Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
171
Footnotes:
1.
Laing's
"History
of
Scotland,"
1800,
ii.
p.
II.
2.
"Flower-lore,"
p.
46.
CHAPTER
XVI.
DOCTRINE
OF
SIGNATURES.
The
old
medical
theory,
which
supposed
that
plants
by
their
external
character
indicated
the
particular
diseases
for
which
Nature
had
intended
them
as
remedies,
was
simply
a
development
of
the
much
older
notion
of
a
real
connection
between
object
and
image.
Thus,
on
this
principle,
it
was
asserted
that
the
properties
of
substances
were
frequently
denoted
by
their
colour;
hence,
white
was
regarded
as
refrigerant,
and
red
as
hot.
In
the
same
way,
for
disorders
of
the
blood,
burnt
purple,
pomegranate
seeds,
mulberries,
and
other
red
ingredients
were
dissolved
in
the
patient's
drink;
and
for
liver
complaints
yellow
substances
were
recommended.
But
this
fanciful
and
erroneous
notion
"led
to
serious
errors
in
practice,"
[1]
and
was
occasionally
productive
of
the
most
fatal
results.
Although,
indeed,
Pliny
spoke
of
the
folly
of
the
magicians
in
using
the
catanance
(Greek:
katanhankae,
compulsion)
for
love-potions,
on
account
of
its
shrinking
"in
drying
into
the
shape
of
the
claws
of
a
dead
kite,"
[2]
and
so
holding
the
patient
fast;
yet
this
primitive
idea,
after
the
lapse
of
centuries,
was
as
fully
credited
as
in
the
early
days
when
it
was
originally
started.
Throughout
the
sixteenth
and
seventeenth
centuries,
for
instance,
it
is
noticed
in
most
medical
works,
and
in
many
cases
treated
with
a
seriousness
characteristic
of
the
backward
state
of
medical
science
even
at
a
period
so
comparatively
recent.
Crollius
wrote
a
work
on
the
subject;
and
Langham,
in
his
"Garden
of
Health,"
published
in
the
year
1578,
accepted
the
doctrine.
Coles,
in
his
"Art
of
Simpling"
(1656),
thus
describes
it:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
