The genesis of the American materia medica : including a biographical sketch of "John Josselyn, gent," and the medical and materia medica references in Josselyn's "New-Englands rarities discovered," etc., and in his "Two voyages to New-England," / with critical notes and comments by Harvey Wickes Felter.

  • Felter, Harvey Wickes, 1865-1927.
Date:
[1927]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The genesis of the American materia medica : including a biographical sketch of "John Josselyn, gent," and the medical and materia medica references in Josselyn's "New-Englands rarities discovered," etc., and in his "Two voyages to New-England," / with critical notes and comments by Harvey Wickes Felter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    expell Gravel out of the kidneys and bladder, as I was there told by one Mr. Abraham Philater a Jerseyman.” The Beaver [p. 93] : “Their stones 83 are good for the palsie, trembling and numbness of the hands, boiling them in Oyl of Spike, and anointing the sinews in the neck. If you take of Castorium two drams, of womans hair one dram, and with a little Rosen of the Pine-Tree, make it up into pills as big as Filberts and perfume a woman in a fit of the mother 84 with one at a time laid upon coals under her nostrils, it will recover her out of her fit. The grease of a Beaver is good for the Nerves, Convulsions, Epilepsies, Apoplexies, &c. The tail as I have said in another Treatise, is very fat and of a masculine vertue, as good as Eringo’s85 or Satyrion 86 Roots. Hawkes [p. 96] : “Hawkes grease is very good for sore eyes.” The Vulture or Geire [p. 96]. . . Gripe, “the bones of their head hung about the neck helpeth the head-ach.” The Owl [p. 96] : “PlinieZ7 writes that the brains of an Owl asswageth the pain & inflammation in the lap of the ear. And that Eggs of an Ozvl put into the liquour that tospot88 useth to be drunk with, will make him loath drunkenness ever after.” The Turkie [p. 99] : “. . . Turkie-Capon, their Eggs are very whole 83 Testicles. (Felter.) 84 Hysterical convulsions. (Felter.) 85 Eryngium species, still known as Eryngo, is probably referred to by Josselyn. Most likely the Sea Holly (Eryngium maratinum) is the plant intended, the roots of which were formerly candied and used as an aphrodisiac. Parkinson (A. D. 1640) devotes a large chapter to the various kinds of Eryngium or Sea Holly. He speaks of the long roots, eight to ten feet long, “of a pleasant taste, but much more delicate, being artificially preserved and candied with sugar.” This, he E. maritinum, is termed by “we in English Sea Holly, or Sea Hulver.” He concludes his long discourse on a remedy for so many major ailments that one wonders whether any other medi¬ cine would ever be neejded for any purpose—“helpeth Venereal actions a)nd is good against the French disease” . . . the ointment is salted lard “applied to broken bones, thornes, &c., remaining in the flesh, doth not only draw them forth, but healeth up the place againe, gathering new flesh where it was consumed, or almost fallen iaway”— with that chief concern of man expressed in the statement, “much used by the Natives to incite Ve)nery both rootes and heads.” Hence Josselyn’s comparison. The name Eryngium is of uncertain origin, but was used centuries ;ago by Dioscorildes. (Felter.) 86 Orchis, probably a species of Habenaria, or, as referred to by Tuckerman under an older classification—that of Platanthera Rich. (Felter.) 87 Pliny. (Felter.) 88 Tospot. A word now obsolete and rarely found in the ordinary dictionaries. From the context we have assumed that Josselyn probably meant what we would now term a toper or bibber, rendered also bibler, bibbler, or bibbeler. This construction is confirmed by the Century Dictionary, which gives tosspot (formerly also tospot) as “a toper or tippler.” “After the seuennights fast is once past, then they returne to their old intemperance of drinking, for they are notable tospots” (Hakluyt’s “Voyages,” I, 253). “A good part he drank away (for he was an excellent toss-pot”) (Dane, “Two Races of Men”). (The Century Dictionary.) (Felter.)