Other books by Matthew Wood

Seven Herbs: Plants as Teachers

Vitalism: The History of Herbalism,
Homeopathy, and Flower Essences

The Book of Herbal Wisdom:
Using Plants as Medicines

The Earthwise Herbal:
A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants

The Earthwise Herbal:
A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants

Copyright © 2004 by Matthew Wood. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by |
North Atlantic Books |
P.O. Box 12327 | Cover art and illustrations by Matthew Wood
Berkeley, California 94712 | Cover design by Suzanne Albertson

The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, call 800-733-3000 or visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wood, Matthew, 1954–
   The practice of traditional western herbalism : basic doctrine, energetics, and classification / by Matthew Wood.
       p. ; cm.
   Includes bibliographical references.
   eISBN: 978-1-58394-738-8
   1. Herbs—Therapeutic use. 2. Medicine, Botanic.
   [DNLM: 1. Phytotherapy. 2. Eclecticism, Historical. WB 925 W877p 2004]
I. Title.
   RM666.H33W657 2004
   615′.321—dc22

2004002681

v3.1

Dedicated to the late William LeSassier
A Teacher of Teachers

Acknowledgments

THE MODEL OF THE SIX TISSUE STATES is derived from The Philosophy of Physiomedicalism (1900) by Dr. J.M. Thurston. The model of the tastes and pharmacological actions in relationship to energetic categories is largely derived from the work of David Winston, registered herbalist (AHG). These are the major influences which, in addition to my own thoughts, have shaped the development of this book.

The following people have contributed to the development of this book through their ideas, inspirations, proofreading, editing, and support: the late William LeSassier, herbalist/acupuncturist, New York City; Phyllis Light, herbalist (AHG), Arab, Alabama; Steven Horne, herbalist (AHG), St. George, Utah; Julia Graves; David Winston, herbalist (AHG), Broadway, N. J.; Michael Moore, herbalist (AHG), Bisbee, Arizona; Lise Wolff, herbalist (AHG), Minneapolis, Minnesota; Karyn Sanders; Dennis Anderson; Margi Flint; Deb Soule; Kathleen Maier; Kate Gilday and Don Babineau; Rosemary Gladstar; Pam Montgomery; Denese Ullom; Halsey Brandt; Andrew Lange, N.D.; Matthew Becker; Carl Robinson; Barbara St. Dennis; Ellen Hopman; Sondra Boyd, RN; Alan Dattner, M.D.; Hannah Cohen; Rudolph Ballentine, M.D.; Paul Red Elk; Yago Tahnahgah; and William Winter, D.V.M..

The life so short, the craft so long to learn,
experience difficult to obtain,
experiment dangerous, judgment hard.

—THE FIRST APHORISM OF HIPPOCRATES

Western herbalism was originally a part of Western medicine. In order to understand much of the herbal tradition we have inherited, we need to comprehend some of the concepts of old time Western practice. The old doctors did not possess the modern scientific technology that allows researchers to gaze upon the exact molecular structure of tissues, drugs, disease lesions, microorganisms, and the human genome itself. Instead, they had to define diseases and medicines in terms of broad physiological patterns, processes, characteristic symptoms, and symptom-pictures observable with the naked eye, or a few simple instruments.

Until 1930, the Western pharmacopoeia consisted largely of plant and mineral substances which were defined in terms of constituents which are sensible to the hand, eye, or tongue—mucilage, astringent, bitters, and so forth. These substances act on general physiological conditions, rather than molecular lesions. Within this milieu, plant medicines made sense. They provided sources of such ingredients in different combinations suitable to different problems and structures of the body. With the change to modern biomedicine, drugs came to be defined according to a specific molecular structure. Herbs, with their less refined ingredients composed of masses of different constituents, became increasingly irrelevant. If they had value, it was because they might contain an ingredient that could be separated and refined to become a drug. The whole herb was no longer valuable in and of itself.

In a similar manner, diseases are now defined in terms of molecular structure and change rather than as general processes, functions, or symptom-pictures. Thus, not only are herbs ignored, but the entire system of medicine of which they formed a part has also been forgotten. This has made it very hard to understand the old herbal literature, interwoven as it is with an old-time Western medicine which has become irrelevant and been forgotten.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in Western herbalism, along with other systems of natural, traditional, and holistic medicine. Most of these approaches—acupuncture, homeopathy, and Ayurveda, for example—possess a long-standing medical philosophy and system upon which they may be practiced. On the other hand, Western herbalism, bereft from old-time Western medicine, possesses very little doctrine or guidance by which herbs can be related to diseases or parts of the organism. As a consequence, those who attempt to practice Western herbalism are forced to adopt a system from one of these other disciplines, or from biomedicine itself. Unfortunately, this causes the medicinal plants of the West to become, as it were, homeopathic, Chinese, Ayurvedic, or biomedical agents. They have lost their unique identity and history, associated with thousands of years of popular and professional use.

To compound this problem, Western science dismisses folk medicine as unscientific or even fraudulent. This has caused the demise of traditional healers, if not by outright persecution, then by economic and legal exclusion. By comparison, in China the folk medical applications of a plant are taken as the basis from which research may be conducted and traditional healers have been encouraged within government regulations.

Another side effect of this situation has been that herbs are now described and sold according to advertising based on “science.” In many cases the science is incomplete or misrepresentative, but only when a product sounds scientific will people flock to it. Thus, much of the herbal and nutritional marketplace apes conventional biomedicine.

If we are to use Western herbs in a holistic fashion we need to return to the physiological medicine with which they were associated. This is the system within which Western herbalism developed and its limited restoration allows us to recognize nuances in the Western herbal tradition which are lost when we adopt foreign concepts. We do not need to resurrect the old system entirely, only the most fundamental elements. We also need to bring it up to date.

Not all physiological processes were understood in the old days—they are not, indeed, understood today—but, by using the physiological approach of old-time medicine, we can generate a system of medical understanding which is physiologically accurate and conducive to holistic care, i.e., cure. Plant medicines, constructed as they are from a broad slurry of chemical components, are naturally suited to the treatment of broad physiological patterns in the body, rather than specific molecular lesions. They also cure, that is to say, they stimulate or sedate or nourish or cleanse, as required by the case, to bring the physiological function back to health and restore self-maintenance and regulation within the organism, i.e., homeostasis.

The radical concept of traditional folk medicine is that disease is curable, i.e., the organism can be returned to self-regulation and health. Most modern people still go to their doctors nursing this quaint folk concept, but are instead treated to the modern theory: the organism is broken, nature is not able to take care of herself, hence science will take care of it through “health maintenance.” Modern biomedicine does not attempt to cure, but to maintain the organism through artificial means.

In The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism we will focus on the use of humors, qualities, or tissue states to describe basic, simple categories of pathology. We offer this as a contrast to the conventional view of molecular lesions. Due to the complexity of the subject, there is not enough space to include more than introductory material on the physiological patterns seen in the behavior of the major organs and systems of the body. This will have to await further publication. I am also reserving, for now, discussion of the regulatory systems, which oversee the general physiology of the organism. All these topics can be learned from the standpoint of holism, rather than conventional materialistic science.

Anyone who masters the terminology in the second chapter (qualities and degrees) will be able to understand the basics of Greek herbalism down to the Renaissance. The whole tradition will lie like an open book before the eye. Texts, which before seemed baffling or incomplete, will reveal depths not guessed. Likewise, anyone who masters the terminology in the third chapter (tissue states and a few herbal actions) will find the whole of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century herbal literature lying before the mind as an open book. There will then be no question what the old authors meant, or whether or not Western herbalism can be practiced upon a holistic foundation.

The tools we use in complementary and alternative medicine are weak compared to those used by biomedicine. However, they can perform miracles which biomedicine cannot achieve. All of us in the field have seen this. How is this possible? It is because our tools work with one of the most powerful forces available, the energy of life or Nature herself.

When we look at an animal or person we see an enormous amount of energy. When thwarted by sickness, this power is blocked or even empowers the illness. Supporting the self-healing power with simple methods like food, herbs, homeopathic medicines, acupuncture, therapeutic touch, mental attitude, and prayer can do wonders that can never be achieved when Nature is ignored or suppressed.

Matthew Wood
Sunnyfield Herb Farm
January, 2004

In vain hath He made Nature if we dwell on our own conceptions and make no use of her principles. It were a happy necessity if our thoughts could not vary from her ways.

—THOMAS VAUGHN

It has often been said that Western herbalism lacks a “system of energetics.” What that means, in short, is a vocabulary for describing “energy patterns” or physiological and psychological patterns in the body. The point is to express the activities and configurations of energy, qi, or the vital force—call it what you will. Examples of energetic systems include the yin/yang theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the five elements of China and India, or the four humors of Greek medicine.

The use of an energetic system is virtually a prerequisite in holistic medicine. Biomedicine is constructed upon a materialistic interpretation of nature, which looks to molecular structure as a guide. Holistic medicine is founded on the concept and experience that the organism is a functional unit or whole under the directing hand of an intelligent, self-regulating, and self-correcting guiding life force or energy. Since Nature in the organism is self-maintaining and self-healing, holistic medicine is further based upon the assumption that the organism can be cured, that is, returned from an unbalanced state to one of balance or homeostasis. As mentioned in the introduction, biomedicine does not seek to cure or return the organism to self-regulation, but removes and replaces broken parts through drugs or surgery. Thus, modern medicine speaks of “health management” rather than cure, while holistic or traditional medicine speaks of cure, vitalism, and energy patterns. The language is intrinsically different, and in order to practice holistic medicine, or to practice Western herbalism on a holistic basis, we need to learn a new vocabulary.

It should be understood that herbs can be used either way: to stimulate the self-healing powers of the organism to return to health, or to artificially manipulate the organism to fit an artificial goal. For example, goldenseal can be used in small doses as a bitter tonic to stimulate the digestion and mucosa, removing tendencies to bacterial infection and mucus production, or it can be applied in massive doses as a “natural antibiotic” to kill bacteria. It contains a potent antibacterial, berberine. The first use is holistic because it increases the health of the organism while the second is an example of “health management” because it assumes that the organism cannot get rid of the bacteria on its own and the knowledge of the practitioner is superior. The use of herbs is not necessarily holistic.

Whatever qi or life force is, most of us see it indirectly, in its effects. It is the fact that this energy forms patterns that interests us. There are particular patterns to health, and to disease. Thus, Hippocrates bids us learn the medical art by looking at a man in the bloom of health, and comparing him with a man on the edge of death. In order to describe and influence the patterns of disease formed by unbalanced energy or qi, we need a “language of energy patterns.”

A survey of various cultures around the world shows that a simple system of two, three, four, or five elements, qualities, or humors forms the basis of diagnosis and treatment in traditional holistic medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the yin/yang system and the five elements. Ayurvedic medicine uses the three doshas and the five elements. Greek medicine used the four elements, qualities, humors, and temperaments. American Indian medicine acknowledges four to seven directions.

These different terms are translated fairly easily from one system to another. Yin and yang resemble fire and water in another system, the five elements of China and India are similar to the four elements of Greece, and the magical fifth element of alchemy. Local culture, weather patterns, and epidemiology determine the arrangement and number of elements or humors but they bear considerable resemblance to one another.

One further point should be made. The arrangement of elements, directions, or humors into a fourfold mandala (cross or square) serves an important psychological and spiritual function. The psychiatrist C. G. Jung showed that the mandala was a symbol of wholeness for the psyche. Many of us, when we read about or look at pictures of the four or five elements, feel this deep sense of meaning and fulfillment. Although this symbol is mythological and spiritual in nature that does not mean it should be excluded from medicine. Rather medicine, to be holistic and curative, must include mythic elements to satisfy the soul and spirit.

The Forgotten Energetics of Western Herbalism

At the beginning of the chapter, it was said that Western herbalism lacks a system of energy patterns. Actually, this is not true—it is just that this special vocabulary has been forgotten.

These energetics still exist. They are inferred in the list of herbal “actions” which are found in the front or back of just about every herb book. These include terms like diuretic, diaphoretic, stimulant, emmenagogue, aromatic, and astringent. When I first began the study of Western herbalism, I couldn’t get very far because these terms seemed so wooden and mechanical. I thought the terms were unrelated to a deeper energetic context connected to the life force, and which could stimulate my intuitive understanding and problem solving. After many years, I came to appreciate that they were the remains of an energetic system that had been forgotten.

There are two basic subdivisions of herbal actions, one referring to the “tissue state” or pathological condition, and the other to the organ or seat on which the agent operates. The first category is composed of terms like astringent, emollient, mucilage, stimulant, aromatic, refrigerant, antispasmodic, antiseptics, and normalizer. The second refers to specific local organs or functions: diuretic (kidneys), nephritic (kidneys), expectorant (lungs), pectoral (lungs), diaphoretic (skin and fever), febrifuge (fever), nervine, emmenagogue (menses promoting), cholagogue (gall bladder), etc. There was originally a third category, which described whether the herb raised or lowered, internalized or externalized, thinned or thickened, but this was dropped by the end of the eighteenth century. A classical reference for these three categories can be found in A Key to Galen’s Method of Physick, (c. 1650) by Nicholas Culpeper.

It may not be readily apparent how the word astringent is an energetic term. However, a short examination shows that it does refer us to an energetic pattern. The condition which an astringent acts upon is not a specific molecular lesion or disease in a modern biomedical sense, but tissue which is prolapsed and leaking fluids. Astringents contain tannic acids that contract tissue and prevent prolapse and fluid loss. Thus, the term astringent refers to an energetic category—what the Chinese, Indian, Greek, or Arabic doctors would have called “dampness.”

During the evolution of Western medicine the old energetic terms hot, cold, damp, and dry were dropped, and in their place, terms like stimulant (warming), refrigerant (cooling), mucilage (moistening), and astringent (drying) were adopted. This represented a movement away from a mythological frame of mind towards one that was increasingly scientific. Yet, such terms still refer to general physiological patterns in the organism rather than specific molecular lesions, as is the practice in modern diagnosis.

The organ- and function-specific terms are also energetic in that they refer to broad physiological functions in the organism rather than specific lesions. They refer us back to the period when even conventional doctors treated conditions in this manner. At that time, drugs and herbs were more closely related because both were defined in terms of general physiological effects or local affinities. Now drugs are applied to molecular changes and people want to ape modern biomedicine by applying herbs in the same fashion. Unfortunately, herbs generally do not work this way. Sometimes they contain enough berberine, for instance, to kill bacterium, but usually their positive effect is based upon a slurry of different chemicals found together in the original plant.

The reason herbs are suited to the old-fashioned approach, i.e., to the treatment of broad physiological patterns in the body rather than specific molecular lesions, is that they are in fact complexes of many different chemicals drawn together. These combinations come together in the plant, not randomly, but to solve a certain environmental problem or imbalance which assaulted the plant from outside. The chemicals found in goldenseal undoubtedly help it to live in the rich, shady, well-watered woodlands of Eastern North America where it is native. It is not apparent exactly how that environment resembles the damp, nutrient-coated mucosa of the digestive tract. One can see a sort of metaphorical similarity, but the peculiar slurry of chemistry found in goldenseal makes it an ideal tonic for sub-functional mucosa. The very least that can be said is that the taste, a mixture of bitter and sweet, stimulates the secretions of the mouth and thus triggers secretions all the way down the digestive canal. Goldenseal is thus defined, according to the list of actions, as a “bitter tonic” for the digestive mucosa in particular.

Modern medicine does not think in broad, physiological terms. For instance, stomach ulcer would be treated by the use of an antibacterial that kills the bacteria associated with gastric ulceration. It does not attempt to change the tissue imbalance that led to the proliferation of bacteria at that location—it is not even interested in the fact that there might be a changed tissue condition that encouraged the proliferation in the first place. Consequently, when the person is exposed to the bacteria again it will again multiply and settle in. In holistic herbal medicine, on the other hand, we would want to change the tissue state that supports the invasive agent. Here we could hardly do better than to use goldenseal, which is almost infallible for the treatment and long-term cure of stomach ulcers. Goldenseal is successful, not just because it kills bacteria, but because it stimulates increased mucosal activity and secretions, making the stomach tissue more active and less susceptible to bacterial infection.

For several hundred years there has been a bias in Western education against the intuitive approach in medicine and science. Intuition, imagination, and instinct are relegated to art or religion. There it is permissible to use such faculties. While one can appreciate the need for objective observation and analytical study, the use of these methods alone, as if they were the only true measures of reality, in and of itself, is an inherently sick and flawed condition. It skews the human organism by rendering obsolete skills and faculties it has always relied upon to contend with environmental and internal stress. As a consequence, we in the West have lost much in the way of our traditional energetic systems. We pride ourselves on education and sophistication, but we have lost the ability to speak about the world as an intuitive experience.

Whatever people say they believe in terms of spirituality and religion, what they do when they are sick and in need reflects the true basis of their belief system. For the average person, science and medicine is the answer. Religion is reserved for miracles, not solving everyday problems. In other words, science and medicine visualize and teach us that we are innately separated from our spiritual and, to a large extent, our psychological resources; that we cannot solve our everyday problems through these means but must turn away from spirit and put our faith in the material world. From a spiritual perspective, this view is not neutral but actively anti-spiritual. It reinforces a completely materialistic view of the nature of life. Miracles—if they exist—and spiritual life—if it exists—are far removed from everyday life.

In holistic medicine we hold up a different view. We are not isolated from life, we are an expression of life. We are part of this unseen force that propels and patterns us in our daily lives. If we can believe in the unseen power of the life force we are much closer to a real appreciation of the existence and power of the soul and spirit, i.e., the psychological apparatus and the spirit which guides us towards a meaningful life. Those who kill the life of the body also, in some measure, kill the life of the soul and spirit.

A culture that has lost its folk medicine, or its ability to heal and cure everyday problems with everyday materials, has lost a part of its soul. There is something deeply sick about Western culture. If we are to restore it to health we need to restore its lost folk medical soul. This means that people are going to have to trust their personal resources and make decisions for themselves, rather than being controlled by statistical studies, worse case scenarios, or the consensus opinion of experts and counter-intuitive advice. It also means that we are going to have to restore folk medicine to Western culture.

It also has to be said that it is not possible to understand the traditional uses of Western herbs unless they are viewed against the backdrop of the folk medical or pre-modern system in which they developed. Using Western herbs according to an Eastern energetic system does not bring forth their cultural and medical richness. Furthermore, it is not enough to borrow concepts from Eastern or American Indian sources because this only feeds the illusion that some expert outside ourselves has the answer. Thus, in order to restore the folk medical soul of our white Western culture, we need to use terms that are already in use in the culture and supply them with their lost energetic meanings.

It would seem like an almost hopeless job to restore Western folk medicine, but in fact the terms used to describe energetics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century are still in use today. Thus, we can use terms that are both energetic and familiar. These are the “tissue states” described in the third chapter: irritation or excitation; constriction or tension; atrophy or wasting; relaxation; torpor or stagnation; and depression or lack of excitation. In addition, we can restore the organ- and function-based medicine of the old doctors which common people intuitively understand—my “stomach hurts, or,” I’m going to the “heart specialist.” At the same time, these relatively modern terms relate exactly to the elements, humors, or qualities of ancient medicine. Thus, we can make references between different systems and adjust terminology to fit our needs.

It is for these reasons that this book will describe the ancient energetic system of Western medicine and herbalism, and the energetic method of the immediate past, in order to build a background for a profound understanding of herbs and their actions on the human organism. Our approach will be to define the “tissue states,” their relationship to ancient elemental or humoral energetics, and apply them to the organs and functions of the body as understood in broad physiological patterns, not as molecular structures and functions.

Energetic Classification

In case our meandering in the history of medicine is too difficult for our readers, let us sum up the above argument by introducing some of the basic energetic terminology used in traditional medicine.

The most simple and elegant breakdown of matter and energy into patterns begins with the dualism, so well expressed in traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine as yin and yang. Philosophically, the former represents the passive, feminine side of the universe, while the latter represents the active, masculine side. Traditional medicine is more pragmatic, with yin standing for water, cooling, nourishing, and rest, and yang standing for fire, warming, and action. The four qualities of hot, cold, damp, and dry can easily be deduced from the primal two:

yang excess | hot
yang deficiency | cold
yin excess | damp
yin deficiency | dry

This gives us the four qualities of Greek/Arabic medicine derived from an initial dyad. There is a system of six environmental influences in Chinese practice analogous to the four qualities: hot, cold, wind, damp, dry, and summer heat (a kind of humid heat). The four qualities also correspond to the four elements of Greek philosophy. Interestingly, they correlate with the states of matter recognized in chemistry:

Fire | hot | combustion
Air | dry | gas
Water | damp | liquid
Earth | cold | solid

The ancient Israelites and Egyptians only recognized three elements—air, water, and earth—thinking of fire as a different kind of agent that changed the other three. In Greek and Indian philosophy, a fifth element was added which acts on the other four: the quintessence or ether. This was associated with wind. And thus, in Chinese medicine, we have five elements including wind. The whole round of associations would look like this:

Greece | India | China
Ether | ether (wind) | wind
Fire | fire | fire
Air | air | metal
Water | water | water
Earth | earth | earth

After the fall of Greek medicine, the Western doctors adopted the theory of irritation, based on the observation that nerve tissue when removed from the body, was irritable or reactive to certain influences such as, for example, heat and cold. This led to the organizing of tissue states, or energetic patterns, based on irritability and relaxation. Eventually, J.M. Thurston developed a model comprised of six basic tissue states:

Tissue State | Quality
irritation, excitation | heat
constriction, tension | wind
atrophy | dry
relaxation | damp flowing
torpor | damp stagnation
depression | cold

In Greek medicine, dampness was divided into damp that flowed and damp that stayed stuck in the body. In Ayurvedic medicine, the water element also is used twice as the three doshas (water, fire, and air) and the five elements are placed in relationship:

Dosha | Element | Tissue State
vata | air | atrophy
| wind | constriction
pitta | fire | irritation, excitation
| water | relaxation (water flowing)
kapha | water earth | torpor (water stagnant) depression

We will visit the theme of the three doshas and the corresponding elements and tissue states in the chapter on constitution.

A final set of relationships might be useful:

| Excess | Deficiency
Rate | Excitation | Depression
Tension | Constriction | Relaxation
Density | Atrophy | Torpor

Atrophy represents a state where the system is too dry or solid, while torpor represents a condition where it is too wet, lacking in solidity and stagnant.

The Energetic Organism

The organism does not remain fixed permanently in a constitutional or tissue state, but is subject to perpetual change. This is already implicated in the energetic classification scheme mentioned above, where wind serves to represent the element, or factor of change. Thus, in addition to providing a classification of energy types, patterns, and constitutions, traditional and holistic medicine also provide a view of the organism as a dynamic biological entity.

In the traditional view, which we find in virtually every area of the world, the organism is seen as a dynamic entity consuming and breaking down food to build an inner fire, which, in turn, radiates outward to keep the organism cleansing and eliminating. The fire of life is visualized in Ayurvedic medicine as a digestive/metabolic flame, situated at the pyloric sphincter, consuming, transforming, and breaking down food and toxins. As one feeds the organism, the other is eliminated. If toxins (called amma in Ayurveda) are retained, the internal flame will be “gummed up” and the digestion and metabolism will be less successful. This leads to the generation of disease.

Very much the same view exists in the traditional American herbalism descending down to us from Samuel Thomson (1767–1842), a self-taught New Hampshire herbalist. He used both herbs and a simple sort of sweat lodge to “raise the fire” in the interior (in the stomach, as he visualized it), break down “canker” (mucus) obstructing the fire, and open the skin, so that the fire could radiate outwards, from center to circumference. In this way, the body was nourished and warmed, while the canker or obstructions were eliminated.

There can be little doubt that Thomson’s model came from the American Indian people. He used a simple sweat lodge, as much as his “course of medicine” or herbs to raise the fire, cut canker, and open the periphery. His early disciples were known as “steaming doctors.” This method was unknown in central Europe but is well attested on the American frontier. Lewis and Clark describe how one of their men was cured of arthritic stiffness in a sweat lodge erected by friendly Indians during their journey. The sweat lodge itself, with a fire in the middle generating steam from water poured on it, spreading outward towards the perimeter, is almost the perfect picture of the dynamic, energetic organism.

In these simple models from throughout the world, water is actually of equal importance with fire. It controls and modulates the activity of fire. In Chinese and European alchemical tradition, the organism is pictured as a three chambered vessel sitting on a fire. In the lower chamber, water is boiling; in the middle chamber it is running down the sides of the vessel in little rivulets; while in the upper chamber, it is steam. This reflects the interaction of fire and water in the body. In traditional Chinese medicine, the thoracic cavity is considered to be the “upper burner” where water is found in the steamy phase. Heart and lungs disperse the aerated blood like a mist through the body. In the “middle burner,” the digestive organs run like rivers full of water and nutriment, past and through the fires of transformation, down to the “lower burner,” where water is held in check and periodically removed.

One can see the origins of the “humoral model” of medicine in this picture of the behavior of the body. When the organism is in balance, the “humors” leave on a regular, healthy basis through the channels of elimination, the kidneys, colon, skin, and lungs. When the organism is not healthy, the humors spill over or are retained. The job of the traditional physician or nurse, therefore, is to regulate the activity of the humors.

What modern practitioners of holistic medicine call “energetics” is called “humoralism” by historians of medicine. I have, however, chosen the terminology used by practitioners rather than by outsiders.

One more aspect of this model requires elucidation. In all of these models there is some concept of a waste product which obstructs the fire within and thickens the internal waters. In Ayurveda this is called amma, a term which incorporates the idea of both thickened phlegm and toxins. In Thomson’s model it was called canker, a colonial American folk medical rendering of what the old English practitioners would have called humor, or humor in the blood. When the fluids of the body are thickened up, they block the internal fire, whether we visualize it in the stomach, as Thomson did, or more internally.

The terms humor and canker came to be replaced later in the nineteenth century by the concept of “impure blood” or “bad blood.” The former term is a translation from German while the latter is the English phrase typically used by American Indian practitioners, including many I know at the present time. Today this folk medical substance would be called a “toxin.”

The concept of toxin is a very important one in Western herbalism. It has been updated with improvements in the understanding of the function of the organism. In the early twentieth century, toxins were associated with the liver, because this was the seat of the preparatory metabolism (the preparation of food/toxins coming out of the intestine), and the thyroid, which sets the rate of cellular metabolism. Dr. Broda Barnes (1976) actually equates “bad blood” with hypothyroidism and also mentions that one of the most characteristic symptoms of low thyroid found in autopsies is a thickened, phlegmy substance in the internal fluids composed of mucopolysaccharides—an amma, canker, or humor.

The concept of toxins and detoxification has, in the current revival of holistic practice, been almost detached from any kind of diagnostic study of the organism, so that many people simply detoxify themselves, whether there is evidence of toxins in the system or not.

Energetic Laws

In addition to a system of classification for energy patterns and a view of the organism as an energetic biological entity, holistic and traditional medicine also has come to recognize certain laws governing the behavior of energy, qi, or vital force. Thus, in Chinese philosophy the concept of qi is intimately associated with li, or law. In the West, these laws or principles have been particularly developed. From Galen to the present, much has been made of therapeutic laws by which the medicinal agent is applied to the sick organism. Thus, Galen supported the “law of contraries” while Paracelsus and Hahnemann rebelled against him and advocated the use of “similars.” Dr. Harold Lindlahr, the “philosopher of naturopathy,” saw the two laws as coming under one heading: the “law of action and reaction.” A similar unified doctrine, the Arndt/Schulz law, states that every biological action creates an equal and opposite reaction; therefore, both contraries and similar restore the organism to its original state.

The law of contraries teaches that if the organism has gotten too cold, it will be restored to balance by warming agents. Thus, from the time of Galen to the present, “carminatives” or warming, aromatic herbs and spices are used to “warm up” a “cold stomach,” i.e., a digestive tract in which the secretions are deficient. Carminatives are pungent and bitter, so they stimulate, warm, and excite secretions, from the mouth on down the gastrointestinal canal.

The law of similars was originally based on the “doctrine of signatures,” i.e., the idea that the plant looks like or resembles in some way the disease, organ, or symptom. This is considered by modern science, as it was by Galen himself, to be a fallacious concept based on “magical thinking,” or thinking by analogy. Rudolf Steiner, on the other hand, defended the use of signatures, stating that the same power that made the color, shape, or habit, in a plant created a disease imbalance in the human organism, and thus the one would treat the other. There is power in analogy, when the two similars are related by essential, internal characteristics, rather than simple, external resemblance. Emmanuel Swedenborg differentiated between these two as “correspondents” and “representations.”

Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, introduced the use of the law of similars on a different basis. He noted that the symptoms caused by a poison were those which would be cured by the same agent used in a smaller dose. His thinking originated at the same time as the smallpox vaccination was being developed by Edward Jenner and represents a vitalistic interpretation of the fact that the body is stimulated by a similar to fight against the original contagion. Hahnemann’s followers have also used the “doctrine of signatures.”

According to homeopathic doctrine, foods work upon the system by contrary while poisons cure by similarity. Thus, if the organism is short on iron it needs to consume iron in some friendly food. However, if there is a sickness in the organism that causes it to reject, or eliminate, or not pick up iron, then a remedy is needed which operates by similar, one which creates the same imbalance in the healthy.

In reality, as Lindlahr, Arndt, and Schulz pointed out, the organism is cured both by contraries and by similars. The important point is that sickness develops along an axis—too hot, too cold—and is fixed along the same axis. If the cooling agent is applied to fever in a way that helps the struggling organism, it will strengthen the organism to remove fever. On the other hand, if the similar causing the fever is administered in a small dose, it will stimulate the body to renew and reinvigorate the fight against the pathogenic factor, strengthening the powers of resistance and leading to cure. What is most important is that the cure is in the same axis as the disease. Suppression occurs when the organism is forced to act in a certain way, according to artificial, external agents, which hide the disease process and symptoms. This, however, does not cure, but sets up a new disease. As mentioned previously, this is the difference between holistic healing and conventional biomedicine: the one sees the organism as able to return to self-governance while the other does not believe in this self-cure and therefore seeks to “manage” health for the organism.

There are three primal laws of energetic healing: the law of action and reaction (or contraries and similars), the law of direction of cure (Hering’s law), and the law of the healing crisis. These themes will be more fully developed throughout our work in The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism.

The Medicine Wheel

Before closing, let us return to the theme of the four or five elements. Throughout the world, the four directions or quarters are a potent symbol. C.G. Jung observed that the mandala, a cross or square picturing the four directions, represents for the human soul a feeling of wholeness, completeness, and well-being. This gives a different dimension to the four qualities and elements. Not only do they provide an analytical method for classifying patterns in nature, but also they represent wholeness and well-being. They are, in and of themselves, healing.

Jung taught that the four directions represented, among other things, the four functions of the psyche: intuition (sensing the whole picture), thinking (mentation), feeling (emotionality), and sensation (body knowledge). Each person favors one of these functions, but together they represent wholeness.

In addition to the four functions, Jung taught the existence of a fifth or “transcendent” function, which came into operation when a person was stuck and their ordinary inventory of knowledge was insufficient to solve their problems. The transcendent function first appears as the helpful dream or daydream. With practice, the imagination can be accessed for solutions more easily. Ultimately, the transcendent function is essentially the active imagination. Jung saw this function as corresponding to the “fifth element” or quintessence that both moves and stands outside the four directions or elements in mytho-poetic culture. It is often referred to as the wind, breath, or ether in traditional symbolism.

Rudolf Steiner used a fourfold classification system similar to the traditional Greek method. He associated the “I-organization” or self-consciousness with the fire element; the “astral body” or animal instincts/autonomic nervous system with air; the “etheric body” or vegetative/cellular functions with water; and the physical body or mineral world with earth. For Steiner, warming plants tend to increase sensation and consciousness by stimulating circulation and nerve sensation. (Compare Robert Schmidt’s description of heat in the four qualities model as individualizing or separating).

We see this in the mint family, which is largely warming and stimulating. Rosemary was perhaps the archetypal fiery mint used by Steiner to increase circulation, nervous sensation, and consciousness. He would express this by saying that the “I-organization” exerted its influence from the mind down through the bodily pole, though it would be simpler to say that the warmth or fire element is extended into bodily functions through innervation and circulation. By comparison, the cooling plants, of which the rose family is a prime example, tend to refine and articulate perception and experience.

In addition to his occult training and his life-long study of the alternative science of J. W. Goethe, Steiner studied under an herbalist. They met one day on a crowded train. Steiner was impressed with the wisdom of the older man and thereafter often traveled to study with him. It is therefore not surprising that Steiner’s work is filled with a considerable knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants.

In many Native American cultures, the circle with four directions represents healing. This is called the “sacred hoop” or “medicine wheel.” It is thus used to organize medical knowledge. J.T. Garrett in The Cherokee Herbal (2003) gives an excellent description of the classification of medicinal plants by the four directions. The east relates to the heart and family life, heart remedies, and blood remedies. The south relates to acute injuries and diseases brought on by exposure to the dangers of the world. The west relates to internal diseases. The north relates to stored knowledge, wisdom, teaching, peace, and being in harmony with the world.

This way of defining the directions corresponds closely with the directions as described independently by my friend Paul Red Elk, who received traditional herbal training from his Lakota grandfather in western South Dakota.

The point should be made that the four directions can be defined in many different ways and the medicine wheel itself can be arranged in even more variety. Even the correlations between the values of the four elements or directions are variable to a certain extent. For instance, Aristotle correlated the four qualities to the four elements as: fire (hot and dry), air (hot and damp), water (cold and damp), earth (cold and dry). They have sometimes been arranged in a different fashion that I personally find more accurate: fire (hot), air (dry), water (damp), and earth (cold).

Karyn Sanders, a Native American practitioner living in California, first introduced me to the herbal medicine wheel. She emphasized heat and cold rather than the different segments of life. I have followed her example, modifying it according to my experience.

It should be remembered that the medicine wheel is based on a personal and subjective experience of the world and that there is no true configuration.

The Green Tongue

A good background in energetic terminology is excellent for developing the intuition as well as an expressive vocabulary. When I was a young man, I was barely able to speak beyond the rudiments of ordinary conversation. I thought in what I would now call “energetic patterns,” and since this was not addressed in conventional education, I had no terminology in which to express my observations. After learning energetic systems or symbols, I was able to talk to other people versed in the same language. This was an improvement, but I couldn’t speak with anyone else. Eventually I was able to translate my thoughts into regular speech and became known as an excellent speaker.

The development of speech is related to one’s ability to perceive, and therefore one’s “take on the world” and spiritual life. Consequently, there are stories in folk tradition and literature about changes in spirit and speech. The ballad of Thomas the Rhymer describes how a sympathetic relationship with Nature results in a gift called the “tongue-that-cannot-lie.” The implications of this relationship and gift are more fully developed in commentaries on this ballad by R. J. Stewart in The Underworld Initiation (1985). Another book on gifted speech as a reflection of understanding natural, social, and spiritual processes is found in Linda Sussman’s The Speech of the Grail (1995). This is a commentary on the epic romance Parzival, by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Perhaps the most beautiful name for this gift can be found in David Ovason’s The Secrets of Nostradamus (2001). This name also serves as a description of the special vocabulary used by the old alchemists and philosophers. Through word play, this language came to be known as the langua vert, or “green tongue,” in contrast to the langua ouvert, or “mundane language” of everyday speech.

In the green tongue, the old philosophers could represent discoveries about life, the life force, and the ever-changing lessons provided by Mother Nature. It is said that the alchemists used this tongue to couch their wisdom in obscurity so that profane people could not abuse their knowledge, or, in a time of Inquisition, their persons. However, a more realistic interpretation would stress the fact that they had to develop a poetic, metaphorical, and suggestive/elusive language in which to convey their discoveries.

Mystics or scientists have never claimed that Nature is an open book. In the world of material science, it is a object of intense and long study. Likewise, it is the same when this grand subject of inquiry is examined through the inner eye, intuition, and instinct. The green tongue is not a language to hide, but one that gives expression to that which is hidden and which should, when properly used, evoke understanding from the listening. In bringing understanding from one level to another, speech becomes spiritual, and magical.

The great medieval seer, Hildegard von Bingen, called the power of Nature the viriditas or “green power.” She found it in all living things, in the seed ready to burst forth; in youth and sexuality; in the expression of art and creativity; and in the healing power of the green world. Her life as a leader, visionary, musician, artist, and herbal healer was a manifestation of viriditas. Her speech was not obscure, but rather evocative.

Originally, the green tongue did not belong to the alchemists or philosophers of Nature, but to the bards and poets. It is thus that Thomas the Rhymer, after having fallen asleep under a hawthorn tree, met with the green clad Queen of Elfland. She bound him to her service, and finding him obedient, rewarded True Thomas with green slippers and “the tongue-that-cannot-lie.”

I used to think that the tongue-that-cannot-lie referred to a speaker who could never tell a lie, like the young George Washington, when he chopped down his father’s tree. Later I came to realize that Thomas the Rhymer was a poet and a bard, and that his gift gave him the ability to describe the Green World, the Elfland of the Elven Queen, the viriditas. It is therefore the tongue of internal truth and clear seeing, not the tongue of outward truth or legal exactitude. It is the tongue of art and it belongs to all artists, no matter what trade they may ply. It belongs to those who have served their apprenticeship in obedience to Dame Nature. Art does not come from commandments, or follow logic or the consensus opinion of scientific experts, but springs fresh every time from stone and wood and green sprig of earth. It is the stuff that makes good gardeners, hunters, farmers, builders, carpenters, poets, bards, sculptors, painters, drawers, healers, physicians, and herbalists.

They would suppose that there is some principle harmful to man; heat or cold, wetness or dryness, and that the right way to bring about cures is to correct cold with warmth, or dryness with moisture and so on.… These are the causes of disease, and the remedy lies in the application of the opposite principle according to the hypothesis.

—HIPPOCRATES

The origins of the four elements lie far back in the mists of time, but it was Empedocles who introduced them into Greek philosophy and argued for them as the basis of the world. Plato lent his weight to this view but Aristotle felt that the four elements were derivative. He postulated the four qualities from which they were derived. Thus, fire is hot and dry, air is hot and moist, water is moist and cold, and earth is dry and cold. The four elements subsequently became more of a philosophical or mythological system, while the four qualities were used in the science and medicine of antiquity to describe the attributes of stones, plants, animals, and people.

The Hippocratic authors were developing their philosophy at the same time this theory appeared (see quotation at the head of the chapter). However, they disapproved of the four qualities and instead taught a system which depended upon a fasting diet composed of bland foods. By shielding the organism from food which was stressful (too hot, too cold) they hoped to cleanse the body and release toxins during a healing “crisis.” Eventually, Greek medicine adopted both the detoxification fast of the Hippocratic doctors and the four qualities of Aristotle.

The Four Qualities

To the modern ear, the four qualities appear to be fairly clear-cut. However, the passage of time has altered the way we think about these terms compared to how the ancients defined them. Lacking a thermometer, they had no way of actually measuring hot or cold. Therefore, they did not define temperature as we would today. Under the circumstances, it was more objective to define the four qualities by their effects.

Robert Schmidt, a Greek scholar and translator, of Project Hindsight, in Cumberland, Maryland, helped me define the four qualities according to the ancient concept. The quotations are from Schmidt.

Heat is the “active power that takes away, destroys, or eliminates what has a foreign or alien nature, so that the residue is more rarefied or porous, thereby allowing things that are of the same class to become more associated.” At the same time, things that are dissimilar are removed. Heat possesses the power of purification and refinement that intensifies the native identity.

Cold is the “active power that aggregates, condenses, or packs things more closely together, whether they are of the same or different class; it is a compressive and cohesive power.” It can bind together properties that are opposite and incompatible. Even if similar in nature they are brought together in a way which is not comfortable for them.

Damp is defined as the “passive capacity” which allows for pliancy, bendability, and coercibility. Because it is completely coercible, it can easily be “contained or confined by external limits or boundaries.” However, by itself it will not remain within these boundaries. It requires another power to keep it there. Spreading in all directions available to it, damp does not stop until it meets a boundary, where it collects. If no boundary appears, it flows away. Damp lacks the capacity for the “creation of pores or empty spaces” so it collects substances dissimilar to its nature and to each other.

Dry is the “passive capacity” that is not pliable but incoercible. It sets boundaries and limitations. “Through its capacity for self-limitation or self-articulation, it admits of the creation of pores or empty spaces.” Thus, entities similar or dissimilar can pass through it without changing its nature. Because it is incoercible, dryness allows for the creation of structure and function.

These definitions are quite practical and mechanical. They are not mythological or esoteric. All natural substances are rarified or dense, pliable or rigid. There is nothing inherently unscientific about this analytical method—it is just not how we are encouraged to think at the present time. The modern mind looks for ultimate particles and thinks that it has isolated something more true and useful than a mere pattern.

The four qualities are further subdivided into the four degrees. These do not refer to degrees of temperature as on a thermometer the way we would think about it today. They represent distinct categories of action, increasing in intensity from mild to strong. Classification of an herb by temperature and degree does not necessary reflect the actual taste or sensation produced on the tongue by this herb. A plant that actually tastes hot may not have a hot medical value. It is the action or property of the plant, not the taste or sensation, which determines whether or not it is hot. Ultimately, the qualities are actually abstractions of the everyday experience of hot, cold, damp, and dry. This discrepancy must have led to confusion and contributed to the downfall of Greek medicine.

The Four Degrees

The following are the chief actions of herbal remedies classified by quality and degree (Nicholas Culpeper, A Key to Galen’s Method of Physick, reprint 1990, 376).

Hot

• First degree. Opens pores to expel moisture by perspiration or other channels.

• Second degree. Thins fluids so that they can better pass through pores and channels.

• Third degree. Increases the internal heat of digestion and metabolism, so that the body stays warm and the perspiration is driven outward toward the surface. (Note the relationship to Aristotle’s idea of heat being rarifying and making things more porous).

• Fourth degree. Burns the skin. These agents are used externally to awaken organs and functions that are blocked or inactive (cold, depressed) and to burn away tumors.

Cold

• First degree. Lessen heat from exposure to the sun. Salad greens are considered cold in the first degree.

• Second degree. Thickens fluids and reduces internal heat.

• Third degree. Restrains the outward flow of fluids and matters.

• Fourth degree. Prevents “vapors” from rising upwards. Vapors are analogous to “rebellious qi” in traditional Chinese medicine. They are energy that is rising upward against the flow of nature. They include excessive coughing, vomiting, and menstrual cramps. Dizziness, fainting, swooning, hysteria, and PMS can be caused by vapors. Agents cold in the fourth degree stupefy the senses to ease violent pain and reduce mania, nervousness, restlessness, and insomnia.

Damp

• First degree. Causes substances to move through internal passages.

• Second degree. Moistens and lubricates surfaces.

• Third degree. Reduces hardness.

• Fourth degree. Nourishes the flesh.

Dry

• First degree. Restrains the outflow of fluid when it is too extreme.

• Second degree. Removes excess fluids when there is too much dampness.

• Third degree. “Comforts and strengthens nature.” This phrase means that they protect the surface against wind and cold by closing the pores. Open pores cause sweating and chilling.

• Fourth degree. Stops continuous, life threatening discharges, as in tuberculosis and dysentery.

Temperate

Remedies that are temperate (equal with regard to one of the two polarities: hot/cold or damp/dry) help to maintain the body in a condition where there is no apparent excess. They are not graded by degree. Remember that the Hippocratic physicians sought out bland substances. The temperate degree is virtually the opposite of wind.

Here are some examples of the classification of plants by the four qualities taken from the pages of William Salmon’s English Herbal (1709). (I have eliminated the excessive use of capitalization which otherwise makes Salmon difficult to read, but have otherwise presented the material in the idiom of its time).

Hot and Dry

Nettle (Urtica dioeca). Hot and dry in the first degree. “It does not burn and sting, because of its extream heat, but because its downy or small prickles are hard and stiff.” This illustrates that “heat” is not the same thing as heat, as we would experience it, but is rather a category of action. Here it means “stimulating.” Nettle juice “taken inwardly to three or four ounces or more, according to age, it will make the belly soluble; it opens obstructions of the stomach and lungs; helps wheezing and shortness of breath; it provokes the term, allays vapors, and prevents hysterick fits; it provokes urine and expels sand, gravel, and tartarous matter out of the reins and bladder. It kills worms in children, eases and takes away stitches in the side, removes the oppilation of the spleen expelling the windiness therof; and is said also to provoke to venery; being taken for two or three days together it stops spitting or vomiting blood, coming from the lungs or stomach; being put into green wounds or old sores, it cleanses them and induces their healing.” The ancients seem not to have valued the nutritive qualities of nettle, which would make it moist rather than dry.

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). Hot and dry in the second degree. “It is prevalent against vapors and fits of the mother [uterus]: it powerfully provokes the terms, brings away both birth and afterbirth, and expels the dead child; it is good against the palsie, as also cramps and convulsions, it cures the strangury, as also the poyson of the black poppy.” The properties mentioned are predominately heating.

Catnip (Nepeta cataria). Hot and dry in the third degree. “It provokes the terms in women, hastens and facilitates the labor, stops catarrhs and cold thin rheums, expels wind, gives ease in the colick, cures asthmas of difficulty breathing, as also cramps, convulsions, and all cold and moist disaffections of the nerves.” Most of the mints are classified as hot and dry in the third degree.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). Hot and dry in the third degree. “It prevails against the head-ach and megrim, from a cold cause; the vertigo, lethargy, epilepsy, apoplexy, palsy, convulsions, catarrhs, drowsiness, dullness of the senses, loss of memory, coldness of the stomach, stinking breath, wind in the stomach and bowels, dimness of the sight, jaundice, obstructions of the terms, gout from a cold cause, all external pains and aches from a cold and moist cause, lameness, numbedness, weakness of the joints; and in contagious times, prevails even against the plague it self and all contagious and infectious diseases.”

Mustard (Sinapis alba). The seed is hot and dry in the fourth degree—i.e., it will burn the skin. “It is found by experience to be of especial use, to provoke the terms in women, provoke urine, and give ease in the strangury, stone and gravel: it cures hysterick fits, pains of the sides and spleen, tooth-ach, kings evil, gout, cramp, and convulsions of the bowels; and prevails also against agues, epilepsy, lethargy, carus, vertigo, expels poison of all sorts, is good against impotency in men, and removes scabbiness, and other defedations of the skin.”

Hot and Moist

Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum). “ ’Tis the roots of Lillies which are chiefly used; but both roots and flowers are hot and moist in the first degree.” The juice of the root, “stamped and strained out with wine (for it is of too slimy a substance of itself) and given to drink for some few days together, it expels the poyson and malignity of the plague or pestilence, and causes it to break forth into blisters on the outward parts of the skin, as has been found by Experience.” The flowers extracted in olive oil in the sunlight, or gently warmed, make an oil which is “emollient, and softens the hardness of the nerves, and extends sinews shrunk; it also softens the hardness of the womb.” The roots are applied to “tumors and apostems of the privy parts.” I have used a tincture of Easter lily flowers to cure cysts of the ovaries and breasts dozens of times when I have been unable to obtain Madonna lily. One would think this plant cooling and moist, but its action on putrid heat shows that it is more warming or stimulating.

Cold and Dry

Raspberry (Rubus strigosus). “The roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, and unripe fruit are cold and drying in the first degree.… They stop fluxes of the belly, and bleeding in the inward parts; are good against the overflowing of the courses in women; they cure sores and ulcers of the throat, mouth, and other parts, are profitable against the bitings of serpents, and cure the stomacace, or scurvy, being used according to art, for some considerable time.”

Plantain (Plantago spp.) The leaves are cold and dry in the end of the first degree. “It is dry without biting, and cold without benumming.” It “heals the excoriations of the stomach and other bowels, stops catarrhs, and all sorts of fluxes in man or woman. It stops also all sorts of haemorrhages whether internal or external, the overflowing of the courses in women, spitting and pissing of blood, and therefore is of excellent use in the curing of a phthisis [tuberculosis] or ulceration of the lungs.” Today plantain is classified as a mucilage, thus moistening rather than drying.

Rose (Rosa gallica). “Both the white and red are cooling and drying, but the white is taken to exceed the red in both these properties.” They are cold in the first degree and drying in the second. “The white and red, stop fluxes of the bowels, and catarrhs, and vulnerary, drying and healing, good against consumptions and ulcers of the lungs, as also internal ulcers of the other viscera, as of the stomach, gutts, reins, bladder, and womb, comfort the head, brain, and nerves, and are good against diseases afflicting those parts, proceeding from cold and moisture.” The wild roses (Rosa canina) “are much the same” in virtue.

Cold and Moist

Blue violet (Viola odorata). Cool and moist in the first degree. “Violets cool the heat of fevers, allay inflammations in the throat and lungs, are profitable in the beginning of a quinsie and pleurisie, and are said to help the falling-sickness in children.”

Wild Lettuce (Lactuca virosa). “Wild Lettice is cold in the end of the second degree, and moist in the end of the first. It has nearly the same Properties of Cooling which the Garden Kind has; but the bitterness of this makes it the more aperitive; and yet it is more somniferous than the manured sorts, and comes up, as it is thought by some, almost to the degree of Opium; but this Opinion I can never assent to, my Experience having proved the contrary.”

Watermelon (Cucurbita citrullus). The fruit and the seed are cold and moist in the second degree, “the seeds being reckoned one of the four cold seeds.” The fruit is “usually eaten raw, being pared from the rind and cut in slices or pieces. It cools and refrigerates admirably, quenches thirst, refreshes the spirits, abates the heat of the most burning and malign fevers, cleanses the bowels, provokes urines, takes away the heat and scalding thereof, and gives ease in the strangury.” The seed “takes away the febritick distemper of the blood; it gives ease in the strangury, abates the heart and scalding of the urine, and cures pissing of blood, and represses lust (being used for some time) in an admirable manner.”

Dry

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). Dry in the first degree, but temperate with respect to hot or cold. “It stops bleeding, and cures fluxes of the bowels of all sorts, stops the whites and terms in women, and gives ease in the colick and gripings of the guts. And heals wounds and old ulcers.”

Yellow Dock (Rumex crispus). Dry in the second degree and temperate with regard to hot or cold. “The whole plant is very astringent and abstersive, with a kind of opening faculty; and is traumatick or vulnerary and hepatick.” As a result, “it is peculiar for curing all fluxes of the bowels, chiefly the bloody-flux,” i.e., dysentery. The juice of the root “opens obstructions of the liver and spleen, cleanses and strengthens the stomach and other viscera, stops a diarrhea and lienteria, and heals the corrosion of the guts in a dysenteria, strengthening them admirably, and prevails against the jaundice after a singular manner.” The old authors emphasize the use of yellow dock root in diarrhea, while the new emphasize it as a mild laxative because it contains some anthroquinones. I agree with the old authors here; I also think yellow dock is cooling.

Tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla). Dry in the third degree and slightly warm, not quite approaching the first degree. The other cinquefoils are classified as dry in the third degree and temperate with regard to hot and cold. “It stops all fluxes of blood or humors in man or woman, whether at nose, mouth, belly, or any wound in any part; resists all poison, and the plague or pestilence it self, and all pestilential diseases, and such as are infectious, as the measles, smallpox, purples, spotted fever, by expelling thro’ a gentle diaphoresis, the malignity from the heart.” The primary property is astringent, or drying, but the actions cited would suggest it is also warming.

Moist

Marshmallow (Althea officinalis). Moist in the first degree, temperate with respect to hot or cold. “They expel tartarous mucilage out of the breast and lungs, as also from the guts, reins, and womb; are profitable against the bloody flux; and prevails against the stone and gravel, whether in the reins, ureters, or bladder.”

Temperate

Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris). “Temperate in respect to heat or coldness, dryness or moisture, yet rather enclining to dryness.” The ointment “is good for all sorts of simple contusions, hurts, sores, wounds, and ulcers, in any parts of the body. It also helps to consolidate broken bones; and strengthens and confirm such as have been lately out of Joint, and newly reduced. It heals also sores and ulcers, in the secret parts of man or woman.” The leaves worked up with a knife quickly form a mucilage, so it is surprising that this remedy is classified as dry. The idea is probably that it is drying because it stops bleeding.

Sweet Woodruff (Asperula spp.) “Woodroof is temperate in respect of heat or cold, dryness or moisture; and is very like in Qualities to our Ladies-Bedstraw.” It will “chear the heart, resist melancholy, make a man lightsom and pleasant, and induce the curing of wounds.” Remember that temperate remedies bring things back to the norm.

The classification of the plants according to the four qualities often agrees with modern ideas about their use, but there are sometimes areas of disagreement. For instance, mucilages, which we would consider moistening, are classified as drying. This is because they glue together the lips of a wound and prevent bleeding or fluid loss. Thus, comfrey and plantain are considered to be drying when we would consider them to be mucilaginous and moistening. Oily plants are not valued for their moistening or nourishing effects at all. Thus, fenugreek and anise are considered hot and dry.

The tendency to view remedies which stop bleeding as drying was carried over into nineteenth-century herbalism. Antihemor-rhagics were characteristically classed as astringents. However, there are other ways in which herbs can stop bleeding. Thus, we find fleabane classified as an astringent when it is about the most peppery hot plant native to the fields of North America. Stimulants stop bleeding quickly by opening up the peripheral circulation and taking the blood away from the area of the wound. This is certainly the mode of action for herbs like fleabane, yarrow, cayenne, and shepherd’s purse.

The Four Qualities as Pathology

The four qualities are used to classify medicinal activity. Herbs are then applied by contrary, or hot to cold. The following definitions of the pathological states to which medicines are applied are somewhat more pragmatic than the abstract approach described above.

Hot. Red, swollen, tender, hot tissues; excess of blood to an area, producing redness, heat, and fullness; excessive function, accelerated function, from richness of blood, hence excessive pain from over-stimulation and swelling; pulse rapid and superficial; tongue red, elongated, flame-like. It should be observed that since heat is rarifying and purifying, as a pathological condition it is producing an intense expression of self-identity and is similar to what we would today call auto-immune over-activity.

Cold. Tissues cool, flaccid, pale or darkish, inactive, insensate; diminished circulation resulting in pallor or dark complexion from stagnation, cold, and lack of sensation from lack of stimulation; depression of senses and functions; pulse deep, slow; tongue dark red, blue, purple, gray, black or pale. Cold weakens the innate type or identity of the organism, bringing it into contact with forces and substances which are in opposition or unfriendly.

Damp. In Greek medicine there are two kinds of dampness. The first corresponds to a state where the tissues are saggy, inelastic, pores open, with active discharge of fluids; pulse relaxed; tongue damp. In the second state the dampness is stuck so that tissues are soggy, flabby, damp, and the fluids are thickened and phlegmy; pulse obscure (from dampness obscuring the beat); tongue coated.

Dry. The condition is one of dryness, withering, weakness, and (frequently) pallor from lack of fluids to moisten and bring in food; functions are reduced, energy deficient, tissues dried, withered, and finally hardened; pulse weak, slightly tense; tongue dry. The dry quality produces rigidity and brittleness. In health, dryness creates the opportunity for different functions to occur, since it sets boundaries and limitations, but in disease these functions become weak and ineffective.

Practitioners abandoned Greek medicine in the late seventeenth century. It was replaced by the “theory of irritation,” which led to the tissue state model of the nineteenth century, described in the following chapter.

If the student can be made to understand the principles of scientific treatment of tissue-states … his judgment as to prescribing comes to him as if by intuition, and can scarcely be wrong.

—JOSEPH M. THURSTON

After the demise of Greek medicine, Western physicians adopted the “irritation theory.” Founded on the observation that nerves react to stimulation, even after dissection and removal, treatment was based on stimulating or sedating the irritable nature of the organism. This led to the creation of two classes of medicines similar to the classes of heating and cooling in Greek medicine. Thus, practice continued in a similar vein, but based on a different theory. In folk medicine, these two categories were thought of as hot and cold.

Samuel Thomson taught that there were three types of disease: hot, cold, and alternating hot and cold. This reflected the fact that many Americans at that time suffered from malaria, which is characterized by alternating chills and fever. Dr. Alvah Curtis, the founder of physiomedicalism or reformed Thomsonianism, translated these three basic imbalances into scientific lingo. He taught that the three basic types of disease were based on the reaction of biological tissue to stimulation. There are three phases: irritation, contraction, and relaxation.

In the nineteenth century, doctors of all schools used such terms to define basic physiological imbalances. Since the emerging scientific model was not based on mythic elements or humors, no attempt was made to put these terms into an overall classification scheme. Definitions were personal and vague, but adequate for professional communication.

In 1900, Dr. Joseph M. Thurston published an ambitious tome called The Philosophy of Physiomedicalism in which he defined six primary physiological imbalances or “tissue states,” as he called them. The terms which he chose to represent these states are excessively complex, so we will bypass them here and use ones which were more characteristic of the medical terminology of all schools at that time: irritation or excitation, constriction, relaxation, atrophy, torpor, and depression. Thurston’s theory survived in a modified form in the United Kingdom. A.W. Priest and L.R. Priest (1982, 31) refer to the “balance of function” between “contraction and relaxation, stimulation and sedation.” They also use the term “atrophy.” This theory, based as it is on actual physiology, is more compatible with the modern perspective, yet it is not incompatible with the ancient. It can serve as a language of energetics and a conceptual bridge. This is the basic system that will be used in The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism.

In order to elaborate the six tissue states, I have drawn from the literature of the great, nineteenth-century botanical doctors, including Samuel Thomson, Wooster Beach, Alvah Curtis, William Cook, Joseph M. Thurston, John M. Scudder, John William Fyfe, and others. I have quoted from them liberally to illustrate some concepts, while at other times I have brought them up to date by referring to more contemporary ideas.

Heat • Excitation

This tissue state represents an “exaggeration of the normal function-rate” of the tissues (Thurston, 1900, 264). “The condition of the part is one of excitation. The symptoms are very clear—there is swelling, heat, increased sensitiveness, and redness” (Scudder, 1874, 320). These are the classic symptoms of inflammation, but we do not use that term because inflammation can arise from several different tissue states. The term irritation is also used in the old literature but this has been avoided because many things other than heat can irritate tissues. Excitation represents an excess in the innate heat of the tissues. They are red, full, and tender because blood increases cellular activity.

Characteristic symptoms of excitation include: temperature rise; nervous excitement; restlessness; wakefulness; excessive movement; susceptibility to stimulation; bright eyes; increased allergic response; heightened sensitivity to pain; sharp pain; fever; redness; swelling of the tissues; engorgement of blood; pink-red tissue color; an elongated, flame-shaped, pink-red or carmine tongue; excited vascular movements; capillary fragility; bleeding; tendencies to increased blood pressure; and a superficial, bounding, or rapid pulse. This tissue state especially damages the heart and circulatory system.

Wind • Constriction

When nerves are stimulated they contract. If they remain too long in this condition there will be constriction or tension in the organism. This tissue state is the result of “abnormal contraction (clonic spasm) of the neuromuscular system” (Thurston, 1900, 267).

Constriction may result from psychological or physical tension. Inability to relax and switch from sympathetic (awake, alert) to parasympathetic (rest, digest) is a common cause. However, tension can just as easily arise from physiological stress. When the body is chilled, the hypothalamus signals the sympathetic to start the shivering mechanism in the extremities to warm up the body. It also stands the hairs on end. If these mechanisms get stuck (which is often the case after influenza or malaria), the body remains too much on the sympathetic side or alternates back and forth between tension and relaxation. Alternating chills and fever are a characteristic symptom of the tensive tissue state. These were called “intermittent chills” in the old literature.

Characteristic symptoms of constriction are neuromuscular tension; spasm; rigidity or convulsion; symptom changes which are sudden, intermittent, irregular, or alternating; chills alternating with fever; diarrhea with constipation; pain with freedom from pain; and a pulse wiry, tense, resistant, hard, blocked, or obstructed. Usually, there is aggravation from getting chilled, drinking cold water, or a draft of cold air. Tension especially affects the digestion, gall bladder, and liver.

Dry • Atrophy

Thurston used this word to indicate a lack of trophism or function. It also applies to an underfed, withered, weak condition. Both usages are correct, since undernourished tissues have less energy to function. Atrophy should also be associated with dryness because fluids carry food. Without them, there is no nutrition. This includes both water and oil, both of which move foodstuffs to the cells and waste products out of them. Well-nourished tissue holds more water and oil.

Water is the great medium for transportation within the body. Many substances, however, are not water-soluble but fat-soluble, so the body also requires lipids to allow complete movement and feeding. Several important hormones (thyroxine, aldosterone, cortisone, and sex hormones) are composed of lipids and require lipid carrier cells to travel. Without water and oil, cells dry, harden, and lose their function. Tissues become sclerotic or scarred due to lack of nutrition. Hormonal functions are reduced.

Dryness and malnutrition affects the nerves as well as the endocrine system. A common symptom of atrophy is nervous exhaustion. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature would frequently use the words asthenic (thin, weak) or neurasthenic (weak nervous system) to describe this condition. In neurasthenia the person is exhausted from stimulation. They do not have the reserves to recover easily from mental or physical exertion. While atrophy tends to produce a thin, dried out, emaciated frame, there are numerous instances where we find heavy, overweight people whose tissues are dried out and malnourished.

The characteristic symptoms of atrophy include a dry tongue. In advanced cases, it may be narrow, thin, withered, or cracked, but it will always be dry. It can also be red from heat caused by a lack of fluids, or pale from lack of nutrition. The pulse is usually weak, enfeebled, low, uneven (scrapes along), and sometimes weakly tense on the patient’s left wrist. The skin is dry and rough, lacking oil, or water, or both. Skin conditions (acne, eczema, and psoriasis) are very common. There may be oozing from the skin as it cracks and opens up, but the general condition is one of dryness. The sensation given by dry, atrophic skin is like that given by running a finger across the end of a book.

When tissues are dehydrated the lack of fluids can give rise to heat. This is called “hectic fever” in the old Western literature. It is described in traditional Chinese medicine as “phantom,” or “false heat,” or “yin deficiency.” The characteristic symptoms are a rapid, nonresistant pulse and red flushing across the checks—the hectic or malarial flush. Tension can also arise from lack of fluids. This is another symptom of “uprushing yang” from “lack of yin,” or “yin not holding down the yang.”

Cold • Depression

This tissue state is the opposite of irritation. Tissues are under-stimulated or incapable of responding to stimulation. There is a lack of oxidation in the cells. Cellular life is diminished so there is hypo-function, tissue deterioration, and retention of waste products and even unused foodstuffs. This represents a golden opportunity for bacteria to enter the body. They are not so much invading as helping to rid the body of superfluous material. Conversely, invasion by foreign bacteria, parasites, venom, poisons, heavy metals, or toxic chemicals depresses cellular life and induces tissue depression. Bacteria and parasites secrete exotoxins that suppress the cell life of the host, so that they can create an environment where they are healthy. Thus, there is a cumulative or ongoing effect.

The body attempts to deal with the bacteria by increasing white cell production (hence, the high white cell counts). This results in the production of pus (a mixture of dead bacteria and white cells). In a healthier body, these find a vent, a boil or fistula, through which to discharge. In a sicker body, they discharge into the bloodstream, causing systemic poisoning or septicemia. There are low-grade fevers and infections with putrefaction, venting of pus, fatigue, exhaustion, and easy infection of wounds. The bone marrow, stem cells, and lymphatic system are eventually worn out trying to keep up with the bacteria and toxins, resulting in low immunity. The defenses against aberrant cell growths are down and cancer is more likely.

Although the oxidation rate in the cells is low, in the spaces between the cells it is higher, because of the scavenging by bacteria. This creates a condition of “heat from cold,” or heat from cellular inactivity. This is the opposite of “heat from heat,” or the heat of cellular over-activity in the irritated tissue state. As a consequence, antioxidants are used for both conditions, even though completely non-holistic modern practitioners are incapable of differentiating the conditions where one antioxidant would be useful instead of another.

Antibiotics kill one kind of bacteria, but unbalance the microflora of the colon, creating other types of bacterial imbalance and generation of toxins. They also do not remove the toxins that remain behind in the body after the bacteria are killed. This is why people who have had parasites or amoebae in the colon often experience a feeling as if they were still present, even after they have been killed by drugs The dragon tracks are still present. There is a further, very serious side effect of antibiotic treatment. When bacteria are killed they release endotoxins from inside themselves which otherwise would never enter the bloodstream. These cause additional poisoning of the body. In fact, if the bacterial die-off is high enough, there may be a “septic shock” resulting in sudden death. The appropriate way to kill bacteria is to assist the body in removing the toxins that support bacterial or parasitical life. This is generally the way herbs work. The attempt to kill bacteria with “natural antibiotic” herbs is an entirely misguided imitation of a deeply flawed biomedical model.

In the depressed tissue state, circulation is usually retarded so that there is a lack of circulation to the extremities, resulting in cold hands and feet. As a result, the old doctors gave this symptom the highest importance, not necessarily as a cardiovascular symptom (which it usually affects eventually), but as an indication of the general tissue condition. The extremities include the entire capillary bed, where the force of blood pressure pushes the contents of the blood out into the interstitial fluids surrounding the cells. Blood pressure may be low, though often blockages in the portal vein or elsewhere lead to high blood pressure.

If circulation is weak, oxygen and blood sugar, and even water, will have a hard time getting to the capillaries, and from there to the cells. This causes the depression of cell life. In the spaces around the cells there is retention of carbon dioxide, since return circulation is also weak. This results in a generally acid condition in the internal tissues. Acids, the treatment for excess heat, are detrimental in depression. (That is why, in Ayurvedic medicine, acids are considered to be heat generating; this is only true in “heat from cold”). This includes acid-generating foods such as meat and protein.

When there is a lack of strong peripheral circulation—or a lack of the “determining powers,” in the phraseology of the old doctors—rashes recede to the interior, inflicting themselves on the nerves and viscera rather than coming out through the skin. Retrocession of the rash in smallpox was a very serious problem for the old doctors. Even today it still occurs in chicken pox and can be fatal. (It also occurs from vaccination, causing terrible havoc in sensitive children). The old treatment was to give stimulants (saffron and safflower were favorites) to bring out the rash. In homeopathy, Thuja (cedar) is used to bring out the vaccination.

Another result of poor peripheral circulation and low oxygenation of the cells is heavy, thick, coagulated blood. This results in the typical symptoms of “congealed blood” recognized in traditional Chinese medicine. (Congealed blood can also be due to relaxation causing local collection and coagulation of blood. Sometimes it is also due to constriction). There is often a blue/red, or blue/yellow, or blue/black complexion around the veins, which are more visible. Blood from hemorrhaging or menstruation is thick, clotted, dark, oozing.

We have, seemingly, jumped over the simplest expression of depression. Cold from the environment will reduce cellular activity. The hypothalamus reacts with shivering and fever to return the organism to health. If the organism does not adequately respond, there will be “internal cold” or depression. If it gets stuck in the shivering phase there will be tissue constriction. If it gets stuck in the fever stage there will be tissue irritation. Accordingly, a chill or cold from the environment needs to be treated according to the stage it is moving through or the tissue state where it gets stuck.

The characteristic symptoms of depression include a feeling of internal cold, as if one cannot get it out of the body; hands and feet cold; skin cold, dry and inactive, due to poor peripheral circulation; tissue deterioration and bacterial feeding; tendency to secondary, septic or putrefactive heat with discharges that are yellow, green, brown or black; skin color darkish—dusky red, blue, purple, brown, yellow or black; pulse deep, weak, or slow until putrefactive fever sets in, in which case it may become rapid, low, feeble, weak, and nonresistant; tongue usually blue, purple, or darkish in some (not usually all) areas; coating (if any) heavy, congealed, yellow, or yellow/brown.

The major organs affected by the depressed tissue state are the colon, liver, pancreas, lymphatic/immune system, blood and cardiovascular system. In extreme cases the nervous system is damaged. The large intestine is subject to toxic secretion from unhealthy bacteria. The liver is subject to poisoning from toxins brought to it from the rest of the body. Excess bacteria and toxins weaken the lymphatic/immune system (which has to break down pathological cell growths). The great scourges of health—cancer, heart disease, insulin resistance, and type II diabetes—are more often found in association with this tissue state. Aberrant tissue growth and cancer are more likely when the immune system is depressed. Eventually, there is blood poisoning, with destruction of the blood and nerves.

Damp • Relaxation

The term “relaxation” goes all the way back to the Hippocratic writers, who called diarrhea a “relaxed” condition of the bowels. Thus, from the beginning, relaxation was associated with tissue lacking in tone and giving off excessive fluids.

Dr. Alvah Curtis and Dr. William Cook (1869, 45) associated “relaxation” with the need for astringents. The latter considered white oak bark (Quercus alba) to be the archetypal representative for this category. However, Thurston changed the name to “dilation” and associated it with “congestive chills” caused by swollen tissue deep inside the organism. The nauseant bitters that correlate with the tense or constricted tissue state, however, treat such chills. Thus, I have followed Curtis and Cook.

Relaxation describes tissue that is atonic, flaccid, saggy, or collapsed. In addition to sagging and losing its tone, it does not hold fluids, so there is a continuous loss of fluid, called “free secretion” in the old authors. The tendency to discharge is so strong that running ulcers may form. Discharges of saliva, mucus, urine, sweat, and diarrhea are thin, clear, watery, and copious. The mucus tends to be dilute, clear, or white, while that of stagnation is heavy, thick, yellow, green, or catarrhal. Astringents are called for in such conditions because they coat the membranes with proteins that stop free secretion. They also improve the tone and stop the sagging and prolapse.

Flaccid tissue not only loses fluids but minerals. When we are at rest, calcium is moved from the bones to the serum, but when we are active it is moved in the other direction—hence the importance of exercise in the prevention of osteoporosis. Calcium helps magnesium sedate the muscles so it is needed in extra dosage when the muscles are in a relaxed state. As a consequence, the relaxed tissue state is associated with a generally alkaline condition of the blood, fluids, and urine, yet with demineralization, bone loss, and weakness of the bones. The alkalis may deposit out of the fluids, into the tissues, forming bony growths, swellings, arthritis, gouty deposits, indurated and nodulated glands, impediments to hearing, and cataracts. The bone marrow may be weakened, leading to poor production of white cells and red cells, low immunity, poor bone growth, anemia, and developmental problems. Keratin may leak out of the skin, causing hardness and roughness of the palms.

One would think that relaxation of the tissues would cause a relaxation of the organism in general. However, the imbalances precipitated by fluid loss, including the loss of potassium and the accumulation of excess sodium, cause high blood pressure and psychological tension to occur. Thus, the relaxed tissue state can, though initially relaxed, become exceedingly tense.

The relaxed tissue state also includes a condition called “passive venous congestion” by the old doctors. The arteries and veins are relaxed, leading to passive congestion of blood in the more easily dilated veins. There is congestion in the liver, lungs, and right side of the heart. High blood pressure accompanies this condition; there is excess sodium and not enough potassium. The complexion is blue from excess venous blood, or the veins are prominent or swollen. In addition to a tendency to blue complexion, the relaxed tissue state has a tendency to a pale complexion.

When relaxation affects the kidneys, there is poor signaling to the bone marrow to produce replacement red blood cells. This results in “kidney anemia,” or what the old doctors called “poor blood.” The blue veins are usually prominent through the pale skin and the skin and mucosa are moister than in iron deficiency anemia. Poor maturation of white blood cells also seems to occur in the bone marrow, so that there are symptoms of what we would today call “low immunity”: recurrent upper respiratory infections, chronic swollen glands, and a tendency to tuberculosis. The “consumptive taint” or tubercular tendency was associated with thin, poorly nourished, pale persons with low calcium levels. Relaxation has low available calcium levels and it is calcium the body uses to wall off the tubercle.

The characteristic symptoms of relaxation are pale, cool, and moist skin, with a tendency toward visible, prominent veins. Free secretion of clear, thin mucus, sweat, urine, and diarrhea. Glands, tonsils, and adenoids are swollen, what the old authors often refer to as “relaxed tonsils.” Chronic swollen glands eventually become hard, indurated, and calcified. Calcifications cause cataract and hearing problems, but there are weak, decalcified bones, teeth and tendon weaknesses, poor bone formation, and unhealthy bone marrow. The last causes low white and red cell counts and low immunity. Renal anemia from poor kidney signaling to the marrow. Muscles are at first relaxed, but, due to loss of calcium to assist the magnesium, they can become twitchy. The tongue is moist, often clear, with foamy streamers down the sides. Pulse is languid, nonresistant, or tense from venous obstruction.

Damp • Torpor • Stagnation

The Greeks recognized two types of dampness. Fluids can actively run out of the body (relaxation), or they can collect inside the tissues (stagnation, torpor). In the second case, when the water is stuck, tissues are swollen, weak, infiltrated with water and ill nourished, since excess water acts as a barrier to nutrition. The water itself is inactive. It collects materials and can thicken and stagnate. The old English herbalists referred to this tissue state as “thickening of the humors.” Fluids thicken to produce humors, catarrh, or canker. Membranes associated with such stagnation and catarrh do not secrete or excrete as they should. This causes impeded nutrition, metabolism, and elimination. These thickened fluids are associated with the accumulation of toxins. It is also possible that the reverse is true: weakened nutrition, metabolism, and elimination cause stagnant fluids.

Toxins are substances that burden the body because they need further elaboration or breakdown. The accumulation of toxins was called “bad blood,” “impure blood,” “toxic blood” or “toxemia.” The word “bad blood” comes from American Indian practice, while “impure blood” translates a German term. Dr. J. Tilden introduced the term “toxemia” in 1890. The standard remedies for this condition are the “blood purifiers” or alteratives.

Medical theories about “bad blood” have changed and evolved over the centuries. In the early nineteenth century, it was recognized that scurvy was one source of the condition, and remedies for humors were sometimes called antiscorbutics. In the middle of the nineteenth century, “bad blood” was associated with incomplete nutrition, metabolism, and elimination. Scudder (1874, 313) associated “bad blood” with lack of secretion and excretion. Thurston (1900, 270) concluded that torpor (or “atonicity” as he called it), was due to lack of secretion and excretion. In the twentieth century, the condition is sometimes called “toxic liver” since the liver is the center for non-cellular detoxification or catabolism. Dr. Broda Barnes (1976, 101) noted that the symptoms associated with “bad blood” are identical to those caused by low metabolism from hypothyroidism. The poor peripheral circulation and oxidation associated with this endocrine imbalance cause the skin lesions so characteristic of “bad blood.” They also cause thickening of the fluids with stagnant water mixed with a mucoid substance. The question is, though, which came first, the toxins encumbering the metabolism and causing hypothyroidism, or low thyroxine causing low metabolism.

This is the key to treating “bad blood.” Most of the blood purifiers or alteratives are bitters that increase secretion in the digestive tract, liver, and eliminative channels. This promotes tissue activity and nutrition. Excretion from the colon is also improved. Most of the old laxatives and cathartics are also bitter alteratives. Several thyroid active remedies are included among the old list of alteratives (kelp, bladderwrack, black walnut, iris, poke root), showing that the old doctors made this connection intuitively.

Characteristic symptoms of stagnation or torpor include swollen, flabby, apathetic, weak tissues. The tissues show a “want of expression” as Scudder remarks. This extends to the face. “The patient is dull and apathetic, the eye dull, the face expressionless, the tongue somewhat full, and the pulse lacks sharpness in the wave—oppressed” (Scudder, 1874, 303, 314). Lack of expression is one of the most characteristic symptoms of hypothyroidism. The leading symptom of bad blood is a tendency to hangover conditions and feelings, because the liver and lymph system cannot handle heavy or toxic foods and excesses of various kinds, including exercise. A leading symptom of hypothyroidism is fatigue. With low metabolism, water builds up and thickens. There are often swollen lymphatics with low immunity or resistance to disease. Heavy, thick, adhesive mucus forms and clings to surfaces. Peripheral circulation is weak, with poor oxidation, leading to skin lesions and poor wound healing. Arthritic or rheumatic pains are common. The tongue is usually flabby, apathetic, or atonic with a thick, turbid, and adhesive coating.

Most people will have a hard time differentiating the six tissue states at the start. The student can only understand one or two tissue states at first, incorporate that into practice, and then expand on this foundation, as experience deepens. The experienced clinician, on the other hand, will have trouble limiting tissue states to six. He or she will be able to imagine all sorts of tissue changes that could be given their own class.

In practice, most people will exhibit a mix of tissue states—usually two, and sometimes three. Diseases often go through a progression of states. Opposites are often active: irritation/depression, constriction/relaxation, and atrophy/stagnation. In chronic cases, the organism seems to reduce to the least active: atrophy, torpor, and depression.

The six tissue states comprise a model that is compatible both with modern science and traditional energetic medicine. It is related to the way that modern Western people think about their psychological and physical sensations and conditions. It thus forms a bridge between the traditional and the modern, the practitioner and the patient. Most important of all, it is an eminently practical method for understanding and treating illness.

Whenever we apply a system to nature we must be aware that there will be exceptions and anomalies. The rule works beautifully most of the time, but we should not expect it to work all the time. Thus, one of our best cooling sedatives, yarrow, is a stimulant!

Tissue States and Medicinal Actions

In traditional Western medicine the actions of medicinal plants are described according to three basic classes: physiological imbalance (tissue state), physiological function, and organ-affinity. The first category includes astringents, stimulants, sedatives, antispasmodics, and aromatics. The second includes diaphoretics, antifebriles, diuretics, emmenagogues, and anodynes. The third includes stomachics, nephretics, nervines, and pectorals.

The relationship between tissue states and medicinal properties is fairly exact. In fact, we can speak of specific tastes and temperatures as relating to specific tissue states. In fact, there is a tradition linking elements, humors, or tissue states with specific tastes in quite a few traditions. The following table represents the basic therapeutic correlations used in this book. It is not based on a metaphysical premise, but on physiological patterns. However, it can be correlated with the older systems, as well as with modern pharmacognosy.

TISSUE STATES, TASTES, AND ACTIONS

Tissue State | Taste | Action
Excitation | Sour | Refrigerant
|  | Sedative
Constriction | Acrid, Bitter | Relaxant
|  | Antispasmodic
Relaxation | Astringent | Astringent
Atrophy | Mucilage, Oily | Mucilage
| Sweet, Salty, Bitter | Tonic
Stagnation | Bitter | Alterative
| Other Flavors | Detoxifier
|  | Laxative
Depression | Aromatic, Spicy | Stimulant
| Pungent, Pine Oils | Carminative
| Fragrant Bitters | Antiseptic
| Volatile Oils |

In developing the preceding table I have been much influenced by the pioneering work of David Winston, registered herbalist (AHG). He has worked out a good system of correlations between traditional systems of energetics and the new science of pharmacognosy, or plant chemistry. I have not brought the present system up to the modern level, but retained the old nomenclature, which is based on a less refined organic chemistry, but which is just as accurate and also in line with a generally energetic view.

When herbs are used in an overly intense, concentrated form they can engender reactions opposite to the above. Acidity (sour) turns down oxidation (heat) in the cells, but in large amounts it causes oxidation or burning. Acridity relaxes, but in large doses it agitates (valerian). Astringents are contracting, but large doses can bind so thoroughly that they cause dryness and tension. Sweets nourish and sedate in moderation, but prolonged overuse causes the cells to reject insulin and blood sugar, resulting in a depressed tissue state, i.e., type II diabetes.

Most plants act on a combination of two or three states. Thus, rose (sour astringent) is suited to irritation with relaxation, or hot conditions with uncontrollable discharges. It was a traditional remedy for tuberculosis. A good indication nowadays is a red/pink tongue with moist streamers down the sides. Peach, a cousin of the rose, is sour, bitter, and mucilaginous, so it is suited to conditions where there is heat with some dryness. Here the tongue is red/pink and dry. Another cousin, almond, is highly oily, so it is suited to dry/atrophic conditions with some irritation. Marshmallow (salty, moist, cool) will almost always act where dryness is combined with irritation. Tongue red, dry, cracked. Because it is salty it is further indicated where there is hardened tissue. Fenugreek (moist, oily, salty, pungent, warm) will act where dryness combines with cold. White pine (aromatic, oily) will act where there is depression with atrophy.

If we properly study our cases, so as to determine a definite condition of disease, and know the direct action of remedies in such conditions, we will have a certain and rational practice of medicine.

—JOHN M. SCUDDER

As we have seen, the medicinal substance itself can be looked upon as an energetic entity. Herbs can be used for either material or energetic purposes, to suppress or cure. In order to use them holistically, we need to use them energetically, that is to say, according to the impression they make upon the life force of the whole organism, rather than the purely physical body. In other words, the energetic configuration of the disease must be related to the energetic configuration of the medicine. Down through the centuries, various principles have been applied to match remedy and sickness from this standpoint.

There is an art and a science to using the medicinal substance in a holistic fashion. That is the subject of this chapter. In this book we will only consider the single remedy rather than the formula. The latter also is subject to energetic laws, but the subject is too complex for our immediate discussion. My good friend, the late William LeSassier, utilized an energetic system of herbal compounding that came to him in a vision. William once said to a small class, “all of us could take nettles and we’d all react in different ways, but once I stick nettles in a formula I know exactly what it does.” There is an art to using the single substance and the compound.

Simpling

When an herb is used by itself to heal it is called a simple. When several herbs are combined together they are called a compound. Simpling is a characteristic of the folk tradition while compounding was associated with the scholastic tradition of Galenic medicine and educated doctors. Compounds were, in fact, sometimes called Galenicals. The use of simples or single remedies was an important aspect of Samuel Hahnemann’s homeopathy. Dr. John M. Scudder (1827–93), the great eclectic physician, introduced it in botanical medicine in the nineteenth century. He termed it “specific medicine.”

Galen (c. 200 C.E.) was the founder of the rational doctrine in medicine. He taught the old Aristotelian idea that the properties of a plant were found in its qualities (hot, cold, damp, dry). If a condition was hot and dry, one combined cold and damp medicines to match the problem. Galenic doctors tended to use compounds established by professional tradition rather than single herbs known from experience.

The simpler, by comparison, tended to view the plant as possessing unique virtues suited to a specific problem. He or she was usually looked down upon as an unsophisticated enthusiastic. There was little respect for the value of hands-on experience then (as now). Experience was considered to be inferior to rational doctrine, just as today experiential medicine is dismissed as “anecdotal.”

Galen divided medicine into three schools: rational, methodist, and empirical. The first practiced according to a rational system, the second according to a single rational idea (“everyone needs to be purged”), and the third according to empiricism, or personal experience. The simpler or “empiric” was placed in the last category. Samuel Thomson was derided as a “botanic empiric.”

Experience was the guiding light of empirical medicine, but to the extent that there was any system in traditional folk practice it was often based on the law of similars (“like treats like”) and the “doctrine of signatures.” The basic idea here is that if a plant resembles a disease, organ, or person it will help cure. Chelidonium, with its yellow sap, was considered a specific for the bile. Chelidonium was official in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia until after 1950 for hepatic disease.

Sometimes specifics were learned from observation of animal uses of plants. There was an old European peasant tradition that Chelidonium was used by swallows to treat the eyes of young chicks when they were stuck together. It was therefore adopted into peasant medicine as a specific for the eyes. Herbalist Maurice Messegue was taken by his father, a peasant herbalist in Gascony in the early twentieth century, to observe swallows rubbing celandine on the eyes of their young.

Empirical medicine is largely uncharted territory, but it fascinated a certain number of off beat scholars down through the centuries. As a consequence, a number of simples, formulas, and recipes for specific uses were gathered and recorded. This resulted in the generation of a type of literature called the “books of secrets.” These tomes often consisted of long lists of simples and recipes for all sorts of industrial, medical, and occult purposes. They were often attributing to famous “scientists.” For instance, Albertus Magnus did not actually write the famous Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus. Often the information was garbled or incredible, but the doctrine of specific knowledge was perpetuated as an ideal. With the advent of the printing press this knowledge was edited, sorted, and published. It proved to be a great stimulus, both in industry and medicine.

The word “secret” (arcana) was used in this literature for a number of reasons. It was thought that simples were known to animals and untutored rustics untainted by conventional science. It was felt that animals and people of Nature had a more direct insight into the workings of Nature. This information was secret in the sense that it lay outside the established tradition. In other cases it was secret because the directions were known only to some family, guild, or individual. We still do not know, for instance, how to make many of the colors known to the medieval glaziers.

Paracelsus (1493–1541) was the first widely known physician who turned against rational medicine and embraced the empirical tradition. He was the first to work out an articulate medical system opposed to Galen. For Paracelsus, the basis of empiricism was the experience that Nature is alive and intelligent. Since this knowledge is subjective, it is hidden. Thus, the individual mineral, plant, or disease has an innate arcanum, intelligence, virtue, power, or energy. This inner arcana is outwardly reflected in its “signatures” or physical expression and constituents. The medicine contains the correct expression of healthy energy blocked in the disease. It communicates this virtue, power, or essence and returns the sick person to health. Treatment is thus by similars or signatures.

Paracelsus represented a long line of thinkers who valued the internal or archetypal nature of the substance. This way of thinking traces back to Plato, the early Alexandrian philosophers who have come down to us under the name Hermes Trismegistos, the subsequent Hermetic tradition, and the Neo-Platonists, moving forward in time to Jacob Boehme, Emmanuel Swedenborg, J. W. Goethe, and Rudolf Steiner. During the Renaissance, the Paracelsian impulse was keenly felt and contributed much to the development of early chemistry, surgery, and medicine. Ultimately, however, this way of thinking, along with the folk medical empiricism upon which it drew, was expurgated by emerging science.

Paracelsus used the term specific to indicate a single substance (or compound) with a definite relationship to a specific set of symptoms, condition, part, or process in the body. From this time forward, the alchemical physicians increasingly favored this term over the older term simple.

After a period of conflict, the Galenic and Paracelsian approaches continued to be used along side each other. William Salmon, the last of the great Renaissance herbal physicians, included both the qualities and a “specification” for almost every plant in his English Herbal. For instance, under arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.) he writes (1709, 42):

The Qualities. They are cold in the first degree, and temperate in respect to dryness or moisture. They are also alteratives, astringents, abstersives, incarnatives, glutinatives, and traumaticks or vulneraries; and appropriated to the spleen, reins, and joynts.

The Specification. I have had great experience of the virtues and use of this herb, and have found it to be a peculiar wound herb, whether inwardly taken or outwardly apply’d; besides its signature bespeaks the very same thing.

The first paragraph makes reference to the three classes used to designate the properties of herbs in Galenic medicines: qualities (hot or cold), appropriations (organ affinities), and actions (glutinative). The second paragraph refers to both experience and the doctrine of signatures—arrowhead looks like a wound-inflicting instrument. In the introduction to his Herbal, Salmon notes that the specifications were largely known either by experience or signature. This reflects empirical folk tradition and Paracelsian teaching.

Specific Medicine

Specificity continued to exert an influence after the passage of the Renaissance. Samuel Hahnemann originally called his homeopathic remedies specifics. However, as a careful student of language, he later defined them more correctly as similars. This is because they are administered on the basis of the law of similars, and not on the basis of specificity. As many homeopaths can testify from experience, homeopathic remedies are often specific when applied according to the law of similars, but this is not their distinguishing characteristic.

These philological fine points left the term specific open for use by Dr. John Milton Scudder. He developed a system of therapy based entirely the use of specifics. In practice, many of these specifics were used several at a time, or in formulations mixed for a specific situation. Scudder also included room for the use of well-established compounds alongside specifics.

For Scudder, the specific was a medicine that could be reliably used for a certain condition, not because it was specific to an accepted pathological concept or disease name, but because it was suited to an exact energetic imbalance, or what he called a “wrong of life.” The knowledge of specifics was gained from the experience of what worked, and not merely theory. His work was, therefore, very much a continuation of the tradition of simpling and empiricism.

Scudder’s work not only reflected European tradition, but also the knowledge of specific medicines picked up from Native American medicine. Specifics more readily crossed the language barrier than formulations. One frontier doctor, Peter Smith (1812) testifies, “I call myself an Indian Doctor, because I have incidentally obtained a knowledge of many of the simples used by the Indians; but chiefly because I have obtained my knowledge generally in the like manner that the Indians do …,” i.e., by experience rather than book knowledge.

In contrast to the simplers and homeopaths, Scudder worked out a doctrine of medicine by which specifics were applied to particular “wrongs of life” or energetic imbalances. He called this system “specific medicine.” In a sense, he organized the empirical method, based as it was upon raw experience, into a system of medicine.

For Scudder, life is sensed by the life of the observer. Scudder taught his students to look at the complexion, tongue, pulse, and most obvious symptoms. These would communicate the “wrong of life.” He taught that the vital force of the physician would sense the wrong in the vital force of the sick person. Life communicates to life.

In order to describe “wrongs of life,” Scudder (1874, 55–67) utilized the simple medical terms expressing the appearance of disease, such as: excitation, contraction, enfeeblement, depression, want of expression, determination of blood, congestion, hyperemia, inflammation, effusion, atrophic irritation, activity, want of activity, irritation. This is a sampling only from a dozen pages of one of his writings. Most of these are medical terms known to all nineteenth-century physicians. However, they were not used as the basis of prescription, but to describe aspects of disease. Scudder made these the categories by which disease and remedy were classified.

For Scudder, that which lives senses life. Like Hippocrates, he taught that the study of medicine begins by training the senses to experience life. The human senses are the foundation of medicinal knowledge and they are trained by exposure to life in all its forms. “The education that gives the best results, and makes the successful practitioner, is of the senses, and of the brain to receive impressions, and make deductions.” Yet, this is ignored in medical education (1874, 12): “Men live a lifetime, and know nothing of the manifestations of life. Students become conversant with books, attend their lectures, pass their examinations, and yet have no practical knowledge of human life. And physicians will practice medicine a lifetime, and yet fail to know what healthy life is.”

The intelligence and vital force of the medical aspirant can be trained to this deeper perception, says Scudder. Unfortunately, he also says, “men dislike work.” It is easier to study books and “objective facts” than to develop one’s subjective life, senses, perceptive abilities, and method of thinking. Modern medical education is predicated on the idea that subjective life is innately unreliable and untrustworthy. There is something wrong with the inner life of the medical student that cannot be trusted. Only objective facts can be trusted. Likewise, Nature herself is untrustworthy. She cannot repair herself. She is broken; the physician must fix her.

In contrast, vitalism looks upon the body as a living being which can correct and cure itself. The physician, as a living being, is in touch with his or her own life force and can sense what is wrong. Nature has unlimited intelligence based on the survival of all living species down through the ages, even extinct species, for that matter.

Scudder taught the use of the pulse, tongue, complexion, and salient symptoms as the principal methods for uncovering these “wrongs of life.” The pulse does not just represent the condition of the circulation, but of the nervous system, blood, and tissues as a whole. The tongue shows a graphic picture of the mucous membranes, as well as tissue nutrition, innervation, blood, and fluids. The complexion and expression indicate the condition of the entire organism, and the psychological state. By careful observation, the physician sees the “wrong of life” shining through, from its core into its peripheral expressions.

Three Primal Therapeutic Laws

Scudder was a pragmatist. He was not interested in laws of therapy. If a remedy was found through experience to work for a certain condition or symptom, that was all he needed to know. However, we can find such universal laws in the behavior of medicinal substances. These help us to understand the way medicinal substances work in an energetic fashion.

In homeopathy the “universal law of healing” is the “law of similars,” or “like treats like.” This is based on the fact that the symptoms produced by a substance acting in excess upon the organism (as a poison) are the symptoms that it will cure when these appear in the sick person in the course of disease. In order to eliminate side effects, the dose is diluted. In Galenic medicine, on the other hand, the guiding light of therapy is the “law of contraries,” or “hot to cold.” If a person is chilled, he or she is given warm wine or herb teas to reestablish peripheral warmth and circulation. We can already observe that this law governs most of the remedies used to cure according to the tissue state model.

How are we too make sense out of these conflicting “laws?” Some herbs work according to several approaches. Chelidonium (celandine) is bitter and heating. Used according to the law of contraries, it will warm up and dissipate congestion, and that is what it does in the liver and gall bladder. However, the location of its work is only specified through the doctrine of signatures: it is useful for problems with the bile because it has a unique yellow, bile-like sap. It has received a homeopathic proving (celandine is fairly toxic), producing symptoms of congestion in the liver and gall bladder so it works on the same basic conditions whether it is used as a contrary (hot to cold), a similar or by signature.

In my first book, Seven Herbs: Plants as Teachers (1987) I proposed that there were three primary laws of healing: the law of similars, the law of direction of cure, and the law of the healing crisis. Since that time I have come to see that the law of contraries, the law of similars, and the doctrine of signatures are all valid and in fact derived from another, more unifying law. As a consequence, I have folded them together under one heading: the law of action and reaction.

The Law of Action and Reaction

The living organism responds to stress by taking countermeasures. When the cell gets cold, it contracts or shrinks to save energy. When it returns to health, it expands to take in potential energy. What our body feels is stiffening and shivering followed by fever. If, on the other hand, the cell becomes overheated, it expands to give off heat. As it contracts back to normal size, it gives off water. What we feel is a fever followed by sweat, urination, purging, or expectoration.

The self-healing mechanism of the organism counteracts environmental stress. It takes an action in one direction and then a reaction in the opposite direction to contend with stress and return to the healthy mean or homeostasis. Dr. Harold Lindlahr, the “philosopher of naturopathy,” named this the “law of action and reaction.” It is also known as the Arndt/Schulz law in European phytotherapy: for every biological reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As long as the organism is able to act and react it will be able to recover from disease. Problems arise when it gets stuck in either polarity. Too strong an emphasis in one direction will soon make it difficult to move in the opposite direction. Action and reaction generates the six tissue states. Basic energetic imbalances in the body represent simple excesses in opposite directions: excitation/depression, constriction/relaxation, atrophy/torpor.

When the organism becomes stuck in one of these conditions, the conventional biomedical response is to suppress the condition. For instance, aspirin or some other drug is given to suppress the febrile reaction. With more complicated diseases, more complex pathways are forced into action or inaction to suppress symptoms. This causes the original imbalance to be replaced by a drug-induced imbalance, ultimately causing a new, iatrogenic (drug-caused) disease. In a completely unconscious and unobservant practice, these symptoms are then suppressed by a new drug and so on, until the patient dies of “natural causes.”

In holistic medicine, on the other hand, we want to return the organism back to the original condition where it was able to maintain and cure itself. We believe in the self-curative ability of Nature and its little microcosm, the organism. We want to work with, and restore, Nature. Our approach, therefore, is the opposite of the modern biomedical method.

The most obvious action we can take is to counteract the initial imbalance. If the organism is too cold we can warm it up, starting with warm food, clothing, and proper environment. We can go further and use warming herbs (ginger, cayenne, pepper, thyme, rosemary, and others).

At this point, the controversy between contraries and similars rears its ugly head. In treating the cold condition with hot herbs are we not suppressing symptoms? That would be the homeopathic position. Lindlahr pointed out the solution to this problem (Lindlahr, 1917, 59). When a poison acts on the organism it causes an initial or primary action, which represents the destructive effects on the body. Then the body responds to remove the symptoms. This is the secondary reaction. The primary action of poisons is thus destructive, the secondary action is curative. Thus, in homeopathy, poisons are diluted and succussed (shaken) to eliminate the primary, poisonous action.

Foods, herbs, and natural substances like hot and cold water work the opposite way. They cure in their primary action. If the body is weak, foods nourish. If cold, warming herbs or hot water warms. Only if herbs or methods are used too often or for too long do they cause toxic side effects. No one dies from a spoonful of sugar, but they can die from a lifetime of over-consumption of refined carbohydrates. The secondary action of foods is toxic. Thus, foods and poisons act in opposite fashions.

Non-toxic herbs generally act like foods. That is to say, they cure by contrary or hot to cold in their primary exposure to the body. In addition to nourishing, they warm or cool, relax or constrict, cleanse or lubricate. Taken too much or too long, they overly warm, cool, or relax in their secondary action. Thus, non-toxic herbs produce symptoms in their secondary action. The body reacts against this with a third curative phase.

Primary Action
Secondary Reaction

  Foods
Curative
Destructive

  Herbs
Curative
Destructive

Poisons
Destructive
Curative

When a substance cures by hot to cold, the relationship is called the “law of contraries.” Like to like is called the “law of similars.” Homeopathic remedies work by the law of similars because they are largely poisons that cure what they cause. Herbs, on the other hand, work by both laws. They treat “hot to cold” in their primary phase, they poison in their secondary phase, and they treat as “like to like” in the third phase.

There are two different foundations for the law of similars: signatures and pathogenesis. The doctrine of signatures has been much maligned, but it proves to be a useful law of cure itself. The shape, color, or habit of a plant represents the stress that has molded its existence and these contours are related to the same stress acting on a human being and causing disease. Rudolf Steiner argued that the same power that causes “distortions” in plants is the power that causes diseases in human beings. Where the plant responds by changing form, the human being gets sick, rallies, learns physical and spiritual lessons, and continues to grow as a human being. The “distortion” provides the mark or signature corresponding to the disease process in humanity (William Pelikan, 1997, 13–14).

Food plants swell up with carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. We see this in the swollen seed of wheat, the tuber of potato, the stem of kohlrabi, and the flower of cauliflower. Medicinal plants, on the other hand, are swollen, angled, enlarged, or reduced in size by natural stresses exerted by the environment. Yarrow is cut back to the vein and rib in order to contend with dramatic changes in cold and heat. Poplar is softened and moistened to take up water. Oak is hardened and dried to provide structure. Pulsatilla is furred to retain warmth in the cold of spring. These “swellings” are the marks or signatures on the plants, indicating the stresses they have overcome for themselves and the stresses they can help us endure. By the “doctrine of signatures,” the plant looks like what it is for—generally like the organ or the disease.

The homeopathic principle of similarity has a different basis. It is founded upon pathogenesis, or the principle that the remedy cures the same symptoms that it causes. In order to develop the homeopathic materia medica, Samuel Hahnemann first collected symptoms from poisonings. Later he “proved” the medicinal substances, giving them to a healthy person in a small dose, until they produced symptoms.

There is no reason why we should have trouble discriminating between cure and suppression if we understand these simple observations or laws. It is only when we use strong, powerful substances to suppress the organism, or to artificially over-stimulate or sedate it, against its normal inclination, that we will be practicing in a manner which is suppressive rather than curative. Likewise, if we use energetic remedies according to a lack of understanding of the energetic behavior of the organism, as is so often the case in modern homeopathy, we will lack a true comprehension of illness.

Herbs can be used in an artificial, suppressive manner. For instance, the killing of bacteria by berberine (found in barberry, Oregon grape, and goldenseal) is an artificial imposition. Bacteria are secondary scavengers, usually following upon a derangement in the tissue state. When the excess in hot or cold, damp or dry, constriction or relaxation is removed, the environment off which the bacteria feeds will be removed. Another method uses echinacea to enhance the body’s own method—white cell production—to kill bacteria. Does the practitioner know that the body really needs increased white cell production? Or is this just a convenient idea, one little fact torn out of the overall context of Nature, which the practitioner, having no idea how the organism really works, or what it really needs, applies according to his or her status as an outsider, a bumbler, an invader? These forcefully induced activities may temporarily, or perhaps permanently, remove acute conditions, but unless they are working with the body, stimulating or sedating it to its own needs, they are imposing an artificial condition which is never healthy. Killing bacteria is often unnatural and detrimental.

The important point from the perspective of vitalism is that every herb and poison ultimately has a primal essence or identity pattern and this, whether delivered in a gentle or a toxic envelope, possesses curative power. The essence shines forth through the chemistry, qualities, toxicity, and signatures to show how the agent is to be used appropriately. It teaches the sick, disabled body how to rule supreme in its own environment, to add or expel, dry or lubricate, cool or warm, to maintain natural balance or homeostasis.

The Law of Direction of Cure

This principle was originally named and described by Constantine Hering, one of the chief students of Samuel Hahnemann. Therefore it is also called “Hering’s Law.” Hering observed that when the organism was healing itself, symptoms moved from the more vital to the less vital organs. They also moved from the top downwards (which is, in another sense, from vital to less vital), and from inside to outside. One of Hering’s successors, Dr. James Tyler Kent, called this “government from center to circumference.” We can easily see that the hypothalamus, as regulator of the balance between interior and exterior, follows this law. In fact, all vital activities in the organism conform to this principle.

In disease, the organism protects the more vital organs, producing symptoms towards the exterior and channels of elimination. In health it also acts in this direction as the disease is driven out. Only as the disease deepens do symptoms and locations become more vital and deeper. This law can therefore be used to monitor healing and disease. It also teaches that, as the organism gets better, the symptoms leave in a reverse order to that in which they arrived.

The law of direction of cure was picked up by Dr. Lindlahr and recognized by some naturopaths and nature healers. It was known to Dr. Christopher and is sometimes mentioned in herbal literature. Dr. Jensen (1979, 31–33) called it the “reversal process.” Eva Graf and Lalitha Thomas, herbalists influenced by these writers, also use this phrase.

The Law of the Healing Crisis

When the correct remedy has been given, the symptoms leave from interior to exterior, from vital to less vital, and from top to bottom. As they come out they usually come to a “head.” There is a “healing crisis” during which the disease is re-experienced in its full nature—sometimes psychological, sometimes physical, sometimes both. The homeopathic physicians called this the “aggravation.” They did not think of it as a law of healing, but it is. The idea of a “law of the healing crisis” goes all the way back to Hippocrates.

The Hippocratic physicians used a single method of healing no matter what the nature of the illness or the constitution of the patient. This technique is today called the “detoxification fast.” A person is placed on a light diet that removes all foods causing an encumbrance on the self-healing ability of the organism. After a while, the organism begins to “detoxify.” That is to say, digestive, metabolic, and eliminative channels that were not working in the past begin to work again, causing an increase in tissue feeding and cleansing. The result is a healing crisis or detoxification. The body begins to send out all the stored up toxins that it has not been able to eliminate. The sudden elimination causes a “crisis,” or the appearance of a disease. Afterwards, the patient is cleansed and well, unless the discharges showed the Hippocratic physicians that the internal cleansing was incomplete.

This principle mimics nature. Lindlahr observed that there was a “disease crisis” created when the disease took command of the body. Instead of a detoxification, there is toxification as the body loses the ability to feed and cleanse itself appropriately. This is relived and released in the healing crisis.

The law of the healing crisis is observed when herbal and homeopathic substances are used. In homeopathy it is often noted that the appropriate remedy causes an aggravation of the symptoms. In herbalism, there is a tendency to use herbs to detoxify in a heavy-handed manner. Laxatives and liver stimulants are given to fire up the channels of metabolism and elimination. In fact, what is more important is that the well-selected herb or formula causes the body to react by cleansing itself.

Ultimately, the law of the healing crisis correlates with what today is called the “body memory.” There is no true healing until the trauma remembered by the bodily intelligence is eliminated. This is encoded into the body, resulting in the production of characteristic symptoms and discharges, until the body can relive the trauma fully through the healing crisis and be released from its sleep of enchantment.

Sometimes the healing crisis will come when a person is not doing anything in particular to seek a cure. Dr. Bernard Jensen (1979, 34) makes a very insightful comment. “A crisis comes usually after you feel your best. It is the will of nature. No doctor, no patient, no food, can bring a crisis on. It comes when your body is ready.” However, he says that we can “earn” the crisis by hard work.

A similar event occurs just before a severe deterioration or death. A person suddenly feels better, as if himself again. Then, a few days later he is sent to meet his maker.

The Practice of Herbal Medicine

Once we have isolated the kind, seat, and context of the disease, we can apply the specific remedy, or several interrelated specifics, or a well-indicated compound. Let us consider an example of how this works. Say we have determined that we have a condition of heat/irritation of the stomach. In addition, we note the context: the skin is dry and red, so there is heat blocked in the periphery of the body.

We have a half dozen common sedatives for gastric heat and irritation. We also have a dozen more remedies which, though they do not as act primarily on the stomach or heat/irritation, might under certain circumstances. We also have several agents that might open the skin and release the internal heat. In order to arrive at a final prescription, we need understand which of these remedies is suited to this particular imbalance. In order to do this we need a knowledge of the specific indications associated with each medicine.

Most of the remedies for gastric heat/irritation have the following symptoms: elongated tongue with red tip and body; stomach burning and acidity; acid eructations and reflux; some amount of nervousness, insomnia, excess thinking. or worrying; and amelioration from water (since it dilutes acids). However, each remedy has differentiating symptoms that “separate it from the crowd.” For instance, Rheum (rhubarb) is more precise where there are constrictive pains in the stomach or abdomen (irritation combined with constriction), while Rumex crispus (yellow dock root) has a loose, weak feeling in the rectum after stool (irritation and relaxation). Both these remedies have more of a dark red color in the mucosa, tongue, and skin, whereas Amygdalus (peach) has a tongue that is more red/pink or carmine and a skin that looks more like it is dry, sensitive, or lightly sunburned. Melissa has more anxiety in the symptom picture but not the outright fear of its cousin, Lycopus. Hypericum, Lycopus, and Amygdalus are suited to more drying in association with heat than the others are. The skin of Rumex may even weep serum. Hypericum has more association with atrophy of the stomach, where there are wrongs of instinct and weaknesses in the solar plexus. Sambucus can have heat in the stomach and a dry, red skin. Althea would be indicated if there is drying out of the internal fluids (red, cracked tongue). By careful study we can determine which of these remedies is most likely to be the specific, curative medicine, or we can select a few compatible remedies to work together.

Let’s illustrate specific medicine with some examples from practice. Recently I was called to see a young woman who was vomiting through the fifth to tenth weeks of her first pregnancy. She would retch hour after hour until she was dehydrated and exhausted. She had been to the hospital four times, once a week. They gave her intravenous fluids and nutrition. The drugs did not stop the retching. Every drop of fluid or food at home would set off another round of nausea. She was now getting dizzy, had a headache all the time and tightness in the shoulders. The tip of the tongue was bright red, extending to a light red along the sides. This indicated that the nausea was from heat. One remedy is specific for a red tipped tongue with nausea, worse from every drop of fluid or food. I put some peach twig tincture on her wrists (she did not want to take alcohol) and the symptoms subsided literally within seconds. Drinking water with peach twig tincture (boiled to take out the alcohol) cured the condition in a short time. She and her husband were very grateful. They had no health insurance.

I could not help but recall a similar case, about ten years previous, which had also been treated with a specific remedy. A thirty-one-year-old woman had been nauseated and retching from the moment of conception. She had an abortion after a month because of the misery, but this did not stop the painful vomiting, which continued another month. Her pulse felt sharply tense. She was kind of crouching or contorted from the tension. I gave Lobelia 6x. The herb would have been just as good, but the homeopathic was at hand. The cramp stopped literally immediately and she wet the chair with menstrual blood before she could get to the bathroom. Nothing more was needed.

These two cases resemble each other but in one the symptoms indicate heat while in the other they indicate tension. Because the remedies were specific to nausea from heat, and nausea from tension respectively, they brought prompt and lasting cure.

Prompt and radical cure is what we can expect from specific diagnosis and medication, but only some of the time. Unfortunately, we often do not always get a clear picture of the underlying cause or location of the disease, or enough information to find a specific. Sometimes we prescribe without really knowing what is going on inside the organism. Sometimes we see a specific indication pointing to a remedy and get a good cure without understanding what was going on. Our method is precise but the field is vast and not completely knowable.

We must remember the first aphorism of Hippocrates: “The art so long to study, the life so short.” It is not possible for the young practitioner to master the vast field of herbal medicine. Generally, the beginner learns where his or her facility is greatest. Some people are better at understanding the body, while others are better with the herbs. These limitations are true in my case.

Here is a case history illustrating successful prescription from a paucity of symptoms. The patient was a seven-year-old girl, thin, with fine hair and a somewhat refined, intelligent disposition. She had stomachaches that were increasing in intensity over the previous month to the point where she was now afraid to eat and was eating less. The doctor found nothing wrong. The pains come and go slowly, after eating, and are situated in the abdomen above the navel. There is no gas. She had a dairy allergy as a younger child, and was nursed for over a year. As an infant she used to spit up a lot. In addition, she has had incontinence since age three. Her tongue is slightly coated. The lack of gas indicated that dry/atrophy was not the problem. Damp/relaxation seemed more likely, with the easy spitting-up of infancy, and the incontinence. I gave a tincture of two parts Rumex crispus, Comptonia, and Alchemilla, one part Quercus, and three parts Osmunda. To my surprise, both the stomach ache and the incontinence were cured in two weeks. About a year later, the child was brought back for other problems. Generally, this is what we have to expect when we have only prescribed generally and have not gotten the specific cure.

The beginning herbalist has my sympathy. At first, cure is a rumor. We hear a story about healing with herbs. The good teacher builds on this simple platform. He or she tells stories about healing that convey the authenticity of herbal medicine to the student. Later the student sees cure, and it becomes a personal experience. Subsequently, it becomes more and more common. Finally, practice becomes systematic. In the end, the herbalist will evolve a personal, individualized method. The teacher needs to stand back, let go, and let another herbalist prosper.

It takes about fifteen years of continual practice to begin to see many connections and fill in the blanks. “The study is difficult,” concedes Scudder (1874, iv). Eventually the time comes when one can stand on the mountaintop, overlooking a vast but sensible field of medicine plants and knowledge. Herbs and their uses, the body and its reactions, become more and more predictable. Even then, the final secrets belong to Dame Nature and the Creator.

If you raise the stream level with the fountain, it stops the current and all motion will cease, and the same effects will follow by lowering the fountain to a level with the stream. When the outward heat becomes equal with the inward … cold assumes the power and death takes place.

—SAMUEL THOMSON

The old granny doctors and traditional physicians looked to the “condition of the skin,” as they called it, to understand what was going on deeper in the body. Although they did not know modern physiology, their approach stood on solid scientific ground because the condition of the skin reflects the condition of the grand regulator of the body, the hypothalamus. The latter regulates the periphery as a “shield” to protect the interior organs from sudden environmental changes. It opens and closes the “vents” of the periphery to increase or decrease blood volume and perspiration. It signals the sympathetic to induce shivering. Temperature-sensitive mechanisms in the center and periphery send information to the hypothalamus, so that it can regulate the overall body temperature. The center is slightly warmer (99.4°), so there is a flow of heat outwards to the periphery (98.6°). The hypothalamus also largely governs the interior by secreting hormones that oversee endocrine regulation of temperature, fluids, solids, metabolism, growth, maturation, and reproduction. Through regulation of the thyroid it exerts a control on metabolism and circulation to the periphery.

The old granny healers and traditional physicians manipulated these “vents” to cure fevers and correct weaknesses resulting from fever. The skin might remain too dried out or too prone to sweating, too full of blood and hot, or empty, cool, and pale. Shivering might continue long after the original malaria or influenza had disappeared. They observed that when a fever “broke,” sweat appeared on the skin. Thus, they used diaphoretics to induce sweating and clear fever. This was the primary technique of clearing acute disease in traditional medicine, not “germ-killing” or “immune-boosting.” By following out these processes they learned that the skin acted as an eliminative channel for waste material produced by the illness in the deeper tissues and organs. This led to the realization that there was an orderly flow within the organism, from interior to exterior.

A particularly lucid summary of these ideas occurs in Samuel Thomson’s work. His mentor, the “widow Benton,” taught him the importance of diaphoresis. Later he drew a metaphorical picture of the way the body works in health and disease. He likened it to a fountain. The stomach is the center. If the fires of digestion are strong the body is nourished and the “inner fire” radiating towards the surface will be strong. Heat, life, and nourishment will flow outward to the periphery. If the pores of the skin and other channels of transportation and elimination are open, the organism will clean itself out. However, if the center is cold, phlegm coats the stomach, preventing digestion and keeping it “cold.” Or, if the periphery is blocked, there will be faulty elimination. As long as the fountain bubbles forth from interior to exterior there will be health, but if the heat in the center dies down or the heat at the periphery is raised by cold blocking an outlet, the flow stops. Thomson did not equate death with cold, but with the equalization of the inner temperature with the outer. It was the lack of flow that caused life to cease. Homeopathy elegantly expresses the same basic idea in the “law of direction of cure,” or “Hering’s law.”

These concepts are not just the daydreams of alternative practitioners, but reflect physiological activities. The peripheral vents are manipulated by the hypothalamus to counteract environmental stress. If the surface is chilled or overheated, it will take the necessary measures to return the surface to a healthy balance. It really is true that we can “catch” a cold because external cold can overwhelm these peripheral, adaptive mechanisms of the body, causing a physiological trauma which remains with the organism after the external stimuli has passed on. Any such trauma invites in microorganisms, which live off the imbalanced environment. They secrete toxins which inhibit the normal bodily functions to insure their continuing propagation at the expense of the body. Of course, it is also true that the penetration of a bacteria or virus can be the initial causative agent, as well as “cold.” Even then, the organism creates a change in the internal environment analogous to the effect of heat or cold, so the end result is very much the same.

The modern approach is to “kill the bacteria.” Thus, we have antibiotics, while alternative practitioners, aping the mainstream, use their various “natural” antibiotics. This, however, was not the approach of the traditional healers. They did not try to kill the little critters directly, but to change the environment that either led to the invasion in the first place or was caused by the invasion. This is the reason why diaphoretics play such an important part in the old literature.

Sometimes the disease moves further into the body, causing acute respiratory disease or “stomach flu.” It is for this reason that traditional healers around the world used emetics as well as diaphoretics. The lungs and stomach are both innervated by the vagus nerve (called the pneumogastric in the old literature). Stimulation of the vagus tends to cause ejection through expectoration or emesis. It also raises the cold phlegm coating the stomach and dampening the internal fire, a matter of great concern to Thomson and to traditional Ayurvedic medicine.

If the peripheral barrier is pierced, the skin will assume a disturbed character—too hot, cold, damp, dry. The disease will then move to a deeper level. The lymphatic vessels under the skin will be engaged bringing in white cells to kill bacteria and carrying away dead white cells, bacteria, and toxins. There will be stress on the lymphatic system, which may cause tenderness, swelling, and congestion in the glands. Other peripheral tissues, such as the muscles, will be affected by the increase of fluids in the interstitial spaces around the engorged blood and lymph vessels, resulting in soreness and stiffness. It is only at this level that the body itself begins “critter killin’ ” with various white cells.

If the disease process is not held in the periphery it will move to the deeper organs, at last causing problems at the level of function and regulation. The liver will be stressed to detoxify an additional load of dead bacteria, white cells, and toxins. The kidneys will be stressed to carry away protein waste products. Indeed, we often find that the urine becomes scanty and concentrated, and water is retained, before the fever reaches its releasing crisis. The pulse is increased to move the blood through the congestion in the periphery in a fever or chill, causing the heart to speed up.

With increased pulse there is often a shift towards the sympathetic nervous system. Thus, the disease finally affects the centers regulating the metabolism, fluids, and solids of the body, as well as the nervous and endocrine systems. These are themselves largely regulated by the hypothalamus. The entire defensive mechanism, from beginning to end, is more or less under the dominion of this powerful “master gland.”

Three Functional Levels

There are three basic levels or spheres of activity in the organism. The most internal is the regulatory system that rules both the periphery where the defensive mechanisms are situated and the vital organs that undertake the basic functions of life—nutrition, metabolism, elimination, and so forth. From outer to inner we have:

Defensive | Peripheral “vents” (skin, mucosa)
Functional | Vital organs
Regulatory | Neuroendocrine system, hypothalamus

Health problems tend to penetrate from the exterior, deranging the vital organs, and then the regulatory system. Problems can also move in the opposite direction—from interior to exterior. This is where the theory of toxemia enters the picture. The vital organs are not able to handle their work so there are metabolic leftovers that seek an outlet through the peripheral or defensive layer. The problem could even begin on the regulatory level with changes in temperature and water regulation percolating up through the organs to the surface.

An important observation to be made is that the skin will always show the “dragon tracks” of disease. If the disease has penetrated from the exterior, the skin will remain too red and hot, or too cold and pale, or too dry, or sweat excessively, showing the “track” the disease took to get to the interior. If the disease originated in an internal weakness it causes a disturbance in the skin. Toxins, excessive heat, cold, dry, or damp will try to move from the interior to the exterior, in an effort to unburden the organism.

I almost always find that when the appropriate remedy has been selected the skin will change to a more healthy expression. We do not always need to treat the deep internal organs and glands. Sometimes all we need to do is correct the condition of the skin, clear channels of elimination, remove toxins, or get the lymph moving. These are precisely the sorts of things that the old healers accompanied by changing such simple agents as food, water, exercise, and herbs.

Due to limitations of space, in this volume we will only examine the defensive and regulatory levels. The neuroendocrine is the leading regulatory system from a modern perceptive, while fever and blood are the leading “systems” in nineteenth-century herbal medicine. Many of the most important remedies in the Western herbal materia medica act on the defensive level (fever), regulation, and blood. We count here the great febrifuges, diaphoretics, nervines, blood builders, antiseptics, and blood purifiers of Western herbalism.

The Primal Tradition

The importance of the skin, the self-governance of the organism, and regulation from center to circumference are features of traditional folk medicine. Samuel Thomson was one of the few folk doctors to work them into a consistent medical philosophy. He learned his basic system by observing the practice of Mrs. Benton, an herbalist who treated his family when he was a child (Narrative, 1825, 15):

There was an old lady by the name of Benton lived near us, who used to attend our family when there was any sickness. At that time there was no such thing as a Doctor known among us; there not being any within ten miles. The whole of her practice was with roots and herbs, applied to the patient, or given in hot drinks, to produce sweating; which always answered the purpose. When one thing did not produce the desired effect, she would try something else, till they were relieved. By her attention to the family, and the benefits they received from her skill, we became very much attached to her; and when she used to go out to collect roots and herbs, she would take me with her, and learn me their names, with what they were good for; and I used to be very curious in my inquiries, and in tasting every thing I found. The information I thus obtained at this early age, was afterwards of great use to me.

“Mrs. Benton” has been tentatively identified as Mehitable Crane, wife of Elijah Benton, of Surrey, New Hampshire (Kingsbury, 1925, 904).

Years later, when Thomson was working out his medical doctrines, he returned to Mrs. Benton’s basic practice, concluding that perspiration was the central element in successful treatment (Narrative, 1825, 43):

I found that all disorders which the human family were afflicted with, however various the symptoms, and different the names by which they are called, arise directly from obstructed perspiration, which is always caused by cold, or want of heat; for if there is a natural heat, it is impossible but that there must be a natural perspiration.

This same complex of ideas is found in Latin American folk medicine. In 1985 anthropologist George M. Foster published an article defining basic treatment methods for the first time (“How to Get Well in Tzintzuntzan,” Sci. Soc. Med., v. 21, pp. 809–818). The four primary methods of healing are (1) sweating medicines (or the sweat lodge in Indian communities); (2) warming medicines; (3) the removal of empacho, a mucus-like substance lining the digestive tract; and (4) counteracting the evil eye. Except for the final method, Latin folk practice is similar to Thomson medicine.

This complex of ideas probably represents the bedrock of European peasant medicine meeting up with the vigorous indigenous practices of Indian America. Thomson’s basic theories bear the stamp of both traditions.

Thomson’s folk-medical system also shows surprising analogies to the most famous and basic tenets of Ayurvedic medicine. In this system, the digestive/metabolic fire in the center of the organism is visualized as residing in the pyloric sphincter between the stomach and duodenum. At the same time, this primal fire is present throughout the body to allow feeding and waste removal. It is called the agni, the Sanskrit word for fire (related to the Latin root in the words igneous and ignition.) The agni is responsible for digestion, metabolism, gastric secretion, enzymes, immunity, and destruction of microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, and parasites. It also enhances perception, comprehension, and intelligence. When the agni is impaired, food particles are not entirely broken down or utilized, resulting in sluggish digestion, incomplete metabolism, dirty, clogged tissues, decreased immunity, increased disease processes, and obscuration of the mind.

The offending materials, which escape the grasp of the agni and then work to oppose its influence in the organism, are called amma or toxins. The primary properties of amma are that it is heavy, cloudy, cold, slimy, thick, impure, and putrid. Putrefaction of amma causes a toxic, septic, or putrid heat that is disease producing. Characteristic symptoms of amma are loss of taste and appetite, coated tongue, indigestion, bad breath, bad odor of the body, urine and feces, loss of mental clarity, depression, irritability, lack of attention, heaviness, lethargy, fatigue, loss of strength, accumulation of waste materials, deep, heavy, or dull pulse. The Ayurvedic model emphasizes sweating, vomiting, and purging as means of eliminating amma and keeping the organism healthy.

The basic tenets of Thomson’s system are three: opening the exterior, warming the periphery, and removing canker, humors, or toxins accumulating in the interior. Let us look at these three basic methods.

Opening the Exterior

Throughout Indian America the sweat lodge was, and still is, the primary center for physical and spiritual healing. The lodge is not only a place where spirits talk, but where people perspire. The fire is hot, the water splashes on the rocks, the vapor rises, and the pores open. The Indian healers who helped their pioneer neighbors did not usually speak good English or describe what they were doing, but the pioneers learned by observing their methods. They adopted a simplified, non-ceremonial form of the sweat lodge or used diaphoretic herbal draughts to open the skin and raise a sweat.

Lewis and Clark tell us how a passing Indian hunter cured one of their men of a debilitating muscular stiffening by erecting a sweat lodge. This was not an exceptional experience on the frontier. Many settlers observed the Indians sweating themselves to cure. Not surprisingly, “steaming doctors” were common in pioneer society in the 1820s and ’30s. Professional doctors followed suit, inventing steaming devices for use in more sophisticated settings. These crossed the ocean and were widely used in Europe. There it was noted that the Finns used a sweat lodge for their health.

One of Thomson’s students, A. I. Coffin, describes how he learned the value of sweating from an old Indian practitioner. As a small boy, he fell sick with a respiratory condition. The doctors failed to cure him and he was given up to die. About that time an old “gipsy-looking woman” of a neighboring remnant of the Seneca came by his house. She saw him and commented, “white man no cure you.” She spoke to his mother and offered to doctor him in exchange for a gallon of cider (a reasonable payment for medical services in those days). The old woman was employed. The stranger terrified young Albert Isaiah, but to please his mother he agreed to cooperate. The woman went out in the woods and returned with some medicines, one of which Coffin recognized as prickly ash. She made a strong decoction and the boy drank. In a short while he experienced, as he says, “a comfortable glow diffusing itself over my whole frame.” Soon, “a pleasant moisture bedewed my hands, and I felt as one reprieved from a sentence of death.” He exclaimed with joy, “The medicine will cure me” (original sources quoted by Barbara Griggs, 1981, 200). The full cure took several weeks. In his Botanic Guide, Coffin says simply, “We stand indebted to that poor unlettered Indian woman” (1890, 11).

Coffin later went on to practice Thomson herbalism and brought it to Great Britain. The fact that his teachings met with enormous success indicates that, again, these teachings were recognized by the common people. Thomson herbalism was widely used by the English working class until the middle of the twentieth century.

Another frontier doctor, Beal P. Downing, describes the Indian mode of sweating in Reformed Practice and Family Physician (1851, 161):

I was among the Indians in the West [i.e., Midwest] four years, and did not find but one down with a fever; but saw many sweating themselves over a hot stone, by turning water on it, and covered with a blanket. Fever is the same in all countries, and with all classes of the human species, at the commencement; and the same thing will cure all, if taken in season. Some are attacked more violently than others, and then they are alarmed and send for the doctor, but he cannot cure it unless he can open the pores of the skin, and warm the stomach. Bleeding and giving cold minerals runs the patient down.

This was also the essential method Downing had been taught in medical school by Nathan Smith, one of the leading lights of medical education in New England at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Downing writes: “I received a part of my knowledge of cure and disease of the great Dr. Smith, who lectured and dissected at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, forty years ago. He told me that a sweat at the commencement of a fever was better for a patient than all the medicine in the shops; for, says he, sweat opens the pores. Then give physic [purgatives] and strengthening bitters. It is all that is wanted in the early stages of a fever.”

Smith’s method differs somewhat from that attributed by Downing to the Indian people. The former consists of sweating, purging, and strengthening, while the native approach is to “open the pores” and “warm the stomach.”

The importance of keeping the skin open was known to some of the highest society doctors in America and Europe. Dr. Joseph Kidd, physician to Benjamin Disraeli, treated his eminent client by reestablishing long-absent perspiration through use of a “lamp bath.” In The Last Illness of Lord Beaconsfield (Trueherz, 195, 103), Dr. Kidd writes:

The albuminuria (Bright’s disease of the kidney) was wasting his strength and was much aggravated by the dry state of the skin. Regarding it as the most important indication for treatment, I advised the regular use of a lamp bath at bedtime for fifteen minutes, and to sleep in a nightdress and sheets of soft Saxony flannel. At first he rebelled at this. “You say you want me to perspire. I never did since I was born. I have had a dry skin all my life. It is useless for you to try.” But he obeyed as I explained its importance for the relief of the kidneys.

About three months after this treatment was commenced at one of my morning visits, while I was feeling his skin carefully, he looked up with a most genial smile. “You have conquered,” he said; “I perspired freely last night.” Gradually his skin became soft like a child’s and a gentle moisture all night added to the comfort of his life; the morning depression vanished and the albuminuria lessened, his old freshness and vigor returned.

This was in 1878, when Disraeli was expected to die. He lived until 1881, when he finally succumbed to Bright’s Disease.

Warming the Interior

Thomson saw the importance of maintaining the central fire, as well as opening the periphery. The stomach was the seat of this central fire and it must be kept warm and healthy (Botanic Guide, 1825, 8): “The stomach is the deposit from which the whole body is supported. The heat is maintained in the stomach by consuming food; and all the body and limbs receive their proportion of nourishment and heat from that source; as the whole room is warmed by the fire which is consumed in the fireplace.”

The natural heat in the center of the body is continually radiating out to the periphery, dominating the economy of the body in all its activities and parts, maintaining it against the cold, toxins, and attacks from the outward environment. Thomson attributes death to the cessation in this outward movement. “It is immaterial whether we lose this power by losing the inward heat or raising the outward heat about it, as the effect is the same,” writes Thomson (1825, 17). “When the outward heat becomes equal with the inward … cold assumes the power and death takes place.”

Working with this simple model, Thomson concluded that there were three basic kinds of disease. The first was hot: external heat invades the interior and dominates the organism. The second was cold: internal heat dies down in the organism or it is overwhelmed by external cold. The third is an alternation of heat and cold: cold is “stuck” in the periphery and the forces fight for ascendancy (Botanic Guide, 1825, 14, 16, 18). These three disease patterns anticipated the threefold classification of disease adopted by his student, Dr. Alvah Curtis.

Since all disease had one basic cause, Thomson concluded that only one basic cure was needed. “All the art required to [cure] is to know what medicine will do it, and how to administer it, as a person knows how to clear a stove and the pipe when clogged with soot” (Narrative, 1825, 45).

Removing Canker

The old physicians taught that chronic disease was caused by thickened “humors” which had to be thinned by improving digestion, restoring the internal fire, and opening the channels of elimination. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries these humors came to be known as canker in folk medicine. This idea was replaced by the concept of “impurities in the blood” and finally, in the twentieth century, by “toxins.” This subject has already been taken up in the previous chapter.

The old authorities visualized canker as both a lining on the gastrointestinal mucosa and a substance burdening the internal organs. The idea has classical origins. Galen taught that the stomach separated food into pure and impure portions. The pure parts adhered to the wall of the stomach. From there they were absorbed into the interior, while the impure was moved down the alimentary tract for further digestion. If the digestate was particularly thick, adhesive, or heavy, it might adhere to the lining of the stomach, resulting in sluggish gastric digestion, slow transfer of food to the interior, lowered nutrition, and diminished heat radiating out from the stomach to the rest of the body.

This idea continued to persist in professional medicine during the eighteenth century. The standard medical text for home use at that time was Dr. William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine. The sixth edition of 1779—the copy I have originally belonged to my ancestor, Thomas Pearsall of Westbury, Long Island—describes “cold viscid phlegm” adhering to the stomach and bowels (1779, 160). He recommends both emetics and purgatives for its removal.

In both Anglo and Latin America, the doctrine of thick, impure phlegm clinging to the wall of the stomach was elevated to a level of great importance when other traditional concepts passed away. Indeed, it had not completely disappeared even in conventional medicine in the early twentieth century. As late as 1924, Dr. Henry Harrower (1924, 139) graphically describes the “poultice” of mucus on the walls of the intestines: “the alimentary wall is covered with a more or less irritating, poison-filled blanket.”

Thomson learned about canker from his mentor, Mrs. Benton. As a child he was afflicted with the “canker rash,” or scarlet fever. It was thought that the canker rises from the interior to the skin, blocks the pores, and creates a high fever. Mrs. Benton gave the boy a decoction of cocoash or red-stalked aster (Aster puniceus), a specific for “canker rash” (Thomson, Narrative, 1825, 18; 1842, 608).

Although canker is a central feature in Thomson’s medical system, he leaves no good definition of it in his writings. Apparently he believed that his readers knew what he is talking about. This alone says something about the prevalence of the concept at that time in folk culture. For a good definition we turn to Dr. Downing (1851, 187):

Cold affects the stomach, and makes it cold, then the pores of the skin close, and the imperceivable perspiration is thrown into the stomach and becomes there an adhesive substance or matter, called phlegm.… If allowed to remain on the stomach, it becomes tough and stringy, and fills the velvety part of the coat of the stomach, and that becomes smooth and glossed over, and the gastric juice is not able to remove it, or to digest the food. The food not being digested, does not nourish the system, and then the patient runs down and becomes weak and sick. The phlegm lying on the stomach becomes corroded after the juice of the stomach becomes commingled with it, and then it becomes cankerous, and the cankerous fluid is thrown into the chyle, and thence into the blood; is circulated through the system, and is deposited in the weakest places, and forms disease. The blood is carried into the liver with the impurity, and the liver is not able to cleanse it.

Downing goes on to describe how canker causes disease in the interior of the organism. If the liver cannot handle canker, then other organs are affected. The impure blood moves up to the lungs, which cannot purify the blood, becomes a burden and destroys them. Or it moves to the heart, “the valves of the heart become loaded and occasion the palpitation of the heart, and apoplexy and sudden death.” Or it runs down to the kidneys, forms an obstruction, and causes “the kidney complaint.”

Canker, as mentioned above, went on in folk medicine to become “impure blood,” “bad blood,” and finally, “toxins in the blood” or “toxemia.”

The sick might be healed with substances that are natural, i.e., physiological function remedies.

—PROFESSOR MOLESCHOTT

So far we have studied the primary patterns and functions which are most evident within the body. These are often associated with different locations and organs. As medicine developed, it became more evident how the functions and structures were related, and this became an important tool for understanding disease and making an accurate diagnosis. This era began about the time William Harvey discovered the true circulation of the blood and has not yet completely closed. We are still learning how the more complex parts of the body operate.

In Western medicine, as practiced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the organ or system was often cited as the location of the disease. This was customary in both lay and professional medicine. Even today we say we are having “stomach problems” or visiting a “heart doctor.” The problem was not located in the humor, as it once had been, nor in the molecular lesion, as it is in modern biomedicine.

There is something very natural about locating the problem in an organ or system. These are the natural units within the body about which people tend to think. One of the Hippocratic writers said that it was not appropriate to either learn or practice according to information that the patients themselves could not understand. More importantly, disease tends to derange the basic functions and structures of the body long before it comes to the surface in a local lesion. Long before the ulcer, there was a problem of the stomach. Long before the heart attack, there was high blood pressure. Before that there was excessive weight gain and before that there was an over-active appetite, digestion, and metabolism. Furthermore, it is upon these general functions and organs that herbs tend to expend their healing power. The great majority of them do not have affinities to specific lesions and tissue changes but to functional spheres. Of course, there are constitutional diseases, those that are found in the whole body, and there are local diseases, those which are found in a specific tissue or set of cells.

Modern biomedicine left behind the idea of general patterns of disease located in the general functions, organs, or systems of the body. That was the break that alienated biomedicine, not only from its roots in earlier Western medicine, but from all other systems of natural therapy.

Primary Organizational Levels of the Body

We cannot, however, go wrong with the understanding from biomedicine that there are four levels of organization in the living body: cell, tissue, organ, and system. The cell is the basic unit of life. Nutrition, metabolism, and elimination constitute the basic functions of cellular life, determing the environment of cellular life.

Cells in the body form into tissues, of which there are four basic kinds: muscular, nervous, epithelial, and connective. Epithelium forms the linings of the body, the skin, and mucosa. Those areas of the body exposed to the outside world are covered by epithelium. The unfolding epithelium forms secretory glands and, in combination with other tissues, these become the basis for the formation of the major visceral organs. The stomach, for example, represents a folding up of epithelium to become an enclosed mucous membrane with little secretory ducts releasing mucus and digestive juices. It is surrounded by muscular tissue that contracts the stomach so that it can churn and break up food. The whole organ is held together by connective tissue and innervated by nervous tissue to provide communication and instructions to or from the rest of the body.

Tissues and organs are the second and third level of organization in the body. The fourth level is that of the system. A group of organs together will perform an important function such as digestion or elimination. The stomach joins with the mouth, salivary glands, pharynx, esophagus, intestines, etc., to form the gastrointestinal, alimentary, or digestive tract. The system is often a functional unit, not a singular anatomical structure.

Many of the organs comprising the system are just barely linked anatomically, and sometimes not linked at all. However, there is often a dominant organ in the system. Since this is often the unit upon which folk medicine heaps the functions of the entire system, we will often denominate the entire system with the name of the organ. For instance, the stomach is the dominant organ in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Thus, we may speak of the stomach as an organ system representing the upper or entire GI. Since dominant organs are often associated with the systems they personify we will often speak of “organ systems.”

Before the cells were understood to be the basic building blocks of the body, scientists and physicians referred to the smallest unit of living tissue as “fibers.” We often see this term in nineteenth-century literature. I have retained it and used it when it seemed appropriate to refer to the basic tissue in general, indefinite terms.

Primary Organ Systems

Biomedicine recognizes about eleven basic systems: circulatory, digestive, respiratory, urinary, immune, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, skeletal, muscular, and integumentary (skin, hair, nails). To a large extent, these correspond to the major functions recognized in traditional folk medicine and holistic practice. In traditional Chinese medicine there are twelve organ systems which correlate roughly with the above systems. In Western astrological medicine, there are also twelve primary functional spheres with an almost exact correspondence to Chinese medicine.

One of the most important differences we notice is between the organs or organ systems that serve important functions in the body (respiration, digestion, metabolism, circulation, etc.) and those that have a primarily regulatory purpose. These I have separated as the regulatory or “guidance systems” (nervous, endocrine, hypothalamus) and “functional organ systems” (gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, liver, and so forth).

We must always keep in mind the very important hierarchy of organ systems that has already been alluded to in the last chapter: defensive, functional, regulatory. The body always seeks to move disease from the vital, regulatory level to the peripheral or defensive level.

Guidance Systems

The body possesses two systems for sending and receiving messages. The older one, found even in single celled life forms, uses chemical signals. These are called hormones. There is a core of glands which secrete hormones to control many bodily activities. These are called the “endocrine system.” The newer method of communication uses electrical signals, that is, electron exchange. These together form the “nervous system,” only found in higher (animal) forms of life. Although the endocrine and nervous systems function as separate entities with completely different structures (hormones and glands versus neurotransmitters, nerves and nerve plexi or gatherings), their work is largely integrated and overlapping. Both are directed in some measure by the hypothalamus, the “master gland” in the brain. It acts as a bridge between the two systems when there need to be signaling back and forth. It will be treated as a third guidance system.

Nervous System. The nervous system is separated into two major divisions, the voluntary (under conscious control) and the involuntary (instinctive reactions). The voluntary is further subdivided into the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The former is associated with consciousness and decision making, the latter with sensation and movement. The autonomic nervous system, which is further subdivided into the sympathetic (awake, alert) and the parasympathetic (rest, digest) run involuntary functions. Danger ratchets up the sympathetic mode to the “fight or flight” level.

Endocrine Core. Many organs of the body utilize hormones (chemical messengers) to send signals, but there is a core of glands which rely almost entirely on hormones to do their work: the pituitary, thyroid, and adrenals. This may be called the endocrine core. It is largely responsible for temperature, water levels, cellular and body growth, maturation, and (with the gonads) reproduction.

It is misleading to speak of an “endocrine system” because many different organs use hormones to communicate.

Hypothalamus. This small structure in the brain lies just above the pituitary, which it continually influences and controls. A portal system (vasculature spread out into a net) allows the hypothalamus to screen the blood for indicators from the endocrine system (hormone levels). It also receives signals from the nervous system. The hypothalamus then signals the appropriate neural and endocrine centers to maintain balance.

The hypothalamus sends signals to the pituitary, which controls most of the endocrine core. In addition, the hypothalamus, through the autonomic nervous system, signals the peripheral “vents” of the body—sweat pores, sebaceous glands, capillaries, autonomic nerve reflexes (goose bumps, shivering) to open or close, in order to maintain thermic equilibrium. The hypothalamus maintains a “shield” to protect the deeper, internal organs from outward stress. When heat or cold assaults the body, the hypothalamus takes commensurate steps to reestablish equilibrium. If it fails, we came down with a “virus.” If it becomes permanently traumatized by environmental stress the skin will be hot, cold, closed or open, dry or damp, all very important signs of distress in the grand regulator of the body, the hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus is also a part of the limbic centers regulating and controlling our emotional and subjective reactions. Thus, some of the same activities used to control peripheral defenses (blushing, flushing, pallor, shiver up the spine, etc.) are used to reinforce emotional reactions. The hypothalamus ratchets emotions up to the passionate level when there are strong emotional stimuli (life and death, procreation, love, creativity, etc.). At the same time, it attempts to maintain control over passion.

The hypothalamus is a master gland that needs to be considered for comprehensive holistic care of the organism. It is the master conductor standing behind the nervous system, endocrine core, and the “febrile mechanism,” the three basic instruments of regulation in the body.

The regulatory or guidance systems make a unit which, with the blood, will be discussed in a separate book on the practice of traditional Western herbal medicine.

Blood, the Universal Medium

In traditional medicine the blood is considered to be a functional unit by itself. It is looked upon as a universal medium carrying food and water to all parts of the body, while carrying waste products away. The blood is the seat of the disease in and of itself (anemia, coagulation, putrefaction), or it can pick up diseases and spread them throughout the body.

Blood. The blood carries food, water, and oxygen to the capillaries (the smallest vessels) to be pushed out into the internal (interstitial) fluids to supply the cells. It picks up waste products and carbon dioxide (the waste product of cellular respiration using up the oxygen) in the venules just past the capillaries. It returns the carbon dioxide to capillaries in the lungs where it is exchanged for new oxygen. The waste materials are filtered out as the blood comes through the liver and kidneys. Some waste products are picked up by the lymphatic ducts and then conveyed to the blood.

The blood serum is more or less identical to the body serum or lymph in the lymphatic vessels and the interstitial fluids roaming freely between the cells. Blood proteins manufactured in the liver keep the serum from seeping out of the porous vessels. To the serum is added red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets manufactured in the bone marrow. The former carry oxygen to the tissues and carbon dioxide away from them. The blood appears to be blue when it is carrying carbon dioxide, and red when it is carrying oxygen. It actuality, venous blood is dark red, but diagnostically, we look for the blue color through the skin. The white blood cells (some of which are also made in the lymphatic glands) act as a police force to patrol the inner waters of the body, removing impurities. The platelets coagulate the blood to create a patch when there is a rupture in the vessels carrying the blood.

Functional Organ Systems

Specific organ systems carry out the functions of the body under the guidance of the neuroendocrine system. They are responsible for the basic functions of life such as respiration, circulation, digestion, and elimination. They provide the pabulum that reaches the cells (food, water, oxygen), and process the waste materials which come away from them.

Lungs/Respiration. The lungs open up to the outside world and are therefore coated with mucosa for protection. The structures of the lungs are cartilaginous and are encircled by muscles and tendons that expand and contract to allow the inhalation and exhalation of air. The fresh air fills the smallest pulmonary spaces (alveoli) so that oxygen can be taken up by red blood cells in the capillaries. They unload carbon dioxide, which is removed by exhalation. This exchange in the lungs provides for cellular respiration throughout the body. The bellows-like action of the lungs not only moves the air in and out, but also pumps the fluids of the body.

The upper respiratory tract (nose, mouth, larynx, pharynx) is exposed to the outside world through several openings, and is therefore sensitive to infection. The lower respiratory tract (trachea, bronchial tubes, lungs) divides into smaller and smaller tubes, which allow the maximum amount of air to interface with the capillaries of the blood.

Heart/Circulation. The heart pumps the blood throughout the body to distribute its contents (oxygen, foodstuffs) while taking away waste products (carbon dioxide, urates, etc.) Due to different tensions on the blood vessels leading to and from the heart, it must also act like a valve, adjusting the disparate tensions. Thus, the primary cause of heart disease is high blood pressure.

The heart receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and sends it on to the tissues through the arterial system. It receives the spent, carbonized blood from the tissues through the veins and sends it back to the lungs. The heart beats in syncopation with the arteries; both are necessary for the movement of the blood. Part of the content of the blood (excluding the large white, red, and platelet cells) is squeezed out of the finest vessels, the capillaries, into the internal ocean of interstitial fluids, to provide food, air, and water to the cells.

The circulatory system also maintains the even temperature of the body by moving cool blood out of the extremities and warm blood in, or hot blood out of the torso and head and cooler blood in. Incomplete or unbalanced circulation creates a burden on the heart.

Stomach/Digestion. The upper gastrointestinal tract (lips, mouth, tongue, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, duodenum) is concerned with the breakdown of food into smaller and smaller particles, so that they can be absorbed or assimilated into the body. There are two mechanisms by which this occurs: mechanical and chemical. The lips, tongue, mouth, and teeth move and grind the food to break it up. The stomach churns it, and throughout the tract it is turning, mixing, and being leavened with the chemical means of digestion: enzymes, acids, and alkalis secreted from the mucosal lining of the tract which facilitate the breakdown of substances. Problems in the digestive sphere are usually due to neuromuscular weakness, wrongs of secretion, or improper diet.

Small Intestine/Assimilation. The small intestine receives the jumble of broken down food particles and digestive secretions. The great length of the gut (twelve to twenty feet) allows the time for complete digestion to occur. The walls of the small intestine are studded with fixed enzymes that continue the digestive process and with brush-like hairs (villi), maximizing the spaces through which particles can be absorbed or assimilated into the organism. These spaces are in the walls of the cells lining the small intestine. Food/toxins move through several passive and active mechanisms. A large portion of immune tissue is situated in the small intestine, in the gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), which help protect the body from foreign substances and bacteria, and the Peyer’s Patches, which protect the small intestine from impurities coming up from the large intestine.

The major problems with assimilation are usually due to inflammation, depression, or malnourishment in the cells lining the small intestine, or stagnation in the portal vein and lymphatics receiving the food/toxins from the gut. This results in lack of nutrition for the body or poisoning from the entry of too much toxic material through the cells lining the small intestine. Food allergies may be related to excess or deficiency in the immune and lymph component of the tract.

Large Intestine/Elimination. The rough and unusable part of the digestate passes on to the large intestine, where a few last tidbits of nutrition can be extracted using special means. The colon harbors bacteria that are able to break down material that the enzymes of the body cannot. Having finished this, the major function of the large intestine is to concentrate the remnant into a suitable solid mass for elimination. Water is removed until the right consistency for good stool is achieved, and the rectal sphincters, under voluntary and involuntary impulses, remove it.

Lymph/Immune. The lymphatic system provides ductwork which, will the blood vessels, provides nutriment to the great internal ocean of the body, the interstitial cells surrounding the cells, and takes away waste products. In biomedicine it is looked upon as a sort of minor assistant to the bloodstream, but in holistic medicine it is seen as an organ system of great importance.

While fluids, food, and waste products are being transported through the blood and lymph, the immune cells (leukocytes and lymphocytes), which eat up and denature aberrant bacteria, viruses, foreign material, and cancerous cells, patrol the internal waters. The lymphatic system is the vehicle through which the immune system acts.

The lymphatic system absorbs lipids and minerals from the small intestine, filtering them through ducts and glands containing immune cells (which police these materials), bringing them ultimately to the blood, then to the liver. A large amount of lymph/immune tissue is stationed in the small intestine to protect the body against infiltration of impurities and bacteria. The lymphatic system also drains and filters the water and toxins leading away from the cells, and back into the bloodstream. They also drain away from the surface of the body, where immune activity is needed to protect against environmental influences.

The immune cells are produced in the stem cells of the red bone marrow and circulated through the blood and lymph to police the inner waters of the body. The lymph and interstitial fluids do not have their own pump, but rely on the movements of the diaphragm and the general “hum” of bodily movements.

Problems in the lymphatic system are mainly due to immune over sensitivity or depression, and lymphatic stagnation or weakness. In traditional medicine, lymphatic and immune problems are often associated with the spleen, the largest structure in the system.

Liver/Preparatory Metabolism. The rest of the nutriment in the small intestine (carbohydrates and proteins) cannot pass into the lymphatics but pass into the bloodstream. They are absorbed through cells lining the gut by more energy dependent mechanisms and are taken up by tiny capillaries that collect together into veins and are united in the portal vein, which drains all the digestive viscera. It is like a special trough for catching waste materials that flow off these hardworking, toxin-laden structures, while at the same time gathering the food/toxins from the small intestine for delivery to the liver. Indeed the toxins and foods gathered are, to some extent, indistinguishable. That is why they can be called “food/toxins.”

After uniting all these veins, the portal vein begins subdividing into smaller and smaller veins which bring food/toxins into the liver for detoxification (catabolism) and rebuilding (anabolism) into foods fit for the uses of the body as blood and food proteins. The sugars are already pretty much rendered into glucose (blood sugar) when they arrive in the liver, which then decides (under direction from the pancreatic hormones) whether to store them or send them out. The lipids received from the lymphatic system are detoxified and remade into cholesterol and other lipids of use to the system.

The “foodstuffs” prepared by the liver are collected into veins draining the liver, sent to the heart and pumped through the arteries to the capillaries, where they cross the barrier and enter the interstitial fluids, there to be picked up by the cells of the body. The cells finish the metabolism of these substances, which have been prepared by the liver, hence the liver is in charge of “preparatory metabolism.”

The active unit of the liver is the hepatic lobule. The portal veins feed into the lobules, along with an artery supplying red blood for nutrition of the liver cells themselves, a biliary duct to drain off bile (a byproduct of metabolism) and a vein to drain away carbonized blood and newly minted foodstuffs. The net of the portal vein provides the basic structure for the liver.

Gall Bladder/Bile Regulation. The liver manufactures bile as a byproduct and a waste product. The gall ducts receives the bile, collects it together into larger ducts, saves some in the gall sac or bladder and secretes some, as needed, into the common bile duct and thence into the small intestine. The function of the bile is to emulsify or break down fats and oils in the gut. Much of it is reabsorbed through the walls of the intestines and brought back to the liver, but some of it is passed with the stool, which it lubricates and turns brown. Without bile, the stool would be a gray color.

Pancreas/Digestive and Metabolic Assistant. A signal from the stomach prompts the pancreas to dump digestive enzymes mixed in an alkaline solution into the common bile duct, where it joins the bile and exits into the duodenum, to act on the digestate. The carbohydrates are thus broken down into glucose, the proteins into amino acids, the lipids into short fatty acid chains, and the minerals freed for absorption.

The pancreas also secretes insulin during feeding to help the cells pick up glucose (blood sugar) and proteins. Some of this is stored in the cells for later use as glycogen. During fasting (between meals) it secretes glucagon which helps the liver and cells mobilize stored blood sugar (glycogen) back into usable blood sugar (glucose). Thus, the pancreas keeps up a continuous level of blood sugar for the tissues, which use it continuously as a fuel. No internal organ is as sensitive to food as the pancreas.

Kidneys/Water and Solid Regulation. The kidneys remove waste products from the interior of the body. The large intestine, by comparison, removes wastes from the alimentary tube; these have never truly been inside the body. However, the kidneys retain much more than they remove. While in one sense they are eliminative organs, in another they are filters that measure and balance the internal fluids and solids of the body.

Arteries feed red blood into the kidneys, where it is split up into little capillaries. A major part of the plasma and its contents are arbitrarily absorbed across the capillary wall into the tubules of the kidneys. The capillaries continue to nestle around the tubules and there is a continuous exchange, back and forth, until the waste products and some water necessary for their elimination are left in the tubules while the minerals and nutrients useful to the body are retained in the bloodstream. This shuffling back and forth is regulated primarily by aldosterone hormone from the adrenal cortex (excrete more) and vasopressin (antidiuretic hormone) from the posterior pituitary (retain more). Finally, a small amount of waste material (urates from protein breakdown, some extra minerals, and a few aberrant toxic chemicals), with enough water to remove them, are expelled into the pelvis of the kidney, a large collection area, and are excreted through the ureters as urine, and into the bladder.

The kidneys also screen the blood to determine if there is enough oxygen; if not, they signal the stem cells in the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. The stem cells can be stimulated by different signals to produce red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, as well as “replacement parts” for many different organs of the body. The triggers for these mechanisms are unknown, but it seems likely that they are in the kidneys, or related to them through feedback loops. The kidneys also maintain blood pressure.

Bladder/Water and Solid Elimination. The ureters bring the urine from the kidneys to the bladder, which acts like a holding tank, collecting it until there is enough of it to dispose. The bladder is a mucosa-lined sac that is emptied by powerful muscles under a combination of voluntary and involuntary neuromuscular impulses. The urine is pushed out through the urethra. Since the bladder, like the lungs and gastrointestinal tract, is open to the outside world, it is lined by mucosa and is susceptible to external bacterial infections.

Special Systems

In addition to the above, there are several major systems which are complex because they are composed of many different tissues and organs, or because other major organ systems manifest through them.

Reproductive System. The reproductive system of female and male contains specialized structures and hormone regulatory mechanisms. The female tract is particularly complicated and, as it is more readily open to the external world and to the rigors of childbearing and lactation, more easily disordered. Thus, great attention is paid to the female tract in biomedicine and herbal medicine. The male system tends to be less often disordered, though impotence and enlargement of the prostate is a common event of older age.

Muscular and Skeletal System. This organ system operates as a unit, but is composed of many different structures, including muscles, nerves, cartilage, bones, tendons, complex joints, cerebrospinal fluid, circulatory vessels, and epithelial linings (bursa). In order to treat muscular and skeletal system problems effectively, it is usually necessary to attend to each component individually, as well as the whole.

Skin. The hair, nails, and skin represent the “integumentary system,” which is composed particularly of connective tissue and functions at the exterior of the body. Often, if one of these structures is weak so are the others. The skin is particularly complex because it not only has its own problems (closed sweat pores, sebaceous glands, poor wound healing, etc.), it acts as an eliminative channel. In a healthy state, it secretes water and some salts. If the pores become clogged for some reason, a burden is thrown on the other channels of elimination —particularly, the kidneys, colon, and lungs. The reverse is also true. Closure of one of these three channels often causes problems in the skin as toxins try to make their way out.

In traditional medicine the major organ systems are closely associated with certain emotions or psychological faculties. It is interesting to note that in both Eastern and Western medicine theory, the liver is associated with anger and the spleen with melancholy. These correspondences are sometimes very useful and at other times not. Since we will not be going over the organ systems in this book, we will omit this information for now.

Interactions Between Organ Systems

It would be convenient if disease started in a specific location and stayed there, but in reality disease moves across the boundaries of the body. Usually, an imbalance will spread from one functional unit into others as healthy functional units try to compensate for weaknesses. If the nose is plugged, the patient will breath through the mouth. If the respiratory tract is subject to chronic infection, the lymphatic system will compensate by carrying away waste materials. If the thyroid is secreting low levels of thyroxin, the pituitary will secrete higher levels of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). After a while, overtaxed organs and systems can no longer compensate for serious functional imbalance and the disturbance will move from a functional level to a condition of tissue breakdown. Here, at last, the material lesion may appear and the disturbance generally enters the radar screen of modern biomedicine.

The usual biomedical approach is to compensate for the incapacity of the body by introducing a drug that makes the body do what it is supposed to do. The holistic approach is different. Instead of trying to force the body to operate as we want it to, we try to return it to a state of health where it can take care of itself. In reality, biomedicine does not believe in healing, but in pain and disease “management.” There are cures, however, and laws of cure. Of course, as the situation deteriorates, it reaches a level where the organism cannot heal itself, and drugs or surgical intervention are necessary.

When we approach disease from the holistic angle we use medicines differently from how they are used in biomedicine. Instead of forcing the body to operate in a certain fashion, we want to stimulate or sedate, feed or cleanse, to allow organs and systems to return to healthy operation. This is the way medicine plants have always been used around the world. There are relatively few herbs that can force the body to do anything; most of them mildly increase or decrease functional activity.

One modern fad attempts to use herbs like drugs to suppress an imbalance. It may be possible to practice herbalism by imitating modern medicine (though I have yet to see this proven as a comprehensive system), but this should not be mistaken for holistic treatment. It is not curative. It is more suppression and management.

Another idea is that herbs are nutritional substances that feed the organism. This may be true, but it tends to confuse a real difference between herbs and foods. As Hippocrates observed, foods cure by being blander than herbs, which cure by virtue of their acid, acrid, bitter, astringent, or pungent taste.

As far as herbs are concerned, they are neither drugs nor nutritional supplements, but something else which has not been recognized or defined by modern science. Medicinal plants are powers or forces which act on the body in a milder fashion than drugs, but in a stronger fashion than foods. They do not force, but “exercise” functions in the body by increasing or decreasing the level of activity, tension, and hydration.

Medicinal Organ Affinities

Herbs are often classified according to their affinity to act on a certain organ. As herbalist David Hoffman pointed out to me in conversation, if poisons can be classified according to their affinities for certain structures, than herbs can be classified in this manner just as well.

Galenic medicine classified herbs according to their “appropriations,” i.e., the organ that picked up or appropriated them. Paracelsus, who rejected so much of the Greek system, saw fit to continue this concept. The appropriata were thus defined down to the era of Nicholas Culpeper and William Salmon.

In the early nineteenth century, Dr. Johann Gottfried Rademacher (1772–1850), a Saxon physician influenced by Paracelsus, developed a system of practice based primarily on the affinities of different medicines to organs. Rademacher did not give this system a particular name but his followers called it “organopathy” and his medicines were called “organ remedies.”

British herbalist Grahme Tobyn pointed out to me that Galen and Paracelsus conceived of the organ as “appropriating” the remedy, while Rademacher saw the remedy having an “affinity” to the organ. As I first studied in the school of Rademacher—via Compton Burnett (see below)—I use the terminology of affinity, without, however, rejecting the idea of appropriation. An attraction between an herb and its target is probably mutual, but the language often does not express this idea.

Although he was not a homeopath, Rademacher adopted the doctrine of dilution of dosage. He found that the more specific his diagnosis and prescription, the less he needed of the remedy. He went as far as a dilution of one drop of the mother tincture in a half-cup of water. At other times he used the larger doses (ten to thirty drops), as experience taught him. Should anyone think he was copying Samuel Hahnemann, Rademacher pointed out that Paracelsus advocated dilution.

An English homeopath, Dr. James Compton Burnett (1849–1900) rescued Rademacher’s organopathy from obscurity. Like Rademacher, Burnett used herbal remedies according to organ affinities, in small material doses. He refined the principles governing the selection of organ specific medicines. Burnett observed that they possessed three basic characteristics:

Kind of action. The remedy has a specific kind of action on that tissue. Juniper berries are not just diuretic, but more specifically, an “irritating diuretic” (i.e., a stimulant). Therefore they are contraindicated in acute inflammation of the kidneys but may be remedial in chronic depression of kidney function with edema.

Seat of action. The remedy has a specific affinity to a particular tissue, organ, or function. Juniperus is a well-known diuretic with an affinity to the kidney, while Crataegus has a well known action on the heart.

Range of action. The remedy may be curative to the seat and kind of action of the disease, but its range of action may be limited. For instance, Melissa may cure heat and irritation of the stomach due to nervousness, but it will not cure it when due to a general metabolic excessive stimulation of the stomach. Goldenseal may cure gastric ulceration but it will seldom cure cancer of the stomach. When a remedy has reached its limit of action, it comes to what Burnett called its “stop-spot.”

Organ affinities are not so easily determined. They are very much the product of experience, and this is random and incomplete by nature. Burnett addressed this problem by adopting a technique from Rademacher that he called “organ-testing.” If the physician was certain of the seat of the disease, but uncertain of the exact remedy to be used, he gave a series of medicines with affinities to that organ, until the right one hit home. This procedure may seem rather crude, but it works, as I have learned from experience. It also requires a considerable knowledge of the organ affinities of remedies. “This organ-testing I have found of great importance in practice,” writes Burnett in Greater Diseases of the Liver (1891, 76). “But it cannot be utilized unless one is well acquainted with the organ-remedies, that is to say, with the local electivity of drugs.”

I do not know exactly how Burnett tested his organ remedies; one is left to suppose that he gave one after another, week after week, as the patient returned to his office. This does not seem very effective. My own method of “organ-testing” is to give a dose of the herb on the wrist, one herb after another, until I feel the pulse change. If it is too fast, it slows down; if too tense, it relaxes.

Burnett also recognized that some local organ diseases arise from general causes in the organism, not just local causes. These require treatment by constitutional medicines. To cure these conditions he used the homeopathic constitutional remedies and nosodes (remedies made from disease organisms).

Burnett found that the organ-remedies worked better in small material doses (about one to twenty-five drops) repeated daily. In this, he was following both Paracelsus and Rademacher. The constitutional remedies he used in homeopathic doses, infrequently repeated.

The early devotees of hormonal supplementation adopted the term “organopathy,” late in the nineteenth century. They were not aware of, or did not care, about the earlier usage. They used extracts of the endocrine glands of animals to treat disorder in the corresponding gland of the human. Some of this therapy must be seen as supplementation, while some of it seems to have stimulated self-healing in the organism. An example of this literature is Dr. Henry Harrower’s Pluriglandular Therapy (1928). I used this little book to help me understand patterns in hormonal excesses and deficiencies.

In my own practice I adhere rather closely to the teachings of Rademacher and Burnett, using small doses of the herbal tincture. I also follow the teachings of Dr. John M. Scudder who, like Rademacher and Paracelsus, used small doses of the herb. The more specific the medicine, the less needed, because a specific medicine is so well adapted to the organism or the imbalance it is treating. For a further discussion of specific medicine and organ specific medicine, please refer to my book Vitalism: The History of Herbalism, Homeopathy, and Flower Essences (1992).

In any attempt to study living forms some system of classification is necessary.
Heretofore most students of Man have used an arbitrary division based on two basic types—the long thins and short thicks.

—GEORGE DRAPER, M.D.

The six tissue states constitute a system for describing pathology. By comparison, when we speak of a person’s constitution we are referring to the predisposing strengths and weaknesses of the entire organism. Often the two are related, i.e., a hot person will have hot diseases, but we also see manifestations of disease which are out of character with the constitution. It is often a good idea to understand the disease pattern, the tissue state, and the constitution, in order to grasp the entire picture.

Three Primary Constitutions

The word constitution is derived from a Latin root referring to the basic “constituents” in a system. An older term would be temperament. This is derived from the root tempero, referring to the temper or mixture of different constituent elements into a whole organism. Well-proportioned compounds are well-tempered.

Closely related to constitution and temperament is the study of physiognomy, or the shape of the face and body. Various structures and shapes are associated with different psychological, or physical predispositions, or constitutional elements in a person. Physiognomic study is found in all traditional cultures. Several doctors (William Sheldon, George Draper) undertook extensive statistical studies on physiognomy in the early twentieth century which have never been impeached, though they are ignored by modern biomedicine.

The ancient Greeks introduced a basic system of four humors or primal substances in the body (phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile). There were thus four temperaments, in which one of these substances predominated: the phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, or melancholic. This approach remained frozen in tradition until the seventeenth century, when Greek medicine began to break down. Various temperaments were added or subtracted over the next two centuries. Eventually, the old approach was dropped in favor of a more practical approach (thin, medium, thick). Interestingly, this change occurred in both alternative and conventional medicine.

Alternative practitioners in nineteenth-century America settled upon a system of three basic constitutions corresponding to the three general classes of organs. They called these the mental, motive, and vital types, corresponding to the nervous system, the muscular/skeletal system, and the visceral organs. An early proponent of this system was Dr. D. H. Jacques (1878).

In the early twentieth century Western doctors adopted a constitutional system based on thin and thick. The former was called the asthenic type, the latter the esthenic, plethoric, or pyknic type. (Evidently they did not want their terms to become part of everyday language). The leader of this innovation was Dr. Kretchmer, in Germany, and these terms are still used in German medicine. Dr. George Draper was a major American proponent of this system. Dr. William Sheldon developed a system based on three types, thin, medium, and thick, or ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. These terms are still used in non-medical conversation. Michio Kushi uses a modified form of this system in macrobiotic diagnosis.

Today, many of these ideas and concepts have been forgotten. However, Western students of constitution have gravitated to the same tripartite system, adopting the Ayurvedic doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha. These correspond respectively to thin, medium, and thick. It should perhaps not be surprising that the same ideas again prevail. As Dr. George Draper (1928, 9) observed about the constitutions thick and thin, “having started to study the personality differences between members of various disease groups, we have come out at precisely the same point in classification of types as have all other observers of mankind.” There is also the medium, which has its own problems. All these systems lie in beautiful and almost perfect alignment. Thus, we get to learn from several different approaches, incorporating insights from ancient and modern studies.

The threefold system is based upon the “three classes of organs,” to use the nineteenth-century expression, or the “three layers of the embryo,” to use Sheldon’s. This ties constitution to the organs, helping us to see otherwise hidden connections.

Western Physiognomy

The Fowler brothers were phrenologists interested in the nature and interpretation of character. Dr. D. H. Jacques brought their ideas into the medical arena. His posthumous work, The Temperaments (1878), gives us basic descriptions of the three primal types which are quoted below. For the sake of clarity, I have used the term “visceral” instead of “vital.”

The three types, according to both alternative and conventional doctors were defined as follow:

Nervous. The nineteenth-century Western doctors and phrenologists called this the mental type. Nervous seems better suited to the modern ear. This is the vata type of Ayurveda.

According to Jacques, “the Mental Temperament is characterized physically by a frame relatively slight, and a head relatively large; an oval face; a high, pale forehead, broadest at the top; delicately cut if not sharp features; an expressive countenance; a delicate, transparent skin; fine, soft hair, generally light in color and not abundant; brilliant, speaking eyes, generally gray or hazel, and quick in their movements; and a high-keyed, flexible voice. The figure is often elegant and graceful, but seldom striking or commanding. The muscles are small, but well formed, and adapted to rapid action, rather than to strength. Fineness and delicacy characterize the whole structure; but there is not necessarily any lack of real stamina, as the healthiness and longevity of persons of this constitution (when it be not subjected to great abuse) abundantly show.

“Mentally this temperament indicates activity of the brain, acuteness of the senses, and intensity of emotion.” In the positive expression, these people are intelligent, literary, and sensitive. In the negative, the constitution “is characterized by the smallness and emaciation of the muscles, the quickness and intensity of the sensations, the suddenness and fickleness of the determinations, and a morbid impressibility.”

Motive. This is the pitta type of Ayurveda. “In the person of this temperament, firmness of texture characterizes all the organs, imparting great strength and endurance, with an almost unlimited capacity for both mental and bodily labor. There is never much superfluous flesh where the Motive temperament is strongly predominant, and there is often more or less hollowness of cheeks, giving additional ruggedness to the features.”

In these people, the bones, muscles, and tendons are emphasized. “Bones proportionally large, and long rather than broad; strong, hard muscles, and prominent articulations, give to the outlines of the form in the Motive temperament a tendency to angularity and sharpness. The figure is commonly tall and striking, if not elegant; the chest moderate in size and fullness; the shoulders broad and definite; the abdomen proportional; the limbs long and only moderately tapering. The face is oblong; the check bones rather high …; the front teeth large; and the features generally prominent and sharply defined. The expression of the countenance is striking, grave, earnest, determined, and sometimes severe and stern.

“Political agitations, revolutionary movements, heated religious controversies, opposition in all forms, constant resistance to authority or the will of others, and the necessity for being always watchful and on the defensive, are amongst the strongest of these influences” which build this constitution, as well as “the exercise of authority, especially in military forms, and the weight of great responsibilities.”

Visceral. The emphasis is on the “vital” or visceral organs associated with digestion and nutrition. This produces a large type. According to Jacques, the “Vital temperament is characterized, physically, by a stature above the medium, and marked by a breadth and thickness of body proportionally greater, and a size of limbs proportionally less than in the Motive temperament. The chest is full, the abdomen well developed, the limbs plump, but tapering, and terminating in hands and feet relatively small. The neck is short and thick, the shoulders broad and well founded, and the head and face, corresponding with the other parts of the system, incline to roundness. The expression of the countenance is generally lively, pleasing, frank, benevolent, and often mirthful. The pose of the body and its movements are natural, easy, graceful, and dignified. The pulse is quicker than in the Motive temperament, and the organization throughout betokens vigor, warmth, and activity. The cheeks flush readily with exercise or emotion, and all the senses are active, acute, and refined.”

“An undue preponderance of the absorbent system [the mesenteric lymphatics], conjoined with a sluggish action of the heart and lungs, give rise to an abnormal deposit of watery fluids under the skin, producing additional fullness, and presenting softer and more rounded contours than even those properly belonging to this constitution, but lacking their well-defined and graceful outlines.” This condition, “when fully developed, constitutes the Lymphatic temperament” or phlegmatic constitution of Greek medicine.

Ayurvedic Tridosha

Vedic philosophy recognizes five basic elements, the same earth, air, fire, and water of the Western/Greek system, plus the additional element of ether, which changes and directs the others (the so-called “fifth element” of Western philosophy). However, it is the three doshas that are primarily used in medical typology: vata, pitta, and kapha. They are considered to be derivatives of the five elements.

The word dosha means “that which darkens, or decays.” Thus, the three doshas are looked upon as the substances that cause disease. The tridosha system, therefore, is essentially pathological, rather than “anatomical.” It describes three pathological tendencies. This contrasts with the approach of Fowler, the nineteenth-century physiognomists and the twentieth-century physicians. Their approach was “anatomical” rather than pathological. Thus, a comparison of systems will enrich our understanding of the three basic constitutional types. It is well to understand the constitution in both health and disease. For a comprehensive treatment of the three doshas in relationship to modern health see Rudolph Ballentine’s Radical Healing (1999).

Vata. The tendency of this dosha is to dry out. People of this constitution therefore tend to be lean, dry, and concentrated in color, or dark. Their musculature is lean or under developed. The joints, muscles, tendons, and veins are visible through the skin. The eyes, hair, nails, and skin tend to be dry and lusterless. Perspiration and urine are scanty, feces dry and hard. The personality is active, restless, alert, sometimes to the point of sleeplessness, nervousness, fearfulness, and anxiety. They are mentally searching but changeable and lacking in confidence. They like the fields of scholarship, discovery, and communication.

Pitta. The tendency of this dosha is to heat up and burn. The constitution is medium in build, sitting midway between the leanness of vata and the heaviness of kapha. Pitta people are emotionally fiery and physically hot. They tend to have a strong appetite, digestion, and metabolism. They like to eat large quantities of food and beverage, which their system handles well. The body temperature tends to be a little warm and the extremities are usually warm. Their system throws off a moderate to large amount of perspiration and urine. The skin tends to be nicely warm and moist. The complexion tends to be fair, red, or yellow. Thirst may be excessive. They are intelligent and quick-witted, with good comprehension. They can be ardent, aggressive, irritable, jealous. Their speech may be sharp and cutting. They are sometimes good orators and, with their natural ambition, sometimes assume roles of leadership.

Kapha. This dosha tends to get waterlogged, heavy, and cold. The features are more rounded than in the previous constitutions, because of the thickness of the tissues. The complexion tends to be light, the hair thick, dark, lustrous, and well nourished, the skin soft and oily, but sometimes pale, moist, and cold. The eyes may be glowing and magnetic. Internal functions tend to be slow and ponderous, so that digestion is sluggish, the stool is sometimes soft and poorly rid of, the perspiration and urine of moderate amount and sometimes retained. Thinking processes are slow, but more profound, and conclusions more enduring. Once they comprehend a fact they retain it well. They are emotionally more sensitive and subtle. Physically, they like ease, pleasure, and luxury, and tend to collect goods around them.

Sheldon’s Three Types

In the 1940s, psychologist and physician William Sheldon began to develop a system of body types based on scientific research. The model he came up with also has three types that are thin, medium, and thick in build. Each somatotype had its own peculiar psychological, physical, and medical tendencies, which he determined through statistical studies. Sheldon went a step further and speculated that the three types were derived from a preponderance, during embryological development, of one of the three layers of tissue in the embryo: the ectoderm, mesoderm, or endoderm (meaning the outer, middle, and inner developmental layers). Thus, he named his three types the ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph.

It turns out that there is a striking correlation between Sheldon’s work and the earlier, physiognomic model, not only with regard to the three constitutional types, but also in regard to the three classes of organs associated with each type. The groupings developed by the earlier, intuitive researchers, correspond exactly with the organs and systems which develop out of the three embryological layers. Remarkably, the earlier researchers had no knowledge of embryological science. Thus, the endoderm develops into the digestive tract, including pancreas, liver, and gall bladder; the respiratory system; and the bladder. The mesoderm evolves into the muscular and skeletal system; the circulatory system (heart and vasculature); and the kidneys and adrenals. The ectoderm gives rise to the nervous system, the sensorium, and the skin through which the nerves and senses operate so strongly.

Ectomorph. The ectoderm develops into the outer layers of the body, including the skin and the sensory nervous system. Thus, ectomorphs are directly exposed to the world, making them oversensitive, nervous, and overexposed. They tend to set up ideals that protect them from direct emotional interaction, because they are too sensitive and are constantly being pushed out of balance. They have erratic habits in eating, sleeping, and living. They tend to be easily disturbed and are more vulnerable to sickness than the other types. They tend to strong reactions, emotions, thoughts, and opinions, which can be expressed suddenly and surprisingly, for they keep to themselves for self-protection and contemplation. They have a hard time dealing with these strong reactions, with feelings, sexuality, and other people.

Mesomorph. This constitution develops out of the mesoderm, which creates the muscular and skeletal, cardiovascular, and renal systems. They are thus powerful, agile, well built, athletic, strong, and charismatic. They have a medium build between the other two types. Mesomorphs thrive on action, taking an active role in the world and attempting to have more impact than others do. They tend to exude a feeling of confidence, energy, and optimism, so that others are drawn to them as leaders. They are naturally healthy, but so driven that they can create problems for themselves through injuries and tension. They have a hot arterial system and tendencies to coronary problems. Because of their external orientation, they tend to become isolated from their own internal life, and to be less sensitive to those with whom they have friendships and relationships. This gets them into situations where they are stressed and tense, increasing their health problems. Unlike the endomorphs, the mesomorphs tend not to accept what life hands them, the process of aging, for instance. They belong to the cult of youth and do not necessarily collect the wisdom that comes with the years.

Endomorph. This type develops out of a preponderance on the endoderm, the fetal layer that creates the digestive organs and intestines. As a consequence they eat more, gain weight, are thicker in build and rounder in feature. The nerves are less exposed, and the endomorph is more likely to come across as calm, good-natured, easy-going, sympathetic, humorous, friendly, jovial, and affectionate. Some, however, are of a more lethargic, dense, heavy disposition, with less humor and interest in the outside world. In attitude, the endomorph tends to be practical, accepts the reality of situations, and is more rooted in an earthy, sensuous world. Because of the preponderant emphasis on the digestive tract, the endomorphs tend to enjoy and focus on eating, becoming thereby overweight, if not checked by discipline and exercise, both of which they tend to dislike. Endomorphs like all sensuous experiences: eating, drinking, and making merry. Because of the emphasis on intake, psychologically the endomorphs tend to be accepting of people and changes, regarding life experiences as material to be absorbed and assimilated. However, this can degenerate into lack of motivation, apathy, and complacency. They gain weight with age, and sometimes become slothful, but they tend to remain functionally strong.

The Three Classes of Organs

The threefold system provides a basis for understanding which organs will be dominant, overactive, stressed, or underactive. In order to keep this important information in mind, we will draw up a table of correlations between the three embryological layers, the three primary constitutions, and the organ systems.

We often see the correlation between, say, the nervous system and the skin. Many diaphoretics that open the pores of the skin also relax the nervous system and help maintain body temperature, hence acting on the nerves and circulation. Work on the muscular and skeletal tissue often contributes to the health of the kidneys and cardiovascular system, since all these tissues and organs rely heavily on the same electrolyte/serum balances. Almost all the organs listed under the visceral/kapha heading are subject to becoming waterlogged, while those in the nervous/vata profile tend to atrophy. At the same time, there are interactions between these columns. Skin, kidneys, lungs, and large intestine are all organs of elimination. We need to see the ebb and flow of disease across the complex field of the body.

Neuroendocrine System and Constitution

The adrenals are responsible for setting up the body’s basic strategy for coping with stress, the originating factor for disease. They have three basic mechanisms for dealing with stress—the adrenaline, glucocorticoid (GC) and mineralocorticoid (MC) pathways. The former activates the nervous system but deactivates the digestion, so it tends to produce a hyper-alert, nervous, anxious, thin type—the vata/nervous constitution. The GC pathway promotes a non-inflammatory response to stress, which increases appetite and digestion, blood sugar levels, weight gain, and decreases immune response to cause weight gain, lymphatic stagnation, water and toxin retention, more or less the kapha type. When the MC pathway is prominent, the organism responds with increased inflammatory response, higher immune activity and liver catabolism, increased sodium levels, decreased water retention but inflammatory tissues, increased periphery circulation (red, hot, swollen, tender), and a lean or medium figure—the pitta constitution. The GC people tend to be thinking, problem-solvers, while the MC people are fighters who jump in and oppose the enemy before thinking of a solution. Additional endocrine factors (pituitary, thyroid, pancreas) also help develop constitutional tendencies.

The cardiovascular system in particular, is susceptible to changes from the dominance of these three coping mechanisms. This is true of both the heart and the circulation. The gastrointestinal system, lymph/immune system, liver, and kidneys are also affected. The respiratory tract and bladder, open as they are to the outside world, are more affected by environmental influences and less by constitutional or endocrine programming.

THE THREE PRIMARY CONSTITUTIONS AND ORGAN GROUPS

Vata | Pitta | Kapha
Ectoderm (Outer) | Mesoderm (Middle) | Endoderm (Inner)
Nervous System | Muscular and Skeletal | Visceral Organs
| System |
• Sympathetic | • Connective Tissue | • Parasympathetic
• Skin | • Muscles | • Digestive tract
| • Ligaments |     Stomach
| • Bones |     Intestines
| • Cardiovascular System |     Liver
| • Kidneys and Adrenals |     Gall Bladder
|  |     Pancreas
|  | • Lymphatics
|  | • Lungs
|  | • Bladder
|  | • Reproduction

Stress and Disease Coping Mechanisms

• Adrenal medulla | • Adrenal cortex | • Adrenal cortex
adrenalin dominant | mineralocorticoid | glucocorticoid
| dominant | dominant
Blood to brain, nerves, | Blood to peripheral | Blood to digestive
|  | tract
senses and muscles | capillaries (fever | with high blood sugar
| reaction) |
Alertness, nervousness, | Inflammation, catabolism, | Suppression of
anxiety, weight loss, | high sodium, low water, | lymph/immune system,
weak digestion | acidic tissues | with water retention
Nervous, tense | Aggressive, active | Passive, thoughtful

Good examples of the three types would include the following:

Vata | Pitta | Kapha
Thomas Jefferson | John F. Kennedy | Robert E. Lee
Nancy Reagan | Ronald Reagan | Walter Mondale
George Bush, Sr. | George W. Bush | Barbara Bush

Vata/Pitta | Pitta/Kapha | Kapha/Vata
Abraham Lincoln | Colin Powell | Benjamin Franklin
Andrew Jackson | Bill Clinton | Eleanor Roosevelt
Bob Marley | Jesse Ventura | Queen Victoria

The main symptoms of heat are classic: heat, swelling, redness, and tenderness. However, heat can arise from a number of causes. The heat we are looking for here is that which arises from an inherent over-activity in the tissues themselves. There is an excitement of function, so that the tissues are too easily irritated and incited to action. We find this type of over-activity in auto-immune excess conditions. One of the most characteristic symptoms of excitation is an elongated, pointed, flame-shaped, carmine/red, or pink/red tongue. This is often described in the old literature and is found in all of the following remedies, to my knowledge, except Melissa.

When heat arises from the breakdown of waste products in the body, or bacterial activity, or from a lack of water to lubricate and cool the tissues, we are looking at heat as a secondary symptom, not as a primary tissue state. Thus, heat from sepsis and deterioration requires stimulants, not sedatives, while heat from a lack of fluids requires moistening agents.

Excitation, irritation, or heat especially affects the mucosa, creating allergies of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. It also irritates and congests the capillaries, causing renal congestion and cardiovascular complications.

The principal remedies that reduce heat or excitation are, in my experience, sour fruity plants. The sour taste is said to be pitta or fire-generating, but this refers primarily to the “post digestive effects.” Large doses of acids are burning. However, in practice the sour fruit acids almost invariably reduce heat, excitation, or overstimulation of the cells. Think of fruit on a hot summer day. Most fruits are in fact defined as refrigerants, even in Ayurveda.

Many members of the Rosaceae family have long been classified as refrigerants or coolants: Rosa (rosehip, rose petal), Fragaria (strawberry), Prunus persica (peach), Amygdalus amara (bitter almond), Crataegus (hawthorn), and Prunus serotina (wild cherry). Other sour plants are also sedative: Rhus typhina (sumac berry), Melissa (lemon balm), Sambucus (elder flower or berry), Passiflora (passionflower), Rheum (rhubarb root), Rumex crispus (yellow dock root), Rumex acetosella (sheep sorrel), Oxalis (wood sorrel), and Hibiscus.

There are some anomalous remedies. A very important remedy, which is sedative and yet stimulating, is Achillea (yarrow). It reduces capillary congestion and heat by stimulating venous circulation. As a group, the stimulants treat the opposite tissue state, depression. An elongated, flame-shaped, pink-red tongue with a blue undertone in the center showing the combination of excitation and stagnant blood or depression indicates Achillea.

There is also a group of bitter mints (Scutellaria, Leonurus, Lycopus) which decrease heat/excitation and dry/atrophy, especially in conjunction with hyperthyroid tendencies.

There are several different kinds of heat. Only that associated with an acceleration in the rate of tissue function—an increase in the innate heat of life—is associated with the irritated tissue state. Heat can also arise from the depressed tissue state because inactive cells (low oxidation) deteriorate and produce heat due to chemical decomposition and bacterial activity. This type of heat is secondary, not primary. It was traditionally called “putrefaction.”

Heat can may rise from a lack of fluids. This is associated with the dry/atrophic tissue state, and is treated by moistening herbs such as Althea (marshmallow), Tilia (linden flower), Stellaria (chickweed), Cucurbita (watermelon), and Plantago (plantain). The archetypal sedative for the nineteenth-century doctors was Asclepias tuberosa (pleurisy root), a sweet, moistening herb.

A note on the following descriptions of plants and their uses: The section on “Literature” at the end of each plant portrait attempts to give credit to sources for especially unique and original contributions to our knowledge of the medicinal uses of the plant. When a number is included after a name, this shows that the source contributed a prominent symptom. The number refers to the symptom under the heading “Specific Indications,” counting down from the top.

Many symptoms are not credited to a single author because they are well known or the original source is unknown. Sometimes, authors are listed who contributed to knowledge of an herb in a significant fashion, but this information is not easily reduced to a single symptom. Giving the actual source by date and page seemed inappropriately tedious, so I developed the above-described method. The idea was not to fulfill scientific standards (which don’t exist for this sort of thing), but to provide practical guidance. Generally, the information can be found in the prominent writings of the person cited under the name of the herb. It is usually not hard to find the account of the herb in most herbal literature since the name is used as a heading.

“Specific Indications” are uniquely based on a combination of personal experience and the ability to express, in a succinct manner, an experience of disease as “wrong of life.” They are therefore an expression of the “energetic” experience of the practitioner. The discovery of new information reflects personal experience and deserves to be credited. It is also a matter of responsibility. If a symptom given by one practitioner is not borne out in the experience of others, then the source should be held responsible.

Unfortunately, experience is not considered the basis of credible fact in modern biomedicine. It is dismissed as “anecdotal evidence.” Practitioners of an alternative form of health care must therefore develop our own standards and give credit where it is due. Perhaps it would be better to consider this credit as an artistic, rather than a scientific, responsibility.

Prunus persica, Amygdalus persica (Peach)

Listen to the following language; it is a perfect example of nineteenth-century botanical energetics, localizing both the tissue state (irritation or excitation) and the organ (stomach). “Of all remedies in the materia medica, there are few, if any, so valuable in the treatment of irritation of the stomach and its complications as this one. Its effect is both sedative and tonic to this organ, according to the dose given and the frequency of its repetition. When there is great irritation of the stomach, shown by an elongated, pointed tongue, with reddened tip and edges, and the patient is nervous, restless, and inclined to vomit even from a teaspoonful of water, or the smell or sight of anything to eat, with acute tenderness over the stomach, peach tree will act as a sedative, and should be given in frequently repeated doses.”

Scudder, quoted by Dr. John William Fyfe (1909, 368), continues: “Peach tree is the remedy for vomiting when due to irritation, and the above symptoms present; for vomiting of nervous origin; and many times it is an excellent medicament in the vomiting of pregnancy, and will relieve when everything else fails. In gastritis, either acute or chronic, with other indicated remedies, amygdalus is always the treatment. With the symptoms here enumerated pronounced, it is the remedy never to be overlooked or forgotten in cholera infantum, in cholera morbus, and in the debilitating diarrheas and dysenteries so common in children in the summer months.” See the case history on this page.

The slight mucilaginous quality of the peach is what makes it tonic in addition to sedative. It acts somewhat more precisely when heat is complicated with dryness. Samuel Thomson (1825, 63) used peach “to recover the natural tone of the stomach after long sickness; and to restore weak patients, particularly in dysentery. A tea made of the leaves of the peach-tree is very good for bowel complaints in children and young people, and will remove cholic.” It is indicated when there is wasting and emaciation with diarrhea.

Dr. O. Phelps Brown (1863, 119) writes that peach leaves are useful “in all inflammations of the stomach and abdomen. They act as a sedative in doses of a tablespoonful every hour or two of the cold infusion. In larger doses, the infusion slightly acts upon the bowels, and has been found useful in removing worms. The kernels [unopened pits] are similarly employed in the form of tincture, infusion, or syrup.”

William Cook (1869, 243) concurs in the use of large doses of peach leaves as a laxative to remove worms. “In large quantities, they act mildly upon the bowels, securing mucous discharges without pain; and in this act many times leading to the expulsion of worms in their nests. They are best given in infusion … fresh.”

Prunus persica is also beneficial in food allergies. Eva Graf (1978, 76–9) used peach pit tea as a long-term digestive tonic. She recommends several tablespoons of peach pit or twig tea before and after a meal as a tonic in weak digestion. She used it this way for six, nine, or even twelve months. She said it is most effective for people having trouble digesting protein—usually a stomach ailment—and where there is a lot of gas. Boil the pits and discard those that break open.

When my good friend and comrade in herbalism Julia Graves was visiting in Minnesota, I recommended peach tincture for food allergies. “That’s interesting,” she said. “Peach is my first and worst allergy.” We had to make it very dilute, like a homepathic IX potency (one part in nine parts neutral spirits or water). “One drop gave me a sore throat. Now, I can take three drops, three times a day. I can now eat wheat better than before, my allergic reactions are less acute, and I have no more hay fever (that might be due to change of location, also), and I can eat one peach, kind-of OK! I still react, but only a little.”

Peach is a superlative remedy for the irritative tissue state, especially for heat and irritation in people with sensitive skin and tissues. It is also used for nervous agitation with gastric irritation and inflammation. The leaves, twigs, bark, and unopened kernels are used but the seed is poisonous due to the high content of hydrocyanic acid. The classic indication for heat and irritation, an elongated, pink/red tongue, is always present.

Here is a case history demonstrating the utility of peach in allergies and asthma. A school teacher in her early thirties came to me for allergies that started after she went to work in an unventilated, windowless, carpeted classroom. It had been getting progressively worse over five years; now it was even bad during summer vacation and she reacted to a lot of other things: the down comforter, wine, corn, milk, etc. She was on an antihistamine and an inhalant as the condition went into asthma. Fair-skinned and blond (a typical Minnesotan), red, dry skin on cheeks and arms, red and scaly spots on the lower legs, slightly sunburned from a few hours of sunshine in early May, a picture of sensitivity. Dark under the eyes, characteristic of a good sinus or bronchial infection with lymphatic stagnation in the adjacent drainage and stress on the adrenals from all the allergy reactions or medicines. Tired, worn out, coughing, wheezing, asthmatic episodes, slight post-nasal drip. Expectorates brown globs of mucus in the morning. Tip of tongue red, sides scalloped, center slightly coated yellow and dry, pulse slow, slightly choppy, tense, and elevated. Peach tincture (leaf, twig), three drops as needed, lessened the cough and irritation, cleared out the mucus, and reduced the need for drugs completely within two weeks. She kept taking the peach, as needed, for two years, with slow, steady improvement in her immunity and no need for the drugs.

I always wondered if peach fruit had the same properties as peach leaf. John Heinerman indicates that it does. He recommends the juice for fevers, indigestion, and morning sickness, the standard uses for peach leaf. He also recommends pear juice as a substitute and even gives a case of tuberculosis ameliorated by pear juice.

The bark is stronger than the leaves (Tommie Bass). Heat destroys the virtues. Cold infusion of the leaves, small twigs, and bark of the small limbs or maceration in brandy or alcohol. Dose, 1–10 drops of the tincture or extract (Fyfe). The kernels are cleaned and dried for making a cold decoction (Kate Gilday).

Taste: sour, bitter, sweet, cool, moist, slightly mucilaginous.

Tissue State: irritation with tendencies to atrophy.

Organ Affinities: nervous system, skin and mucosa, respiratory, gastrointestinal, sexual-urinary.

Specific Indications:

• Nervousness, restlessness, insomnia; jangled nerves from bad news; over-excited children.

• Over-stimulation, hyperactivity, insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritation.

• Fair-skinned persons with tendencies to sunburn, irritation from mild heat, allergies, auto-immune over-activity; heat and irritation of the skin and mucosa.

• Tongue elongated, pointed, red/pink, dry.

• Upper respiratory allergies and irritation; eyes, nose, throat.

• Cough due to irritation of the throat and bronchial tubes; whooping cough.

• Irritation of the stomach and upper GI tract.

• Acute tenderness over the stomach; vomiting of nervous origin; especially during pregnancy; cannot bear the sight or smell of food, even water.

• Nervous, restless babies with inclination to vomit from the least taste or smell of food; even a teaspoonful of water may be vomited up.

• Debilitating diarrhea and dysentery; cholera infantum; cholera morbus.

• Worms, with symptoms of heat and irritation.

• Extreme tenderness over the irritable bladder; retention of urine, blood in the urine, irritation.

• Leucorrhea.

• Vomiting of pregnancy and reflex irritation.

• Fever.

• Skin clammy, retaining water.

Literature: Traditional, Maurice Messegue, Samuel Thomson, Constantine Rafinesque, Elisha Smith, Horton Howard, Leonard Tresher, John Scudder, Kate Gilday, Eva Graf, Tommie Bass (1, 2), Phyllis Light (1, 2), Karyn Sanders (2), Matthew Wood (3, 4, 16)

Rosa canina, Rosa spp.
(Wild Rose, Domestic Rose)

Rose hips are sour and astringent. In Greek medicine, they are classified as cooling and drying. Apropos of this, Maude Grieve (1931, 690) writes that they “were long official in the British Pharmacopoeia for refrigerant and astringent properties.” She says they are “useful in diarrhea and dysentery, allaying thirst.” They are also beneficial for “coughs and spitting of blood” due to heat and irritation. Avicenna, the great medieval authority, cured bloody expectoration with rose jelly alone and in subsequent centuries the use of rose became established for the treatment of tuberculosis. This is certainly a condition where we would have heat/irritation and bleeding, i.e., the perfect indications for a cooling astringent.

Numerous members of the rose clan are extensively used in the medicine of the world. The Greeks, Romans, and Arabic physicians used them. The American wild rose was a favorite with native people. In recent times, rose hips have been used on the premise that they are high in vitamin C. They are also considered to be anti-oxidant. The petals, sepals, hips, leaves, stalks, roots, root bark, and thorns have all been used in traditional medicine. Salmon (1710, 956), lists fifty different preparations.

Rose is the personification of passion yet we find that rose and many of its relatives (peach, wild cherry, hawthorn) reduce heat. My poetic muse tells me that these plants turn down excitement in the limbic centers, which regulate both heat and passion. The rosaceae are primary remedies for reducing auto-immune heat and irritation.

Wild or dog rose was the standard remedy in the Roman period for rabies. According to Plinius, the mother of a centurion who dreamed that her son had been bitten by a dog introduced this usage during the Augustan period. She also dreamed of the remedy for him. After his recovery, the emperor publicized this usage.

The hips and petals are used for acute inflammatory conditions of the respiratory tract, including sore throat, free nasal secretion, and bronchial secretion or obstruction. It is also a remedy for chronic inflammation. It is indicated in the weakness of convalescence, old age, and delicate children. Rose also acts on heat in the digestive tract, including diarrhea, dysentery, and stubborn inflammatory conditions. Maurice Messague (1979, 248) recommends it to counteract the ill effects of antibiotics on the intestinal flora. It is also used for vaginal discharge, menstrual irregularity, and yeast infection (local and systemic). Rose petal waters, lotions, or baths are used to cure arthritis from heat, probably an auto-immune condition.

Herbalist Phyllis Light gives a more specific description of rose. “I tend to use rose hips when the mucous membranes needs to be dried up and cooled down. It helps the body eliminate more through the colon than the kidneys. I ask people if they’re constipated. If they are constipated there is usually a little bit of mucus when they do have a movement. The stool is more ball-like, less formed, with mucus wrapped around or in it. The constipation is due to the fact that the stool is too damp and unformed for the colon to push it out.” Rumex crispus has this symptom; the muscles are too weak to move out the stool.

“People might think this is a remedy for mucus colitis, but the problem may arise further up in the system and is just emptying out through the colon. There may be a lot of allergies and lymphatic stagnation further up in the system. To confirm this, I have the person lie down and I press up under the left rib cage to feel if the diaphragm is pressed down by the congestion of the thoracic duct. When that valve is closed, there are going to be allergies, lymphatic congestion, and constipation. Everything stagnates back up the lymphatic system, all the way up to the head, sinuses, and glands in back of the head. Sometimes, when you release the thoracic duct, you can hear the gurgling and everything starts to release. With the lymphatic congestion there will usually be an irritative, nonproductive cough.”

I find rose to be slightly less useful than its cousin peach, because the latter combines heat with dryness, a very common condition. The look of the tongue is similar, but peach has an elongated, red/carmine, dry tongue, while rose usually has a red, elongated, and pointed, with streamers of dampness down the sides.

Rosehips are the usual part used most frequently today, in capsule, tablet, or seldom, tincture or glycerite. The flowers, leaves, bark, root bark, and even the thorns have all been used in traditional medicine.

Taste: (hips) sour, sweet, cool, astringent.

Tissue State: excitation, relaxation.

Organ Affinities: mucosa, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal, lymphatics.

Specific Indications:

• Delicate, sensitive; children.

• Red, irritated skin and mucosa, with watery deposits or stagnation of the lymphatic drainage from the upper body, head, and chest.

• Elongated, pointed, red/pink tongue with moist streamers down the sides.

• Sore throat, irritative cough.

• Vascular anomalies (especially in children); passive venous congestion; circulatory leakage, clotting, sluggishness, easy bruising, thrombosis.

• Heat and irritation in the intestines, constipation, damp, mucus-containing stool, mucus colitis, chronic yeast infection.

• Vaginitis, vaginal irritation, and discharge.

• Arthritic inflammation from auto-immune hyper-activity.

• Easily bruised.

Literature: Traditional, Maurice Messegue, Phyllis Light (2, 6), Dorothy Hall (1, 5, 9), Matthew Wood (3).

Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm)

The indications for lemon balm are short and simple but it is still one of the most useful remedies. It is a most important sedative for the nervous system when there is sympathetic excess, hyperadrenalinism, or hyperthyroidism. Like many sour plants, it is cooling. It is often combined with Lycopus in hyperthyroidism or is specific by itself.

A seventy-six-year-old man came to see me because he had an aneurysm. I gave yarrow (it had worked once before), plus a bunch of basic heart tonics, like hawthorn and tulip poplar. A year went by, and while I helped him with some minor skin and eye annoyances, the aneurysm only enlarged. Finally, we had to do something about it or surgery would be necessary. I looked at the case afresh. Over the past few months his face had gotten red, he had gained ten pounds, and he was having night sweats. His pulse was sharp-edged and irregular; his tongue was strongly red/pink. This suggested sympathetic nervous excess with heat/irritation. I finally decided on that great sympathetic relaxant and sedative for the heart, Melissa. Six months later the aneurysm was smaller, the night sweats were long gone, the weight was back to normal, pulse less irregular and relaxed, tongue less red. We were both very happy.

A fifty-six-year-old woman came to me for severe short term memory loss which occurred after she received various potencies of homeopathic Cannabis from a young homeopathic enthusiast. She had never had much marijuana as a youth, so I am not sure why this remedy was chosen, but it caused severe psychological hardship. She felt out of her body, had memory lapses severe enough to send her to biomedical doctors; and a continual mental tension that made it hard to think. The pulse was slightly tense and sharp, shifting slowly from faster to slower. Melissa tincture, five drops as needed, cleared up these problems.

The fresh plant is so much superior to the dried that it should be picked from the garden for tea or tinctured fresh in a good, sweet brandy. Dosage can be small (one to three drops) to large (ten to thirty drops).

Taste: sour, cool.

Tissue State: excitation.

Organ Affinities: nervous system (sympathetic excess), hyperthyroidism, heart.

Specific Indications:

• Nervousness, depression, anxiety, insomnia.

• Debility and weakness of nervous origin.

• Recent colds and fevers.

• Acute febrile conditions in children.

• Dyspepsia, upset stomach, and flatulence.

• Anxiety and palpitations; hyperthyroidism.

• Heart palpitations, atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, associated with nervousness.

• Hot flashes.

• Fever.

• Burns, blisters, herpetic sores, and stings.

Literature: Traditional, Humberto Santillo, Rudolf Weiss, Matthew Wood.

Rumex crispus (Yellow Dock Root)

Yellow dock root is sour, astringent, and faintly bitter, therefore suited to conditions where there is heat/irritation combined with relaxation and a little congestion. It contains small amounts of anthroquinones, which are purgative, but it is better to think of it as a heat-reducer rather than as a laxative. Like its cousin rhubarb, it would be badly and incompletely defined in this way. It is always indicated by an elongated tongue with red on the sides or middle, so it is a remedy for heat/irritation. Often there is a thrushlike coating and it is indeed a remedy for thrush, a symptom often associated with relaxation. The facial skin is usually red and dry on the checks, showing heat and dryness, with yellow around the eyes, nose, and mouth, showing heat in the digestive tract. This last indication comes from my friend Lise Wolff.

Yellow dock root is a primary remedy in the treatment of heat in the GI tract. It is indicated when there is an over abundance of saliva, showing that there is digestive over activity and excessive appetite, when there is excessive hydrochloric acid, with esophageal reflux and burning, and when there is irritable heat in the small intestine or colon causing Crohn’s disease or colitis. The stool is frequently moist, pappy, and difficult to expel, with an unfinished feeling and, sometimes hemorrhoids. In addition, yellow dock root acts on the skin and may have an alterative or sanative effect through the liver and gall bladder.

Drugs for esophageal reflux and acid stomach are the biggest sellers in America at the present time. In the past, this has been an area with few options in the herbal pharmacopoeia. If people only knew about yellow dock root. It comes close to being a specific in this condition. Wooster Beach (1842, 420) reported the use of yellow dock root tea to cure an acid stomach.

Here is a case history from my own records. A forty-five-year-old man had been suffering from loose stools, difficult to move for about six or seven years. He also had a hemorrhoid that bled from time to time, especially when the stool was difficult to pass. He had excess salivation and appetite, occasional esophageal reflux, and stomach acidity. The tongue was elongated, flame-like, with reddish coloration, and a thick, moist, yellow coating. All these symptoms are classic for yellow dock root. Doses of the tincture, when needed, over the next two years removed all the symptoms.

What yellow dock does for the stomach it will do further down the digestive canal. Forbush (quoted by Fyfe, 1909) gives the following description: “In diarrhea and dysentery Rumex is a remedy of very great value. It has cured exceedingly persistent cases of exhaustive morning diarrhea with the following symptoms, viz.: Evacuations scanty, bloody, oftentimes offensive, colicky pains before and after stool, sinking at the stomach, fetid breath, sweat, and urine; the discharges being very frequent between early morning and midday. In the asthenic forms of intestinal wrongs, and in the diarrhea of phthisis, it affects the bowels, sensibly reacting as a mild astringent not unlike rhubarb. It is especially serviceable in the dysentery of aged persons, and has been used successfully in apparently hopeless cases.”

Rumex is a superlative remedy for enteritis and colitis. Here is a case where the small intestine was involved. A forty-two-year-old woman came to see me for Crohn’s disease. It had been quiet for about ten years, but recently her home life flared up, she threatened to leave her husband (“he’s so boring”), and she suffered a serious recurrence. The tongue was elongated, with red sides and tip, with a little bit of thrushlike coating one sometimes sees on the back of the tongue when this remedy is needed. (A thrushlike coating looks like the coat on brie cheese). She had the usual pains in the abdomen, and diarrhea. Three drops of Rumex crispus, three times a day proved curative. At her next doctor’s appointment, two weeks later, she was informed that the intestine had not looked this good in two years. She continues to do well eight months later, but as people with Crohn’s are prone to setbacks, we will wait and see how the situation resolves itself.

Here is a case where the problem was in the colon. I was called to the hospital to see a thirty-four-year-old woman suffering from severe colitis. It had started five weeks after the birth of her third child. She was on sixty milligrams of prednisone daily; it provided no help whatsoever. She was having fifteen to twenty dysenteric movements a day and the doctors were saying that if it didn’t stop they would remove her colon in three days. I noticed that her face was irritated, and red with yellow patches; it looked like serum was coming up to the surface. This indicated yellow dock root (see below). I gave a half dropper in water. She was constipated for two days and recovered completely. Three years later there has been no major relapse. Every time some little diarrhea starts, she takes a few doses of yellow dock root. She has been on a drug for enteritis all these years and was afraid to stop taking it. However, it is the yellow dock root that, again and again, controls the symptoms when they arise.

Here’s a case history relating to acute diarrhea. My friend Julia Graves helped a friend in India with constant morning diarrhea lasting for days. He had a red, dry tongue with a white coat. One dose cured this condition.

In addition to acting on the gastrointestinal tract, yellow dock acts on the skin. It is indicated in weeping eczema, when there is a rusty-red appearance to the skin (like the color of ripened yellow dock seed) with some yellowness, or actual weeping of yellow serum.

The root is collected after going to seed in mid-summer and used by decoction or tincture. Usual dose of the tincture, five to thirty drops (Fyfe).

Taste: (root) slightly sour, bitter, cool, damp, astringent, “moldy.” (leaves) sour, astringent.

Tissue States: irritation, relaxation, stagnation.

Organ Affinities: gastrointestinal, skin.

Specific Indications:

• Yellow about the eyes, nose, and mouth with reddish, often dry checks.

• Fractious, irritable, sleep does not give needed recuperation; especially in young girls about puberty.

• Throat swollen, sensitive and dark red, with little pain or absence of pain.

• Nursing sore mouth and ulceration of the mucosa of the mouth (thrush).

• Sides of the tongue hurt, especially from consuming acids; patches of white thrush on tongue or back in mouth.

• Irritable cough, worse in cold air.

• Slow digestion; food sits in the stomach or the colon, like a brick.

• Diarrhea, dysentery, colitis; of aged persons, infants, nursing mothers.

• Diarrhea, especially in the morning; exhaustive; scanty; bloody; offensive; colicky pains before and after passage; sinking at the stomach.

• Pain in the lower back caused by constipation; the patient is not necessarily aware of the lessened elimination, but of the pain.

• Lessened activity of the intestinal canal; food sits or is poorly expelled by the rectum.

• Hemorrhoids, with bleeding, itching, smarting; poor expulsion of stool (cf. Polygonum punctatum, a cousin).

• Menstrual irregularities with anemia; amenorrhea; vicarious menstruation; particularly in young girls and women, at puberty, when nervous symptoms predominate.

• Red, damp, corrosive skin conditions.

• Fetid breath, sweat, urine.

Literature: Traditional, Lise Wolff (1), Frobush, quoted by Fyfe (2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 15), homeopathic provings (5, 6), J. I. Lighthall (7), David Milgrom (10), Matthew Wood (4, 5, 8, 11), Ellingwood (4), Fyfe.

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow)

Yarrow is one of the primal remedies of traditional Western herbal medicine. I have discussed it elsewhere in detail and will undoubtedly enlarge upon it in the future, so I will restrain my remarks for the present. The taste is pungent, bitter, and mildly astringent. There is a bit of acridity hidden under the pungency. This should make it a stimulant with slightly relaxant and toning properties, but yarrow is an anomalous plant that does not fit the usual analysis. It is one of the few stimulants that are quite cooling, although there are others such as echinacea and lavender. The main action of yarrow is exerted on the veins, to tone, clarify, and stimulate them, so that it cools by opening up the veins and allowing congestion out of the capillaries. This is exactly how Christopher Hedley, one of the prominent British herbalists describes it, and it accords with my experience as well. Thus it is indicated when tissue is hot, red, tender, and swollen. At the same time, as a bitter/acrid herb it settles fever and chills that affect the circulation, opening pores to release sweat. Yarrow is especially used for (1) lacerations, bruises, and bleeding; (2) fever and chills; (3) heat and congestion in the digestive tract, portal vein, liver, and abdominal viscera; and (4) uterine congestion and excessive (or lack of) bleeding. It is excellent for uterine fibroids with bright red bleeding. In several months it will remove large fibroids.

There are several specific indications leading especially to yarrow. It is almost always indicated by an elongated, pointed, reddish tongue (the classic indication for heat/irritation), but there is usually a blue undertone indicating venous stagnation. The tongue is usually dry in the center, indicating that heat is driving off fluids. These indications come from my own practice. The pulse is usually rapid, full, and non-resistant, showing that heat is having its way with the tissues. William LeSassier taught that there may be a crack down the center of the tongue, in severe cases opening up to reveal a deeper layer of tissue which is dark and crisscrossed by lines (chained or feathered). This is an indication that heat is burning deep into the tissues, especially of the digestive tract.

The flower tops are harvested at their peak and dried for use as a tea or tinctured fresh in alcohol. The young leaves and roots may also be used. The best quality yarrow grows on sandy, gravely soil that warms up in the sun and is exposed in winter. Moist soil dilutes the bitter property. Usual dose is five to twenty drops (Fyfe). It should not be taken in large doses during pregnancy.

Taste: bitter, pungent, cold, dry, stimulating, diffusive, slightly astringent.

Tissue State: irritation, depression.

Organ Affinities: blood, veins, capillaries, temperature regulation, GI tract, female reproductive tract.

Specific Indications:

• Robust, sanguine persons; with red, full-blooded complexion.

• The “wounded warrior, wounded healer” remedy; people that jump in, put out the fires, get cut to the bone, emotionally and physically.

• Complexion of face and skin red with blue veins showing through on the arms and legs; bruises are red and blue.

• Congestion of blood to the head; headache, nosebleed; in red, robust, sanguine persons, or during fever.

• Tongue elongated, pointed, red, dry towards the center, not heavily coated, wet towards the edges.

• Tongue cracked down the middle and opening up to reveal crisscrossed, red tissues (“chaining” or “feathering–looks like a feather or a yarrow leaf); this indicating “heat attacking the blood level.”

• Tongue elongated, pointed, red, with blue in the center.

• Nosebleed.

• Bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia; inflammation and pain in the chest, especially before mucus sets in.

• Bleeding from the lungs with night sweats; palliative in tuberculosis.

• Dyspepsia, colitis, diverticulitis, bleeding hemorrhoids; tongue red and cracked down the middle; with rapid, full, non-resistant pulse.

• Diarrhea in infants.

• Bleeding from the stomach or intestines.

• Bleeding hemorrhoids (cf. Bidens, Rumex crispus).

• Lack of menstrual flow; or, heavy, hemorrhagic flow.

• Menstrual cramping, amenorrhea, excessive bleeding.

• Specific and highly effective for uterine fibroids; with bright red hemorrhage (cf. Capsella, fibroids with clotted, dark flow).

• Vaginal discharge.

• Menopausal restlessness.

• Nephritis.

• High blood pressure where there is venous congestion.

• In acute fever and some chronic conditions, pulse rapid, full, and non-resistant.

• Fever; sudden onset, in robust persons, with or without chills; brings out rash.

• Arthritis, gout, rheumatism.

• Lacerations; injuries to the arteries of violent origin; hemorrhage, of bright red arterial blood.

• Bruises of violent origin; with cuts (cf. Arnica, bruises without cuts or bleeding); blood blisters.

• Old bruises that have become hard; especially on the head.

• Stroke, head injury, hematoma.

• Antidote to radiation.

Literature: Traditional, Maria Treben (16, 17, 18), Barbara St. Dennis (2), William LeSassier (5, 6, 7), Matthew Wood (1, 5, 6, 7), E. B. Nash (10), Jack Ritchason (12), Nicholas Culpeper (14), Richard Hool (14), Brent Davis, Flower Essence Society (30).

The constrictive tissue state is one of the easiest to recognize because we have all experienced tension—psychological or physical—and suffered from muscle spasms. However, there is some subtlety to this tissue state that might be missed. Repeated chills, as were once common in malaria and still occur in influenza and deep infections, will unstring the autonomic nervous system, causing chronic chills. This was a serious problem in old-time medicine. It is less so today, but there are still many people who have never been better since they suffered from a chill or influenza. In addition to tension and chills, we should also mention as characteristic symptoms that are sudden (coming or going), intermittent, or alternating (like diarrhea and constipation). The mind and nerves are greatly affected by this tissue state. The gastrointestinal tract, which is so intimately associated with the autonomic nervous system, is the physical area most affected.

Plants with an acrid flavor are used in Chinese herbalism to treat wind and chill, conditions equivalent to constriction. Almost all of the great antispasmodics traditionally used in the Western pharmacopoeia are acrid. (Acridity tastes like bile in the throat). Since this is an unfamiliar taste, I have listed the flavor of each plant as best I could: Lobelia (purely acrid); Symplocarpus (skunk cabbage; extremely acrid); Piper methysticum (kava kava; acrid and pungent); Liriodendron (tulip poplar; acrid and sweet); Cimicifuga (black cohosh; acrid and sweet); Chamomilla (chamomile; acrid, sweet, bitter and pungent); Valeriana (acrid, pungent); Humulus (hops; acrid and bitter); and Nepeta (catnip; acrid and pungent). Valerian, hops, catnip, and viburnum (or crampbark) all contain substances that break down into valerianic acid.

Lobelia was the archetypal relaxant for the old physiomedicalist doctors who came up with the tissue state model. I have not given an account of it here because I covered it thoroughly in The Book of Herbal Wisdom. Valerian and its pharmacological kin would be fairly archetypal too; valerian has the acrid taste moderated by some pungency. However, my favorite relaxant is agrimony. Another superlative relaxant, which is also a building, nutritive tonic, is the sweet/acrid Liriodendron, but that is too obscure a medicine for most of our readers.

Another taste which acts on wind, chills, and tension is the “bitter nauseant” flavor of some of the extremely bitter plants like Eupatorium perf. (boneset), Lactuca virosa (wild lettuce), Verbena (blue vervain), and Artemisia absinthium (wormwood). These plants are so bitter they send a chill through the body, hence they are for chills. It is likely that this taste is due to a conjunction of acridity and bitterness.

Tension can be caused by some of the other tissue states. Dryness or atrophy will cause constriction because water sedates the nervous system. The opposite is also true; constriction of the muscles causes the circulation to be thwarted, resulting in under nutrition of the part, drying, and atrophy. Heat and excitation cause tension by drying out fluids. Relaxation can cause it by piling up blood, which blocks circulation.

Agrimonia eupatoria, A. grysopetela (Agrimony)

In my experience, this is the superlative remedy for tension. I have covered it elsewhere extensively (The Book of Herbal Wisdom), so the following account will be brief.

I am not sure whether agrimony relieves tension because it is an astringent—many of these agents reduce tension even though one would think otherwise—or whether it works because there is a little bit of acrid resin on the leaves before flowering. Agrimony is fairly bland, but if we study the taste carefully we detect some sweetness, astringency, and acridity. After flowering, the astringency is more pronounced. Those who believe in the doctrine of signatures will note that it is a tense looking plant. I use agrimony collected before flowering and prefer the native American species, A. grysopetela. I use small doses (one to three drops), but any size dose will work. An especially relaxing combination is agrimony (seven parts) and true Solomon’s seal (four parts).

The indication for tension originated with Dr. Bach. It holds true on both the mental and physical levels, for both the flower essence and the herbal preparation. The patient tries to hide the tension behind a false facade of suave sophistication or cheerfulness, denying the pain with a smile. I like to say she is “torturedly cheerful.” Others are so cool and suave you think, “How come I’m not going to them for advice? What do they need to see me for?” Or, according to Bach, they like speed and danger, drugs, alcohol, and stimulants. The problem often revolves around business and hierarchical relations (employee/employer).

Agrimony is a specific in any condition where the person holds the breath to stop the pain. Patients report all sorts of digestive problems due to tension and incorrect timing of functions. Innervation to the liver, gall bladder, and GI tract is off. Agrimony is a remedy for liver problems, allergies, skin rashes, and wasting (due to poor liver anabolism and catabolism of proteins), diarrhea, ulcerations of the bowels and lower extremities, kidney and bladder pain, menstrual pain and bleeding.

Taste: mildly sweet, sour, acrid, neutral/cool, resinous, slightly astringent.

Tissue State: constriction, relaxation.

Organ Affinities: nervous system, gastrointestinal, liver, kidneys.

Specific Indications:

• Mental tension; feels caught in a bind, “torturedly cheerful,” hides anger and frustration behind an artificial facade; suave but inwardly tortured.

• Work-related tension; employer-employee tension.

• Holds the breath to suppress the pain.

• Resorts to drugs, alcohol, speed, and danger to suppress emotions.

• Tension headaches.

• Slight yellow/gray complexion.

• Allergic welts associated with tension.

• Ulcerations of the tongue, sores in the mouth, aphtha.

• Respiratory problems; whooping cough, bronchitis, asthma; “tortured to capture the breath;” holds the breath.

• Ulceration of the gastrointestinal tract, tongue, mouth, stomach, intestines.

• Difficulty with fat digestion and metabolism.

• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea with griping and spasms.

• Constipation suddenly followed by diarrhea.

• Loose, fatty, floating stools; undigested food, large lumps, nuts, proteins in the stool.

• Food poisoning, amoebic dysentery, gastroenteritis; doesn’t kill the micro-organisms but tones the bowels (cf. Rubus).

• Hepatitis, cirrhosis.

• Mucus colitis.

• Tension and pain during the passage of a gall- or kidney stone; blue, purple tongue, wiry pulse, and holding of the breath to stop the pain.

• Appendicitis.

• Exhaustion of kidneys.

• Pointing pains in the kidneys; with or without the passage of stones, in various kinds of urinary problems.

• Urinary tract infections with severe pain.

• Bed-wetting and diarrhea; in children, suffering anxiety about toilet training.

• Incontinence in the elderly; after passing stones.

• Edema with welts, coming and going suddenly.

• Menstrual pain; hides the pain, pretends to be fine, composed.

• Vaginal ulceration.

• Tense pulse.

• Articular, spinal pain, acute and chronic; torturous; sprains, strains.

• Ulceration on the labia, buttocks, legs.

• Skin rash, allergies, ulcers, psoriasis; with mental tension.

• Cancer, stomach.

Literature: Traditional (19, 24), Edward Bach (1, 2, 4, 9, 27), Matthew Wood (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 18, 24–31), John Scudder (16, 21), Finley Ellingwood (8, 10, 17, 22), David Hoffman (23), Jack Ritchason (19, 32), Dorothy Hall (4, 11–15, 20).

Chamomilla matricaria,
Matricaria chamomilla (Chamomile)

Half a dozen plants go by the name chamomile, all belonging to the Asteraceae or Composite family. Two of them are used in herbal medicine, Chamomilla matricaria and Anthemis nobile, sometimes called “German” and “Roman chamomile.” Both contain a blue volatile oil (azulene) which is the active ingredient responsible for the medicinal properties. They have been used interchangeably since antiquity and their uses are not well differentiated in the literature, even in homeopathy.

Chamomile is an old popular medicine in Europe. It has a long history of use in folk medicine as a sedative for cross, whining, irritated babies, and the problems incident to babyhood, such as teething, earaches, and intolerance to pain. The child is peevish, whining, complaining, angry, demanding attention and petting. He demands a toy, then throws it on the floor. Beyond this, however, Chamomilla is suited to “babies of any age,” as I like to say. Whatever the age, the behavior is unmistakable. Petulant, self-centered, intolerant of pain or not having their way, inclined to pick quarrels, or averse to being touched, soothed, or spoken to. It is not suited to infants (Sambucus) or children (chicory), but to babies. It has been proven and is used in homeopathy on the same indications as in herbalism.

Certain structures of the body are more susceptible to maddening irritation and pain than others. The ears, eyes, teeth, and sexual organs seem to be the principal organs. Many cases of earache and toothache have been cured by homeopaths.

The material herb, the tincture, and the homeopathic potencies meet the same conditions. The fresh herb has considerably more virtue than the dried (Rudolf Weiss). The homeopathic preparations are made from the fresh juice of the herb. A few people are allergic to chamomile.

Taste: sweet, acrid, bitter, cooling.

Tissue State: irritation, constriction.

Organ Affinities: babies, GI tract, fever, pain.

Specific Indications:

• Children, during teething, “terrible twos;” fretful, must be carried all the time; wants different things, throws them away when getting them; nightmares. Adults who act in a similar manner; “babies of any age.”

• Petulant, quarrelsome, vitiated humor; inclines to be angry and out of sorts with everything and everybody; very impatient, can hardly answer with civility; contrary to normal condition, out of humor, particularly at menses or when sick.

• Whining, peevish, complaining, wants attention but rejects it; low resistance to pain.

• Dandruff.

• Eye irritation (wash), earache.

• Tongue tends to be irritated along the sides and coated white-yellow in the middle.

• Acute colds, fevers, flu, coughs, earache; bronchitis, asthma.

• Acute digestive upset, coming on after vexation and anger; with heat of the face, thirst, taste of bile, nausea, anxiety, restlessness.

• Lack of appetite; cramps, colic, diverticulitis, colitis, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome.

• Liver and gall bladder upset; jaundice, gallstones, gallstone colic.

• Menstrual pain and cramping associated with great tenderness; cannot be borne with any patience; pain in the abdomen and breasts, cysts.

• Edema.

• Tightness and tension in the tendons, ligaments, muscles, and extremities; paralytic pains, with numbness and tearing, in the extremities; convulsion, spasm, tightness, rheumatic pain, and neuralgia.

• Incomplete fever; excitement, increased sensibility, prostration; heat partial, confined to one cheek; profuse sweat of the head. The fever does not last long, but often recurs.

• Abscess, pus formation, especially in the face, jaws, with tenderness and pain.

• Pulse small, tense, and rapid.

Literature: Traditional. The most specific information comes from homeopathic provings and clinical experience, including the following indications and authors collected by Temple Hoyne: William Bayes (6), Samuel Hahnemann (8), Carrol Dunham (14), Adolphe Lippe (16).

Nepeta cataria (Catnip)

Catnip contrasts well with chamomile, since they are both remedies for tension in children. This is not one of my commonly used remedies, but it was one of the favorites of my late friend, William LeSassier, and I thought I would transmit his teachings on the subject, as a small monument. He used it himself when he had a hiatal hernia due to some accident in a martial arts class.

Catnip is the mint nervine to give “when in doubt,” i.e., when there is a nervous problem that can’t be differentiated enough to indicate a more specific medicine. The action of catnip centers on the stomach, with anxiety, energy, and pain rising upwards, rather than downwards, as is the case with chamomile. Unlike the chamomile person or child, catnip tends to internalize the stress and goes to the stomach. Think of it as “visceral over-stimulation from the mind.” The stomach is bothered, with a pain in the organ like a heart attack. There is congestion in stomach, and pain from the stomach up to the vagus nerve. Painful nerve involvement. Rising anxiety. Hiatal hernia. Sensation of extreme pressure up against the diaphragm. Colicky gas pains. Anxiety, attacks in the stomach, rising upwards into the chest instead of downwards. Not for sinking, diarrheal anxiety (see chamomile). “Burpitis.” Antidote to bad reactions to onions and garlic. It is suited to mild, not serious, cases of motion sickness, and is good for people who are nervous to be on an airplane.

Catnip has a long reputation in the treatment of children’s diseases. It is an old specific for colic in babies at the breast. According to LeSassier, it sweetens the milk. It is suited to mild infantile fever, which is often associated with constipation or colic, whether recognized or not, in the colon. Catnip is a general first aide remedy for children, for the “crisis of childhood.” The old doctors note that the legs of the child are flexed forward, an indication of tension in the colon.

William LeSassier’s directions for making the best catnip are precise. Make a nice, strong, green tincture from the fresh plant in flower in a high proof alcohol. Dilute a few drops in water, enough to tint it light green and give a teaspoonful or modest amount. It will take two to three doses to work, so persist. There will be a big belch and the symptoms will be relieved. (This is a characteristic symptom of wind or constriction in the stomach.) The herb is gathered before flowering and prepared fresh as a tea, or tincture. It loses properties on drying. “Do not use for extended periods of time with small children. It has an almost narcotic effect when overused” (Daryl Patton, Tommie Bass).

Taste: acrid, pungent, moist, resinous.

Tissue State: constriction, depression.

Organ Affinities: skin (diaphoretic), GI, uterus

Specific Indications:

• Swollen under the eyes.

• Infants; nervous, fretful; intestinal colic, constipation, and fever.

• Children; over-active, nervous, restless, mean-spirited.

• “Tends to internalize stress in the stomach.”

• Congestion, pain, and anxiety in the stomach; pain up to the vagus nerve.

• Pain in the stomach, mimicking heart attack.

• Anxiety attacks felt in the stomach, rising upwards (not downwards to produce diarrhea).

• Hiatal hernia; sensation of extreme pressure upwards against the diaphragm; hiccup.

• Intestinal colic; draws the legs up for relief.

• Colicky gas pains, relieved by burping, belching.

• Spasm, pain ascending from the stomach or uterus.

• Motion sickness (mild palliative); nervous to be on airplane.

• Skin irritation; hives, measles, fever, acne.

• Sweetens the milk.

• General first aid for infants and children.

• Lessens fatigue from muscular exertion.

Literature: Traditional, Jack Ritchason (1), William LeSassier (4–14), Elisabeth Janos (3), John William Fyfe (11, 13), Tommie Bass (13).

Valeriana officinalis (Valerian)

Valerian is acrid and pungent (pungency increases the smell of a plant). Therefore it is relaxant and warming. This is not a plant I use much, so I don’t have a lot of stories to tell.

Valerian is principally used as a remedy for insomnia or to relax muscles and ease pain. Ellingwood (1919, 125) writes, “its action upon the nervous system is best obtained when the circulation of those centers is inactive and feeble, especially when there is a paleness of the face and the skin is cool. It is directly indicated in hysterical conditions of whatever character with feebleness; with nervous excitement, and morbid vigilance; in hysterical epilepsy [or seizures, really]; and nervous disturbances incident to menopause. Its general soothing effect in all these cases is desirable. It controls distress and imaginary pain and produces quiet, permitting sleep and rest.”

Fyfe (1909, 753) writes, “Valerian is an excellent cerebral stimulant, and is employed with advantage in diseases resulting from enfeebled cerebral circulation. Its administration often affords great relief in the high tension common to many nervous states, and in wakefulness it exerts a sleep-producing power of much value.”

Valerianic acid is a powerful relaxant to the nerves and muscles. In large doses or susceptible persons (and cats) it has the opposite property, causing nervousness, restlessness, wakefulness, and twitching followed by drowsiness, sleepiness, lessened sensibility, and relaxation. It has been classified as a stimulant and a depressant, but it is ultimately a relaxant, reducing neuromuscular tension.

The fresh root provides the best tincture, preserving the volatile oils. It is more “tonic and less reactive” than preparations from the dried root (Matthew Becker). Small doses are generally relaxing, while large doses are stimulating. However, reaction is idiosyncratic. In some people, valerian produces the symptoms it is supposed to cure: nervousness, irritation, wakefulness, and restlessness. Dosage of the tincture, according to John William Fyfe, is one to sixty drops.

Taste: acrid.

Tissue State: constriction.

Organ Affinities: nerves, smooth muscles, large intestine, lower spine.

Specific Indications:

• Pale complexion, cool extremities.

• Nervous, irritated, tense, despondent.

• Nervous breakdown, nervous fatigue, atrophy from constriction.

• Insomnia, wakefulness, nervousness, restlessness, and tension, especially when associated with spinal pain, intestinal spasm, and flatulence.

• Lack of concentration, attentiveness, in tense people (one to three drops).

• Temporal and frontal headache.

• Bronchial spasm; colds, coughs.

• Flatulence, colic; spasms and convulsions associated with nervous tension.

• Stomach ulcers.

• Nervous heart palpitations; high blood pressure; slows and strengthens the heart beat; increases peripheral circulation.

• Spasmodic cough, asthma, and dyspnea.

• Bladder spasm.

• Menstrual spasm, amenorrhea.

• Labor; after birth pains.

• Lower back spasm.

• Convulsions, epilepsy, lack of coordination.

• Fever with spasm, measles, scarlet fever.

• Arthritis, gout, lack of coordination, paralysis.

• Counters the effects of alcohol.

Literature: Traditional, Finley Ellingwood, John William Fyfe, Matthew Becker (5).

Verbena hastata (Blue Vervain)

Vervain (Verbena officinalis) has a long history of use in European folk medicine and was even a plant of magical repute among the Druids. It has properties similar to the American blue vervain, and the following symptomology obtains for either plant. The vervains are acrid bitters, which in large doses send a chill through the body. Verbena hastata is used to open the skin to bring on sweating when the skin was particularly closed shut, according to LeSassier. Vervain causes intense reactions: intensity of sweat, lack of sweat, intensity of hormonal drives and emotions and ideals.

Dr. Bach introduced European vervain as a remedy for extremists who suffer from strong ideals or opinions they wish to thrust upon others, and people who feel driven. (It is perhaps not surprising that it was used in antiquity for protection against psychic attack, a form of over-intense projection upon others). He gives a case history where it solved tension in the neck in a farmer who was highly ambitious. This same portrait applies to the American species.

Verbena hastata is indicated in cases where people are intensely driven but do not have the energy to sustain their drive. They often are stiff-necked, metaphorically and literally. They suffer from extreme tension in the neck, yet the neck sometimes weakens and the head drops slightly. These people are often thin and lack the physical sustenance necessary to carry them through the intensity of their work habits and drive. They are constantly exhausted, yet constantly striving. They often try to lay their ideas on other people, as Dr. Bach comments, but just as often they are hard on themselves and don’t accept the faults in themselves or others. The mind is often crowded out with a host of thoughts, which drive them (Karyn Sanders). Dorothy Hall notes that vervain people like to make lists.

I remember one thin, tall, idealistic young high school girl suffering from tension and heart palpitations. I asked her if she make lists and she replied that she made lists of other people’s faults! “Yikes, blue vervain run amok,” I thought to myself. After receiving blue vervain, the heart palpitations went away and she evidently relaxed her ideals because within three months, she started her first relationship.

The drive found in the vervain or blue vervain person can often be hormonal. It is often a specific for hormonal food craving during menstruation. This was discovered by LeSassier, who also notes that it is a specific for many of the problems occurring in the last half of the cycle, the progesterone half. This is a remedy for what Michael Moore calls “progesterone stress.” Women cannot handle extra progesterone. LeSassier successfully helped one woman who said she felt “like a school of piranhas on a feeding frenzy.” It is suited to PMS women who say they “want to kill somebody.” Blue vervain likes intensity. In my experience, it is the single most important remedy for menopausal hot flashes; blue vervain is suited to intense women with severe sweats. It is a remedy for impotence in men; it also relaxes high ideals and neurotic self-concepts about sex.

It terms of Chinese herbalism, blue vervain is a remedy for “yin not holding down the yang,” or a lack of substance and nutrition to support an intense level of activity. These people overdo themselves. It was likewise used for fevers where the profuse sweating was followed by seizures from lack of sustenance. Vervain is an intense, nauseant bitter, easily provoking a shiver from the depths of the body. Thus it reduces tension, shivering, and convulsions. However, it also provokes secretion. It is suited to fevers that simply will not break, where an extremely intense diaphoretic is needed. It is also suited to intense fevers with profuse perspiration followed by seizure, chills, and shivering. It has a reputation for provoking perspiration where other plants cannot open the skin, but it is so bitter it is hard to get down.

The roots, leaves, and mature seeds have been used; alternatively, the flower tops are gathered are the height of flowering and extracted fresh in alcohol or dried for use as an infusion. My dose is one to three drops, one to three times per day. More can be used, but this is an extremely bitter plant.

Taste: bitter, acrid.

Tissue State: constriction, atrophy.

Organ Affinities: febrifuge; keeps the fluids from drying out; nervine relaxant, antispasmodic, anticonvulsant; hormonal regulator.

Specific Indications:

• Thin, tall, strong-willed, but lacking stamina to sustain effort; overexertion.

• High-minded, idealistic, driven, intolerant of shortcomings in self and others; sexual neurosis.

• Mental over-activity, excessive thinking, excessive talking, loud voice.

• Headache; earache.

• Eyes; weak, sore, inflamed.

• Mouth ulcers; soft, spongy gums (use as mouth wash); adenoids.

• Stiffness of the nape of the neck.

• Colds, catarrh, irritable, spasmodic cough, whooping cough, croup, asthma, pneumonia.

• Wheezing, irritation, congestion.

• Dyspepsia; harassing pain, sluggish digestion; constipation.

• Malaria ague, hepatitis; liver congested, swollen, cirrhotic; bilious, indigestion, jaundice, gallstone colic.

• Atrial fibrillation; poor peripheral circulation.

• Kidney stone colic.

• Incontinence; bladder spasm.

• Menstruation; painful and irregular.

• PMS; anger before the period; tension and cramping.

• Food craving before the period; driven to eat.

• Menopause; hot flashes, hormonal drives, nymphomania.

• Labor.

• Mastitis; lack of lactation.

• Impotence.

• Epileptic seizures and spasms beginning in the neck.

• Sprains and strains, especially hyperextension.

• Fevers with profuse sweating, loss of fluids, stiffness in the neck, headache.

• Stubborn fevers with complete lack of sweating; difficult to get a sweat going.

• Convulsions following fevers which have depleted the fluids.

• Eczema, dry skin.

• Cystic fibrosis.

Literature: Traditional, O. Phelps Brown (7, 8, 10, 11, 21, 22), Edward Bach (2), Matthew Wood (1, 2, 3, 7, 12, 14, 18, 23), Jack Ritchason (5, 6, 15, 28), F. Wheeler (13), William LeSassier (7, 16, 17, 25).

The terms “tonic” and “dry” are not really adequate for the job here, but we need some simple vocabulary to describe tissue states and their treatment. Atrophy is much better, since it includes dryness (from lack of water or oil), weakness, and wasting or loss of flesh. These are the major symptoms associated with the atrophic tissue state. The tongue is usually dry, and in severe cases withered; skin dry; constipation common.

The agents needed to treat this condition are diverse. The term “tonic” or even “nutritive tonic” is not very accurate, since there are so many different ways to approach atrophy. Included here are remedies that are moist, mucilaginous, oily, salty, bitter (in some instances), sweet, and “meaty.” The tastes of all the major food groups (sweet, oily, and meaty or proteinaceous) have to be part of the picture. Anything that contributes moisture helps with the feeding of tissues.

Tissues especially affected by dryness or atrophy include external and internal coverings, i.e., the skin, mucosa, and synovial membranes. It is thus an important influence in muscular and skeletal disease, where the synovial membranes of the joints dry out, in respiratory conditions, and most importantly in gastrointestinal conditions where there is a lack of digestive fluids, poor digestion (hence atrophy), and constipation.

Mucilage is a thick, moist carbohydrate substance that coats and moistens the tissues. It also tends to penetrate the tissues and cells to bring out toxins. The most important mucilages in Western herbalism include Chondrus (Irish moss), Symphytum (comfrey leaf and root), Althea (marshmallow), Plantago (psyllium seed, plantain), and Ulmus fulva (slippery elm). Some of these are also sweet, bitter, or salty, increasing the action on dry, hard, or atrophic tissues.

The most commonly used mucilages in Western herbalism are marshmallow, comfrey, and slippery elm. Unfortunately, I tend to use “off brand” mucilages like true and false Solomon’s seal, so I have not chosen to write about comfrey and slippery elm. These really should be studied for inclusion under this tissue state.

Water without salt has no intelligence or activity. Salt attracts water and causes it to become active in the tissues. Salty plants such as Althea (marshmallow), Chondrus (Irish moss), and Eryngium (rattlesnake master, sea holly, eryngo) are traditionally used to break up hard swellings; they allow water to penetrate into the tissues. Herbalist David Winston has noted that there is also a “salty/minerally” taste (like the “crispness” of spinach or nettle). This can be applied to Verbascum (mullein), Taraxacum (dandelion leaf), Arctium (burdock root), Urtica (nettles), and Medicago (alfalfa). Herbs high in silicon are also nutritive: Avena sativa (milky oat seed), Equisetum (horsetail), and Agropyron or Eletrigia (couch grass).

The third group of medicinal herbs suited to atrophy contain fixed oils. This group is especially prominent in the modern health food store. The most obvious members of the group are Linum (flaxseed oil), Oenotheris (evening primrose oil), Borago (borage), and Sesamum (sesame seed oil). Less widely used oily plants are Juglans cinerea (butternut bark), Angelica, Arctium (burdock), Salvia (garden sage), and Cannabis (marijuana seed). These herbs increase digestion and the metabolism of fats and oils. They provoke the gall bladder, which releases the bile to digest fats and oils, and lubricate the colon. They may provide lipids, which exercise liver metabolism, cellular membrane nutrition, or lipophilic hormone travel. Oils are readily absorbed through the skin and a traditional form of treatment is “fatty inunction” (application of oils to the surface). Fixed oils have a “nutty” taste.

The fourth nutritive category is the “sweet tonic.” This class was not developed in Western herbalism; we owe this useful concept to Chinese herbalism. Sweet herbs contain sugars and starches that increase carbohydrate digestion and metabolism. The cells and tissues are thus nourished and build up. Nourished tissues are able to retain more water, so sweet herbs reduce dryness (and sometimes even heat or wind). Sweet native or imported herbs used in Western herbalism include Myrrhis odorata (European sweet cicely), Osmorrhiza longistylus (American sweet cicely), Panax quinquifolius (American ginseng), Arctium (burdock root), Taraxacum (dandelion root), Avena sativa (milky oat seed), Agropyron (couch grass), Galium (cleavers), Trifolium (red clover), Glycyrrhiza (licorice), Rehmannia, Codonopsis, and Astragalus.

Moist, mucilaginous, salty, oily, and sweet herbs can all reduce heat by increasing the fluids. Some of them, like marshmallow, are seldom indicated unless there is heat conjoined with dryness.

Another “flavor” which may be included here is “meaty.” This flavor is recognized in Japanese cooking. Foods high in protein taste “meaty.” In the vegetable world, this includes Urtica (nettle) and the mushrooms. The latter are more closely akin to animals than plants, which incidentally, they feed off. Most mushrooms are nutritive and tonic in effect, for example, Ganoderma (reishi).

Atrophy bears an interesting relationship to the opposite category, torpor or stagnation. Since water is the means of transportation in the body, both a lack of water (atrophy) and a stagnation (torpor) can stop the transportation of foodstuffs, waste products, and water. Therefore, both tissue states are associated with weak, undernourished tissue, accumulation of toxic material, and pockets of water. Both respond to bitters and alteratives. In atrophy, these symptoms will appear against an emaciated, withered background, while in torpor they appear in association with a swollen, boggy, expressionless tissue state. Both conditions trap toxins in the body.

Both the atrophic and the torpid tissue states respond to bitter herbs and alteratives. Since digestion and metabolism is dependent on secretion, bitters can improve digestion and tissue nutrition to relieve atrophy. Some of the bitters which act especially on atrophy are Alnus (alder), Arctium (burdock), Lycopodium (wolf’s paw club moss), Panax quinquifolius (American ginseng), and Berberis aquifolium (Oregon grape root). Some of these are also cited as alteratives that remove torpor.

Thurston defined remedies for the atrophic condition as “trophorestoratives.” He applied this term to many plants with a strong organ affinity because they rebuilt the “trophism” of the organ. I do not believe this is the correct way to define remedies for atrophy. I consider the appropriate agents to be those that build fluids (water and oil), increase nutrition, hold water, and soften hardness.

Althea officinalis (Marshmallow)

Marshmallow is one of the central mucilages in the Western pharmacopoeia. It is also somewhat salty, so it not only restores lubrication, it also leads water into hardened, dried out tissue. It is indicated when dryness is combined with heat. The tongue is usually dried and red, with hardening and sometimes cracking of the surface. A slightly reddish complexion seems to be typical. Sometimes there is noticeable drying and exfoliation of the cuticle.

Marshmallow has been used since the most ancient times. The name althea derives from the Greek for “heal all.” Hippocrates used a decoction of the roots externally (with honey and rosin) to stop bleeding and internally to moisten and nourish when there was severe blood loss. It is native to salt marshes in Europe, but naturalized in low ground in coastal and inland North America. Of all mucilages, it is considered the most softening (Palaiseul, 1974, 178), and diuretic (Ellingwood, 1919, 431). The roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds are used somewhat interchangeably, both internally and externally. They soothe inflammation of the skin and mucosa.

Marshmallow root syrup is a major remedy for irritable coughs. It soothes the passageways, and reduces inflammation and dryness. It is also beneficial in continuous runny colds. (Perhaps, like red clover, it breaks up cysts in the sinuses that often cause this condition). It is “of value in inflammation of the fauces and tonsils, and in coughs and hoarseness its soothing influence has been found useful” (Fyfe, 1909, 362).

Marshmallow is used for canker sores, dental abscesses, gingivitis, laryngitis, tracheitis, bronchitis, gastritis, enteritis, colitis, inflammation of the kidneys, and cystitis. In my experience, it is indispensable in colitis and Crohn’s disease, but it usually only palliates and patients need more specific treatment. It is used as a softening, moistening lubricant to open the constipated intestine (when due to dryness). Like slippery elm, it has been used to lubricate the passages to procure an easier birth. As a nutritive, it is used to increase milk production.

Externally, marshmallow is used on dry, scruffy, skin, dandruff, dry scabs on the scalp, unhealthy scalp with hair loss, and insect bites. A woman came to me with a red, dry patch on the face that was not cancerous. She had a reddish complexion generally, lower back pain, and a broad, red, dry, cracked tongue with some carmine red, showing damaged fluids and heat. Two marshmallow capsules, three times a day, cured in a few weeks.

Marshmallow breaks up swollen breast glands, ducts, and cysts. It is laid on the eyes, to take away redness and swelling. It is used externally to dissipate hard swellings, inflammations, boils, abscesses, and cysts. It is placed over a swollen, hard liver or spleen. A poultice draws out thorns and splinter. Marshmallow is used externally on bruises, bones out of joint, swollen joints, muscles, tendons, and arteries.

The root in capsule form is a good medium for use in intestinal problems, since the swallowed capsule gets down to the stomach. It lubricates the stool and eases constipation. Although commonly used for constipation, it can also be used for diarrhea and dysentery where soothing and cooling is needed. Culpeper (1652, 180) treats us to a case history. “You may remember, that not long since there was a raging disease called the bloody-flux [dysentery]; the college of physicians not knowing what to make of it, called it the inside plague, for their wits were at Ne plus nultra about it. My son was taken with the same disease, and the excoriation of the bowels was exceeding great; myself being in the country, was sent for up; the only thing I gave him, was Mallows bruised and boiled both in milk and drink.” He was cured in two days. And here the grateful father writes, “And here I show my thankfulness to God in communicating it to his creatures, leave it to posterity.”

Marshmallow root is useful to soothe the parts in the passage of both kidney and gall stones. It is especially indicated when the parts are dry, inflamed, and sensitive. Phyllis Light recommends marshmallow root, or its cousin okra root, to soothe the gall bladder, increase fluids, loosen up the stones hard and dried in the gall sac, soothe the ducts, and help with their passage.

Marshmallow is extracted best in water rather than alcohol. Cold water picks up the mucilage but not as much of the starch, while hot water picks up the starch but not the mucilage. Capsules are convenient. The flowers, leaves, and roots are all used interchangeably. A number of cousins are used as a substitute. Extracts poorly in water and alcohol, so it is often used in capsules or tablets.

Taste: (root) salty, sweet, cool, mucilaginous.

Tissue State: atrophy and irritation dependent on lack of moisture.

Organ Affinities: skin and mucosa, upper gastrointestinal tract, kidneys.

Specific Indications:

• Lips red, dry, sometimes with a slight white powder around them.

• Tongue red, dry, sometimes cracked; sometimes with dry coating.

• Irritated, inflamed, hot, dry mucosa and skin.

• Swollen, hard, indurated glands.

• Dry cough in the throat or upper bronchus; in children; worse at night (syrup).

• Soothing and anti-inflammatory to the digestive tract; acid stomach, burning (capsules).

• Over-acidity, ulcers, gastric, duodenal, mucus colitis (roots).

• Low enzyme production (leaves).

• Diarrhea, dysentery, Crohn’s disease, colitis (capsules).

• Hemorrhoids (external).

• Painful, scanty urination; soothes the passage of stones.

• Cystitis, strangury, hematuria.

• Sores, ulcers, and inflamed skin (external).

• Skin slightly reddish, dry, exfoliating.

Literature: Traditional, Nicholas Culpeper (9), Margi Flint (1), Dorothy Hall (7, 8).

Asclepias tuberosa (Pleurisy Root, Butterfly Weed)

Pleurisy root is a cousin of milkweed. It was used by the earliest colonial root doctors of whom we have record. It was popular in the nineteenth century as a diaphoretic and moistener. The physiomedicalists—Curtis, Cook, Thurston—considered it to be the archetypal remedy for the excitation tissue state. After a long period of study, I decided that it worked on fevers because it was lubricating, moistening, and opened the pores, not because it was a sedative that reduced heat directly. Therefore, I placed it under the tonics. It is not really that widely useful today, but it is an interesting remedy and I thought a short account would be appropriate.

Pleurisy root is a sweet, nutritive herb that increases fluids in the internal membranes and passages, so that diaphoresis to the surface will be complete and healthy. Although it was one of the most important agents in the nineteenth-century materia medica of professional and lay medicine, pleurisy root is less often called for or used at the present time. The roots have little round structures that look astonishingly like alveoli. It is a specific for old pleuritic stitches, rather than recent cases of acute pleurisy (for that, use homeopathic Bryonia). It also lubricates the intestines.

Asclepias is indicated when the skin and synovial membranes (bursa, pleura) are dry or the pores are closed, trapping fluids in the membranes. By increasing fluids, it reduces heat and constriction, or a sense of stuffiness in the chest. It can prevent inflammation of the pleura from going into pneumonia, which is a frequent event, and also cures the pleuritic stitches left behind after an old case of bronchitis or pneumonia has damaged the pleura.

My friend Jennifer Tucker, an experienced herbalist in State College, Pennsylvania, put this information to work when she had a frozen shoulder. Little motion was left in the left shoulder. “It looks like an old, advanced scoliosis,” said the physical therapist. She was in the waiting room reading my book when she got to the part about Asclepias tuberosa and joints. She knew it was the right remedy. “I’m afraid we may have to do surgery,” said the physical therapist. “We’re not making any progress.” “Oh no,” replied Jennifer. “You wait. I know what plant to cure it with now.” She went home, dug up a plant in her field (which has some of the best pleurisy root I’ve ever seen), and started chewing it. Even on the first day, motion was increased twenty per cent. Now the physical therapy exercises worked. In sixty days, to the pleasant surprise of the physical therapist, she had normal range of motion.
Now, one would never know she’d had a problem.

Taste: slightly sweet, salty, and minerally/salty.

Tissue States: atrophy, constriction, irritation.

Organ Affinities: skin and mucosal synovial membranes.

Specific Indications:

• Dry skin, with stuffiness in the chest.

• Cough, dry in the throat and upper lungs, but wet in the lower reaches of the lungs.

• Chronic pleurisy following old cases of bronchitis and pneumonia, rather than acute pleurisy (for which homeopathic Bryonia is usually sufficient); sharp, stitching pains in the chest; pain in the chest from coughing.

• Pneumonia with water in the bottom of the lungs.

• Asthma with oppressed breathing and pulse.

• Acute bursitis and arthritis with redness, swelling, tenderness, pain, and lack of perspiration.

• Old cases of bursitis and arthritis with adhesions in the joints that crackle on movement (will sometimes lubricate the joint instantaneously). • Frozen shoulder; with atrophy, weakness, crackling, and limitation of movement.

Literature: Traditional (1–5), John Scudder (6), Matthew Wood (6), Jennifer Tucker (7).

Avena sativa (Milky Oat Seed)

Oat seed picked in the milky stage is a beautiful, moistening, sweet remedy. It is a very important tonic remedy for the nervous system depleted by stress, prolonged illness, sexual excesses, drug use, or protracted illness. It is high in silicon, like all the grasses, and thus strengthens the connective tissue, skin, mucosa, and nerves. Oat grass is higher in silica, which makes it strengthening to the connective tissue.

Oats are widely used as a tonic for nervous debility and nervousness by contemporary practitioners. This is not a remedy I use a great deal, and I cannot offer personal insights, but it should be included under any good survey of sweet tonics for dryness and atrophy.

The seed is collected in the milky stage, before maturity, and dried or tinctured fresh. Standard dose of the tincture with the old physicians is five to sixty drops, three times per day. Oats are strengthening to thin people (sympathetic dominance), but fattening to those who are thick (parasympathetic dominance).

Taste: (milky seed) sweet, moist.

Tissue States: atrophy.

Organ Affinities: nerves (sympathetic excess), skin, nails, hair, connective tissue.

Specific Indications:

• Nervous prostration, debility, weakness, paralysis (neurasthenia).

• Nervous system exhausted, all played out, drained; from stress, excessive duties, drug use, prolonged illness, sexual excess.

• Inability to keep the mind fixed on any one subject; lack of focus, concentration, and memory; vagary of thought and manner.

• Nervous prostration following mental strain.

• Insomnia associated with nervous exhaustion, despondency.

• Occipital headache extending down the spine and into the lower extremities, associated with neurasthenia; with burning sensation on top of the head.

• Paralysis of the throat in diphtheria.

• Nervous palpitations.

• Bedwetting, nocturnal emissions; with weakness.

• Emissions of phosphates and other white substances in the urine; with exhaustion.

• Impotence in men under middle age; from nerve exhaustion, sexual excesses, nocturnal emissions.

• Swollen prostate with neurasthenia.

• Amenorrhea with nervous debility; mental depression; pain in the pelvis.

• Nervous headache at menstruation.

• Extremities weak; numbness; lack of strength; nervous tremors; spasm; epilepsy; paralysis and wasting diseases of the elderly.

• Weakness and convalescence from protracted disease, fever, typhoid, drug addiction.

• Weak, broken hair, nails, skin (cf. Equisetum, homeopathic Silicea).

Literature: Traditional, H. E. Russell (3), John William Fyfe (3), Yadubir Sinha (8).

Verbascum thapsus (Mullein)

Mullein is a member of the scrophularia family, long associated with scrofula (swollen glands). However, it is best known as a respiratory remedy. It is particularly used for irritable, dry coughs, but it is also for dry/atrophy of the lymphatic system with poor absorption through the small intestine and weakness in the lymphatics. Although generally indicated when the mucosa are dry, mullein will also remove deposits of water dependent on weak tissue states. It promotes absorption in cellular dropsy, chronic abscesses, pleuritic effusions, and similar accumulations of fluid (Cook). It lubricates around bones, and helps set bones and straighten vertebra. Sedative to inflamed and irritated nerves, sharp nerve pain.

Mullein is a very important remedy for muscular and skeletal problems, though it is not apt to appear on the top of anyone’s list. It is indicated in dry/atrophic conditions of the mucosa. It has a moistening, lubricating effect on the synovial membranes as well, so that it is hydrating to the spine and joints. It is often indicated in back injuries. People think back injuries are untreatable and incurable, but increase in the synovial fluids will make the spine more pliable and comfortable. The vertebra will slip back into place more readily, pain and inflammation will decrease, and the condition will get better. Mullein also has a rather unbelievable ability to set bones in the right place when they have been broken or are out of place. I have seen this several times. It will set a broken rib or digit, getting it back into place quickly. I remember watching it visibly dampen around the coffin bone of a horse as I placed it on the manure covered hoof. The leaves are picked during the first season; the flowers at the end of the second.

Taste: (leaf) salty/minerally.

Tissue State: atrophy.

Organ Affinities: respiratory tract, lymphatics, synovial fluids, bones.

Specific Indications:

• General dryness and atrophy.

• Nervousness, insomnia.

• Earache with pain, wax in ear.

• Voice unnaturally high or low, due to inflammation of the pharynx.

• Sore throat, tonsillitis, mumps.

• Allergies, sub-acute; relapsing bronchitis; asthma; pleurisy; pneumonia; croup; emphysema.

• Cough deep, “basso profoundo,” from inflammation of the velvety linings of the respiratory tract.

• Cough—dry, harsh, racking, shakes the frame.

• Diarrhea, dysentery, enteritis, and colitis with weakening from loss of fluids.

• Bleeding from the bowels.

• Hemorrhoids, painful bleeding.

• Nephritis, painful urination.

• Scrofula (chronic swollen lymph glands associated with poor nutrition and dry tissues).

• Painful injuries to fingers, toes, spine, and areas rich in nerves.

• Joints swollen with weakness and pain.

• Spinal injuries, pain, misalignment, lack of synovial lubrication.

• Chronic abscesses, with pain.

• Broken bones that are hard to set are quickly returned to their correct position under the influence of Verbascum.

Literature: Traditional, William LeSassier (4), William Boericke (4, 8), Matthew Wood (18).

Polygonatum spp. (True Solomon’s seal)

True Solomon’s seal is an extraordinary medicine for the muscular and skeletal system, probably the most important remedy for this system I have ever encountered. It is suited to a wide range of problems affecting the joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It tightens or loosens tendons and attachments (depending on which is needed), strengthens and repairs joint damage, soothes or even cures many kinds of arthritis in the joints, and works nicely with repetitive-injury problems such as tennis elbow, jogger’s knee, and carpal-tunnel syndrome. True Solomon’s seal is moist, sweet, and slightly acrid, so it is suited to dry/atrophic conditions affecting the tension-bearing structures.

John Gerard originally introduced true Solomon’s seal into English language herbal medicine in 1597. The old Greek and Roman authors dismissed it as a poisonous plant. However, only the blue-black berries are toxic; the roots are sweet, edible, and medicinal.

“Galen saith, that neither herbe nor root hereof is to be given inwardly,” Gerard comments (1635, 905). “But note what experience hath found out, and of late dayes, especially among the vulgar sort of people in Hampshire, which Galen, Dioscorides, or any other that have written of plants have not so much as dreamed of.” These clever folk-healers used Solomon’s seal extensively. “If any of what sex or age soever chance to have any bones broken, in what part of their bodies soever; their refuge is to stampe the roots hereof, and give it unto the patient in ale to drinke: which sodoreth and glues together the bones in very short space, and very strangely, yea although the bones be but slenderly and unhandsomely placed and wrapped up. Moreover, the said people do give it in like manner unto their cattell, if they chance to have any bones broken.”

Gerard reports several other valuable uses. “The root stamped and applied in manner of a pultesse, and layd upon members that have been out of ioynt, and newly restored to their places, driveth away the paine, and knitteth the ioynt very firmely, and taketh away the inflammation, if there chance to be any.” It is also beneficial for bruises. “The root of Solomon’s seale stamped while it is fresh and greene, and applied taketh away in one night, or two at the most, any bruise, black or blew spots gotten by falls.” It is also good for internal bruises. The root stamped and the juice drunk, “helps any inward bruise, disperseth the congealed and clotted bloud in very short space.” This will be beneficial during healing from a broken bone, which is usually surrounded by congealed blood. It is beneficial for many of the complications associated with broken bones. It is used “against inflammation, tumors, or swellings that happen unto members whose bones are broken, or members out of ioynt, after restaruration.”

“That which might be written of this herbe … would seeme unto some incredible,” he continues. “But common experience teacheth, that in the world is not to be found another herbe comparable to it.” My own experience validates these comments.

Solomon’s seal is one of those plants which demonstrates the truth of that oft-ridiculed idea, the doctrine of signatures. The white roots look like bones, joints, knuckles, and vertebra. When dry, they look even more like a bone, because the outside covering and the inside begin to look different, like the periosteum covering the bone. Then there are little spurs. These suggest an affinity to bone spurs. Solomon’s seal usually cures spurs and bunions by correcting the tension on the muscles and tendons, which cause malformation of the bones. It decalcifies, as needed by the body, breaking down spurs and deposits, yet it also recalcifies, building up and repairing bones. Most white roots contain or act on calcium. One of my students, a polarity therapist, noticed the way the leaves fold around the stems. They resemble the way muscles fold around and attach to bones.

Solomon’s seal is the superlative remedy for tightening or loosening tendons, ligaments, and muscles. It adjusts to the right tension. It is useful for ligamentous looseness, where the ligaments are stretched and don’t hold after an adjustment. I helped one fellow who had a ligament in his foot that was stretched an inch too long. The doctors wanted to cut out a piece and sew it back together, but Solomon’s seal tincture rubbed into the area corrected the problem in about a week. A veterinarian was stiff and arthritic because of old football injuries when he was a cornerback at Ohio State. He had suffered from broken bones, a torn shoulder joint, calcification, stiffness, and arthritic pain all over the place. Solomon’s seal cleared out the majority of the problems in a month. It is great for young athletes (and old athletes), not only because it corrects so many muscular and skeletal problems, but because it adjusts to the right tension, thus avoiding injuries and off periods. As Gerard points out, it is good for spinal problems because it helps get the bones in the right places. Solomon’s seal is the great medicine for arthritis in the joints, while black cohosh and teasel are for rheumatic pains in the muscles. Although it will not al ways cure, it will almost always palliate and remove pain, even in rheumatoid arthritis. It is a good remedy for hip dysplasia in dogs, as I have seen from experience.

Solomon’s seal is nearly foolproof for repetitive use tendonitis (and if it fails, we still have other remedies such as homeopathic Rhus toxicodendron or comfrey poultices). One of my students worked in a jewelry-making factory. One Christmas she made Solomon’s seal salve and brought jars for everyone as presents for her coworkers because they suffered from repetitive-use injuries. It cured all twenty-plus people and they started using it for arthritis on themselves and their relatives. That’s how we learned about its properties as an arthritic medicine.

William Salmon (1710, 1045) gives some additional information. “Taken at a time morning and evening … is said to cure ruptures when the guts fall into the cods, a cataplasm of the root being applyed outwardly.” The macerated roots in wheat or rye meal are applied outwardly to seal green wounds and “strengthen a weak back.”

The rhizomes are the useful part. They are so sweet they turn a sweet alcohol sticky and should be made up in grain alcohol or oil. The berries are toxic.

Taste: sweet, bitter, cool, moist.

Tissue State: atrophy.

Organ Affinities: tendons, mucosa.

Specific Indications:

• Characteristic symptoms: stretched or loose tendons and ligaments.

• Muscular and skeletal tensions, bones spurs resulting from such tensions.

• Repetitive use injury; carpal tunnel syndrome; arthritis associated with old injuries, calcifications, muscular, and skeletal tensions.

• Irritation of the mucosa of the intestines, lungs, vagina.

• Profuse menstrual flow, vaginal irritation.

• Nutritive food for weak and prostrated persons; tuberculosis.

• Premature ejaculation.

• Restores hormonal glow to the face, tones the ovaries, and strengthens the estrogen side of the cycle.

• Hemorrhoids.

• External on poison ivy.

Literature: Traditional, Gerard (1, 2), William Cook (4), Matthew Wood (1, 2, 3, 4), Christopher Reid (7), Julia Graves (8), William Cullen (9).

Galium aparine (Cleavers, Lady’s Bedstraw)

Cleavers is native to the Old World, but widely naturalized in the New. It has long been used in folk medicine. I wrote about it in The Book of Herbal Wisdom, so my remarks will be brief, but I will add some additional information here as I have learned new indications with the passage of time.

Picked before going to seed, it is moist, sweet, and salty. The sweet flavor is from coumarins, so it thins the blood and aerates the tissues. When there is atrophy with fibrous deposits in the tissues, the moisture and saltiness indicate this remedy. It has strong affinities to the lymphatic system, kidneys, and nervous system. It is suited to lymphatic congestion and stagnation, swollen glands, under and about the ears, and after infections. It dissolves calcareous deposits in the tissues, sweeps fluids and solids down to the kidneys, and helps remove them. It is beneficial in “gatherings of the nerves” and inflammation of the nerve endings (neurofibrositis). It is one of the few lymphatic remedies with an affinity for the vata constitution, but it helps people large and small. It should be considered in neurological diseases, over-sensitivity of the nerve endings, tickling, and itchy skin.

Based on the doctrine of signatures (swollen bulbs at the end of the long stalk), I once gave this plant to a young girl suffering from neurofibromatosis (Elephant man’s disease). The bulbs of the nerves were inflamed, producing an outbreak of round, reddened spots on the forearms and elsewhere. The spots lessened almost immediately as we put cleavers on the skin. Unfortunately, I never heard back from this case, as I was on traveling at the time. However, I was reminded of it when I was consulted to treat a case of Morton’s neuroma, a painful ganglion-like nerve swelling on the underside of the foot near the second toe. It was not the neuroma that joggled my memory, but the “eczema” on the forearm. It looked like scattered red bumps resembling the neurofibroma on the arm of the young girl. “I control that with cortisone, so my patients don’t see it,” said the woman, a very good acupuncturist. She was not looking for a cure for that, but when we tried some cleavers, the neuroma on her foot started feeling better. “It made a huge difference, even the next day,” said my patient. We had tried Ruta and Smilacina with slight pain relief for several months. The eczema also improved.

My acupuncturist friend was very precise about the areas where the eczema broke out, and her observations have a bearing on the utility of cleavers. “It broke out wherever there is a lot of muscular and ligament stress. On the forearm, the shoulder and the scapula, around GB 20. Also on the hips, down the gall bladder channel on the thigh. The neuroma was near the junction of the gall bladder and stomach channels.”

Later I found that cleavers works on the analogous tendons in the hand, under the middle finger on the palm. There can be a thinning of flesh, a gathering together of tendons, and lack of mobility. This is usually diagnosed as Duputreyan’s contractures. Another practitioner called this “flexor tendon nodules.” The most holistic explanation came from a polarity therapist, who noted that the gathered tendons were under the middle or fire finger or toe, indicating a “fire problem.”

Cleavers should be collected in the spring and early summer before the seeds appear, and when it still tastes like vanilla. It must be prepared or used fresh. My dose is small—one to three drops, one to three times per day—but it certainly can be used in moderate and large doses. In long-term build up of fibrous tissue, this remedy may need to be persisted in for a year or longer, though immediate results will be evident.

Taste: sweet, salty/minerally, cool, moist.

Tissue State: atrophy.

Organ Affinities: nerves, lymphatic system, kidneys.

Specific Indications:

• Nervousness, sympathetic excess.

• Fussy, irritated, unsatisfied, “not myself.”

• Dry eyes.

• Sensitive nervous system; skin tickles and itches easily.

• Stagnation of water, in the lymphatic system, kidneys, bladder (any or all); poor elimination of effete material; calcifications and fibrous tissue.

• Fibrocystic breasts with many cysts, fibrous tissue.

• Lymphatic swellings under and behind the ears; after acute infections; in newborn babies.

• Edema, swelling of the hands and feet.

• Bladder infections with fever, heat, and straining; nonspecific cystitis, urethritis extending to kidneys, testicles.

• Pregnancy.

• Male sexual system; prostate inflamed, enlarged, difficulty passing water; hydrocele, orchitis; after venereal infections.

• Irritability of the vas deferens and seminal vesicles; soreness of the testicles on rising.

• Neurological disease; Morton’s neuroma (gathering of nerves under middle toes, swollen and hot, cramps up legs, walks with a limp); neurofibrositis.

• Skin eruptions; febrile exanthema, scarlet fever; eczema resembling neurofibrositis.

• Epilepsy.

• Bleeding.

• Cancer. “It is of great service in cancer. Give tincture thirty to sixty drops mixed with milk, four times a day, and see the miracle” (Sinha).

Literature: Traditional, Maude Grieve (1), Dorothy Hall (2, 11), Edwin Hale (homeopathic uses), Gideon Lincecum (Indian uses), Maria Treben, Matthew Wood (1–5, 13), David Winston (12), Yadubir Sinha (16).

The term “relaxation” was applied in old-time medicine as far back as Hippocrates to any condition where the tissues could not hold on to fluids and thus flowed away. This would include excessive sweating, salivation, digestive secretion, diarrhea, menstrual bleeding, and urination. Another term we sometimes find in the old literature is “free secretion.” In addition, the tissues are usually flaccid, atonic, or prolapsed. One variation is “passive venous congestion,” where the vasculature is relaxed, the blood collects in the veins, and there are symptoms of high blood pressure, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, dilatation of the right side of the heart, congestion of the liver and lungs. Chronic diabetes mellitus often creates a relaxed condition with loss of fluids via the kidneys and the skin.

In traditional Western herbalism, astringents have always treated this tissue state. Dr. Edward Shook (1978, 87, 115) explains, “nearly all astringents coagulate albumin, tone up relaxed or debilitated condition of muscular fiber, contract both arterioles and capillaries, restrain peristalsis, contract gland ducts, and repress excessive secretions.” Even diabetes will respond to astringents, if the case is characterized by free secretion of fluids.

One of the ironies of the relaxed tissue state is that it tends to create a deep tension, which can be either psychological or physical, or both. It is associated with high blood pressure in some cases. This probably occurs because fluid loss is associated with potassium depletion and sodium buildup.

The most prominent astringent herbs are Rubus spp. (raspberry, blackberry), Rhus spp. (sumach bark), Hamamelis (witch hazel), Geranium spp. (wild geranium, herb robert), Quercus spp. (white oak bark), Osmunda regalis (royal fern), Salvia spp. (sage), Tsuga canadensis (Canadian hemlock), Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut), Collinsonia (stone root), and Myrica cerifera (bayberry bark). The last five are warming, stimulating astringents.

Excessive use of astringents can impair mineral absorption. Astringents bind with alkalis. However, as a remedy, they help retain minerals.

There are a number of anomalous remedies that stop fluid loss by increasing nutrition or stimulating the tissues. This includes Monarda fistulosa (sweet leaf), Astragalus, and Foeniculum (fennel). They do not fit this tissue state.

Rubus villosa (Blackberry)

Blackberry is the standard old-time remedy for simple, uncomplicated diarrhea due to “relaxation of the bowels.” The leaf, fruit, or root may be used. It is sweet, sour, cool, and astringent, so it sedates heat and tones the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, improving digestion, absorption, and nutrition. If it is not available, use raspberry leaf in its place.

Blackberry “is especially indicated when there is evidence of relaxation and enfeeblement of the mucous coats of the stomach and bowels, and the discharges are large, watery, and clay-colored.” It is also indicated in “passive hemorrhage from the stomach, bowels, or uterus” (Fyfe, 1909). Blackberry leaf tea was Dr. V. G. Rocine’s favorite medicine for “prolapse” of the stomach.

Dr. Wooster Beach (1842, 670) preserved an interesting anecdote from upstate New York about blackberry. “It is a medicine much used by Indians in dysentery; and it is said that, in the Oneida tribe, five hundred were attacked with this diseases in one season, and, by the use of the blackberry root, all recovered, while their neighbors, the whites, fell before the disease; no doubt in consequence of taking mercury, or some of the common agents made use of.”

Rhus typhina, R. aromatica, R. coriara (Sumach)

Sumach (R. coriara) has a long history of use in Greek and Arabic medicine. It was largely forgotten at the time of American settlement and the use of the native species were picked up from the Indians. Fragrant sumach (R. aromatica) and smooth sumach (R. glabra) were officinal in the nineteenth century, but staghorn sumach (R. typhina) has been used in folk medicine. The symptoms are relatively interchangeable but R. glabra seems to have more putrefaction. I use R. typhina because it grows in my neighborhood and has the beautiful antler-like branches of an “elk medicine.” The bark is astringent while the berries are sour and astringent. Herbalist Glenda Croft, of Wagga Wagga, Australia, uses the ground berries and bark of the Old World sumach, which is widely available as a condiment.

Herbalist Phyllis Light has developed a constitutional picture of the sumach person, based on traditional Appalachian usage in her region, and through personal experience. The person is usually thin, weak, lethargic, lacking in will, codependent, with weak kidneys, dark circles under the eyes, anemia (poor blood) from renal insufficiency (kidneys not signaling the marrow), low immunity (also from bone marrow weakness), with fluid loss. Kidneys are relaxed, exhausted, not able to remove fluids (edema), or not able to retain filtered urine. A characteristic symptom is frequent urination associated with weakness. Fluid loss after a period of fever. Also indicated when other fluids are not being retained, hence in impotence, nocturnal emissions, clear vaginal discharge, dribbling of urine, excessive blood loss from the kidneys, uterus, bowels, stomach, or lungs, with excessive expectoration.

Dr. J. T. McClanahan, of Booneville, Missouri, introduced fragrant sumach (Rhus aromatica) in 1879 as a remedy for urinary incontinence and excessive urination. It became an officinal remedy in nineteenth-century medicine. The leaves and bark of the fragrant sumach are beneficial for both diabetes insipidus and mellitus. I have several times used staghorn sumach with the same results associated with its aromatic cousin—diminished perspiration and urination and return of blood sugar to a stable level.

Dr. I. J. M. Goss (1885, 124) learned about Rhus aromatica for diabetes from Dr. McClanahan. An old man who had what we would now call type II diabetes approached him. He was very weak, and was passing large quantities of urine filled with sugar. “I put this old gentleman upon the lycopus and nitrate of uranium, which treatment he continued for one month, and which reduced the quantity of urine, but not the quantity of sugar.” Goss then put him on Rhus aromatica, thirty drops, three times a day. This decreased both urine and sugar. After two months, “he reported himself perfectly well, and so continues up to last accounts.” The old man had visited both his brothers, who were “old and reputable physicians;” both had pronounced the case incurable.

“By thus quoting an extreme case of diabetes mellitus, in an old man 74 or 75, I desire to show that the Rhus aromatica is the most reliable remedy that has hitherto been used.” From my own experience I would agree, but twentieth-century practitioners have used blueberry or bilberry leaf as their standard remedy in type II diabetes and it may be that it is also of great effectiveness.

Here is a case where I used Rhus typhina. A forty-three-year-old woman in Harrisonburg, Virginia, had contracted type I diabetes twenty-two years previously and was on the insulin pump. In most such cases, after so many years, the cells become somewhat insulin-resistant and there are increasing symptoms of what is really type II diabetes. Blood sugar levels gyrated between 400 and as low as twenty-six, unpredictably. She had extreme mood-swings, nervousness, poor eyesight, numbness, and soreness in the legs, cold feet with low sugar levels, and telltale thirst with excessive urination. When her blood sugar levels plunged, she would “cuss like a dirty sailor” and not remember afterwards. After starting on Rhus typhina, three drops, three times per day, blood sugar levels became stable for the first time in ten years and all the above symptoms of type II diabetes disappeared. Of course she still had an insulin pump but now she could tell when her blood sugars were down. She literally threw away her glasses and regained normal eyesight.

The bark is collected in the spring, when the sap is running and used per decoction or preserved in alcohol, glycerin, or sugar. The berries are collected as soon as they are ripe and cleaned to remove worms. Usual dose of the tincture, five to thirty drops (Fyfe).

Taste: (bark) astringent.

(berries) sour, cooling, astringent.

Tissue State: (bark) relaxation.

(berries) relaxation, irritation.

Organ Affinities: kidneys, skin, fluids.

Specific Indications:

• Fragile persons; pale, anemic, poor immunity, weak bone marrow and kidneys, with fluid loss from the skin, lungs, bowels, kidneys.

• Weak, fragile, lethargic, lacking in will, whiny, and codependent.

• Dark under the eyes, pale, flushing during flu and fever alternating with gray pallor.

• Spongy gums, canker sores, ulcerations in the mouth (rinse, Rhus glabra).

• Colds and flues with copious secretion, postnasal drip, sore throat with inflamed uvula and tonsils (but no pitting or pus), cough from secretion into lungs.

• Bronchitis with copious, free secretion weakness; lethargy; fragile capillaries; bleeding.

• Traditional for consumption; bleeding, weakness and copious perspiration.

• Diarrhea with fetid flatus and stool (Rhus glabra).

• Urine profuse, frequent, pale; without active inflammation, with exhaustion, weakness.

• “Profuse and painful discharges, mucous and hemorrhagic, from the mucous surfaces of the kidneys, bladder, gastrointestinal canal, uterus, lungs, and bronchi” (Fyfe).

• Swollen prostate, with great pain on urination.

• Impotence; with frequent urination at night.

• Diabetes insipidus; large quantities of urine passed, no sugar, great thirst.

• Diabetes mellitus with copious urine and perspiration.

• Incipient albuminuria.

• Edema with weakness, fragility; not indicated when stones are present.

• Bedwetting in the young and the old; with weakness; frequent urination at night; unable to fill the bladder before needing relief; dribbling, lack of retention of urine.

• Fever with debility, fluid loss, night-sweats, thirst; preceded by frequent urination.

• Stiffness, inflammation, and weakness of the lower back and knees (cf. homeopathic Rhus toxicodendron).

• Skin fungus associated with dampness.

• Antidotal to mercury salivation and putrefaction (Rhus glabra).

Literature: Traditional, Phyllis Light (1–7, 10, 17, 20), William Boericke (4, 8, 9, 10), McClanahan (10, 13–6, 18), John King (10, 12, 13), Matthew Wood (15, 20).

Juglans nigra (Black Walnut Leaf)

Black walnut is a fragrant bitter with astringent properties. The hulls are described under the section on torpor. The leaves are more astringent than the hulls. This is not a remedy I am familiar with through personal experience, but the indications from Dr. Edward Shook (1978, 92) interest us here because they bring out the properties of astringency which are inherent in the leaves, a part of the plant which has long been ignored.

Shook used a decoction of walnut leaves to stop diarrhea and tone the muscles of the bowel. “In relaxed and atonic conditions of the muscular structure of any organ, the astringing, contracting, and toning properties of walnut leaves or bark are most remarkable. Let us take, for instance, the ballooned condition of the intestines so frequently met with in our practice.” The terminology illustrates the use of the terms “relaxation” and “astringent” by the old doctors as a description of an energetic state. Shook preferred to combine it with Chondrus crispus, which would be a tissue building mucilage.

W. Burns Lingard (1958, 18) recommended fluid extract of black walnut hulls in ten to fifteen minimum doses for “bilious diarrhea,” cases where diarrhea is associated with a free flux of bile from the gall bladder. There may be a bacterial element here, which black walnut is suited to as a remedy.

Taste: (leaves) bitter, astringent.

Tissue state: relaxation.

Organ-affinities: mucosa, intestines, skin.

Specific indications:

• Canker sores, tonsillitis, sore throat, relaxed uvula.

• Epistaxis, nasal catarrh.

• Hoarseness of the voice.

• Internal ulcerations, inflammations, mucous and hemorrhagic discharges.

• Diarrhea, dysentery; relaxed and ballooned intestines; bleeding hemorrhoids.

• Leucorrhea.

• Externally for ringworm, falling hair, eczema, itch, shingles, tumors, cancers, abscesses, boils, acne.

Literature: Edward Shook.

Quercus alba, Quercus robur (White Oak Bark)

Quercus alba is the officinal plant in North America. Quercus robur is used in Europe. Many other oaks have been used on the same indications. They seem fairly interchangeable. I discussed Quercus rather extensively in The Book of Herbal Wisdom and will give only a brief account here.

Oak bark is a very powerful astringent. It tightens, strengthens, and rebuilds varicose veins and hemorrhoids. It is indicated by the nastiest looking, dilapidated veins resembling blue-black clumps of grapes with yellow serum discoloring the tissue. It increases the venous return circulation, tones the veins, reduces the swelling and color, reestablishes the action of the valves in veins, and returns the tissue almost to a new appearance. It also acts on relaxed, rotten gums and, strange to say, on the teeth themselves. Dr. Christopher taught that it could cure cavities and I have seen this so many times (sometimes with x-ray documentation) that I consider it one of the most reliable remedies I know. It is specific for lymphedema following the removal of glands during cancer therapy, but here it cures only about half the time.

Oak is the great remedy when long, arduous suffering or usage has broken down the integrity of mind or body. Dr. Bach introduced Quercus robur for those who fight on against adversity, never giving in, but never succeeding. It helps a person choose the appropriate, winnable battles, instead of trying to “out-integrity” every obstacle. J. G. Rademacher, Compton Burnett, and Dorothy Shepherd developed the use of Q. robur for the treatment of alcoholism (which I have seen confirmed).

In the winter of 2000–01, there was a particularly harsh influenza with tendencies towards pneumonia. The hospital beds were full. Ginger root tea helped some people who caught the disease early, but those who were down with it for a long time became exhausted. I saw several people who were yellow and swollen beneath the eyes, with recurrent coughing fits. Oak bark steered them back to health.

Oak is such a strong astringent that it can only be used in small doses: one to three drops is my favorite dosage. A gargle is good in gum and teeth problems.

Taste: astringent.

Tissue State: relaxation, depression.

Organ Affinities: mucosa, veins, tooth, and bone.

Specific Indications:

• Persons who struggle against adversity; they never give up but they never succeed; helps a person choose the battles they can win.

• Alcoholism.

• Goiter.

• Sinus congestion and postnasal drip.

• Strep throat, tonsillitis, swollen glands in throat.

• Exhausted after bronchitis; blue, yellow, swollen, puffy under and around the eyes; spitting of blood.

• Gum disease, dental caries, loose teeth, bad breath, canker sores.

• Dyspepsia; diarrhea; hemorrhoids.

• Intestinal prolapse, lack of tone, candida.

• Saggy, boggy, prolapsed mucosa; especially of the alimentary tract.

• Ulceration of the bladder, bloody urine, cystitis.

• Blue/black, knobby varicose veins on the legs, surrounded by yellow infiltration.

• Vaginitis.

• Osteoporosis.

• Bleeding, bruises.

• Lymphedema after surgical removal of glands.

Literature: Traditional, Edward Bach (1), Johann Gottfried Rademacher (2), J. Compton Burnett (2, 6), Dorothy Shepherd (2), Finley Ellingwood, Matthew Wood (1, 2, 6, 7, 12, 16), John Christopher (7).

Salvia officinalis (Sage)

Sage is a plant of remarkable range and depth. It is oily, astringent, and warming, so it builds fluids, stops or restores their loss, and mildly warms and restores functions associated with fluids. Anthony Godfrey, N.D., of Toronto, put it as simply as can be: “Sage balances fluids of all kinds.” On the one hand, it is used to check excessive flux of fluids from the body, as in the drenching sweats of tuberculosis and menopause, excessive urination, diarrhea, and menstruation. On the other hand, it is used to nourish tissue that is dried out, withered, and atrophic. It has a complex hormonal effect, which makes it drying for young women (a famous antigalactagogue), and moistening for older women. It is a stimulant for tissue depression and blood stagnation. It also has a strong action on the nervous system and is traditionally used for nervous delirium and spasm, drowsiness, lethargy, and weak nerve reflexes associated with low fevers.

On the simplest level, we may think of sage as it is used in cooking: to help digest the fats. It stimulates the gall bladder—I used it once to cure gall bladder colic—improves digestion, and lubricates the colon. Like burdock, it improves the use of fats and oils in the interior, especially helping them build tissue. It moistens and rebuilds dried skin, and especially, dried tendons. When I go to take the pulse and I cannot find the tendon that should run alongside the artery, I think of sage and I am never disappointed.

Dr. Dietrich Gümble, in Principles of Holistic Therapy with Herbal Essences (1993), states that the principle activity of sage oil is to help with the absorption of fluids into the tissues and cells, enhancing “swellability” of the connective tissue, increasing pliability, and retention of fluids. This gives it a powerful influence on the kidneys. Sage helps the re-absorption of blood from the kidneys back into the bloodstream and cuts down on fluid loss by excessive urination. The skin and the kidneys communicate to hold in water.

By preserving internal fluids, sage prevents nervous irritability and debility (from lack of fluids to sedate and calm the nervous system). Because lipids are the medium of transportation for lipophilic hormones (thyroid, adrenals, gonads) it has a profound influence on the endocrine system and menopause.

It is especially called for when the ovaries stop producing estrogen during menopause and the fluids and skin start to dry out. It is suited to the hot flushes, profuse perspiration and emotional imbalance of menopause. It has long been used to increase fertility, but also to stop lactation. Gümbel says sage gives the skin “a soft, feminine look and a good circulation.”

Maude Grieve (1931, 703) emphasizes the action of sage on stopping flux from relaxed tissues. “The principle and most valued application of [sage] is as a wash for the cure of affections of the mouth and as a gargle in inflamed sore throat, being excellent for relaxed throat and tonsils, and also for ulcerated throat. The gargle is useful for bleeding gums and to prevent an excessive flow of saliva.” Ben Charles Harris (1961, 161) gives the following formula for relaxed and bleeding gums: sage (one part), sumach (one part), and goldthread (optional; one part).

Sage has a long history of use as a folk remedy for sore throat. Sage tea, with some honey in it, is a delicious beverage soothing to the throat, strengthening to the peripheral circulation when there is relaxation of the uvula, tonsils, and mucous membranes. It strengthens resistance to external environmental influences, much like Astragalus. Both consolidate a weak periphery with excessive sweating. Sage is therefore used for those who suffer from coughs, colds, and flu. I used it myself for recurrent sore throats dating back to childhood. A problem I have now largely outgrown, thanks to this remedy.

Rudolf Steiner suggested its use in asthma; it is suited to cases where there is excessive expectoration and weakness with a history of “low immunity.” Here is a case history, if we can call it that, illustrating the use of sage in asthma. I was invited to dinner at some friends, where I was treated to a story of my own healing prowess, recounted by the host in front of a millionaire. It was one of those times you cannot help but feel a happy glow on your checks. I had completely forgotten the entire event, though both the husband and the wife vouchsafed all the details. Apparently I brought some sage tincture to a dinner years ago to give to the wife and opened it up part way through the dinner. Her husband, sitting several seats away, had been suffering from asthma for many years. He suddenly took several deep breaths and turned red in the face as oxygen poured into his head. I put the lid back on the bottle with a comment like, “See, even small amounts of an herb will have an effect if it’s the right one.” He started taking sage and has been completely free of asthma since.

Hildegard von Bingen recommended it when there were solidified, putrefying humors, or phlegm making a person cough blood, i.e., in tuberculosis. She recommended waiting for the bleeding to stop, then giving sage cooked in mild, sweet wine mixed with water. She also recommends supplementing the diet with butter or olive oil (Physica, I:LXIII), which would indicate that she was thinking of people who do not have enough oil.

Sage is also indicated when there is profuse, free perspiration, or night sweats with respiratory diseases (cf. Astragalus). It was an important remedy used to check the colliquative sweating of tuberculosis in the nineteenth century. Sage can be used as a diaphoretic to promote sweating, or as an astringent to contain it. A warm sage tea may provoke a cleansing sweat, which clears out the chill and strengthens the periphery. LeSassier notes that sage especially diffuses sweat from the lung area, whereas ginger brings it more out of the stomach. Such observations form the basis of our knowledge of “organ affinities.”

Amy Minel, an herbalist in Ulster County, New York, related a nice case history. A man in his early thirties, thin to begin with, started losing fluids by urination and drying out. His skin was dry and his joints, formerly bendable, were becoming painful. “I feel like I’m becoming an old man,” he said ruefully. She gave sage and licorice. The symptoms quickly and efficiently reversed themselves.

Here is another case from a student in Pennsylvania. A friend suffered from profuse sweating and urination, aggravated or caused by hypertensive remedies. She was suffering from labile hypertension. She recommended a quart a day of fresh sumach berry and sage leaf tea. The profuse fluid losses were quickly checked.

Sage acts on veins that are relaxed and depressed. Sage bath oil is used in anthroposophical medicine as a remedy for the veins. Sage also dissolves clotted blood. Salvia miltiorrhiza is a major remedy for “congealed blood” in traditional Chinese medicine.

I was first made aware of the use of our Western or garden sage as a remedy for blood stagnation in a manuscript relating the teachings of herbalist Eva Graf (1978, 14–6), of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She used it to cleanse the blood vessels, to remove plaque or hardening, for varicose veins, to restrain immoderate bleeding of dark, coagulated blood, diabetic ulcerations of the veins, especially of the calves. She assures her students that it dissolves clots without releasing them into the circulation to cause emboli and so forth. Hot sage tea, she says, will banish depression quickly.

Mrs. Graf tells a typical folk-medical story about “a little girl who had a disease where her blood vessels had gone through and all of her legs and arms were kind of black looking. It was quite terrible to look at. The doctors said, ‘There’s nothing we can do for it and it will eventually kill her.’ It took two sage baths where they completely immersed the child in sage tea, and played with her for a period of twenty minutes, to completely take care of the whole condition.” Let the doctors complain of a lack of detail and the anecdotal nature of such stories; in herbalism we appreciate the graphic picture in the story more than the medical diagnosis. Also, we appreciate the success, rather than the theory and consensus opinion of experts.

In holistic medicine we follow the American Indian method, where the story is held to convey “medicine power.” Fortified with this story, I applied sage to the foot of a woman who had been nearly paralyzed in a car accident, and whose cerebellum had been damaged. She was able to walk with great difficulty and needed an antispasmodic drug to prevent muscular spasms. An operation on her right foot, or perhaps just the problems incipient to her condition, caused the foot to become swollen and blue/purple. Tests showed no obvious reason for the problem. When we applied sage, internally and externally, the condition promptly lessened and went away in several weeks. (In this instance I had to use California sage as well, since I was running out of garden sage).

Here is another case history. A forty-five-year-old man smashed his calf into a wood stove. He suffered internal contusions with swelling, tenderness, and lumpiness along the veins. When he took a flight the high altitude caused troubled breathing, due to blood clots breaking loose and blocking capillaries in the lungs. Thereafter, he had to avoid flying. Yarrow, St. John’s Wort, and other remedies helped, but nothing really moved the condition for the following year and a half. Finally I recommended sage, internally and externally. He used what he had on hand—California white sage (Saliva apiana). The lumps dissipated within two weeks, the veins tingled with new life, and the circulation to the extremities improved. Even some lumps on his arm that he got as a boy disappeared.

The great white sage (Salvia apiana), native to California, can be used in place of garden sage (S. officinalis). It is more stimulating and warming, but less astringent. Here it might be well to quote William Turner (1562, 275): “Dioscorides maketh but one kind of Sage, but … now are there found more kinds, the which, though they differ one from another much in roughness and smoothness, in greatness and smallness, and in diversity of colours, yet in my judgment do agree in one virtue and property, and although some be stronger than other some be.”

Sage tea is prepared by steeping a closed pot, to prevent the loss of the volatile oils. It is taken hot to induce sweating and cold to prevent sweating and discharges. Some honey can be added for flavor, making it a delicious drink. A tincture can be prepared from the leaves. For a more stimulating, less astringent tincture, use California or great white sage (Salvia apiana). I use the tincture in small doses.

Taste: pungent, warm, moist, oily, astringent.

Tissue States: relaxation, atrophy, depression.

Organ Affinities: skin, mucosa, kidneys, endocrine.

Specific Indications:

• Older persons with dryness of the skin, hair, mucosa, tendons; drying up of secretions.

• Weak, debilitated persons, sensitive persons, children, old people; prone to colds, flu, coughs, which begin with dryness, soreness of the throat; with weak digestive powers, bloating, and flatulence.

• Mental lethargy, depression, poor concentration, “dull and heavy spirit.”

• Typhoid and brain fevers with nervous tension, restlessness, insomnia or drowsiness, lethargy, unconsciousness.

• Loss of hair, fading hair color, dandruff.

• Running sinuses, postnasal drip, colds.

• Gums, sore, bleeding, ulcerated, inflamed, receding; canker sores; inflammation of tongue.

• Throat dry, tickles, sore; sometimes descending into the lungs, resulting in dry, irritable cough, followed by secretion of mucus, which dries out, resulting in mucus difficult to raise; voice loss; weak and spasmodic cough reflexes.

• Sore throat, swollen glands, tonsillitis, pain on swallowing.

• Palliative for tuberculosis; with night sweats, emaciation, swollen glands.

• Atonic digestive mucosa with increased secretion, or lack of secretion.

• Indigestion with weakness and debility; difficulty digesting fats and oils; gas.

• Stomach dry, with bloating and flatulence. Pain in the side.

• Chronic diarrhea, with debility.

• Increased secretion of urine with low specific gravity; with debility; cystitis.

• Excessive or deficient sexual desire; infertility; dryness, lack of vaginal secretion; lack of bleeding, amenorrhea; menopausal hot flashes, night sweats.

• Morning sickness during pregnancy.

• Contraindicated during lactation, dries up milk.

• Menopause: estrogen changes after menopause.

• Excessive, debilitating perspiration, skin soft and relaxed, with enfeebled circulation to the extremities, which are cold. Contraindicated when the night sweat is preceded by hectic fever and dry, harsh skin.

• Skin and mucosa dry, withered, like a sage leaf; lichenification.

• Tendons dry, weak, malnourished, tight, flaccid.

• Deterioration of the veins; bleeding, varicosities; in diabetes and other diseases.

• Blood stagnation; removes clots and coagulation without causing strokes, etc.; improves circulation and cardiovascular function.

• Pains in limbs and joints; arthritis; worse from cold and damp.

• Epilepsy, palsy.

• Insect bites; wounds, bleeding.

Literature: Traditional, Matthiolus (3), William Coles (21), John Scudder (20), John William Fyfe, Rose Elliot and Carlo di Paoli (2, 3), Matthew Wood (4, 6, 21, 22), Tommie Bass, Eva Graf (22–3), Phyllis Light (19), Anthony Godfrey.

Aesculus hippocastanum (Horse Chestnut)

Horse Chestnut is an interesting remedy because it unites a strong warming stimulation to the astringency. Thus it increases circulation as well as improving the tone of the veins. It acts strongly on passive venous congestion and hence is an astringent with a strong activity on neuromuscular tension, which is often caused by venous backup. It was widely used as a remedy to relax horses after a workout. At one time a horse liniment was sold in farm supply stores. Herbalist Evelyn Snook made a liniment by peeling horse chestnuts and macerating them for two weeks in witch hazel (Jennifer Tucker). It can also be made by chopping the nuts and hulls without peeling them.

Dr. Edward Bach used this plant under the name “white chestnut” as one of his flower essences. It is suited to people who feel attacked by their own thoughts, and unable to find peace and rest. This has been borne out in practitioner experience, and indeed, it is a keynote around which the physical symptoms associated with the remedy may be organized for greater clarity. Aesculus hippocastanum (whether the herb, the flower essence, or the homeopathic remedy) is suited to people who are suffering from obsessive/compulsive thought disorders. Thoughts are continual and give no rest. Insomnia is common.

The pulse corresponds to the psychological profile. In a fully developed case it feels as if there is not enough space between the beats, which are bounding and tensed up. It is as if there is not enough space for the thoughts, which fill the mind and cause tension; also for the blood, which makes the pulse bounding, as if looking for a place to escape, as with a hemorrhoid, for instance.

These pulse indications are based on my experience. The following is one of the more dramatic of many cases in which I have used Aesculus hippocastanum. A woman came to see me for glaucoma. She was legally blind; her eyesight was damaged by forceps delivery forty-five years previous. She had hemorrhoids, mental restlessness, and sleeplessness. “I have not slept for over four months,” she said. I didn’t need anymore symptoms. Aesculus hip. 12x brought a flow of tears to her dry eyes and completely cured the insomnia, hemorrhoids, and glaucoma.

In another case, an overweight, middle-aged, but rather jolly, woman came to see me for phlebitis, for which she was taking antibiotics. She had moderately high blood pressure and was on a beta-blocker. The veins were distended but not corrugated, like oak bark, nor dark like sumach or echinacea. There was poor circulation to the periphery with cool hands and feet so I thought a stimulating astringent like Aesculus or Collinsonia would be appropriate. Did she have insomnia? All the time. Obsessive thinking? She was on antidepressants and suffered from inability to focus the mind. No glaucoma, fortunately. Aesculus hip. capsules internally and capsules crushed up in witch hazel extract externally. The swelling went down, the phlebitis improved considerably, circulation improved, the skin became smooth and beautiful, and the thinking processes improved.

The nineteenth-century doctors classified Aesculus as a remedy for “passive venous congestion” (see, for instance, William Boericke). Hemorrhoids are common as an outlet from the pressure exerted through the veins. This tension backs up through the portal vein to the liver, or perhaps it goes from the liver back upon the portal system. At any rate, it is a remedy for liver congestion, and also a remedy for high blood pressure. Uterine congestion, engorgement, and malposition come under its dominion.

Dr. J. Compton Burnett wrote a fine little treatise on hemorrhoids and varicosities entitled Diseases of the Veins. What he says about the internal pathology associated with hemorrhoidal conditions helps us to understand the organ-affinities of Aesculus. “Heart affections; imperfect aeration of the blood; liver affections; congestion in the portal system of veins; enlarged spleen; abdominal tumors; great accumulation of fat in the omentum, or of feces in the intestines; in fact, anything that disturbs the reflex of blood to the right heart, vena cava interior, vena portae, tends to hypo-static hyperemia of the hemorrhoidal veins.” This perfectly describes the structures to which Aesculus has an affinity, though Burnett had no acquaintance with this valuable remedy at the time he wrote.

Julia Graves remarks, “The venous tonic in Germany is horse chestnut. Every supermarket has Aesculus capsules for ‘tired legs and veins.’ They even advertise it on television. The tincture or salve on the legs gives a nice feeling of lightness. I believe it makes the venous blood rise, giving it levity to defy gravity. Also, it is a big rheumatic remedy for the left knee specifically, and the creme helps me with pain in the left knee and pain in the hips.” Also, “I feel the tincture sucks the venous blood upwards, thus helping the veins not to get too bogged down. I do not get that sensation from using any of the other varicose remedies, such as sage, witch hazel, or oak. It even seems to lift up the piles. I have asked others and they have confirmed this sensation.”

Aesculus is moderately toxic and should not be used internally, except in homeopathic form or small doses (one to three drops). It is similar in action to Collinsonia, with which it is often combined as a hemorrhoid salve.

As we have mentioned previously, in Greek medicine there are two kinds of dampness, that which flows and that which remains stuck in the tissues. The latter is the genesis of the of torpid tissue state. This condition is not only associated with a buildup of unneeded fluids, but with their precipitation into thickened phlegm—mucopolysaccharides, actually—which were called “humors” in the old literature. In addition to the thickening of fluids, waste products build up because of the stuck state of transportation in the body. Indeed, even unused food becomes a waste product. Meanwhile, the tissues are not getting enough nutrition and they tend to become flabby and weak. The thickening fluids cause pain in the muscles. It would be called fibromyalgia today, or rheumatism (dampness) as per the old books. The single most characteristic symptom is said to be skin lesions. Another typical symptom is hangover. The digestion and liver functions are backed up. Lymphatic stagnation and sluggishness in also typical. The channels of elimination may be taxed. Some cases of hypothyroidism would fit here.

All of these are easy enough to describe, but torpor is a hard folk medical diagnosis to make. In my experience, the best indication is a pulse where the beat is obscured, as if by phlegm or water. Dr. John Scudder pointed out this pulse as a major indicator for “bad blood,” i.e., torpor. He also noted the lack of expression in the tissues.

The term alterative was introduced to indicate that the body was altered in some unknown fashion. It is connected perhaps with Galen’s use of the term “alteration” to describe what changes food into nutriment for the tissues, i.e., what we would call metabolism. Faults of metabolism and elimination of waste products are indeed the stuff from which torpor, toxemia, or damp stagnation is made. And its names are legion—bad blood, impure blood, humors in the blood, humor, and toxemia.

I rather like the term “blood purifier” more than alterative, as it is more expressive and meaningful. In addition to blood purifiers or alteratives, the main remedies for this tissue state include laxatives. Most of these agents are bitter: Arctium (burdock root), Taraxacum (dandelion root), Hydrastis (goldenseal), Xanthorrhiza (yellow root), Medicago (alfalfa), Polymnia (bearsfoot), Berberis vulgaris (barberry), and Berberis aquifolium (mahonia). The bitter laxatives are: Aloe, Juglans nigra (black walnut), Rhamnus (buckthorn, cascara sagrada), Cassia (senna), and Phytolacca (poke root). Alterative and laxative Rumex crispus (yellow dock root) is sour, astringent, and bitter. Its cousin Rheum (rhubarb) is bitter, acrid, and sour. In excess, bitters can dry out tissue.

There are also some non-bitter alteratives such as Smilax ornata (sarsaparilla), Fumaria officinalis (fumitory), Trifolium pratense (red clover), and Urtica (nettle). Most of these plants increase digestion and metabolism because they are nourishing. As mentioned above, there tends to be an interplay between stagnation and atrophy, even though one condition is too damp and the other too dry. Both limit organ nutrition, elimination, and function.

Arctium lappa (Burdock)

I have placed burdock here under the alteratives since it is usually classified as one of the front rank blood purifiers. However, I tend to think of it as a nutritive tonic as well because it is so oily. It nourishes and cleanses the lipid pathways of the body.

Burdock is bitter, sweet, and oily. It is therefore well suited to dry/atrophic conditions when an alterative would be useful. The oil stimulates increased secretion of bile, promoting better absorption of fats and oils through the small intestine and better activity in the gall bladder. It is called for when there is poor secretion of bile, indicated by dry stool, constipation, and poor emulsification of fats and oils. With low absorption of lipids there is a shortage of these substances in the body. Burdock is thus associated with dry, scaly skin conditions and dry skin in general. Sometimes the sebaceous glands get blocked, due to a lack of oil moving through, resulting in inflammation (hence the association of burdock with acne and boils). The sinuses and lungs are also dry and the secretion through the kidneys is limited. This results in dry tissues, or water retention conjoined with the dryness. The liver is also affected. With a lack of fats and oils, there is reduced anabolism of foodstuffs for the body, with wasting and dryness (dry/atrophy). In order to get nutrition, there may be a dependence on “quick fixes” of sugar. Thus, it is a remedy for sugar imbalances. Since steroid and sex hormones are made from oil and require oil for transmission through the body, and all hormones of any kind require adequate fluids for movement, burdock comes up as something of an endocrine and reproductive remedy. It is sometimes beneficial in swollen prostate. It may be necessary when there is not enough oil to maintain healthy adrenals and steroid-building. By moistening the system, burdock also has an influence on the kidneys. It is an old remedy for kidney stones.

Generally, in my experience, people who need burdock are on the thin side, nervous, with dry skin and scalp. It may be necessary to give small to large doses over a long time as a building rejuvenative.

The root is used for chronic conditions, the seed in acute. A biennial, the roots are dug at the end of the first year or the beginning of the second; the seed are harvested just after the end of the second year, before the plant is completely dead; the leaves are sometimes used externally as a poultice. The root, high in oils, easily goes rancid and needs to be dried with artificial heat and left in the open air. It extracts well in alcohol (brandy is a very good medium). The dried root and seeds may be used by decoction as a tea.

Taste: (root) sweet, bitter, pungent, warm, oily.

(seed) bitter, pungent, sweet, warm, diffusive.

Tissue State: atrophy, torpor.

Organ Affinities: liver, gall bladder, kidneys, skin, endocrine system.

Specific Indications:

• Heat, dryness, lack of oil.

• Thin, withered persons with dry skin and scalp.

• Emotionally stoic; phlegmatic about pain.

• Tired, worn-out, worried.

• Dry scalp with red, scaly patches and hair loss.

• Headache, frontal, with dry sinus.

• Respiratory conditions with dry mucosa; allergies, sinusitis, bronchitis.

• Lack of secretion in the upper gastrointestinal (seed).

• Lack of lubrication in the lower gastrointestinal; constipation (root).

• Poor glandular function; lymphatics, pancreas, endocrine, prostate, liver, spleen.

• Liver and gall bladder congestion; gallstones.

• Blood sugar lability.

• Uterine prolapse; with tired feet.

• Pregnancy: balancing and nutritive during; helps prevent water retention and jaundice in babies.

• Specific for swollen prostate in men who lift weights incorrectly.

• Leeches out concretions, kidney stones, arthritis.

• Arthritis, bursitis; better from movement; worse when immobilized.

• Lower part of spine stiff.

• Sciatica; unbearable at night.

• Gouty pain.

• Better from movement, exercise, bending, open air; worse from inactivity, closed, warm room.

• Carpal tunnel syndrome.

• Fever with excessive oily sweating and worry.

• Profuse underarm sweat.

• Dry or oily skin, acne, eczema, dandruff; boils, abscesses, poison ivy, rashes, itching, measles (leaf externally).

• Retention of water in persons who are generally dry; swelling in the upper thighs and across the belly and the upper eyelids, with bags under the eyes, absence of perspiration, the skin is trying to conserve water.

• Pulse thin.

• Boils, abscesses, carbuncles.

Literature: Traditional (8, 9, 13, 16, 19, 26), Nicholas Culpeper (13), Jack Ritchason (14), John King, William Boericke (13, 19), Dorothy Hall (3, 13, 17–21), Cyril Boger (1, 23), Matthew Wood (3, 4, 5, 26), Lise Wolff (6, 7, 13), Phyllis Light (10, 12, 25), Margi Flint (14), Harvey Felter (2).

Berberis aquifolium, Mahonia spp.
(Oregon Grape Root)

The older literature usually calls Oregon grape root Berberis aquifolium. For the sake of distinction it is convenient to use the name Mahonia. There are many different species that are used interchangeably. However, it cannot be used in place of its cousin Berberis vulgaris. The two have different properties. Both are bitter, but the Mahonias are suited to dry, thin persons, while Berberis, like dandelion, is better for heat and stagnation of fluids.

Mahonia is suited to dry, atrophic conditions where the anabolic function of the liver and the secretory aspect of digestion are compromised. It is also suited to heat, chills, intermittent fever, and muscular trembling which arise because the fluids are too low to sedate the heat. The muscles cannot resist tensions and chills (see Ellingwood, 1919, 369–70). Like other intense bitter tonics, it is suited to conditions of stagnation. The tissues dry out and the fluids are caught and build up.

Scudder, (quoted by Fyfe, 1909, 417) gives a good overview of Mahonia, which he calls “berberis.” It “is a blood maker. It does this by promoting secretion and excretion. It stimulates the glands of the body, and especially the lymphatics and the liver. It is said to have a diuretic action, also. It certainly aids digestion and assimilation.” From Scudder’s other writings, we know that lack of secretion and excretion is his definition of “bad blood.”

From its affinity for glandular structures it acts quickly and pleasingly in hepatic torpor, and is said to prove its efficiency as a remedy when given for cirrhosis of the liver. In stomatitis [canker-sores] and in dyspepsia, especially when in its incipiency and when coupled with hepatic affections, berberis is given with confidence.

In chronic disease of the mucous membranes, as catarrh, leucorrhea, bronchorrhea, etc., it is just as efficient. In chronic pulmonary affections in persons of syphilitic or broken down, depraved constitutions, berberis is a miracle worker. It rights the wrongs and cleans the Augean stables, sharpens the appetite, gives new tone and new blood to the body, and comes as near to curing consumption as any remedy known to us at the time. It is both a blood maker and a blood cleanser, and as there is no known remedy so virulent to microorganisms of nearly all varieties, as healthy blood serum, berberis becomes, indirectly if not directly a microbicide.

It is an excellent tonic to the weak and debilitated—to the convalescent. It may be safely added to cascara sagrada for the cure of constipation. As we have faith in medicine, we have faith in the so-called alterative and tonic effects of berberis aquifolium when given in appreciable doses. When effective, we like the small dose; when necessary we give the large one with equal delight.

Herbalist Terry Willard (1988, 112) uses Mahonia as a tonic for delicate and weak children. “It alleviates anemia and general malnutrition in just a few weeks.” The typical Mahonia patient is thin, dry, and constipated, with rough, scaly, dry skin.

I am sure I am not the only herbalist who has discovered that Oregon grape root combines nicely with burdock root, but just in case this fact goes unnoticed, I will say that the two are particularly compatible. Both are bitter alteratives suited to thin, dry, atrophic patients.

“When effective, we like the small dose; when necessary we give the large one with equal delight” (Scudder). Usual dose of the tincture or fluid extract, five to thirty drops (Fyfe).

Taste: bitter.

Tissue States: atrophy, stagnation.

Organ Affinities: gastrointestinal mucosa, liver, skin.

Specific Indications:

• Poor anabolism, with withering, wasting, dry skin and mucosa, constipation from lack of secretion; at the same time a buildup of catabolic waste products with lack of secretion from skin and mucosa.

• Anemia and malnutrition in children.

• Chronic catarrhal conditions of the upper respiratory tract, nose, and throat; thick, gummy, tenacious mucus; with wasting; with soreness in the muscles, cartilage, bones.

• Incipient or chronic indigestion, loss of appetite, wasting, constipation.

• Catarrh of the mucosa of the gastrointestinal canal.

• Constipation, dry intestine.

• Ulceration of the intestines, Crohn’s disease.

• Lymphatic congestion; chronic swelling and induration of glands, with dry, atrophic condition; mononucleosis.

• Diabetes.

• Hepatitis, jaundice.

• Female: amenorrhea, vaginitis, uterine weakness.

• Dry, scaly, itching patches; facial eruptions; psoriasis, eczema, dandruff, acne.

• Waxy, yellow, dry, parchment-like appearance of the skin, similar to what is sometimes seen in the beginning of jaundice or diseases of the spleen, where there is poor assimilation and wasting of flesh.

• Arthritis; pain as from a blow, with lameness and stiffness; rheumatoid arthritis.

• Muscular, bone, and periosteal pains, worse at night.

• Intermittent chills and fever.

Literature: Traditional, Michael Moore (1), John M. Scudder, John William Fyfe.

Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion)

Dandelion has a general reputation as a “spring tonic” and “blood purifier.” However, it has more specific indications that are little known. It is particularly suited to eliminating “thickened humors.” It is indicated when the bile is thick and the liver and gall bladder are congested, or when the kidneys are sluggish. With these thickened fluids there is usually a low-grade heat. Dandelion is especially indicated where there is a “mapped or geographical tongue.” This specific indication comes to us from the homeopathic provings of Samuel Hahnemann. I have verified it scores of times. “Tongue covered with a white film; feels raw; comes off in patches, leaving red, sensitive spots” (Boericke, 1927, 633).

If we understand the significance of the mapped tongue, we understand the process to which dandelion is remedial. This indication would be associated with “phlegm fire” in traditional Chinese medicine. The basic idea is that heat is baking down fluids while thickened fluids are blocking the outward escape of the heat. In practice, I find that dandelion is indicated when heat has settled in the deeper tissues (muscles, bones), and is simmering away. It is well indicated when there is decalcification from infection in the bone.

I was not expecting dandelion to be a remedy for manic/depression, but following the mapped tongue indication I have actually cured two cases. In both, the tongue cleared and the terrible mentality was apparently removed permanently. Usually, when one clears off the mapped tongue it does not come back.

Here is a beautiful case history, using both the flower essence and herbal tongue indications, passed on by herbalist Julia Graves in conversation. The allergies and rings around the eyes suggest the kidneys and liver. “An eight-year-old girl, lanky, tall, skinny, pale, with black rings around the eyes, severe pollen allergies. Her mom brings her in because of her episodes of breathtaking meanness. Her tongue is coated white, with angry red patches. The mother says she has had this since at least age three. One dose of dandelion flower essence brought about a complete change. Her walk became graceful, her complexion golden and radiant and she features a big smile. The tongue is less red. Taking the essence and herb for a week stops her meanness. She shares more willingly with her younger brother and plays with him sweetly. She even allows role inversion in the play, where he is allowed to be the dad and her the child.”

The root is used more for the alterative effect, to thin the fluids and reduce heat. It is indicated in stagnant bile, where heat is baking down the bile and we get gallstones. It has long been used to slowly cleanse the liver and gall bladder. The digestion is sometimes disordered. Salivation, bitter taste, eructations, loss of appetite, fermentation and swelling in the bowels, chilliness after eating.

The leaf is salty/minerally, so it increases water removal and is diuretic. It is indicated when the patient feels better from urination; tired, achy, feverish, chronic infections, with relief from urination. Because the leaves contain both sodium and potassium, they remove fluids while increasing potassium levels. Dandelion is effective in small to large doses, fresh or dry.

Taste: (root) bitter, sweet, salty/minerally, moist, oily. (leaf) bitter, salty/minerally, moist, cool.

Tissue State: torpor.

Organ Affinities: liver, kidneys, muscles, and bones.

Specific Indications:

• Dullness of the mind, lethargy, with congestion of fluids.

• Mania, with heat burning away the fluids; insomnia; manic/depressive.

• Swollen membranes around the sinuses, from chronic allergy and infection.

• Mapped tongue. Patches of opaque white coating torn off in places to expose a red, raw tongue body. Also suitable when all the coating has been exfoliated by heat, or when the coating is yellow, or there are only traces of the coat, or for a dark, red tongue.

• Mastoiditis; pain, swelling, or redness in the sternoclydomastoid muscle (side of neck).

• Bronchitis.

• Stomach, indigestion, gas.

• Liver congested, swollen, gall bladder congested, bile thick, adhesive, gall stone formation, lack of bile secretion, jaundice from backed up bile, constipation from lack of bile in the intestines; anemia from lack of bile production and recycling.

• Diabetes, type II, hypoglycemia.

• Edema, chronic kidney infection, cardiovascular insufficiency.

• Swollen, achy feeling in kidney region, feels better after urination.

• Breast cancer.

• PMS.

• Fever with high temperature, dark red tongue, or patch on tongue.

• Muscular pain, swelling, heat; especially in the sternoclydomastoid muscle and neck.

• Menopausal problems from poor liver function; liver not breaking down extra hormones.

• Infections in bones.

• High cholesterol, high blood pressure.

• Uric acid.

• Acne, abscesses, boils, age spots.

Literature: Traditional, homeopathic provings and clinical experience, Matthew Wood (2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14), William Boericke (4, 5).

Juglans nigra (Black Walnut)

Traditionally, the blackened, ripened hulls of the black walnut were used, but recently Huldah Clark has insisted upon the use of the green hulls. The old herbalists had no problem with the blackened hulls and those who were taught by their elders, rather than out of books, should not feel bad in adhering to this practice. The leaves are even more astringent, and these are the component lauded by Dr. Edward Shook (Astringents, Damp Flowing, or the Relaxed Tissue State, this page).

Black walnut is both an alterative and a laxative. Its oils stimulate the gall bladder and liver and lubricate the intestines to remove constipation. Butternut bark is somewhat oilier and may be substituted when this effect is needed. It will stimulate the removal of gallstones from the gall bladder quite effectively. Black walnut hulls are also antibacterial and antiparasitical so they can remove diarrhea due to infection and the green hulls, to follow Huldah Clark, are particularly effective against parasites. Black walnut undoubtedly goes deeper, like burdock, into the lipid economy, improving skin conditions such as impetigo that involve microorganisms.

The alterative effect of black walnut is increased by the fact that it acts on the thyroid, the keeper of the metabolism. Black walnut is high in iodine. Phyllis Light notes that the black hulls (not green) are a traditional remedy in the South for goiter. The high iodine content causes the characteristic black dye of walnut hulls. The hulls are bitter, oily, astringent, and slightly sweet (the reverse of the nuts, which are sweet, oily, slightly astringent, and bitter). Because it is a remedy for hypothyroidism, black walnut also works on fibromyalgia, which is often associated with this problem, this again from Phyllis Light.

Another characteristic of black walnut (and several of its cousins) is that it produces herbicides in its roots that kill off plants trying to grow underneath it, including its own young. This points to its use in killing parasites, bacteria, fungus, and yeast in the intestines. The reason it is able to survive from generation to generation is because of the hull of the nut, which causes it to bounce away from the tree. This signature points to the teaching of Dr. Bach: walnut is for those who are too much under the influence of another. It corrects a poor parental/child relationship, where there is too much domination and closeness. From experience I can say it also acts the opposite way: to heal children who have lost a parent or are experiencing problems with parental separation.

Black walnut not only cleanses the colon, but according to Phyllis it treats leaky gut syndrome, where toxins are getting into the bloodstream through the small intestine. It also treats the opposite, or malabsorption from a closed gut. She says it helps the assimilation of nutrients, especially fats and proteins, and reduces unhealthy fatty acids in the bloodstream.

In February 2003, a woman in her early sixties consulted me for various problems. She had low thyroid for many years, her mother had low thyroid, and she had something of the hysterical voice one often finds in high and low thyroid cases. She refused to take thyroid supplementation from the doctors. I put her on black walnut hull tincture, three drops, three times per day. In August, tests showed normal thyroid levels for the first time in her life. She maintained a normal volume and pitch of voice for the first time since I had known her, some twenty years. I only wished I had been able to give her black walnut hulls back when I first met her.

Taste: (hulls) pungent, bitter, astringent, aromatic.

Tissue State: torpor, depression.

Specific Indications:

• Conditions where there is a combination of intestinal and skin problems suggesting the participation of low forms of animal life.

• Too much under the influence of another person, thought, or scheme.

• Goiter, low thyroid, low metabolism, “bad blood.”

• Irritation of the mucosa.

• Scrofulous enlargement of glands (ulcerating, chronic, suppurative).

• Jaundice; pain about liver and right scapula.

• Duodenal catarrh, with torpid liver and jaundice.

• Congestion of the gall bladder; removes gallstones.

• Diarrhea, constipation, parasites.

• Irritability and inflammation of the intestines; worms.

• Skin conditions; impetigo, eczema, herpes, shingles, cold sores, acne, pemphigus, rupia, athletes’ foot, prurigomoluscum (itching skin eruption), lichen, ringworm, rashes, chronic scaly skin conditions, especially when associated with intestinal disorder (external).

• Skin eruptions red, like the flush of scarlatina or erysipelas (cf. Stellaria).

• Abscesses, boils (external).

• Electric shock.

• Valley fever.

• Diarrhea from drinking bad water (combine with Capsicum).

• Fibromyalgia.

Literature: Traditional, Edward Shook (indications for the leaves), Phyllis Light (11, 24), Brent Davis, Edward Bach (mental indications), Jack Ritchason (11, 22, 23).

The depressed tissue state is an interesting one. It is well described by the term “cold,” but the cold here is one of the tissues and functions, a deep cold within the organism from the dying down of the innate heat of life, and not from mere exposure to cold. Yet that latter and more superficial type of cold would also respond to the characteristic remedies used here—stimulants.

Depression is characterized by cold skin and extremities, pus-generating diseases, sepsis, putrefaction, dark colors in the complexion and tongue, low oxidation of the tissues, the appearance of bacteria or parasites which are living off tissue waste and secreting toxins that depress the tissue functions of the host. This is not a condition of toxicity, as in the previous tissue state, so much as poisoning, or tissue death. Yet the progression starts slowly, is not too evident at first, and thus, the depressed tissue state presents a subtle expression in the earlier stages.

Treatment of depression is usually by aromatics containing volatile oils. These are oils that quickly vaporize into the atmosphere. The oils used to treat atrophy are either fixed, nonvolatile food oils or such large amounts of volatile oil that they function like fixed oils. Throughout the world, fragrant plants are used to banish depressive, putrefactive, dead energy, or bring in life-giving, spiritualizing influences. They quickly energize the lungs and open them up to life-giving oxygen, which this tissue state needs. The aromatic property is akin to the pungent taste, which is not really a taste but a smell.

More broadly, remedies for the depressed tissue state may be called stimulants. There are several kinds, including aromatics, pungent and spicy herbs, fragrant bitters, and pine oils. Most stimulants are warming, but some so influence the organism that they end up being cooling, like Echinacea, Lavendula, and Achillea. Stimulants that act on the stomach to increase function and decrease indigestion and gas are known as carminatives.

The most common stimulants are the pungent and spicy herbs. The former contain sulfur compounds, the latter volatile oils. Typical warming stimulants include Capsicum (cayenne pepper), Curcuma longa (turmeric), Zingiberis (ginger), Armoracia or Cochlearia (horseradish), Allium spp. (garlic, onion), Brassica spp. (cabbage, mustard), Ocimum (basil), Salvia (sage), Oreganum (oregano), Thymus (thyme), Xanthoxylum (prickly ash), Commiphora (myrrh), and Sambucus (fresh elder flowers). Urtica (nettle) is an anomalous stimulant that is neither pungent nor aromatic.

Herbalist David Winston has established an important category called the “fragrant bitters.” These plants, in addition to their uses as bitters, have vermifuge properties. They generally act on depression. This group includes Artemisia absinthium (wormwood), Artemisia annua (sweet annie), Juglans cinerea (butternut), and Juglans nigra (black walnut).

Another group acting on depression is the plants containing aromatic pine oils: Pinus strobus (white pine), Thuja occidentalis (cedar), Juniperus communis (juniper), and Tsuga canadensis (hemlock spruce). Members of the heath family (Ericaceae) could also be included here. These are usually designated as “antiseptics.” They remove bacteria by cleansing the environment of bacterial toxins. Another important antiseptic is Baptisia tinctoria (wild indigo).

Zingiberis officinalis (Ginger)

Ginger rhizome is probably the most simple, widely used stimulating and warming agent. It is used in folk medicine throughout the world. It is suited to cases where the system is cold, the mucosa are inactive, with free secretion and irritation, or the mucus is settled and stagnant so that it needs to be raised by sneezing, coughing, or vomiting. Ginger has an affinity to superficial, acute disease processes, rather than deep, chronic ones. It is used as a local stimulant when the stomach is inactive and congested and the patient feels chilly or when there are chills associated with tension. Ginger pack is used externally on the lungs, to help break up mucus congestion, and on the uterus, to dispel blood congestion.

It is especially useful for its effect on the stomach. Julia Graves gives her own testimonial. “I had a cramping stomach for years in medical school from the stress. Sometimes I would have to eat oats in water with a bit of salt as the only diet for weeks, because I could tolerate nothing else. One day I just had the thought to buy some candied ginger. It’s very expensive in Germany, so I had not had any for a long time. My stomach had been in severe cutting pain for days. The minute I ate the first piece I was cured.”

Julia notes that the candied ginger is better for the stomach. Dried ginger is more irritating. It is sold in Germany for seasickness. “Great for nausea and car sickness, especially in the cold winter.” It is contraindicated in heat. “Ginger foot baths are so good, for any kind of warming up or belly cramps. Makes you sweat, like a sauna.”

Ginger oil is an excellent warming stimulant for spasmodic muscles, as I can attest from personal experience. Here it is rivaled by the American wild ginger (Asarum canadensis), a superlative remedy for muscle spasm better from warmth (Lise Wolff).

Taste: pungent, sweet, warm, diffusive, stimulating.

Tissue State: depression.

Organ Affinities: mucosa, circulation, and blood.

Specific Indications:

• Inactive gastrointestinal mucosa; with indigestion, fullness, catarrh, flatulence, colic, spasm, diarrhea, dysentery; sometimes associated with dietary indiscretion, tainted food, or chills.

• Flatulence caused by ingesta in a state of decomposition.

• Hot decoction of the rhizome as a diaphoretic to break up incipient colds.

• Poultices on the chest to break up mucus; on the uterus to break up stagnant blood.

• Poor peripheral circulation; coldness, stagnant blood.

• Pregnancy: morning sickness.

• Muscle spasm (external).

Literature: Traditional, Jack Ritchason (6).

Calendula officinalis (Calendula)

Calendula compares in an interesting way with the preceding remedy. Ginger is a strong heating stimulant, while calendula has a very subtle warmth. Yet, I think that it is more penetrating, into the interior of the organism than ginger, which has more effect on the exterior—skin, muscles, stomach. It was classified as “warm in the first degree” in traditional Greek medicine, which means that it drives fluids out through the skin. However, the warmth is quite penetrating and I myself, with a hot digestive tract, find it very irritating on the stomach. I think of it as penetrating as far as the third degree of heat, which was the category of medicines that have an antiseptic, antipurulent virtue, but who am I to argue with the old Greek physicians who invented the degrees?

Calendula is perhaps the best general remedy when swollen glands take on an existence of their own, lingering after an acute illness or coming and going with “low immunity.” It increases the dispersal of fluids through the lymphatic system and quiets inflammation in the glands and ducts. A capital indication is a deep ache in the left chest, above the thoracic outlet of the lymphatic system. This indicates general lymphatic congestion and inflammation.

Calendula was an old German folk remedy adopted by Samuel Hahnemann into the homeopathic materia medica as a specific topical dressing for wounds, sores, burns, and infections. The internal indications have not been developed in homeopathy. Regarding these we may say calendula possesses five main uses.

1. It is applied externally to improve lymphatic drainage from wounds and is bacteriostatic, i.e., it does not kill bacteria but prevents the extension of the infection.

2. Used internally it is therapeutic for swollen glands and lingering, unresolved infections.

3. Used for high enzyme counts from damaged liver.

4. Soothing to the digestive mucosa, and other mucous membranes

5. A traditional European peasant “immune tonic.”

The flowers are gathered through the year and thrown in soups in the fall and winter to warm and protect against wind and chill. It cleans lymphatic stagnation predisposing to infection. Case histories, illustrating some of these virtues, are given in The Book of Herbal Wisdom.

Herbalist Matthew Becker says that calendula is “one of the best diaphoretics for deep fever,” when the bones hurt. He compares it to boneset. I have noticed that it works with people who are “bone weary.” These associations led me to wonder if it does not have some kind of immune stimulating effect on the bone marrow where the immune cells are largely produced.

The flowers are collected through the calends of the year and dried. Fresh flowers produce too watery an extract so they are better dried. Can be used as an infusion, tincture, salve, or ointment, in small to large doses.

Taste: bitter, astrigent, sweet, warm, resinous.

Tissue state: cold/depression.

Organ Affinities: skin (vulnerary), lymph/immune, liver.

Specific Indications:

• Yellow look about the eyes; tired eyes, feels and looks “bone weary;” sometimes the facial skin is red and dry; generalized yellow complexion.

• Tongue; slightly puffy, pink or red papillae scattered around the periphery, indicating unresolved infections.

• Swollen glands; residual after infections.

• Inflammation of the deeper lymphatic ductwork, resulting in pain in the upper left side of the left chest (rarely, right) due to congestion of the thoracic duct.

• Asthma, bronchitis; associated with old, lingering infections.

• Tongue slightly puffy and atonic, with indentations; heat in the digestive mucosa.

• Gum disease, stomach irritation, ulcers, and hemorrhoids.

• Sluggish liver; high enzyme counts; viral hepatitis.

• Neuralgia, cramp.

• Lacerations, cuts, abrasions, burns, stings, bruises, blisters, chicken pox, measles, frostbite, acne; with redness, tenderness, swelling (external).

• Vaginal wall, irritated or dry, bleeding, tearing at birth.

• Vaginal warts.

• Fibroids at menopause or after partus.

• Leucorrhea.

• Last stage of smallpox, sepsis, where life is threatened.

Literature: Traditional, Samuel Hahnemann, Chris Hafner, William Boericke, Matthew Wood (1), William LeSassier (2), Matthew Becker (6), Samuel Hahnemann (10), Dorothy Hall (11, 12, 13), Yadubir Sinha (14–15).

Angelica archangelica (Angelica)

Angelica is native to cutaneous and northern Europe, as far west as Iceland and Greenland. The American angelica (A. atropupurea) is native through the eastern Woodland region, up into the Canadian shield and west into the Rockies. I use them interchangeably, but only the European archangelica is acceptable in commerce.

Throughout the world, various members of this clan are worn on the person as protection against bad vibrations and contagious diseases. They are also considered to have a mild effect on the mind; they relax the thinking apparatus and open the imagination. If one is sensitive, one can fairly easily feel this effectby burning some of the root and inhaling the smoke. The “sphincter of the mind” is relaxed and opened. Thus, angelica was considered a “journeying medicine” in ancient times. Angelica is a sacred herb in Saami or Lapp culture.

The root, stalks, leaves, and seeds of angelica are oily, aromatic, warming, and stimulating. This makes them suited to the dry/atrophic and cold/depressive tissue states. They warm up the system, increase the circulation of blood, remove bruises, and increase digestive secretion. Although moistening by virtue of its oily content, angelica often has a warming and drying effect, removing water and mucus in the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. It is suited to dry, undernourished, thin, neurasthenic, often older people with rigid thinking who are subject to respiratory infections, flatulence, bloating, poor digestion, and stiff articulations (Ellen Hopman, David Winston). It is also suited to thick, chunky people with yellow/gray/blue complexion around the veins, showing stagnation of blood and fluids (Matthew Wood).

A tall, thin, sixty-two-year-old man came to see me about a number of problems. He walked stiffly and joked about telling his kids (they were quite young) that he needed “oil” to lubricate his hips. His complexion was gray/yellow, the skin was dry, and the hands were somewhat red/purple, showing poor circulation. When we gave him Angelica atropurpurea (I use the local, wild species) his faced reddened, the skin became moister, the hands less purple, and he got up and started dancing around the room like a hula or belly dancer! Old hippies never die. They know enough to trust herbs. We “put the hip back in the hippie.”

Angelica is perhaps most important as a carminative or aromatic/bitter stimulant to the stomach and intestines. It improves secretion and removes severe spasm and bloating associated with great pain. It is one of the most important carminatives used in European medicine.

Angelica was not originally used as a female medicine in our tradition, like its Chinese cousin Angelica sinensis. It does not possess the estrogenic compounds of the latter. However, by increasing digestion, assimilation, and fat metabolism, while decreasing blood stagnation, it would have pretty much the same effects. Herbalist Stephen Buhner has introduced it for women who are having troubles establishing their own identity or separating from socially accepted role models. They feel hollow and without internal purpose. He especially finds it useful for women in their late twenties.

Chinese angelica has been shown to have estrogenic effects, stimulating uterine contractions. It will do this when given inappropriately to a high estrogen woman. It is better suited to thin, dry women with lack of fat and estrogen, who are having muscular cramps with the period.

The seeds and roots are used, extracted in high proof alcohol. Small doses are sufficient, in my experience.

Taste: (seed, root): pungent, sweet, bitter, warm, moist, oily, stimulating, diffusive.

Tissue State: atrophy, depression.

Organ Affinities: lipid digestion and metabolism, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, blood, menses.

Specific Indications:

• Emotionally empty, hollow; stimulates the imagination and relaxes the mind.

• Innately lyrical, imaginative nature.

• Mental dullness, exhaustion, and obtuseness, sometimes with phlegm congestion.

• Thin, dry, pallid persons with poor digestion, gas, bloating, but tendencies to accumulation of fluids; poor peripheral circulation, cold hands and feet.

• Complexion yellow/gray; yellow/gray/green/blue; yellow/gray/purple/red.

• Headache.

• Catarrhal deafness (ear-drops).

• Influenza, chills, lung congestion, asthma, dullness of the mind, pallid complexion.

• Lack of appetite.

• Stomach troubles; bloating, gas, heartburn, sour stomach, nausea, vomiting.

• Intestinal gas, colic, diarrhea.

• Liver; increases metabolism of oil and production of bile.

• Strengthens the heart; poor peripheral circulation; cold, pale, sometimes purple hands and feet; high blood pressure; accumulation of fluid.

• Increases urination.

• Menses; excessive bleeding, cramping, or amenorrhea with weakness.

• Prostate problems.

• Intermittent fever; chills and fever.

• Arthritis, gout; joints stiff, extremities cold.

• Bruises; complexion yellow/blue/green.

Literature: Traditional, Nicholas Culpeper, Stephen Buhner (1), Ellen Evert Hopman (4), David Winston (4), Matthew Wood (2, 3, 5, 13).

Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary)

This warm, dry, stimulating mint is one of the most important herbs in Mediterranean medicine. It is one of the great stimulants and has some antiseptic power. Dioscorides, Galen, and Plinius described its properties. The Arabic physicians considered it one of the most valuable items in the materia medica. Rosemary is mentioned in the herbals of northern Europe from the Renaissance down to the present. It was popularized by Father Sebastian Kneipp and is still used in conventional medicine in Germany.

Dr. Dietrich Gümbel (1993) describes the general physical affinities of rosemary. It acts on the metabolism, enhancing the burning and consumption of blood sugars and fats. It thus cleans and oxidizes throughout the body. Through nerve stimulation, it activates the smooth muscles, thus influencing the arteries, stomach, intestines, gall passages, and heart, while relaxing the voluntary muscles. It acts strongly on the blood organs, especially on the liver, also on the heart, lungs, spleen, and kidneys. The catabolic processes of the liver are increased and more gall is manufactured.

By increasing the oxygenation and burning processes throughout the body, excessive blood sugar is used up. This strengthens all the functions of the body, but especially those of the heart and brain, which subsist on huge quantities of blood sugar (Gümbel). Rudolf Steiner taught that rosemary was a diabetes remedy. He associated it with the fire element or warmth organism or “I-consciousness.” It strengthens the sense of self, which is so often lacking in diabetes, and provokes a deeper incarnation. It is good for those who can’t wake up in the morning and need to drink coffee, but, as Julia Graves remarks, do not use too much because it can cause the heart to race.

At the same time, rosemary is indicated in people who have too strong an incarnation, so to speak, or who grasp the material world with such vigor that they get headaches and nervous tension. I do not mean that they are materialistic; it is for people who grasp life with great intensity, or not with enough intensity.

One of my friends in Vermont had a severe migraine headache that was keeping her in bed. An inspiration came to her to put rosemary under her upper lip and poultice the back of her head. For good measure she wrapped a piece around her temples like a victory wreath. The headache slowly but completely disappeared. Several months latter some friends called her in virtual anguish. The wife had a terrible migraine that had defied all medical help. The husband was supposed to be bringing the daughter back to boarding school the next morning, but now they didn’t dare leave the house. “Do you have any rosemary in the house?” my friend asked. The husband later admitted that his thought was, “How can you talk about cooking at a time like this!” but he answered with a short affirmative. The directions were given and the next day my friend got a call from the husband and daughter on their way to school. The cure was rapid and fairly complete. “I came out looking like some kind of shaman or something,” commented my friend. Those are the best cures.

In a somewhat similar vein, Eva Graf (1978, 25) recommends rosemary for tension in the occipital region. She applies a cotton pad saturated with the tincture to the occiput and the sacral/lumbar joint, with the indication to lay down and relax for twenty minutes before taking off the pads. This usage is not only similar to that inaugurated by my friend, but bears some slight resemblance to the use of rosemary by Carlos Castaneda (below).

Lest we missed anything to do with the head or brain, Culpeper enlightens us: “The decoction thereof in wine, helps the cold distillations of rheums into the eyes, and all other cold diseases of the head and brain, as the giddiness or swimmings therein, drowsiness or dullness of the mind and senses like a stupidness, the dumb palsy, or loss of speech, the lethargy and falling-sickness, to be drunk, and the temples bathed therewith. It helps the pains in the gums and teeth … causing an evil smell from them, or a stinking breath. It helps a weak memory, and quickens the senses.”

Rosemary has an extremely ancient reputation in folklore as an herb for remembrance. It was used from ancient times down to the Renaissance as an emblem for fidelity between lovers. Ann of Cleves is supposed to have worn a wreath of rosemary around her head at her wedding to Henry VIII. Hopefully she was able to forget that marriage quickly. Shakespeare mentions it several times. And our dear friend, whom we hope not to forget, the late great herbalist William LeSassier, described rosemary as the remedy to help get rid of bad memories. Apropos of this, Amy Wallace, in Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2003, 111), her fascinating account of life with Carlos Castaneda, says that the latter recommended putting a poultice of rosemary on the genitals to remove the influence of past sexual experiences, an herbal technique he claimed to have gotten from don Juan.

Dr. Rudolf Weiss gives a general picture of the person who responds to rosemary. Where there is chronic circulatory weakness, including low blood pressure, and especially in young people who are weak, thin, pale, and easily run-down, rosemary is indicated. It is also appropriate for older people with weak circulation, sometimes due to constitutional weakness but in many cases from overwork or following weakening diseases such as influenza or pneumonia. It stimulates the appetite and is especially indicated when atonic conditions of the stomach accompany poor circulation.

Moving to the physiological level, Rose Elliot and Carlo di Paoli say that rosemary is indicated in a cold, sluggish liver and gall bladder condition, where there is a pale, yellowish complexion, slow digestion, bitter taste in the mouth, and lack of energy. It stimulates the arterial blood supply to the liver, promoting cleansing and burning, and generates more gall, which is more readily secreted. Australian herbalist Dorothy Hall recommends rosemary as a general tonic at the beginning of a case where there is need for increased detoxification, metabolism, and elimination.

The stimulating volatile oils of rosemary act upon the stomach to increase secretion, remove gas, improve appetite, and renew function. They make their impression upon the autonomic nervous system, and hence upon the innervation and circulation of the abdominal viscera. “It is very comfortable to the stomach in all the cold maladies thereof: helps both retention of meat, and digestion,” says Culpeper (1652, 1994, 155). “It is a remedy for the windiness in the stomach, bowels, and spleen, and expels [wind] powerfully.” By “warming and comforting” the heat of the body, “it helps all cold diseases, both of the head, stomach, liver, and belly.”

Father Sebastian Kneipp gives similar testimony. “It cleanses the stomach from phlegm,” he says. “The stomach will soon become sensible, i.e., will not stick fast much longer in phlegm.”

Rosemary has been used since the time of Dioscorides and Galen to decongest the liver and gall bladder and remove phlegm. It stimulates the arterial blood supply to the liver, promoting cleansing and burning processes. By increasing oxidation and burning processes throughout the body, excessive blood sugar is taken up. “Through this, all organs and organ systems are strengthened in their function, especially the constantly beating heart, which uses blood sugar all the time in vast amounts” (Gümbel).

Through the circulation and nervous system, rosemary acts strongly on the heart. One of the most remarkable properties of rosemary is its effectiveness in treating serious cardiopulmonary edema. Father Kneipp speaks highly of it. “Rosemary-wine, taken in small doses, has also proved an excellent remedy against heart-infirmities. It operates in a sedative manner, and in cases of heart-dropsy it works strongly on removal through the urine. Such wine renders the same service in dropsy in general.”

Father Sebastian Kneipp (1896, 201) gives several impressive accounts of Rosemary. “The whole body of a peasant woman about forty-eight years of age begins to swell; she is scarcely able to walk. The enervation is already great, breathing a great burden. I advised her immediately to put rosemary in wine and daily to drink two wine-glassfuls.” Externally, she applied warm water and vinegar poultices and half baths for the upper part of the body (evidently a heart-dropsy). “The peasant woman got well and was able to attend to her work entirely and unhindered.”

This usage has continued down to the present time in Germany. Rosemary ointment is listed in the German pharmacopoeia for use in functional heart complaints, when it is rubbed into the chest. The spirit of Rosemary is used externally for arthritic complaints, neuralgia, and the heart. Dr. Rudolf Weiss recommends making an elixir from rosemary in white wine, preferably of southern European origin; Californian would work as well.

I have seen rosemary work very nicely in several cases. One woman described the action to me succinctly. “I feel it tingling all over my body, in every cell, down to my toes. About fifteen minutes later I have to go to the bathroom. The difference between rosemary and lasix is that it is more selective. Lasix pumps out all the fluids it can get its hands on, whereas rosemary pulls out fluids that I can feel are stagnant and need to go.” She was suffering from chronic pulmonary edema caused by scar tissue and suffered an acute aggravation from burns caused by chlorine fumes.

The influence of rosemary extends to the extremities. Nerves are stimulated, congealed blood is removed, and sensation is improved. This remedy is used to remove cold conditions from the limbs, including the stiffness and soreness resulting from undue muscular activity as well as that from arthritic conditions, bruises, and strains. The diluted oil, or an ointment, is “singularly good to help cold benumbed joints, sinews, or members” (Culpeper, 1994, 347). It is also used externally on the skin to increase activity and circulation. It improves the water-retentive qualities of the skin, stimulates heat-discharge through a better metabolism of fats and sugars, and nourishes the skin glands. It is indicated for a pale, cool skin with weak peripheral circulation (Gümbel).

There are many ways to prepare and use rosemary. The diluted oil is used externally on the skin to increase activity and circulation. It improves the water-retentive qualities of the skin, stimulates heat-discharge through a better metabolism of fats and sugars, and nourishes the skin glands. It is indicated for a pale, poorly circulated, cool skin (Dr. Dietrich Gümbel, 1993). Keep the oil out of the eyes. Pouring a cup of boiling water over a tablespoon of the leaves and flowers makes the infusion. Keep the pot covered, so that the volatile oils do not escape from the vessel. Father Kneipp gives directions for making a simple, elegant tincture. “A handful of rosemary is cut up as small as possible, put into a bottle, and good, well-kept wine poured upon it; white wine is preferable. Even after half a day’s standing, it may be used” (Kniepp, 1896, 201). Rudolf Weiss (1988) adds that wines from southern countries, with a relatively high alcohol content, extract the active constituents best. Brandy, likewise a product of the vine, makes a fine tincture.

And to close our account with our gallant astrological savant … “the Sun claims privilege in it, and it is under the celestial Ram,” proclaims Nicholas Culpeper (1994, 347). This is his metaphorical way of describing a strong, fixed, radiant warming and drying medicine. “The whole plant has a fragrant and aromatic smell: it is lighter and more delicate in the flower, and stronger in the leaves. The taste also is warm and aromatic, and not disagreeable.”

Taste: spicy, warm, dry, oily, diffusive, stimulating.

Tissue States: atrophy, depression.

Organ Affinities: respiratory, digestion, liver, gall bladder and pancreas, heart and circulation, nervous system.

Specific Indications:

• Pale, thin, weak persons with poor circulation to the surface, cool skin; pale, sallow persons with weak digestion; older persons with cardiopulmonary edema.

• Lack of self-identity and strength of personality.

• Depression, nervousness, anxiety.

• Young children with head colds, ear and throat problems; due to weak liver.

• Hair loss, thinning (oil externally).

• Weak cerebral circulation; vertigo, loss of memory, headache (oil externally).

• Headaches associated with weak liver function.

• Eyestrain, headache; from overuse, after long driving (oil externally).

• Sinusitis, bronchitis, asthma.

• Diminished appetite, bitter taste in the mouth.

• Poor gastric reflexes and secretions, weak autonomic and digestive nervous system.

• Bloating, vomiting.

• Incipient intestinal fever (very hot tea).

• Spleen congestion; chronic hypertension resulting in spleen engorgement and hypertrophy; spleen enlargement from malaria.

• Liver function depressed; poor anabolism, low blood sugar, weakness, pallor; fetid breath, pale, yellow, gray complexion.

• Gall bladder reflexes depressed; poor expulsion of bile, sluggish digestion, bitter taste, indigestion in the stomach, pale, yellow complexion, lack of energy.

• Cardiovascular depression; weak peripheral circulation, cold extremities; low blood pressure; cardiopulmonary edema.

• Arteriosclerosis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure.

• Older people with heart palpitations, pain and cramp in the region of the heart, but actually in the stomach, immediately after eating.

• Amenorrhea in pale, weak, cold women.

• Leucorrhea; infection, foul-smelling discharge.

• Postpartum: depression.

• Extremities weak, unsteady, paralytic, cold, pale.

• Externally, the oil as a liniment on bruises and strains; paralytic affections; muscle tension; popular use for stimulating hair growth.

• Rheumatoid arthritis.

• Occipital tension (apply a saturated cotton pad to the occiput and the sacrum).

• Tired muscles; after unaccustomed exercise (external).

• Contraindicated in high blood pressure and headaches with hot, bursting symptoms.

Literature: Traditional (5), Culpeper, Father Sebastian Kneipp (1, 17), Rudolf Steiner (2), Philip Mailhebian (rosemary oil, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27), Rudolf Weiss (1, 17), Dorothy Hall (6, 8, 11, 14, 25), Dietrich Gümbel (1, 15), Rose Elliot and Carlo di Paoli (14, 23), Eva Graf (13, 19, 26).

Xanthoxylum americanum (Northern Prickly Ash)

The bark or berry causes an intense tingling on the tongue and throat, which can quickly become torturous. This stimulating impression moves down the throat and through the body, awakening the nervous system, left and right. The physiomedicalists included it among their handful of diffusives, remedies that cause a diffusing sensation through the nerves. It is a powerful stimulant to the nervous system; it “equalizes the charge on the nerves,” so to speak. It is the superlative remedy for torture.

I remember the first time I ever used prickly ash. The woman was literally writhing in agony as she tried to sit on the chair next to me. She had fallen down a stair and injured the sciatic. She begged the doctors to “cut it” (not knowing what this would have meant, evidently) but they rightly refused. Prickly ash bark tincture, three drops, as needed, brought the pain to a level where it was easily tolerable, though not completely eliminated. Another woman came over with a torn disc in the neck. She was literally writhing in agony. Her sixteen-year-old daughter had to drive her over. I felt sorry for both of them. It was a little frightening. I gave her a dose of prickly ash, a few drops, and she was relatively pain-free for five minutes. She had to take the tincture at five minute intervals for the first day or two, then less and less. The disc has never healed, she says, but the pain has never returned.

Xanthoxylum was given a homeopathic proving and produced such symptoms as a sensation as if the ovaries were being ripped out of the body by wires. I had a case where exactly this symptom appeared. The woman was thirty-nine, lived on welfare, and had just about been an invalid since age thirteen, when her menses started. Those were the days when one could still live on welfare. She had been going to a classical homeopath for several years, with no result. I gave her a bottle of prickly ash tincture and she brought it back six months later with a smile on her face. “Thanks for giving me my life back,” she said. And she did get it back—moved to Hollywood, became a make-up artist and had a new boyfriend. Before leaving she gave me a gift I still treasure, an old homeopathic kit from the nineteenth century.

Prickly ash also produced symptoms of numbness, tingling, and pain in the nerves. It is an excellent remedy for nerve damage resulting in numbness, tingling, and pain. One of my friends gave it to a woman who had a numb spot on the side of the face for decades following a car accident. In one hour she could feel it again. One of the conditions for which prickly ash is considered remedial in homeopathic literature (Boericke, 1927) is hemiplegia, or one-sided paralysis (Bell’s palsy). I have seen it cure this condition. It “equalizes the charge on the nerves.” One side of the body becomes intensely painful while the other side is semi-paralyzed. This condition perfectly expresses the essence of prickly ash, which is a remedy for imbalance in the charge on the nerves. It will rectify conditions where the nerves have been injured, torn, overstimulated, are numb, tingling, torturously painful, and it will do it with a power that is hard to believe.

A woman came to me who had been diagnosed with polymyositis, or muscular inflammation in various places. She had fallen down, folding her knee back and injuring it severely. After the swelling and bruising went down, she had routine orthoscopic surgery on the knee. The next day she felt pain all over her body. For the next two years she suffered in agony. To fight the pain she was on prednisone and other pharmaceutical anodynes. These weakened her immune system, causing an ulcerating skin eruption, which made her feel grotesque and unclean. “I used to love my life; now it is hell.” I asked her for the actual symptoms of the so-called polymyositis, since I thought we would never cure the skin problem until she was off the drugs. The first three symptoms she listed were muscular weakness, tingling in different places around the body, and paralysis. It was especially hard to get up out of a chair or bathtub, or climb stairs, due to weakness in the knees. A more perfect description of symptoms calling for prickly ash could hardly be offered. These immediately reduced the pain—she was able to walk up a flight of stairs right then and there to prove it. As prickly ash continued to remove the pain I could not help but think that the diagnosis was wrong. Something like “neuritis” would have been more appropriate.

Prickly ash bark is plenty strong in small doses: a few drops, several times a day.

Taste: (bark) pungent, slightly warm, highly stimulating and diffusive.

(fruit) pungent, warm, moderately stimulating and diffusive.

Tissue State: depression.

Organ Affinities: nerves.

Specific Indications:

• Spare, withered women in late middle age, afflicted with chronic wasting diseases or robust, full persons with nerve injuries causing intense torment.

• Writhing in agony, can’t sit still from the pain; torment of the most intense kind, bringing the patient to their knees.

• Sore throat and respiratory tension and discomfort.

• Nerve damage; numb, tingling, painful.

• Hemiplegia (Bell’s palsy); one-sided pain, numbness, paralysis.

• Nerve debility, withered, weakness.

• Deep respiratory infection, with debility and chronic illness.

Literature: Traditional, homeopathic provings and clinical experience, Matthew Wood (1, 2, 4, 5, 6), William Boericke (1, 4, 5, 6), William LeSassier (7).

Urtica dioeca, U. urens (Nettle, Nettles)

This widespread weed is one of the fundamental remedies of Western folk herbalism. It is high in protein, vitamins, and minerals, so that it is an excellent all-around nutritive tonic. It is the most proteinaceous plant common in North America. It usually grows on old manure piles, septic fields, and in places where it is exposed to protein byproducts. As a stinging plant, nettle possesses stimulating properties.

Nettle is one of the most generally useful plants in the pharmacopoeia. It acts on all constitutions. It feeds and builds up the thin and undernourished; counteracts the protein-sensitivity (allergies) of the medium pitta constitution; and helps remove excess stagnation of water and mucus in the thick kapha types.

Yet, nettle also possesses a specific affinity and properties as well. It acts on the protein cycle throughout the body. It mildly desensitizes mucosa that are overly reactive to protein, i.e., allergic. It thus removes phlegm in the gastrointestinal tract generated for self-protection. It helps the liver build blood proteins, which keep the plasma inside the vessels. Without blood proteins, the fluids run out of the vasculature, the tissues become edematous, and there is low blood pressure. These are typical nettle symptoms. Australian herbalist Dorothy Hall and American nutritionist Bernard Jensen both considered nettles to be a specific remedy for low blood pressure. Nettles probably also helps the liver break down protein waste products. It certainly helps the system remove them, hence it is an old remedy for gout, arthritis, muscular soreness, tissue acidity, and kidney inactivity. The final goal of protein is to increase the “intelligence of the cells,” which depend on proteins—DNA, RNA. Nettles are thus also a specific restorative and stimulant, bringing back function to parts that have become paralyzed, atrophied, or functionally inactive. In the old days, the part paralyzed or arthritic or gouty was whipped with the fresh picked nettle. It is especially active when the part has been paralyzed since the use of anesthesia. It also works internally to get organs working when they have stopped functioning, such as inactive kidneys, thyroid, menstruation, hormones, nerves, muscles. Urtica is used homeopathically for burns, since it causes burning pain.

The stimulating effects of nettle are reduced immediately after picking, so the best form of use is the freeze-dried capsule. However, some of the stimulating properties remain even in more slowly dried nettles. The nutritive effects are well represented by the slowly dried method of picking. The young shoots in the spring are especially good for medicine or food. The root is used for prostate problems. David Winston introduced the use of the seeds for kidney problems.

I’ve had several amazing experiences with nettles. In one case a woman had atrophy of a muscle in the inner thigh which was making her lame and interfering with recovery from an injury. Nettles immediately improved her walk. I was actually flummoxed and nervous from the rapidity with which it worked. In another case, a student used nettle tea from her barnyard to restore her father’s kidneys and get him off dialysis. David Winston has collected other stories of the efficacy of nettle in kidney failure; he uses the seed. A man who had been paralyzed from the waist down, due to an accident, got so he could walk again through the use of herbs and acupuncture. Then he started walking in the old nettle patch on his farm until the sensation came back!

Taste: (young shoots and leaves) sweet, bitter, salty/minerally, stimulating

Tissue State: depression, atrophy, stagnation.

Organ Affinities: liver, kidneys, muscles.

Specific Indications:

• Loss of hair, hair color (external wash).

• Mouth sores.

• Mucus, bronchitis, asthma.

• Diarrhea, dysentery, mucus in stools.

• Distention and swelling of kidneys; edema and eczema of the fingers or elsewhere.

• Inactive kidneys (requiring dialysis); glomerulonephritis.

• Impotence.

• Menstruation: excessive.

• Premature cessation of menses.

• Pregnancy: anemia.

• Lactation: deficient.

• Benign prostatic hypertrophy (root).

• Atrophy and paralysis of muscles (voluntary and involuntary).

• Arthritis, gout (especially in those eating a rich, proteinaceous diet).

• Low blood pressure; high blood pressure.

• Hypothyroid.

• Burns with excess protein burdening the kidneys (external or internal).

• Hives.

Literature: Traditional, Susun Weed, David Winston, Matthew Wood, homeopathic provings, and clinical experience.

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