Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 60

Yarrow, worn in a little bag over the stomach, was the secret (confided to Boyle) of a great lord against ague. A famous physician had used it with strange efficacy.

Similarly a charmed packet containing dried Yarrow has been credited with bringing success to its bearer, if at the same time he were admitted to the knowledge of a traditional secret (only whispered to the initiated) that this was the first herb our Saviour had put into His hand when a child.

Again, Elspeth Reoch, in 1616, when tried for witchcraft, acknowledged to having employed the Yarrow in her incantations.

She "plucked one herbe called Meleflower, sitting on her right knee, and pulling it betwixt the mid-finger and thumbe, and saying: _In nominee Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti_." The Meleflower is the _Achilloea Ptarmica_ or Sneezewort.

By the plant so gathered, she was enabled to cure distempers, and to impart the faculty of prediction.

YEW.

Although the Yew--a Conifer--which is so thoroughly English a tree, is known to be highly poisonous as regards its leaves to the humans subject, and as concerning its loppings or half-dead branches, to oxen, horses, and a.s.ses, yet a medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the young shoots, which has distinct and curative uses.

Both the Yew and the Ivy were called _abiga_, because [620]

causing abortion. From which word when corrupted was formed _iua_; and under this latter name, says Dr. Prior, the Ivy and the Yew became inextricably mixed up.

Moreover, the red berries, or their coloured fleshy cups, are not poisonous when taken in moderation, but rejecting the seeds.

Gerard says: "When I was yong, and went to schoole, divers of my school-fellows and likewise myself, did eat our fils of the berries of this tree, and have not only slept under the shadow thereof, but among the branches also, without any hurt at all, and that not one time, but many times."

Yet Leo Grindon says, much more recently: "Though the juice and pulp of the sweet and viscid berries are not harmful, still the _seeds_ of the Yew, and the _leaves_ are deadly poison."

In the _Herbal_ of 1578, Lyte tells us the Yew is altogether venomous, and against man's nature. "Such as do but only sleep under the shadow thereof become sick, and sometimes they die;"

and, "the extract of yew is used by ignorant apothecaries to the great peril and danger of the poor diseased people."

The Yew tree (_Taxus baccata_) occurs in mountainous woods and rocky glens about Britain, but is rare as of native growth. Its name, Taxus, is a corruption of toxos, an arrow, since arrows in the old time were poisoned with the juice of yew.

The tree was planted frequently by our forefathers in churchyards, because of its value in the manufacture of bows. It is exceedingly long lived, and often attains great magnitude of girth.

A ghastly superst.i.tion was attached to the Yew when thus growing in a churchyard, that it would prey upon [621] the dead bodies lying beneath its sombre shade. So Tennyson writes (_In Memoriam_):--

"Old Yew! which graspest at the stones That name the underlying dead, Thy fibres net the dreamless head, Thy roots are wrapped about the bones."

The juice of the tree and of its leaves is a rapidly fatal poison, the symptoms corresponding in a very remarkable way with those which follow the bites of venomous snakes.

No known poison but the Yew produces the lazar-like ulcerations upon the body, on which Marlowe lays such stress--(Jew of Malta):--

"In few, the blood of Hydra--Herne's bane, The juice of _Hebron_, and Cocytus' breath, And all the poisons of the Stygian pool."

The witches in _Macbeth_ include it in their accursed brew:--

"Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat, and _Slips of Yew_."

The Yew tree is called "Hebon" by Spencer, and "Jew of Malta" by other writers of Shakespeare's time. The leaves are bitter, nauseous, and acrid. The succulent covering of the fruit is soft and slimy, mawkishly sweet, and mucilaginous. The leaves have a dangerous effect on the circulation of the heart, and when taken with any freedom are as fatal as the Foxglove.

Before the new Shakespeare Society, 1882, it was contended and proved to the satisfaction of the Society, that "the cursed Hebena,"

the "leperous distilment poured into the chambers of mine ears,"

told of, so pathetically, by the sad ghost of Hamlet's father, was the [622] poison of the Yew, and identical with Marlow[e]'s juice of Hebron.

Ray mentions that a gardener employed in clipping a Yew tree at Pisa, could not proceed with his work for more than half-an-hour at a time without being seized with a violent pain in the head.

Nevertheless, deer, sheep, and goats can eat the foliage with impunity.

The fresh leaves were administered to three children near Manchester for worms. Yawning and listlessness came on, and the eldest vomited a little, but neither of them complained of any pain.

They all died within a few hours of each other.

Because being then green, on the Sunday next before Easter, the branches of the Yew tree have been used as a subst.i.tute for the Palms which symbolise the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

The symptoms induced by provings of the leaves and juice in toxic quant.i.ties, have been sick headache, with giddiness, feeble, faltering pulse, coldness of the extremities, diarrhoea, and general prostration. So that for this combination of symptoms, as in severe biliousness, or as in the auditory vertigo of Meniere's disease, small doses of the diluted tincture are found to give prompt and effectual relief. The leaves contain a volatile oil, tannin, and a bitter principle "taxina," which is also furnished by the seeds. An extract of Yew has been p.r.o.nounced a useful narcotic by more than one physician of repute: and in some parts of Germany a decoction of the wood is a well-known remedy against hydrophobia.

A jelly prepared from the berries has been given for chronic bronchitis, and the leaves have been used for epilepsy; likewise they have been taken by ignorant persons to induce abortion, but with serious injury to the experimenter. In some rural districts the berries [623] are known as "Snots"; whilst the wood and roots are "Wire thorn."

By an old statute of Edward the First, trees were required to be placed in churchyards to defend the church from high winds, the clergy being allowed to cut them down for repairing the chancel when necessary. Perhaps, partly for this reason, the Yew was commonly planted by the side of a newly-built church. That its wood was certainly employed for making bows, we learn from Shakespeare:--

"Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows Of double-fatal Yew against thy state."

It was "double-fatal," because the leaves and fruit seeds are poisonous, and the bows made from its branches, as well as arrows armed with its deadly juice, were instruments of death.

Against the maladies which have been specified as indicating the tincture of Yew for their cure, from five to ten drops of the third decimal tincture should be given, with a spoonful of water, every two, three, or four hours, whilst required. In Switzerland the Yew is known as William's tree, in memory of Tell. Formerly the name was spelt "Eugh," "Yeugh," and "Ewgh."

Spenser says:--

"The Eugh--obedient to the bender's will."

In olden times the Olitory, or Herb-garden, formed an important annex to all demesnes having any pretensions to completeness, and was under "My Lady's" [624] special charge. In fact, the culture and preparing of Simples formed a part of every lady's education. "My Lord's" retainers and tenants, when out of sorts, were treated with these wholesome remedies, and were directed to find in Simples the cure for all ordinary ailments.

Good George Herbert, of Country Parson celebrity, taught, 1620:-- "In the knowledge of Simples, wherein the manifold wisdom of G.o.d is wonderfully to be seen, one thing should be carefully observed, which is, to know what herbs may be used instead of drugs of the same nature, and to make the garden the shop; for, home-bred medicines are both more easy for the Parson's purse, and more familiar for all men's bodies. So where the Apothecary useth either for loosing, Rhubarb, or for binding, Bole Armena; the Parson useth Damask, or White Roses for the one, and Plantain, Shepherd's Purse, or Knotgra.s.s for the other: and that with better success. As for Spices, he doth not only prefer home-bred things before them, but condemns them for vanities, and so shuts them out of his family, esteeming that there is no spice comparable of herbs to Rosemary, Thyme, Savory, Mints: and of seeds to Fennel and Carraway.

Accordingly for salves his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her garden and fields, before all outlandish gums. And, surely, Hyssop, Valerian, Mercury, Adder's tongue, Yarrow, Melilot, and St. John's Wort, made into a salve, and Elder, Camomile, Mallows, Comphrey, and Smallage, made into a poultice have done great, and rare cures!"