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Today's Word "Simple Simon" remided me of word seldom heard these days: "simples" meaning home remedies. Some few of the were very useful, but you can't get them now. For instance, "lunar caustic", a form of silver nitrate for cauterizing canker sores in mouth. Fortunately I haven't had one in years, but when I did, I was glad to have the lunar caustic, which was a sure cure. Here's a long list of simples:
AMERICANREVOLUTION.ORG
DOMESTIC MEDICINE
A LIST of SIMPLES, and of such MEDIClNAL PREPARATIONS, as ought to be kept in readiness for private Practice.
AGARIC
Alum
Antimony, crude-
Antimony, cinnabar of
Antimony, sulphur of
Balsam of Capivi
Balsam of Peru
Balsam of Tolu
Bark, cascarilla
Bark, cinnamon
Bark, Mezerion,
Bark, Peruvian
Bark, Winter's, or canella alba
Borax
Calamine stone, levigated
Castor, Russian
Caustic, common
Caustic, Lunar
Earth, Fuller's
Earth, Japan
Earth, Armenian bole
Earth, French bole
Extracts of gentian
Extracts of guaiacum
Extracts of hellebore, black
Extracts of hemlock.
Extracts of jalap
Extracts of liquorice
Extracts Of Peruvian bark
Extracts of poppies
Extracts of wormwood
Flowers of camomile
Flowers of colt's foot
Flowers of elder
Flowers of rosemary
Flowers of damask roses
Flowers of red roses
Fruits, almonds
Fruits, bitter apple
Fruits, cassia fistularis
Fruits, Curassao oranges of cinnamon
Fruits, figs, dried
Fruits, French prunes
Fruits, Jamaica -pepper
Fruits, Juniper berries
Fruits, nutmegs
Fruits, tamarinds
Gums, aloes
Gums, ammoniac, in tears
Gums, arabic
Gums, asafoetida
Gums, camphor
Gums, galbanum
Gums, gamboge
Gums, guaiacum.
Gums, kino
Gums, myrrh
Gums, opium
Hartshorn, calcined
Hartshorn, shavings of
Herbs, lesser centaury.
Herbs, peppermint
Herbs, spearmint
Herbs, penny- royal
Herbs, savin
Herbs, trefoil
Herbs, uva ursi
Herbs, wormwood
Lead, Litharge
Lead, white
Lead, sugar of
Lemon-peel
Mace
Magnesia alba
Manna
Mercury, crude
Mercury, AEthiop's mineral
Mercury, calomel
Mercury, corrosive sublimate
Mercury, red precipitate
Mercury, white precipitate
Musk
Oil, essential, of amber
Oil, essential, of anlse
Oil, essential, of cinnamon
Oil, essential, of juniper
Oil, essential, of lermon-peel
Oil, essential, of peppermint
Oil, expressed, of almonds
Oil, expressed, of linseed
Oil of olives, or Florence Oil
Oil of palms
Oil of turpentine,
Orange-peel
Oyster shells prepared
Poppy-heads
Resins, benzoin
Resins, flowers of
Resins, Burgundy pitch
Resins, dragon's blood
Resins, frankincense
Resins, liquid storax
Resins, white, or rosin:
Resins, scammony
Roots, birthwort
Roots, calamus aromaticus
Roots, contrayerva
Roots, garlic
Roots, gentian
Roots, ginger
Roots, hellebore, black, white
Roots, jalap
Roots, ipecacuanha
Roots, lily, white Sulphur vivum
Roots, liquorice
Roots, marshmallow
Roots, mezerion
Roots, rhubarb
Roots, sarsaparilla
Roots, seneka
Roots, squills
Roots, tormentil
Roots, turmeric
Roots, Virginian snake
Roots, wild valerian
Roots, zedoary
Saffron
Sal ammoniac, crude
Sal ammoniac, Volatile
Salt, Epsom
Salt, of Glauber
Salt, of hartshorn
Salt, nitre, purified, or prunel
Salt, Polychrest
Salt, Rochel
Salt, of tartar
Seeds, anise
Seeds, carraway
Seeds, cardamom
Seeds, coriander
Seeds, cummin
Seeds, mustard
Seeds, sweet fennel
Seeds, wild carrot
Senna
Spanish flies
Sperma ceti
Spirits, aethereal, or aether
Spirits, of hartshorn
Spirits, of lavender, compound
Spirits, of nitre
Spirits, of nitre dulcified
Spirits, of sal ammoniac
Spirits, of sea salt
Spirits, of vinegar
Spirits, of vitriol
Spirits, of wine rectified
Spirits, volatile aromatic
Steel, filings of
Steel, rust of, prepared
Steel, soluble salt of
Sulphur vivum
Sulphur vivum, balsam of
Sulphur vivum, flowers of
Tar
Tar, Barbadoes
Tartar, cream of
Tartar, emetic
Tartar, soluble
Tartar, vitriolated
Tin prepared
Tutty, levigated
Turpentine, Venice
Verdegrise
Vitriol, green
Vitriol, blue
Vitriol, White
Wax, white
Wax, yellow
Woods, guaiacum
Woods, logwood
Woods, sassafras
Woods, saunders, red
Zinc, flowers of
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i didn't see oil of clove on the list, for tooth ache, and what i miss is mercuric oxide, a pale yellow cream for treating styes in the eye. (a small portion of a small tube was all you needed, but now its considered to 'unsafe'.)
i grow mint (and mint tea is great for an upset stomache), and have many of the spice (whole) to grind fresh when needed. (nutmeg, mace, allspice, cinnamin, peppers, (sea salt) and i have an assortment of oils, (linseed, grape, walnut, almond, ) but non of the cautics!
i remember reading a story about a scorned woman who threw blue Vitriol in her rivals face.. and i had to look it up. part of me wondered just where she would get something like that... certainly there were no stores that sold such caustic things around in my childhood. (though i do remember hardware stores that had barrels of turps, and you could get your can refilled for less than buying a new can).
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Seems like a nice link Faldage; Two factoids that they seem to have got wrong: Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was a Persian physiscian, not an Arab. And the Arabs got their knowledge of medicine from India. Ayurveda, numerology and astronomy were some of the Indian sciences that were imported by the Arabs in and around the eight century CE. More than fifteen texts of medicine including one dedicated to veterinary science alone, were translated with the help of the Brahmins, shortly after the Arabic invasion of Sind. Have only skimmed through the details in the link; shall read later tonight. And if they have clarified what to me seem like glaring errors, I do apologise for jumping the gun, as it were. 
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I din't read the whole thang. Just posted it for the answer to the question (as yet unasked) "why do they call them simples?"
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Dear maahey: Your post told me something I didn't know before. It makes it easier to understand why the Arabs' contributions to science came to such an abrupt end. I had assumed it was due to stifling effect of their clergy, just as Italian science was strangled by the Church.
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One thing that must not be forgotten. All herbal remedies are very much limited in their usefulness for lack of any practicable way of measuring the amount of active ingredient thereof.
You'd be very much surprised to learn how hard it was to standardize the effective yet safe dose of digitalis, which is far and away the most effective originally herbal remedy.
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Would that be Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" (or whichever short story it was that had that despicable fellow in it)?
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Dear wofahulicodoc: search for "Sherlock Holmes vitriol face" brought up The Case of the Illustrious Client, in which super villain Adelbert Gruner gets vitrol in the face thrown by Kitty Winter, whom he had seduced, ruined, and discarded. Only thing blue in the story a rare Chinese ceramic treasure used as bait to get Dr. Watson into the villains house, so Holmes could break in and steal the villain's record of his having a hobby of previous infamies. In case anybody is still interested, here's the URL: http://members.fortunecity.com/beatlesound/holmes/illustrious_client.htm
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It just came to me that the rationale for name "simples" is that they were typically single substances, whereas, a hundred years ago, a typical prescription might have a dozen ingredients.
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of troy wrote: ...and have many of the spice (whole) to grind fresh when needed. (nutmeg, mace, allspice, cinnamin,...Likely you know this, but I was surprised to find out some time ago that nutmeg is an hallucinogen if taken in high enough dosage. http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/recreationaldrugs/nutmeg.htmOf course, many plants can be toxic if too much is ingested. One of my favorite Herbal references is "The Herb Book" by John Lust. An oldie, but goodie.
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nutmeg is interesting, (there is a book on The Nutmeg Wars-- a period of european expansion into the eastern spice islands, (and for domination of the sea/trade roots.)
the american test kitchens (which have a show on PBS) had a little aside about fresh nutmeg.. its the 'spice' in 'old spice'-- nutmeg was commonly used in perfumes, especailly men's scents, along with bay (as in bay rum) and it is effective as an antideodorant for stinky feet/shoes.
My son has a nugmeg shaver-- it sort of looks like a pepper mill, but it has a blade/planer type arrangement, to shave of super thin sheet of nutmeg (that crumble to dust at the merest touch!)
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Dear pf troy: the first nutmeg wars started when unethical entrepreneurs in Connecticut started peddling wooden nutmegs.
"The Nutmeg State: Nutmeg, the powder used for seasoning foods, is ground from the seed of the fruit of the Nutmeg Tree, Myristica fragans. A couple of stories exist as to the origin of this nickname. One story has it that this nickname came about as a comment on the ingenuity and shrewdness of the citizens of the state. In a story, perhaps originated by Sam Slick, it is claimed that the people of Connecticut were so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell "wooden" nutmegs to unsuspecting buyers. A variation on this story maintains that purchasers did not know that the seed must be ground to obtain the spice and may have accused yankee peddlars, unfairly, of selling worthless "wooden" nutmegs. It may be that these wooden nutmegs were whittled by idle sailors on ships coming from the spice island and sold as souvenirs."
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The Nutmeg Wars sounds like an intriguing book. I'd like to check it out. Have you read, "Salt: A World History", by any chance? I enjoyed that book as well. Books based on "little" subjects that turn out to have great importance in world history seem to be popular right now. One of my favorites that I read recently is a book called, "The Secret Life of Dust", by Hannah Holmes. I cannot recommend this book enough for the sheer fun tidbits of information Holmes shares...but then I'm a geek, so take it for what it's worth. 
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That's a useful resource, wwh. Thanks! I'm a shameless collector of websites and have just book-marked this one for my botany collection. Thank you!
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oh yes, i loved Salt! i haven't read The Nutmeg Wars yet, but i also recommend Botony of Desire by Michael Pollen... you'll never look at an apple or a tulip (bulb or flower) the same again..
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I also recommend Botony of Desire by Michael Pollen
Pollen?! Isn't that interesting? I wonder if his choice of interests was influenced at all by his last name?
Thanks for the book recommendation.
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...The Case of the Illustrious Client, in which super villain Adelbert Gruner gets vitrol in the face...Thanks. You're right. Charles Augustus Milverton was another arch-villian, a blackmailer actually, and he got his from another wronged woman (who shot him). Your investigations led me to find http://www.geocities.com/fa1931/british/conandoy/milverto.html. Apparently the full text of ALL the Sherlock Holmes stories in available on line !
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Ipecac wasn't listed. I heard a report on NPR that ipecac will no longer be available--just caught the end of the report. I don't know whether it has been found to be dangerous, but ipecac has been widely used as an antidote for poisoning. Did anyone catch the whole NPR report?
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Didn't catch the NPR broadcast but...
What's its etymology?
From what language originally? Did we get many other words from that source?
And what a great anagram target it makes! Capice?!
And BTW it's _always_ been dangerous. Comes in two strengths, y'see, one therapeutic but the other (CAUTION: NEEDS TO BE DILUTED BEFORE USE) quite toxic.
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Non capisco "capice". Capisce?
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Croton oil. A laxative of extreme potency. A highschool chum told me about Balzac short story, where French King put croton oil into wine, and would not let afflicted courtiers depart until they were desperate. So they all perched on first stone wall they could find.
Alas I never knew name of the story, and can't find it
Perhaps in Comedie Humaine.
From AHD
croton oil
NOUN: A brownish-yellow, foul-smelling oil obtained from the seeds of a tropical Asian shrub or small tree (Croton tiglium) and formerly used as a drastic purgative and counterirritant. Its use was discontinued because of its toxicity
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Crotons are lovely plants--lovely multi-colored, thick leaves..
Why did this king want to make the courtiers so miserable? What was the motive given in the story, wwh?
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As I said, a chum in highschool told me about it, mentioning only that it was one of the Droll Tales. The king was a bit of a sadist. Etiquette very positively barred the attending nobles from leaving until the King gave them permission to do so, fully intending that all should have soiled themselves before they could get home.
Actually, I think that croton oil, even in the very small effective dose, would be very readily detected, and the wine would be dumped into the potted petunias, if there were any handy. One of the substances found in the oil is
valeric acid, which is one of the things that makes garbage smell so bad.
I spent hours trying to see if I could find the story, but no luck. Sob,sob!
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Thanks for the Droll effort, wwh.
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from Brazil, so a Portuguese word
more likely a native word, probably Tupi-Guarani.
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American Academy of Clinical Toxicology:
"Syrup of ipecac should not be administered routinely in the management of poisoned patients. In experimental studies the amount of marker removed by ipecac was highly variable and diminished with time. There is no evidence from clinical studies that ipecac improves the outcome of poisoned patients and its routine administration in the emergency department should be abandoned. There are insufficient data to support or exclude ipecac administration soon after poison ingestion. Ipecac may delay the administration or reduce the effectiveness of activated charcoal, oral antidotes, and whole bowel irrigation. Ipecac should not be administered to a patient who has a decreased level or impending loss of consciousness or who has ingested a corrosive substance or hydrocarbon with high aspiration potential."
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