Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Nicholas Culpeper

  • The doctrine of signatures

    JMS PearceHull, England Many of the ideas of scientists and physicians of the past have been proved false by subsequent advances in science. But some remain of interest in showing how our ancestors thought about diseases and how limited were their facilities to analyze and treat them. Up to the end of the sixteenth century,…

  • William Withering’s botanical microscope

    JMS PearceEast Yorks, Hull, England William Withering (1741-1799) (Fig 1) made several important contributions to medicine and science other than his well-known discovery of the medicinal value of the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Digitalis1 and diuretics were the lynchpins of treatment for edema and congestive heart failure until the 1990s. Withering found that if he used…

  • Frankincense and myrrh: Medicinal resin worth more than gold

    Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, United States Boswellia and Commiphora trees are scraggly, sharp, and unfriendly. Growing close to the ground in the arid desert, they have short trunks and fanning branches, sometimes looking more like shrubs than trees. But despite their unlikely appearance, they once served as the cornerstone of an ancient trade.1 When cut or…

  • Bloodletting and the treatment of menstrual disorders in early modern England

    Rhianna ElliottCambridgeshire, United Kingdom Bloodletting, also known as “phlebotomy,” was a common preventive and therapeutic medical practice in early modern England. Its theoretical foundation was in humorism, the ancient medical system where bodily health depended on the balance between four fluid humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile). Yet even amongst lay people with…

  • Nicholas Culpeper and Herbal Medicine

    JMS PearceHull, England Apart from crude measures such as amputation and surgery without anesthesia, most medical treatments were ineffective until the twentieth century. Herbal remedies dominated from the time of ancient Hindu and Chinese cultures. Herbals were used by the Greek scholar Theophrastus (371 – 287 BC) and by Pedanius Dioscorides (AD 40 – 90),…