genist, Ocyme and Sanders are rendered dodder, broom, basil and sandalwood.

7531.The printed “decoction or Guiacum” is retained, though “of” fits the list. “Cold” is humoral. Linshcosteus probably refers to Linschoten, whose Itinerario, chapter 61, describes dutroa; the intermediary and datera wording remain unverified. Chamico and datera receive no forced species identification. The unmarked De Laet reference follows the Chamico asterisk. China is a medicinal root.

7534.Herba solis means “herb of the sun”; Burton immediately gives its vernacular name, Dutch-Sindaw, rendered sundew. Homer’s moly is the protective plant given to Odysseus against Circe in Odyssey 10.302–306. “Out of Aponensis” means drawn from that author, not a balm extracted from a plant with that name. The precise Penottus and Aponensis formulations remain to be located.

7536.“Aggregator” means compiler, not the name of another remedy. Burton first gives ambergreece, ambergris, but then writes “Amber”; the distinction is retained rather than silently resolved. His qualification depends on whether the brain is considered hot or cold and moist. The g note at Jacobus de Dondis names Rondelet and Elenum instead; this mismatch and the uncertain Elenum reading remain recorded for collation.

7539.“Born” means carried on the person, contrasted with eaten. Burton combines remedies used internally with objects carried as amulets. His statements about devils are preserved as part of his explanatory world. The i reference has no secure visible body anchor; it is attached editorially to the final goats’ milk and whey clause beside which it appears. The printed name Altinus is retained pending collation.