The spice box is such a constant source of ready domestic comforts of a medicinal sort in every household that the more important, and best known of its contents may well receive some consideration when treating of Herbal Simples; though it will, of course, be understood these spices are of foreign growth, and not indigenous products.
Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, and Cloves, claim particular notice in this respect.
"Sinament, Ginger, Nutmeg, and Cloves, And that gave me my jolly red nose."
_Beaumont and Fletcher_.
Cinnamon possesses positive medicinal as well as aromatic virtues.
What we employ as this spice consists of the inner bark of shoots from the stocks of a Ceylon tree, first cultivated here in 1768.
Such bark chemically contains cinnamic acid, tannin, a resin, and sugar, so that its continued use will induce constipation. The aromatic and stimulating effects of Cinnamon have been long known. It was freely given in England during the epidemic scourges of the early and middle centuries, nearly every monastery keeping a store of the cordial for ready use. The monks administered it in fever, dysentery, and contagious diseases. And recent discovery in the laboratory of M. Pasteur, the noted French bacteriologist, has shown that Cinnamon possesses the power of absolutely destroying all disease germs. Our ancestors, it would appear, had hit upon a valuable preservative against microbes, when they infused Cinnamon with other spices in their mulled drinks. Mr. Chamberland says, "no disease germ can long resist the antiseptic powder of essence of Cinnamon, [391] which is as effective to destroy microbes as corrosive sublimate."
By its warming astringency, it exercises cordial properties which are most useful in arresting pa.s.sive diarrhoea, and in relieving flatulent indigestion.
Its volatile oil is procured from the bark, and likewise a tincture, as well as an aromatic water of Cinnamon. For a sick qualmish stomach either preparation is an excellent remedy, as the virtue of the bark rests in this essential volatile oil. When obtained from the _fruit_ it is extremely fragrant, of thick consistence, and sometimes made into candles at Ceylon, for the sole use of the king. The doses are of the powdered bark from ten to twenty grains; of the oil from one to five drops; of the tincture from half to one teaspoonful, and of the distilled water from one to two tablespoonfuls. Our Queen is known to be partial to the use of Cinnamon. Keats, the poet, wrote of "lucent syrups tinct. with Cinnamon." And Saint Francis of Sales says in his _Devout Life_: "With respect to the labour of teaching, it refreshes and revives the heart by the sweetness it brings to those who are engaged in it, as the Cinnamon does in _Arabia Felix_ to them who are laden with it." In toxic quant.i.ties of an injurious amount, Cinnamon bark has produced haemorrhage from the bowels, and nose bleeding. Therefore small doses of the diluted tincture are well calculated to obviate these symptoms when presenting themselves through illness.
The bark was formerly thought to stimulate the functions of the womb, and of late it has come again into medical use for this purpose. To check fluxes from that organ a teaspoonful of the bruised bark should be infused in half a pint of boiling water, and a tablespoonful given frequently when cool. Lozenges made [392]
with the essential oil are also medicinally available for the speedy relief of sickness, and as highly useful against influenza. It is well known that persons who live in Cinnamon districts have an immunity from malaria.
Ginger (_Zingiberis radix_) is the root-stock of a plant grown in the East and West Indies, and is sc.r.a.ped before importation. Its odour is due to an essential oil, and its pungent hot taste to a resin. It was known in Queen Elizabeth"s reign, having been introduced by the Dutch about 1566. "Grene Gynger of almondes" is mentioned in the Paston Letters, 1444. "When condited," says Gerard, "it provoketh venerie."
This Green Ginger, which consists of the young shoots of the rhizome, when boiled in syrup makes an excellent preserve.
Officinally from the dried and sc.r.a.ped _rhizome_ are prepared a tincture, and a syrup. If a piece of the root is chewed it causes a considerable flow of saliva, and an application of powdered Ginger, made with water into paste, against the skin will produce intense tingling and heat. To which end it may be spread on paper and applied to the forehead as a means for relieving a headache from pa.s.sive fulness. In India, Europeans who suffer from languid indigestion drink an infusion of Ginger as a subst.i.tute for tea. For gouty dyspepsia the root may be powdered in a mortar: and a heaped teaspoonful of it should be then infused in boiling milk; to be taken when sufficiently cool, for supper or at breakfast.
The dose of the powder is from ten to twenty grains; of the tincture from a third of a teaspoonful to a teaspoonful, in water hot or cold; of the syrup from one to two teaspoonfuls in water. Either preparation is of service to correct diarrhoea, and to relieve weakly chronic bronchitis. Also as admirably corrective of [393] chronic constipation through general intestinal sluggishness, a vespertine slice of good, old-fashioned Gingerbread made with brown treacle and grated ginger may be eaten with zest, and reliance. There is a street in Hull called "The land of Ginger."
The habitat of the tree from which our Nutmeg comes is the Molucca Islands, and the part of the nut which const.i.tutes the Spice is the kernel. This is called generically _Nux moschata_, or Mugget (French _Musque_) a diminutive of musk, from its aromatic odour, and properties. The Nutmeg is oval, or nearly round, of a brown wrinkled aspect, with an aromatic smell, and a bitter fragrant taste.
Officinally the tree is named _Myristica officinalis_, and the oil distilled from the Nutmeg in Britain is much superior to foreign oil.
Ordinarily as a condiment of a warming character the Nutmeg is employed to correct cold indigestible food, or as a cordial addition to negus: and medicinally for languid digestion, with giddiness and flatulence, causing oppressed breathing. Its activity depends on the volatile oil, contained in the proportion of six per cent. in the nut.
This when given at all largely is essentially narcotic. Four Nutmegs have been known to completely paralyse all nervous sensibility, and have produced a sort of wakeful unconsciousness for three entire days, with loss of memory afterwards, and with more or less paralysis until after eight days.
The Banda, or Nutmeg Islands in the Indian Ocean, are twelve in number, and the strength of the Nutmeg in its season is said to overcome birds of Paradise so that they fall helplessly intoxicated.
When taken to any excess, whether as a spice, or as a medicine, the Nutmeg and its preparations are apt to cause giddiness, oppression of the chest, stupor, and [394] delirium. A moderate dose of the powdered Nutmeg is from five to twenty grains, but persons with a tendency to apoplexy should abstain from any free use of this spice.
From two to six drops of the essential oil may be taken on sugar to relieve flatulent oppression and dyspepsia, or from half to one teaspoonful of the spirit of Nutmeg made by mixing one part of the oil with forty parts of spirit of wine; this dose being had with one or two tablespoonfuls of hot water, sweetened if desired.
A medicinal tincture is prepared (H.) from the kernel with spirit of wine (not using the oil, nor the essence). This in small diluted doses is highly useful for drowsiness connected with flatulent indigestion, and a disposition to faintness: also for gout retrocedent to the stomach. The dose is from five to ten drops with a spoonful of water every half hour, or every hour until the symptoms are adequately relieved. Against diarrhoea Nutmeg grated into warm water is very helpful, and will prove an efficient subst.i.tute for opium in mild cases. Externally the spirit of Nutmeg is a capital application to be rubbed in for chronic rheumatism, and for paralysed limbs. The "b.u.t.ter of Nutmegs," or their concrete oil, is used in making plasters of a warming, and stimulating kind. A drink that was concocted by our grandmothers was Nutmeg tea. One Nutmeg would make a pint of this tea, two or three cupfuls of which would produce a sleep of many hours" duration. The worthy old ladies were wont to carry a silver grater and Nutmeg case suspended from the waist on their chatelaines. But in any large quant.i.ty the Nutmeg may produce sleep of such a profundity as to prove really dangerous. Two drachms of the powder have brought on a comatose sleep with some delirium.
[395] The Nutmeg contains starch, protein, and other simple const.i.tuents, in addition to its stimulating principles. Mace is the aromatic envelope of the Nutmeg, and possesses the same qualities in a minor degree. Its infusion is a good warming medicine against chronic cough, and moist bronchial asthma in an old person. Mace is a membranaceous structure enveloping the Nutmeg, having a fleshy texture, and being of a light yellowish-brown colour. It supplies an allied essential volatile principle, which is fragrant and cordial. If given three or four times during the twenty-four hours, in a dose of from eight to twelve grains, crushed, or powdered Mace will prove serviceable against long-continued looseness of the bowels; but this dose should not be exceeded for fear of inducing narcotism.
Cloves (from _clavus_, a nail), also found in the kitchen spice box, and owning certain medicinal resources of a cordial sort, which are quickly available, belong to the Myrtle family of plants, and are the unexpanded flower buds of an aromatic tree (_Caryophyllus_), cultivated at Penang and elsewhere. They contain a volatile oil which, like that of Chamomile, although cordial, lowers nervous sensibility, or irritability: also tannin, a gum resin, and woody fibre. This volatile oil consists princ.i.p.ally of "eugenin" with a camphor, "caryophyllin." The "eugenic acid," with a strong odour of cloves, is powerfully antiseptic and anti-putrescent. It reduces the sensibility of the skin: and therefore the oil with lanolin is a useful application for eczema.
Dr Burnett has lately taught (1895) that a too free use of Cloves will bring on alb.u.minuria; and that when this disease has supervened from other causes, the dilute tincture of Cloves, third decimal strength, will frequently do much to lessen the quant.i.ty of alb.u.men [396] excreted by the kidneys. From five to ten drops of this tincture should be given with water three times a day.
Used in small quant.i.ties as a spice the Clove stimulates digestion, but when taken more freely it deadens the susceptibility of the stomach, lessens the appet.i.te, and induces constipation. An infusion of Cloves, made with half an ounce to a pint of water, and drank in doses of a small winegla.s.sful, will relieve the nausea and coldness of flatulent indigestion. The oil put on cotton wool into the hollow of a decayed tooth is a useful means for giving ease to toothache.
The dose of the oil is from one to five drops, on sugar, or in a spoonful of milk. The odour of Cloves is aromatic, and the taste pleasantly hot, but acrid. Half a tumbler of quite hot water poured over half a dozen Cloves (which are to brew for a few minutes on the hob, and then to be taken out), will often secure a good night to a restless dyspeptic patient, if taken just before getting into bed. Or if given cold before breakfast this dose will obviate constipation. In Holland the oil of Cloves is prescribed with cinchona bark for ague.
Arthur Cecil"s German medico in the Play advises his patient to "rub your pelly mit a Clove."
All-Spice (_Pimento_) is another common occupant of the domestic spice box. It is popular as a warming cordial, of a sweet odour, and a grateful aromatic taste; but being a native of South America, grows with us only as a stove plant. The leaves and bark are full of inflammable particles, whilst walks between Pimento trees are odorous with a delicious scent. The name All-Spice is given because the berries afford in smell and taste a combination of Cloves, Juniper berries, Cinnamon and Pepper. The special qualities of the Pimento reside in the rind of these berries; and this tree is the _Bromelia ananas_, [397] named in Brazil Nana. An extract made from the crushed berries by boiling them down to a thick liquor, is, when spread on linen, a capital stimulating plaster for neuralgic or rheumatic parts. About the physician in "les Francais" it was said admiringly "c"est lui qui a invente la salade d"Ananas." The essential oil, as well as the spirit and the distilled water of Pimento, are useful against flatulent indigestion and for hysterical paroxysms. This Spice was formerly added to our syrup of buckthorn to prevent it from griping. The berries are put into curry powder, and added to mulled wines.
OAT.
The Oat is a native of Britain in its wild and uncultivated form, and is distinguished by the spikelets of its ears hanging on slender pedicels. This is the _Avena fatua_, found in our cornfields, but not indigenous in Scotland. When cultivated it is named _Avena sativa_. As it needs less sunshine and solar warmth to ripen the grain than wheat, it furnishes the princ.i.p.al grain food of cold Northern Europe. With the addition of some fat this grain is capable of supporting life for an indefinite period. Physicians formerly recommended highly a diet-drink made from Oats, about which Hoffman wrote a treatise at the end of the seventeenth century; and Johannis de St. Catherine, who introduced the drink, lived by its use to a hundred years free from any disease. Nevertheless the Oat did not enjoy a good reputation among the old Romans; and Pliny said "Primum omnis frumenti vitium avena est."
American doctors have taken of late to extol the Oat (_Avena sativa_) when made into a strong medicinal tincture with spirit of wine, as a remarkable nervine stimulant and restorative: this being "especially valuable in [398] all cases where there is a deficiency of nervous power, for instance, among over-worked lawyers, public speakers, and writers."
The tincture is ordered to be given in a dose of from ten to twenty drops, once or twice during the day, in hot water to act speedily; and a somewhat increased dose in cold water at bedtime so as to produce its beneficial effects more slowly then. It proves an admirable remedy for sleeplessness from nervous exhaustion, and as prepared in New York may be procured from any good druggist in England.
Oatmeal contains two per cent. of protein compounds, the largest portion of which is avenin. A yeast poultice made by stirring Oatmeal into the grounds of strong beer is a capital cleansing and healing application to languid sloughing sores.
Oatmeal supplies very little saccharine matter ready formed. It cannot be made into light bread, and is therefore prepared when baked in cakes; or, its more popular form for eating is that of porridge, where the ground meal becomes thoroughly soft by boiling, and is improved in taste by the addition of milk and salt.
"The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia"s food," said Burns, with fervid eloquence. Scotch people actually revel in their parritch and bannocks. "We defy your wheaten bread," says one of their favourite writers, "your home-made bread, your bakers" bread, your baps, rolls, scones, m.u.f.fins, crumpets, and cookies, your bath buns, and your sally luns, your tea cakes, and slim cakes, your saffron cakes, and girdle cakes, your shortbread, and singing hinnies: we swear by the Oat cake, and the parritch, the bannock, and the brose."
Scotch beef brose is made by boiling Oatmeal in meat liquor, and kail brose by cooking Oatmeal in cabbage-water. [399] Crushed Oatmeal, from which the husk has been removed, is known as "groats," and is employed for making gruel. At the latter end of the seventeenth century this was a drink asked-for eagerly by the public at London taverns. "Grantham gruel," says quaint old Fuller, in his _History of the Worthies of England_, "consists of nine grits and a gallon of water." When "thus made, it is wash rather, which one will have little heart to eat, and yet as little heart by eating." But the better gruel concocted elsewhere was "a wholesome Spoon meat, though homely; physic for the sick, and food for persons in health; grits the form thereof: and giving the being thereunto." In the border forays of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries all the provision carried by the Scotch was simply a bag of Oatmeal. But as a food it is apt to undergo some fermentation in the stomach, and to provoke sour eructations. Furthermore, it is somewhat laxative, because containing a certain proportion of bran which mechanically stimulates the intestinal membranes: and this insoluble bran is rather apt to acc.u.mulate. Oatmeal gruel may be made by boiling from one to two ounces of the meal with three pints of water down to two pints, then straining the decoction, and pouring off the supernatant liquid when cool. Its flavour may be improved by adding raisins towards the end of boiling, or by means of sugar and nutmeg.
Because animals of speed use up, by the lungs, much heat-forming material, Oats (which abound in carbonaceous const.i.tuents) are specially suitable as food for the horse.
ONION (_see_ Garlic, _page 209_).
ORANGE.
Though not of native British growth, except by way of a luxury in the gardens of the wealthy, yet the Orange [400] is of such common use amongst all cla.s.ses of our people as a dietetic fruit, when of the sweet China sort, and for tonic medicinal purposes when of the bitter Seville kind, that some consideration may be fairly accorded to it as a Curative Simple in these pages.
The _Citrus aurantium_, or popular Orange, came originally from India, and got its distinctive t.i.tle of _Aurantium_, either (_ab aureo colore corticis_) from the golden colour of its peel, or (_ab oppido Achoeioe Arantium_) from Arantium, a town of Achaia. It now comes to us chiefly from Portugal and Spain. This fruit is essentially a product of cultivation extending over many years. It began in Hindustan as a small bitter berry with seeds; then about the eighth century it was imported into Persia, though held somewhat accursed. During the tenth century it bore the name "Bigarade," and became better known. But not until the sixteenth century was it freely grown by the Spaniards, and brought into Mexico. Even at that time the legend still prevailed that whoever partook of the luscious juice was compelled to embrace the faith of the prophet.
Spenser and Milton tell of the orange as the veritable golden apple presented by Jupiter to Juno on the day of their nuptials: and hence perhaps arose its more modern a.s.sociation with marriage rites.
Of the varieties the China Orange is the most juicy, being now grown in the South of Europe; whilst the St. Michael Orange (a descendant of the China sort, first produced in Syria), is now got abundantly from the Azores, whence it derives its name.
John Evelyn says the first China Orange which appeared in Europe, was sent as a present to the old Conde Mellor; then Prime Minister to the King of Portugal, when only one plant escaped sound and useful [401] of the whole case which reached Lisbon, and this became the parent of all the Orange trees cultivated by our gardeners, though not without greatly degenerating.
The Seville Orange is that which contains the medicinal properties, more especially in its leaves, flowers, and fruit, though the China sort possesses the same virtues in a minor degree. The leaves and the flowers have been esteemed as beneficial against epilepsy, and other convulsive disorders; and a tea is infused from the former for hysterical sufferers.
Two delicious perfumes are distilled from the flowers--oil of neroli, and napha water,--of which the chemical hydro-carbon "hesperidin," is mainly the active principle. This is secreted also as an aromatic attribute of the leaves through their minute glands, causing them to emit a fragrant odour when bruised. A scented water is largely prepared in France from the flowers, _l"eau de fleur d"oranger_, which is frequently taken by ladies as a gentle sedative at night, when sufficiently diluted with sugared water. Thousands of gallons are drunk in this way every year. As a pleasant and safely effective help towards wooing sleep, from one to two teaspoonfuls of the French _Eau de fleur d"oranger_, if taken at bedtime in a teacupful of hot water, are to be highly commended for a nervous, or excitably wakeful person.
Orange buds are picked green from the trees in the gardens of the Riviera, and when dried they retain the sweet smell of the flowers. A teaspoonful of these buds is ordered to be infused in a teacupful of quite hot water, and the liquid to be drunk shortly, before going to bed. The effect is to induce a refreshing sleep, without any subsequent headache or nausea. The dried berries may be had from an English druggist.
[402] A peeled Orange contains, some citric acid, with citrate of potash; also alb.u.men, cellulose, water, and about eight per cent. of sugar. The white lining pith of the peel possesses likewise the crystalline principle "hesperidin." Dr. Cullen showed that the acid juice of oranges, by uniting with the bile, diminishes the bitterness of that secretion; and hence it is that this fruit is of particular service in illnesses which arise from a redundancy of bile, chiefly in dark persons of a fibrous, or bilious temperament. But if the acids of the Orange are greater in quant.i.ty than can be properly corrected by the bile (as in persons with a small liver, and feeble digestive powers), they seem, by some prejudicial union with that liquid, to acquire a purgative quality, and to provoke diarrhoea, with colicky pains.
The rind or peel of the Seville Orange is darker in colour, and more bitter of taste than that of the sweet China fruit. It affords a considerable quant.i.ty of fragrant, aromatic oil, which partakes of the characters exercised by the leaves and the flowers as affecting the nervous system. Pereira records the death of a child which resulted from eating the rind of a sweet China Orange.
The small green fruits (windfalls) from the Orange trees of each sort, which become blown off, or shaken down during the heats of the summer, are collected and dried, forming the "orange berries" of the shops. They are used for flavouring curacoa, and for making issue peas. These berries furnish a fragrant oil, the _essence de pet.i.t grain_, and contain citrates, and malates of lime and potash, with "hesperidin," sulphur, and mineral salts. The Orange flowers yield a volatile, odorous oil, acetic acid, and acetate of lime. The juice of the Orange consists of citric and malic acids, with sugar; [403]
citrate of lime, and water. The peel furnishes hesperidin, a volatile oil, gallic acid, and a bitter principle.
By druggists, a confection of bitter orange peel is sold; also a syrup of this orange peel, and a tincture of the same, made with spirit of wine, to be given in doses of from one to two teaspoonfuls with water, as an agreeable stomachic bitter. _Eau de Cologne_ contains oil of neroli, oil of citron, and oil of orange.
The fresh juice of Oranges is antiseptic, and will prevent scurvy if taken in moderation daily. Common Oranges cut through the middle while green, and dried in the air, being afterwards steeped for forty days in oil, are used by the Arabs for preparing an essence famous among their old women because it will restore a fresh dark, or black colour to grey hair. The custom of a bride wearing Orange blossoms, is probably due to the fact that flowers and fruit appear together on the tree, in token of a wish that the bride may retain the graces of maidenhood amid the cares of married life. This custom has been derived from the Saracens, and was originally suggested also by the fertility of the Orange tree.